[en] Retour sur le challenge "back to blogging".
So, a good ten days after the end of the Back to Blogging challenge, how are things going?
Well, first of all, I’ve been putting off writing this article because I’m setting myself constraints which make it a big pile of work. For example, the last two days of the challenge I was too busy to link to the articles by other participants (arguably the longest part of publishing those posts). So I’m thinking “ah, I need to do the wrap-up, but before that I should complete those articles”. Well, nope. Obviously it’s not going to happen. Maybe somebody else feels like putting a list together for those two days?
I’ve also been thinking “ah, I should make a list here of all the bloggers who successfully did the 10 days”. Participating is great, and I’m sure many of those who did not complete the challenge got something out of it, but hey, sticking to it is even greater!
So, congratulations to all those of you who stuck through the whole ten days. I’d love to hear feedback on what participating did for you!
For me, even though I feel myself sliding back into “long blog post” mode (this is an attempt to break that) I kind of got into the habit of “a post a day”, which means that when I skip a day, I notice it, and blog the next day. So I’ve been publishing pretty much every couple of days I’d say, which is pretty good.
The other thing I got out of the challenge is a sense of community amongst bloggers — something I hadn’t felt for years and really miss from the early days of blogging. I was really amazed at the sheer number (about 20!) of people who took on the challenge!
At the root of this sense of community, in my opinion, is reading what other people write. A blogger is not an island. In my last post musing about what makes a blog a blog, one of the criteria that comes up is that a blog is in the network. It links to others, is linked to, commented upon, the blogger has contacts with other bloggers or readers. A blog cannot thrive in a vacuum.
Let’s try and keep that alive, shall we? Or we’ll be overrun by the fashion bloggers đ
I did not do the ten days, just because I had heavy connexion problems, I’m currently moving and changing your city in Morocco is not the best condition to publish once a day. Nevertheless, I did “rather well” (8 out 10) and really appreciated the challenge.
I could not get our of “the long post”, but I did not made “the long super structured organized post”, and that was fine.
It was also really interesting to see the other people taking part. I put 3 new feeds in my netvibes.
Overall, thanks a lot !
Oui, le sentiment de faire partie de la communautĂ© m’est apparu aussi durant ce dĂ©fi. GrĂące Ă tes trackbacks et les commentaires des autres participants, j’ai eu plus de commentaires que de billet pendant ces 10 jours. Je me suis Ă©galement rendu compte des bĂ©nĂ©fices non-quantifiables.
Les vieilles habitudes sont difficiles Ă perdre et les nouvelles encore un peu hĂ©sitante. AprĂšs le dĂ©fi, j’ai passĂ© six jours sans poster. J’ai encore de la peine Ă ne pas me mettre des barriĂšres et ne pas faire trop long. Il y a encore du travail. Une chose est sĂ»re: le dĂ©fi a Ă©tĂ© trĂšs bĂ©nĂ©fique, je te remercie de l’avoir lancĂ© đ
I had connection problems (the hotel I was staying for five of the days had worse wifi than during my last trip) but still managed 8 or 9 out of 10 even if two were late. I realized how easy it is for me just to throw up a post- I write rather quickly and popping off 300 words isn’t that much more of a time investment than a long facebook or reddit post. My takeaway is thus that I haven’t been blogging for no good reason- an ignored art form. As soon as I get out of this hole, have a few more posts in the pipeline.
yay, always look forward to reading you, Nicole!
Your idea of a challenge was an awesome one and I really appreciated it! It gave me motivation to write because there was that sense of community and it felt really cool to know that I wasn’t alone racking my brain for ideas. I caught myself thinking about my next topic many times a day, a process that puts you in a sort of permanent “food for thought” state. Great for the mind, not so much for the more menial house chores đ Thank you very much for your initiative!