Keepin' the Blog Hot

Here are two posts from old-school bloggers declaring their intent to resume old-school blogging operations: Andy Baio and Gina Trapani.

“Sorry for the lack of updates” blog posts are a classic of the genre, and these are exemplary examples – I’m not being sarcastic. I particularly like Trapani’s list of personal rules, which made me think what mine would be. Sometimes I wonder why I do this! It doesn’t really make much sense. But essentially this is how I roll:

Blogging is therapy foremost. I write to organize thoughts. If they get organized, I post them. If they don’t, I often don’t post them. I have probably ten drafts to every post.
Post interesting links. If there’s a lot more of this than there used to be, it’s because sometimes that’s all I have time for. That’s ok.
It doesn’t matter who reads it. I don’t check anymore. I only know when someone tells me in person. That’s all good, I do this for me.
No bitterness. There’s no shortage of snark on the internet, so try and post constructive, thoughtful, silly, or beautiful things instead.
Keep it stripped down. No tags, no “read more”, no comments. Not adding enough to be worth the hassle.
No guilt. It’s not work. No need to maintain a posting schedule or anything. Do it when you feel like it. If it stops being fun, stop doing it. Or try something new.

Some of these rules are harder to follow than others – it’s especially hard to value something posted publicly without thinking about its reception, audience, etc. And sometimes you have to. Here are my problem areas, things I want to get better at, or find better solutions for:

Posting personal stuff. This is an age-old problem with writing. Sometimes I want to but don’t for fears that someone else might get hurt, I might look like an idiot, etc.
Keeping the blog reflecting my life. It feels like it should, but it doesn’t really. I don’t post at all about my daughter, home renovations, work.
I’d like to post pictures more but for mostly technical reasons I don’t.
Get better at ending posts. Better to cut it short and take it up in a follow-up post than to not post at all. Drop the mic, walk away.