I started a blog. Why?

[RoJoHen]

Why did I do this? I have been perfectly content without a blog for the last umpteen years, but tonight, for whatever reason, I decided to create one. I think I've just been extra bored lately and have been needing an outlet with which to ramble about my life. It also gives me an excuse to write, which is a hobby I have sadly been neglecting for a good long while.

Ideally, I'd like my blog to have purpose. I don't just want to babble about the random nonsense that happened during my day. I'd like it actually be ABOUT something. I think I might use it to try and write stories. It'll be more motivating for me to actually write them if I know somebody is waiting to see what happens next. Truthfully, I only have one friend who will likely even bother to read this blog, so for now, most of my posts will be directed at her.

Do you have a blog? Does it have a function?

 

[Jetfire]

Blogs are stupid...I had a LJ many years ago...but it was pointless...I am on Twitter now...kinda pointless but it is fast and you can keep it current with ease. I dunno.

 

[Amaris]

Why did I do this? I have been perfectly content without a blog for the last umpteen years, but tonight, for whatever reason, I decided to create one. I think I've just been extra bored lately and have been needing an outlet with which to ramble about my life. It also gives me an excuse to write, which is a hobby I have sadly been neglecting for a good long while.

Ideally, I'd like my blog to have purpose. I don't just want to babble about the random nonsense that happened during my day. I'd like it actually be ABOUT something. I think I might use it to try and write stories. It'll be more motivating for me to actually write them if I know somebody is waiting to see what happens next. Truthfully, I only have one friend who will likely even bother to read this blog, so for now, most of my posts will be directed at her.

Do you have a blog? Does it have a function?

Yes I do, and it does have an overall theme. While I go off on an occasional tangent, it still keeps to the overall theme of the blog.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I've been meaning to do one as well but I never get around to it. Not about my personal life so much as things I'm interested in - humor, movie/tv reviews, concept art, music, history, technology, and so forth. Nothing too pretentious (I'm under no illusion that people find what I have to say profound), just fun and interesting topics.

You should link to it in your sig once you get some content on there so people here can check it out. Also, feel free to link to it in this thread if you like and if you feel it's ready to be seen (and anyone else can link to their own as well). Since it's a general topic about blogs instead of one aimed at just promoting your own it's fine.

 

[RoJoHen]

Link to my sig? That would changing my sig. I haven't done that since 2004. My sig line is a quote from Huntingdon, for Pete's sake!

Okay, perhaps I will change my sig once I get my blog a little more fine-tuned. For now, I will just link it in this post:

http://jacks-shack.blogspot.com/

Background:

Jack is a fictional character I created for myself when I was about 9. He is basically the cartoon version of myself, and I use him as a means to embellish stories that have actually happened to me. Jack's Shack was originally a website I owned, which I used to post pictures and tell stories about all the ridiculous things that happened to me. Then, around 2005, Facebook's photo albums pretty much made Jack's Shack obsolete, because I could accomplish the exact same thing without having to fiddle with HTML or pay for my domain, so I canceled my account and Jack's Shack disappeared.

Now, about 5 years later, I have decided to revive Jack's Shack in the form of a blog. I have no idea how this is going to play out.

 

[The Master of Tarquin Hill]

Link to my sig? That would changing my sig. I haven't done that since 2004. My sig line is a quote from Huntingdon, for Pete's sake!

Okay, perhaps I will change my sig once I get my blog a little more fine-tuned. For now, I will just link it in this post:

http://jacks-shack.blogspot.com/

Background:

Jack is a fictional character I created for myself when I was about 9. He is basically the cartoon version of myself, and I use him as a means to embellish stories that have actually happened to me. Jack's Shack was originally a website I owned, which I used to post pictures and tell stories about all the ridiculous things that happened to me. Then, around 2005, Facebook's photo albums pretty much made Jack's Shack obsolete, because I could accomplish the exact same thing without having to fiddle with HTML or pay for my domain, so I canceled my account and Jack's Shack disappeared.

Now, about 5 years later, I have decided to revive Jack's Shack in the form of a blog. I have no idea how this is going to play out.

After reading your OP I was wondering if Twitter was probably the right thing for you.

After reading the thread I am wondering if a personal (offline) journal and/or diary might be useful to you.

Good luck to you, in whatever endeavor you choose.

 

[RoJoHen]

I have Twitter, and I think it's lame. You can't write enough stuff.

I would never write in an offline journal. I require some kind of audience, otherwise I fail to see the point. At least with a blog, I can pretend that somebody else is reading it.

 

[Nardpuncher]

I just watched Julia & Julie last night and if you get a really good 'theme' for your blog maybe you'll get a book deal!

 

[RJDiogenes]

Technically, I have a Blog, as I'm on LJ. But I really just joined to read my friends' Blogs if necessary. I really prefer the BBS style of interacting with people.

 

[Spot's Meow]

When I first starting using the Internet as a teen my friends and I were really into online diaries and journals. We used OpenDiary.com and later LiveJournal. It was really fun, I enjoyed it. And I felt like I had something to write every day. Now that I'm older and I actually do have a lot more going on in my life, I somehow feel like I have nothing to write about!

 

[Mary Ann]

I have a LiveJournal blog but it's defaulted on friendslock as I discuss anything that comes to mind, a lot of which relates to my family and work (I'll happily friend people I only know through online forums but I don't want open access to my posts). I joined LJ because a lot of friends from another fandom group had blogs there, and almost 10 years later we still keep in touch through LJ and Facebook. Facebook is far too public for my liking so LJ is the best way for me to keep in touch about goings-on with friends.

 

[Teelie]

I have several blogs and blog-like pages but I don't use any of them. Probably because I've found I have nothing worth posting on them and if I do, I'm more apt to tell the people who actually care than just post it somewhere for them to maybe run across if they can sift through the dozens of minigames everyone else is spamming their blogs with.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

I have two blogs. One blog is under my real name for friends and family. It's a semi-silly look at my life. Basically, I'll take an experience that has happened to me and retell it in a funny way. My other blog is under a pseudonym and it's more serious, covering religious and political topics. I've thought about combining the two, but the blogs have different readers and different purposes, so I keep them both. I update each one once or twice per week.

 

[Trippy]

I have two (links in sig). One is like a diary. One is like a reflection on the writing process, teaching, and is academic in nature.

Of course, I haven't updated either in a while.

 

[Danoz]

Why did I do this? I have been perfectly content without a blog for the last umpteen years, but tonight, for whatever reason, I decided to create one. I think I've just been extra bored lately and have been needing an outlet with which to ramble about my life. It also gives me an excuse to write, which is a hobby I have sadly been neglecting for a good long while.

Ideally, I'd like my blog to have purpose. I don't just want to babble about the random nonsense that happened during my day. I'd like it actually be ABOUT something. I think I might use it to try and write stories. It'll be more motivating for me to actually write them if I know somebody is waiting to see what happens next. Truthfully, I only have one friend who will likely even bother to read this blog, so for now, most of my posts will be directed at her.

Do you have a blog? Does it have a function?

I did a "Stream of Consciousness" blog that I mostly updated when I ran my old comic strip (namely because I actually got feedback which I tend to need if I'm going to keep something going)-- but lately I tend to update my cooking blog occasionally when the mood strikes (http://www.porterbrew.com). I'm also starting a blog for my move to rural Japan in the next month.

I say do it about something you like to do already. Whether it be trying new foods/restaurants in your area, exercise, photography-- I agree that it's good to have a theme unless you're going for the "Livejournal" thing (something only your close friends would want to read).

 

[Holdfast]

Why did I do this?

Ideally, I'd like my blog to have purpose.

Do you have a blog? Does it have a function?

Hmm, I sort of feel the same way. I like the idea of a blog, and am a pretty opinionated person in some ways (ok, make that many ways) but somehow that doesn't seem enough to make a blog worthwhile.

I don't want to do a "lifestyle" blog because of the one-upmanship that many of them seem to devolve into; a political/current affairs theme seems like idle intellectual masturbation that no-one else will read; and a journal/diary format would be too personal for me to want to broadcast publicly.

What's left? Not quite sure yet. I have lots of vague interests that I dabble in, but no one overriding passion. Probably why I don't have a blog!

 

[Gryffindorian]

See what you got me started? I've just created one for myself. I would like to use it as my "outlet" for rants and other ramblings. As I stated in my blog, my friends list on Facebook has grown to a point where there's no "sense of intimacy" anymore. It's very public, and I wouldn't want to post anything embarrassing, rude, or vicious on FB. Anonymity--that's what it all boils down to.

 

[Amaris]

See what you got me started? I've just created one for myself. I would like to use it as my "outlet" for rants and other ramblings. As I stated in my blog, my friends list on Facebook has grown to a point where there's no "sense of intimacy" anymore. It's very public, and I wouldn't want to post anything embarrassing, rude, or vicious on FB. Anonymity--that's what it all boils down to.

I empathize completely.

 

[jamestyler]

I started a blog for my own amusement. At the time I was working in website development and it seemed bizarre to me to be doing all this yet not have a personal website to pimp out my entertainment services.

I discovered at some point last year I had somewhat of an audience... which, for something to amuse myself, was strange. I've since updated regularly as the blog has gotten me work and works as a template for anything I was to try out for the only other site I manage.

As it runs on Wordpress MU (or 3.0 now) it seems to have evolved to hold some other blogs too.. the purpose only seems to be to serve my geekery and talk about nothing.

 

[Gul Re'jal]

Do you have a blog? Does it have a function?

I do and it does.

I'm a Pole, but I live in Hong Kong, looooong way from my own country. I write my blog to share my experiences of an European living in Asia, of a Pole living in Hong Kong, so my readers can experience Hong Kong through my eyes.