Personal Blogs

[Lachlan09]

Is it possible to create and keep personal blogs on this site, about this, that and the other ?

[BEEDEE]

Most of us with personal blogs use blogspot.com or a similar site and link with the signature line at the bottom.

Adding personal blogs to this site would increase the bandwith significantly and the associated costs of running and maintaining the site. Additionally, they would be subject to the same rules as any other post on XMTS.

Brian

[Cynthia]

I'm on another board that is similar to this (same software) and they use the blogs. I don't recommend them. On the other board, people tend to start drifting to the blogs in cliques, hanging out there only and ignoring the public section of the board (blogs can be private, friends only, or public) and lots of complaining, snarking at other members, and other negativity tends to happen. They had to recently slap some hands and remind them that blogs aren't a free-for-all to gather in cliques and make fun of other members or drag the atmosphere down in a negative mood. This other site also uses massive amounts of bandwidth, and tends to go down a lot.

I don't recommend blogs here. It sounds like a fun idea in theory, but I think it would be more trouble than it's worth.

[WClarkB]

I know this is going to mark me as a reactionary, old-school, techno-phobe, paranoid, inhibited devotee of the past.

Be that as it may, Blogs (of which I have three) have become pestilential. Neither do I wish to divulge how I wash my clothes and brush my teeth NOR do I wish to hear about yours either.

It seems that a moderated topic forum such as we have:
1) improves the general civility of the exchange (with significant exceptions--> you guys know who you are)
2) keeps the discussion about things and ideas and not about people (my mother told me that the only forbidden topic was idle curiosity about the doings of other folk)

I wil now retire to my previously prepared bomb shelter.

Adieu

[Chas]

If it is kilt related, it should be on the forum. If it is not kilt related, but it could fit on 'off topic', then that is where it should go.

The trouble with 'this, that and the other', is there tends to be little 'this and that' and far too much 'the other'.

Regards

Chas

[cessna152towser]

I am entirely with WClarkB on this. Some blogs are like individual diaries and are frankly uninteresting. Other blogs are just a way of the blog owner letting off steam by insulting others. Nobody will ever read it unless the insulted person happens to run a search on their own name and stumbles across it. I've found blogs where myself and other named friends have been slandered but I would never give the blogger the satisfaction of knowing I had read it, the people who write such stuff are usually sad, lonely and too inadequate to go out and actually meet people. I very rarely look at any blogs nowadays. I'd hate to see them added to xmarks.

[starbkjrus]

I'm on another board that is similar to this (same software) and they use the blogs. I don't recommend them. On the other board, people tend to start drifting to the blogs in cliques, hanging out there only and ignoring the public section of the board (blogs can be private, friends only, or public) and lots of complaining, snarking at other members, and other negativity tends to happen. They had to recently slap some hands and remind them that blogs aren't a free-for-all to gather in cliques and make fun of other members or drag the atmosphere down in a negative mood. This other site also uses massive amounts of bandwidth, and tends to go down a lot.

I don't recommend blogs here. It sounds like a fun idea in theory, but I think it would be more trouble than it's worth.

[Forum Advocate Hat Off]
I'm afraid that I have to agree. To much of that here already.


[Forum Advocate Hat Back On]

[MacBeachBum]

I like blogs and I've done several myself for most of the current millennium.

But as a social platform, they were surpassed long ago by the MySpaces, FaceBooks, FaceSpaces and others, not to mention fairly sophisticated boards like this one. They are basically one-way communications and I doubt they would add to the conversation and camaraderie this site does so well.

The general diary and rant blogs have given way to those that focus on a specific topic or subject area with a wide audience and have an author or two who are more familiar than most with that topic. I've had 10,000 hits over the last few years on my general commentaries, a number my son passed in the first week of his blog offering tips to beginning online gamers.

But BeeDee's suggestion is great. If you are passionate or expert in something and want to share it with the world, by all means open a blogspot, typepad or wordpress (free) account and link to it from here.

[way2fractious]

I started a Google/Blogspot blog a little over a year ago when I realized I was becoming overwhelmed with correspondence (research, letters, papers, and notes on telephone conversations) that related to my battle with my next door neighbors' noise. The blog provided a framework for organizing, in somewhat chronological order, the mess I had. It took a couple months to "catch up" the postings.

Currently it allows relative ease in cross-referencing older posts and developing my arguments as new information becomes available. It is literally my diary of the noise/business problem that compelled me to file a lawsuit in the county's Superior Court. Everything has been laid on the table for any interested party to discover; indeed, when my diaries were demanded by the defendents, the posts were printed and mailed. (Lawyers love paper. I'll get back to posting all the court filings after the case progresses to a certain point.)

The blog has also allowed me a creative outlet to taunt my lying neighbors, our spineless city officials, and the opposing attorney and insurance company in this legal wrangling. It also crystallized my resolve to become a candidate for the city council election in Nov 2010.

From my vantage point it has been a very good thing.

[Chas]

So how would a blog like yours be good for XMTS?

Regards

Chas