The State of The Blog
I started blogging in 2004 to improve my English and it has turned into my longest hobby yet. Somehow the ability to write anything and publish immediately have been so gratifying to me. I spent an incredible amount of time, energy and gut feelings on this blog. For nine years, I always feel the urge to write about subjects that I am passionate about. Lately they have been mostly about my kids.
While many have moved to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, I still prefer having my own blog. At the end of the day, the blog is more of what I am identified with. I have complete control of every aspect of the site and every design decision. I probably feel different if I am not a web designer, but this is my territory.
Late last year a friend and a reader asked me why I disbanded the comment section and I gave him several reasons:
- Spams were simply a pain to deal with.
- I constantly got suck into checking for new comments.
- I always felt obligated to response to comments, especially the negative ones.
- Comment trolls were also pain to deal with.
- Conversations had moved to social networks.
Without the comment section my traffic has dropped tremendously, but then it also allow me to be more focused. Initially, I was just going to shut down the comment section for a month to see how things went and it turned well so I haven’t turned it back on.
So yes I’ll continue to blog or find time to blog as long as I still maintain this site.