It's My Blogoversary

Four years ago, I started this blog up as sort of a whim, as an argument with myself that, as a writer, I should be writing. The blogoverse was much different back then. Although there were people who were making money with their blogging, it wasn't seen as the professional concern that it's since become. Daily Kos has turned into a monster of sorts; Talking Points Memo is a full-fledged journalistic operation; and they're not the only two, by any means. A number of bloggers have taken professional positions with magazines or organizations that allow them to put all their energies into blogging.

My ambition was to expand awareness of myself as a writer, and I may or may not have done that. I realized very quickly, though, that in as fast-paced an online world as we were even four years ago, that I had to provide regular updates to get people coming back. Although I rarely made this promise explicit, I vowed to myself that I'd have at least one thing posted (more than that if possible) every day as I was getting established. I figured that I'd do that for a while, and then once I had some sort of a following, I could maybe let up. Partly because my following never really numbered more than a handful and I was still looking to expand, I've put up content for every day of the last four years. Sure, sometimes I complained (although I hope I never got too whiny), and sometimes there wasn't very much, but there was always a daily presence on the blog.

Now we've reached a point, though, when Jim Henley (still at least ostensibly my compatriot at Howling Curmudgeons, although posting at that site has withered quite a bit itself, lately) can write a post about bloggers who post too much (even if it was helping to set up his later April Fool's post and is thus not trustworthy as a serious post itself, his point is still a good one). As much as I enjoy blogging (and, even when I've gotten annoyed with it, you can safely presume that I've enjoyed it or I wouldn't have kept it up this long), I can't be one of those guys. Since I started blogging, I've been promoted in my regular job to a position with more responsibilities and demands on my time, and I simply can't keep all of it up. If you're one to look at posting times, mine were mostly live--that's when I really wrote and posted (although that Hulk baseball one was a lie; I really put it up just a bit after 2:00 AM, but I didn't want it to be right on top of the previous post). When you add those times with the extra hours I've been putting in at work, it all adds up to me being spent.

So I'm not stopping blogging, but I am ending my commitment to have a new post every day. I'm no longer going to sit up and refuse to go to bed until I've written something. Maybe I'll start getting some sleep and posting ideas that aren't so worn and threadbare. It's possible that this might even be a good thing. (I'm sure Mrs. Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk will be pleased.)

I went back to look at a few of my earliest posts, and I was pretty upfront with the idea that I didn't necessarily know what I was getting into. That's the case now, too. I'm not sure which way this will go. Will I rarely write something new to go up? Or will the lack of a solid deadline free me up to write almost as frequently as I have been doing? I don't know. I guess we'll find out.