Blogging Questions Challenge


I came across Sarah's post on blogging questions (which I think was something started on the Reclaim Discord, so I thought I'd jump in. I was a bonus opportunity to post this Super Simple Badge, which I also created a while back, but didn't have a place to put it that made sense ;-) I guess this is a "tag you're it" sort of thing that I am just butting into.

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

Back in high school I had penpals. It was fun to keep in touch with my old town, get to hear about what my old friends were up to, and in turn share my own new adventures in my new city. When we all graduated from high school, many left home to go to University, and people's mailing addresses changed.  Keeping up with where people were those days was too much, and everyone's new adventures meant that there was little time to do the penpal thing.  Some old friends made the transition to email for asynchronous communication and IM for synchronous chat, but many didn't.  Soooo.... I started a Geocities page, and every month I updated it with my monthly comings and goings. I also took the opportunity to share a current/monthly favorite song, in midi format, since not everyone had a fast connection. Later on, I created monthly music mixes using Real Media as the delivery mechanism. Eventually when I started using an actual blogging platform, it was a way of connecting with the broader world of Greeks online. This blog was specifically started as a course requirement.  I didn't want to start yet another blog but when I was an instructional design student, I needed one.  Then, another course wanted me to blog, so I used the same blog for both classes (hence the URL, "ID Stuff"). Web 2.0 and the read/write web was a popular thing back in those days.  Once my MEd was done, I got into MOOCs, and used this space to write/ponder/connect.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why do you use it?

I started using Blogger as an experiment, but it neatly tied into my homepage, using RapidWeaver's blogger building blocks, so Blogger was an easy CMS. While Blogger's mobile apps stink, in the early days of iOS there was an app called Blogsy which made blogging easy on the go. I still miss Blogsy😔...  Anyway.  I continue to remain on Blogger because I haven't found another platform that I like and that is free.  I was thinking of importing my blogs into WordPress, but that would require a lot of cleanup, and I don't want to go through 20 years of blog posts. The whole WordPress drama also isn't inspiring confidence. 

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

Over the years it's been a journey. Geocities for the proto-blog.  Then iWeb for a little while, then RapidWeaver's build-in blog tool, then I branched out to concurrently use WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, and Tumblr for different blogs, and now I've contracted back to Blogger. I also used TypePad/MovableType for work  back in the day.

How do you write your posts?

If I write a post in Greek, it usually starts as a GoogleDoc so I can do some proofreading and typo-catching. My spelling in Greek is pretty bad because  I didn't pay as much attention to Greek language instruction in elementary school😅.  Otherwise it's just opening up a browser window and writing.  Blog posts tend to stay in draft form for a few days (or sometimes weeks), I slowly write them. Blogger is one of those tabs that's always open on my browser (even though I don't often post).  Before Twitter (and other  microblogging services), it wasn't uncommon to write three or four sentences and then post that as a blog post, but these days, blogging tends to be a bit longer form, and shorter pieces/reactions go on bluesky, mastodon, and threads. I really did enjoy using Blogsy to mobile blog back in the day. I wish there were good, comparable, and easy to use apps these days.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

Depends on the blog.  On this blog, it's usually something that deals with learning, education, or teaching with technology that gets me going. During the height of the MOOC era it was usually some prompt or provocation in one of the MOOCs that got me thinking, and to a great extent reading other people's blogposts from the MOOC.  As such we had asynchronous coversations with one another through our blogs. These days, for IDStuff, there isn't a ton of time, so overcoming inertia is hard. Case in point, I saw a  Wiley/Downes/Siemens/Crosslin back and forth about "course design being zero cost" and I've gone between "I can't even🙄" and "I gotta get something written😒" - so a draft  sits in my Blogger drafts.The fast pace at which things come at us these days make me long for slower, "more artisanal-speed" thoughts.  Maybe I'll start writing something this weekend.   Anywhoooo...For my other blog, it ebbs and flows.  Sometimes it's about new music, jotting down short thoughts on books I've read, on TV shows and movies I've recently watched, or on travel. Sometimes it's about sharing the day-to-day and mundane with the world, harkening back to those early days where I wanted to share the day-to-day with driends who could spend some time reading about my adventures in college, but maybe not had time to respond back.

Do you normally publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit?

It depends on the blog and the context. My practice has also changed over the years.  Initially I'd write and post. It would get aggregate on the Greek blog aggregator and folks would read my posts,  comment, and vice versa.  If anyone remembers the old Greek Language "Monitor" blog aggregator that Vrypan had created, hello!👋.  For my Club Admiralty blog, I often start five or six posts, and go in and fill things as I am ready to write them.  For example, I've had a post started on Sgt. Frog for two years now.  Maybe this year I'll finally finish the series and write a few paragraphs on it  (only 200 episodes left). For ID Stuff, I often start posts and come back to write pieces of the post.  Once I have a full blog post, I leave it for a day or two, come back, proofread and correct stream-of-thought issues, and then schedule a post.  All my posts, in both blogs, are scheduled, so they don't get posted as soon as I am done with them. I think this has largely been the case due to practices in the microblogging/post world.  This post was in my drafts for 3 days, and scheduled to go out a day after I proofread it

What’s your favorite post on your blog?

I don't think I have one. Some of my posts have over 500 views, which may be small potatoes, but it does make me smile that something I wrote gets that many views.

Any future plans for the blog?

IDK...Maybe I'll look for a different host and move the blog...or maybe I'll just say on Blogger. Maybe if Google ever decides to sunset this platform, I'll move all my post elsewhere or declare "blog bankruptcy" and start over again. If ever I do change platforms, I am wondering if it's worth merging all my blogs into one mega blog. Would having a space where I talk about education be appropriate to also post about destroying Nazi's in Wolfenstein, exploring the cosmos in Star Trek Online, or  my thoughts on the latest movie I saw?🤔 Seems wrong to mix all those elements into one container.

Who will participate next?

IDK... I don't know who's been tagged already, so if you're reading this and haven't posted one of those, go for it!




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