Friday Fun: The Blog Edition
Mood
Content
1. What different blog formats have you used (i.e. Blogger, LiveJournal, WordPress, your own HTML, etc.? Which did you like the best?
When I first started blogging I manually entered in my updates on gURLpages a long, long time ago.
After that I switched to Blogger about a year after it came out and was hosted on there for a while, then switched to being hosted on Geocities (before Yahoo! took away free ftp access). I hated how Blogger kept eating my posts though and I also hated the need for remotely hosted comments.
Several years after that I got my own host and used Greymatter for awhile. I started chaffing though when I saw all the cool plugins that Movable Type had, and it seemed like Greymatter was being abandoned. Then our hosting company did a fly by night and I lost all of my archives from the past four or five years. It was very devastating.
We switched to a new host, Dreamhost, and installed Movable Type there and I've been using it for years now. That being said, I am looking to switch to WordPress, because once Movable Type started charging for installs their user base dried up and all of their plugins now require way more work than I strictly require for my little set up here. So, WordPress it is.
They all had their pluses and minuses, but I have to say I'm looking forward to WordPress and what it can do. I'm ready to go fully php and maybe throw in some flash while I'm at it.
2. How did you get into blogging? How long have you had a blog?
Well, I got into blogging thanks to a little site called Full Moon Graphics. They made the graphics that I used on my site on gURLpages all those ages ago and I was quite a fan of the artist. She got into blogging and using Blogger and I decided to tag along. I have been blogging on and off for eight or nine years now. I don't have my original archives but I started coding websites in 1998 and I know that I must have gotten my first blog in late 1999 or early 2000.
3. Why do you blog?
It was a nice place to write and easily publish updates on my thoughts and what was going on in my life. Later it became stress relief during school, and a great way to connect with people and let off steam about classes because I was to shy to do so in class. During 9/11 blogs were the only way I had to find out what was going on as all the major news sites and search engines were either timing out or crashing from the load of people just as worried and scared as I was.
Now? I'm far more careful about what I blog. When I started I could honestly say I was probably the only girl in the school who had a blog. I posted my essays and stories on my blog and had it get picked up by search engines and then was accused of plagiarizing from my own website by teachers that couldn't believe that a girl my age knew what a computer was let alone had coded her own website and blog. But, things have changed and now everyone and their mother has a myspace/xanga/livejournal type thing where they post far more personal things than I ever would have risked and then some. It's become passe. People ask why I don't have a myspace or facebook account and they don't seem to understand that I've been "myspacing" for nearly a decade now on my own terms and in my own way.
When diaryland came out I stayed away because it wasn't why I was blogging, I was blogging for me and not for other people and diaryland (regardless of the word diary) seemed more like a way to fight with people in RL with words and by posting slanderous and scintillating things about themselves and others. Then the "new thing" because livejournal, then deadjournal, then xanga, then myspace and now facebook. Same shit, different site. I said no 10 years ago to diaryland and I'm still saying no today. No, way. That's not why I blog.
I blog for me, really. To hold myself accountable to my goals, to organize my thoughts, to answer some questions for myself outloud. I have other blogs for other purposes, but really this one is just for me. That's probably why it's so neglected, actually. When I want community I go to a forum, but (aside from the stray commenter) that's not really what my blog has ever been about.
4. Do you have theme blog (i.e. crafting, cooking, deployment, pregnancy, etc.) or is it all in one?
I broke down my blogs into several different groups. There's this one which is my main one, my photo blog Graphica, my book blog Fabula, my video blog (which might or might not survive the restructuring) Pixi Agito, and my Sims 2 blog Somnium. Each blog does it's own, pretty self evident, thing and the only place where they overlap really is here.
5. Do you let it all hang out on your blog, or do you keep it light?
I keep it pretty light for now, I have a personal RL journal where I really let go. But here? If I have something I'm ready to say to someone, I'd rather say it to their face. Like I said, I'm not into the passive aggressive online back stabbing.
My blog has always been my way of getting away from the heavy stuff in one way or another.
6. What is your favorite thing about your blog? What has it given you?
It's helped me learn a lot about web design to the point where, when I went to college, there wasn't much new to learn until junior year. It's given me a place to be organized, to be publically accountable for my goals and dreams, and even a place to enjoy telling some stories for the Sims 2, to share some of my photography and post some bits of code that might help someone else with their site.
Even if I have no readers at all I still feel like I'm heard just because my thoughts are now out there. Whether that's true or not is beside the point. Just posting helps you feel not so very alone after all.
Posted by Bitsy at 08:05 PM Comments
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