Today was not an especially good day for me. I’m not going to get into specifics; rather, I want to address an issue (or issues) that has been bugging me for some time.
It’s the direction of this website, this weblog, this everything.
You see, initially this website was started as pet project. When I finally uploaded it, the response by the internet community as a whole was astounding. I was thoroughly amazed by the number of people who visited the website – the first few months, there were well over 12,000 registered hits.
I believe the downfall of the website began when I stopped committing myself to developing content. Arguably, when I started focusing on details, rather than cleaning it up later. That kind of thing really kills any desire to make a website, and sadly, it dwindled to nothingness. The last update was a clean-up. The update before that were pictures, but that was much too long ago to be of any note.
And so the visitors left. It’s really just myself and Lisa.
So, as of late, coupled with these unfortunate unrelated circumstances, I was in a fairly vindictive mood, and decided I would kill this website.
Not that it would have served any purpose, I (thankfully) realized, since 1) I enjoy working on this website and 2) mostly no one would care.
I’ve come to the conclusion I’m the sort that requires some kind of recognition, in order to validate my existence. Failure for me is something like a terminal illness – I take it very, very hard. So the lack of interest (no matter the hoops I would jump through with this web log) was fairly painful for me. My sister doesn’t even know the URL of my website, and for a while that was tragic.
IN THE GRAND Scheme of things, it’s meaningless, I know. But one should realize that everyone needs something small, a project, in their lives, that means something. This website is that. I mean, something you cultivate with your hands, a creation. We are put on this earth only for a short time – everyone should strive to create something for future generations to look upon. Imagine this website living on past me. I can’t, because there’s a whole number of things that can go wrong between then and now. But the idea is nice.
So, if not killing the website, what is the focus of this topic? Essentially, I’ve come to a conclusion as to what should be the focus of this weblog, and the website in general. Let me tell you what I expected, where we are, and where this is going.
As previously mentioned, the website opened to fantastic fanfare. I can only say opened, since the explosion was quite generous. The thought behind the weblog was I would write, since I’m somewhat good at it, and people from the community (re: friends and well wishers) would comment. The topics would be far reaching, thought provoking, and the like.
Well, at first the topics were interesting, I suppose. But as time went on, I wanted to write on as many subjects as possible hoping to attract an audience (via search engines and the like). Nothing. So this has gone on for a few months. I’ll post in a flurry, then stop, then do it again, with some notion that somebody will post. I always expected that Lisa would post, and indirectly demanded that she did (to mend an already bruised ego). Unfair for her, very much so, since she doesn’t have the time to reach these expectations. The thought provoking discussion can’t come from her alone (well it could, had she the time). And besides, more importantly, the topics I was writing on weren’t very original.
Who really wishes to read about my computer nonsense? In hindsight, a person using a search engine would have to run a very highly specified search to find anything relevant on this site (which runs in opposition to what I thought would happen). What about Sixers? Or Flyers? Rather, who cares? ESPN, Comcastsportsnet, etc have people paid to write their opinions, 24/7. Why on earth would anyone visit this site which is updated sporadically to comment on fairly old news?
Where are we going with this?
Well, obviously, killing the website or weblog is not beneficial to myself, Lisa, or any other readers that happen to visit this website. I’m of the firm belief that I do have something interesting to say, and if I refocus it, that this could be entertaining, thought provoking and worth visiting – also known as those goals that I set at the outset.
What does this entail?
Well, quality over quantity. I have a number of subjects I’d like to write on, and I may simply enter them in the weblog first, then create parts in the website itself directly linked. The primary difference is the possibility of interaction with the internet community at large, which is my main goal.
Secondly, I’m laying off my poor Lisa. I harass her enough – she’s a saint, I tell you! – and I won’t expect her to comment, unless she wants to. I know she has been commenting even with her lack of time, and trying to comment on everything. I’d rather her post a thoughtful comment once in a while than an overarching comment everytime I post just to make me feel better about myself.
Which really, shouldn’t be a crutch, I know.
What I would really like to see is a topic covered at length, much like this one, rather than a disjointed post.
Tentatively, I’d like to see Wednesdays simply be a day when I post links. I don’t want to post links at the bottom of all my posts, because then I feel like it limits me when I can post. Once a week, I’d like to have more than a few links for people to visit. Optimally, I’d like the comments to have more links. I know that’s asking for much, so I’m not even going to expect it. But, who knows, right?
So Monday and Friday would be devoted to a singular subject post, some serious, some not so much. A picture journal would be fantastic too, i.e., pictures from Disney or something of that sort. It’s not going to be a treatise every day, just as often as I can muster. If I’m going to write about my computer adventures, then by all means, the whole topic will be devoted to my computer adventures. And so on.
So those are my thoughts on the future of this weblog, and certainly this website as a whole. The gracious people at f2o did not give me this website to go to waste – I want and need to use it to the best of my abilities. So let’s hope for the best.
Three hours later, the goldfish was saved
They got kicked out… for being too straight
‘I’d like to order a robbery please… and they complied’
No related posts.
