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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Shipmates who blog
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
Over the past few months I've seen a lot of links to blogs turning up in people's sig lines. I added mine a week ago ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) .
I'm very new to all this, so I wondered if we might have a blogs thread, to exchange tips, discoveries, enthusiasms ... and of course to indulge in just a little bit of manic self publicity.
Like I say, I started mine a week ago. It's really about what I'm doing with my time since I went from working full-time to working only 3 days a week. Over time I want it to show how I begin to have new ideas for spending my time, and grow into a new way of life.
So, what do others blog?
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
I just counted on my fingers, and discover I've been blogging for five years now!
When I started, I saw lots of people commenting on the net about their visits to Hay-on-Wye, and what it was like from a tourist's point of view, but nothing from someone who lived here. So my blog is an insider's view of the tourist town, and what's going on behind the facade.
Sometimes it's very trivial (I'll shortly have a post about how I got some nuts at the hardware store that my boyfriend couldn't find in London), but I've also covered local opposition to a new bar/music venue, the Republican uprising against the King of Hay (which was fairly good natured - Richard didn't mind having his head chopped off too much!), and the recent sale of Hay Castle.
So it's not really about me - more about what's happening in the town.
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
Contrary to what my blog records say, I have not been blogging since January 1970. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
That was due to a fault when the wibsite was updated - February 2003 is much more realistic, which shows I've been blogging consistently for 8 1/2 years! Not a bad length of time for a technophobe....
I decided to stick to a fairly strict theme for my blog as I do dislike rambling ones - my blog is an online version of a diary I would have kept anyway - of all the church music I have sung each week in my church choir. Now there's a surprise. (Not.)
I have subtitled it: "A diary of the life of a very ordinary chorister in a very ordinary choir in a very ordinary Church of England parish. Well, that’s how it seems today – maybe one day in the future it will all seem quite unusual."
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Paul.
Shipmate
# 37
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Posted
My current blog dates back to Feb 2003 but I know I had another blog before that but I forgot the address. However the early years are fairly lean as regards posts.
I started off blogging about anything and everything, including random thoughts about my life etc. Then it was mostly reviews of things (TV, films, books). Then it was my attempts at writing. In the last few years I've used it mainly to keep track of my diet and the books I'm reading.
Tips I've learned (but don't follow):
- try to be concise - tldr applies to blogs
- write about one thing - have a single point to a post and, possibly, a single theme to your blog
- be interesting - try to write what you'd like to read
- write well - most of my posts are first drafts knocked out quickly, when I take more time they read better
- include pictures, links, videos, music - breaks up the monotony of the text
- comment on other blogs - if you write something interesting people will click back to look at your blog
- ...but only where you genuinely have something relevant to say. Look for blogs you like, blogs on a similar topic to your own, start a discussion.
- use tags, categories etc - make it easier for people to find your blog
- advertise your blog - put it in your various sigs, on facebook, twitter etc
- have fun with it
Posts: 3689 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2004
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Japes
Shipmate
# 5358
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Posted
I've been blogging for nearly six years now, my Wiblog (the one in the signature!) being the one I've settled into. Blog One I deleted, but kept a copy of key posts, Blog Two still exists, but is only updated occasionally - it may go soon, as the friends I made through that either no longer blog at that site, or we keep in touch in other ways.
It's a rambling, whatever I chose to blog about kind of blog. It's been a really helpful tool for me in sorting some of my very muddled thoughts out, over a difficult few years. Blog One began as a creative outlet at the worst moment of the difficulties, and frankly it kept me sane. Blog Two and the Wiblog one evolved out of this, as it became increasingly difficult to talk about the God stuff on Blog One without a load of nasty comments.
My Wiblog continues to help keep me sane, and as I've just reread it all, I'm pleased to confirm Life has certainly evolved and changed in the course of the two and a half years of that blog. For the better, even if it often doesn't feel like it!!
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Blog may or may not be of any interest.
Posts: 2013 | From: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: Dec 2003
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Caty S.
I read, therefore I am.
# 11996
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Posted
I've had a blog since 2007. Mostly pointless rambling and book reviews. It very rarely gets updated these days, apart from when I add half a dozen posts on whatever I'm reading, in a brief fit of enthusiasm, after which I ignore it again for another three months. I did have a separate blog for writing about Christianity - mostly thoughts arising from devotions - but in the end I moved the posts back into the main blog and deleted the secondary one.
At one time, my blog was quite important to me: as for Japes, it was something that helped me to sort stuff out at a difficult time. Now, I don't have the same need for it. I keep wondering whether to delete the current it; while I've weeded out some old posts, I can't quite bring myself to get rid of the whole thing.
Wilson's tips are good ones. (Although I don't always follow them either. ![[Smile]](smile.gif) )
Posts: 2119 | From: Devon | Registered: Nov 2006
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PD
Shipmate
# 12436
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Posted
I blog. I started about tw years ago. The main blog is my own 'The Old High Churchman' which is mainly Church history, liturgics, and occasional theology. The other blog I contribute to is "The Continuum" which was started by Albion Land, but it is now Frs Hart, Kirkby, Nalls, Wells, and me. I was invited to join it about eighteen months ago. David Virtue occasional lifts the odd article from that one.
I tend to be a sporadic blogger. I cranked a couple of articles out this month, one last, and then nothing before that since March!
PD
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Roadkill on the Information Super Highway!
My Assorted Rantings - http://www.theoldhighchurchman.blogspot.com
Posts: 4431 | From: Between a Rock and a Hard Place | Registered: Mar 2007
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Miffy
Ship's elephant
# 1438
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Caty M.:
I've had a blog since 2007. Mostly pointless rambling and book reviews. It very rarely gets updated these days, apart from when I add half a dozen posts on whatever I'm reading, in a brief fit of enthusiasm, after which I ignore it again for another three months. I did have a separate blog for writing about Christianity - mostly thoughts arising from devotions - but in the end I moved the posts back into the main blog and deleted the secondary one.
At one time, my blog was quite important to me: as for Japes, it was something that helped me to sort stuff out at a difficult time. Now, I don't have the same need for it. I keep wondering whether to delete the current it; while I've weeded out some old posts, I can't quite bring myself to get rid of the whole thing.
Wilson's tips are good ones. (Although I don't always follow them either. )
I'm similar to you, Caty, in that my enthusiasm for blogging waxes and wanes. Like Chorister, I have a wibsite blog - Musings of a Squished Budgie, started about 7 years ago. Three years later saw the birth of Green Patches over on Typepad - inspired by a Methodist Church Lent Campaign. I still think of the latter as my secondary blog, even though I rarely post on it nowadays and feel rather guilty for so doing. I feel more part of a virtual community with the wibsite - hence the guilt at being so anti-social lately. Still, it's fascinating now to look back over the accounts of family, friends and so on; when it began both my children were in their early/mid teens; now one is launched and out in the Big Wide World, the other will be graduating from uni in a few week's time.
My Greenpatch blog was originally supposed to be the more 'serious' 'ecological, vaguely theological and totally illogical journeyings of a mature student and Musings the lighthearted fun one - but I've not been terribly focussed with either of them. It takes me far longer to compose posts I'm happy with than I used to. I reckon I come over either horribly pretentious or ridiculously fluffy and lightweight. And as the lifetime of both blogs has seen me through theological studies, profession as a Francsican tertiary and spiritual direction training, confidence comes into it as well. I worry - (maybe too much?) that what I write doesn't measure up to some unwritten standard and might reflect badly on me in some way. ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
Ouf! Glad to have got all that off my chest!
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"I don't feel like smiling." "You're English dear; fake it!" (Colin Firth "Easy Virtue")
Growing Greenpatches
Posts: 4739 | From: The Kitchen | Registered: Oct 2001
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
I started my blog in 2004, and have blogged pretty consistently. When I started it I was coming to the end of my MSc and considering applying for a PhD, so I called it "The Maturest Student in the World" and intended it to mainly (though not exclusively) be about my adventures as a mature student. 2 days ago I posted my PhD graduation photo ( yay me!).
After my viva I decided to change the name of the blog, as I think it will be a while before I become a student again! (I need a life). I've renamed it "Unfinished Symphony" as a little nod to my original degree (in music) and as it sums up that after all these years I'm still a bit of a work in progress trying to figure out what to do when I grow up. Since the start of the year I've mainly been blogging my Project365 photos and had a bit of a break from the philosophising/navel-gazing/ranting/pontificating, I think after 7 years I was getting a bit tired but didn't want to stop blogging as I love the interactions between me and my regulars (mainly other bloggers on the wibsite, though not exclusively). Once this year is over I am planning on setting up a blipfoto account for my photoblogging and returning to writing a bit more.
I do post other stuff - book reviews (rarely, I'm not that good at reading for pleasure!), sketches (even rarer), and random chuntering about stuff, but I think this year of mainly photoblogging as a breather is doing me a lot of good I agree with a lot of wilson's advice (though don't always follow it). I think facebook has made me much more aware of over-disclosure, not that I ever massively over-disclosed before (I don't think) but I'm more careful now.
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
I have two blogs they serve different purposes and I have had a couple of blogs before then.
My first blog was a record of my stay as a volunteer on Iona and has long since passed into the nevernet that is made up of defunct sites. Fortunately I made the effort to write the time on into a photography album so I still have a record.
Second one had bits of writing on. Not really a consistent theme and is largely defunct but is still on my website.
My third was a compromise. My family are inveterate letter writers, and both my sister and I write about weekly round robins. I became aware that a group of people beyond those I actually email this to might be insane enough to want to read the almost weekly summaries of small happenings in my life. It is a diary of largely non-events. I am surprised how many people seem to read this blog.
My fourth which is irregular is just a space for me to down load ideas in my brain that are clogging up space that should be more usefully put to use for my thesis. These tend to be short and focussed.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
I have just realised the link in my sig is out of date - I have changed it but it will take a while to update. I'm now at this link.
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Auntie Doris
Screen Goddess
# 9433
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Posted
I blog about all sorts of things, some sensible, some not. Over the years my blog has changed somewhat, like other people it kind of helped me through some quite difficult times, the writing helped my head space, especially when I was single.
These days I blog less but that is partly due to being more content and more busy. I have always been pretty honest when blogging but these days, if the post involves him, I always get The Mister to approve it. I feel it's only fair to him - especially as some of the recent one have been about infertility etc.
I still love my blog, and one day will have time to do it more again
Auntie Doris x
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"And you don't get to pronounce that I am not a Christian. Nope. Not in your remit nor power." - iGeek in response to a gay-hater :)
The life and times of a Guernsey cow
Posts: 6019 | From: The Rock at the Centre of the Universe | Registered: May 2005
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
I've been blogging since 2006 at a blog called Hypergraffiti , and this thread just inspired me to update the link in my sig to the blog, since I'm running a contest there now. A lot of my blog posts are centred around writing and my books, but I also blog about faith and religion, parenting, teaching, and random other things that interest me. I've been told that as a writer, if you want to use your blog as a self-promotion tool and attract lots of followers, your blog has to have a clear focus and stay on a single topic, which mine utterly fails at, but I really keep it mainly for myself, though I hope a few others enjoy it now and then.
I have a second blog called Compulsive Overreader, which is all book reviews, and I try to update that fairly regularly with what I'm reading, though it's usually a month or so behind.
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
Well now I've had to create a whole new bookmark folder, just to hold the links to people's blogs.
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
Well now I've had to create a whole new bookmark folder, just to hold the links to people's blogs.
I find the most manageable way to read the (ever-expanding) large number of blogs I follow is to use an RSS feed reader. I used to use bloglines, but have changed to Google Reader (if you have gmail you should be able to access it, otherwise just create a google account). I sort them into various categories (friends, random, academic, Scotland, art, photography, religious etc etc) which means if I don't have tons of time I can just read a selection. The RSS feed reader is handy as it means I am not clicking on blogs which haven't updated for months, but if they do happen to update then the reader picks it up. Many newspapers etc also have RSS enabled so you can follow headlines, but I found that a bit too much so have (mostly) restricted it to blogs, plus some foreign newspapers that I follow for articles related to my research.
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
As you are using blogger, I find that the blogger reading list on the dashboard useful. It will not just take blogger based blogs but also wiblogs and wordpress ones and I think any other sort of Blog you like. It does not have the sophistication of the ones Jack mentions about but it does work for me.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
Thanks, Jengie. I just tried linking my 'reading list' to a non 'blogger' blog - it works.
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
I'm a late adopter and can't help thinking that there's a lot more I could do with my blog and with my work blog which I've started but have yet to complete.
I've been asked to start one on behalf of a writer's group I'm involved with, so I'd better pull my finger out.
I find it very hard to get started and although I get hits from Shippies and from Facebook contacts, I'm not getting many followers. Any tips on how to increase the number? Or have I got BO?
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
A near'n'dear rellie has a successful blog. Its characteristics are:
A core topic (with sidebar links to other blogging on similar)
Very well, and wittily written.
All posts illustrated with at least 3 or 4 relevant images
Responses to all comments
All posts publicised on FB.
She has established herself in a niche, in which she has built a following, and received invites to contribute to other online publications dealing with the same subject.
This, ISTM, is key. You need to be writing for a particular audience, and be part of a community of interest.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Edgeman
Shipmate
# 12867
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Posted
I have one and have had it for about four years. I don't update it much these days, and in a few weeks, not at all for a year. But I used to update it crazily- like 40-60 posts a month.It's nothing special, just my daily life and thoughts, things that I like and hate. I do like reading back though. It shows how I've grown as a person, changed tastes and ideas. Occasionally, I posts reviews of church services, or pictures of m,y drawings.
I had it in my signature for a while, but then I wanted to put a link to my art gallery, so I took it out. This is it.
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http://sacristyxrat.tumblr.com/
Posts: 1420 | From: Philadelphia Penns. | Registered: Jul 2007
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WhyNotSmile
Shipmate
# 14126
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Posted
I've been blogging for a few years. It started out as an attempt to share profound thoughts with the world, and rapidly progressed to general snark once I realised that no one cared.
I don't get much time to update it these days, but I do report back on each week's episode of The Apprentice, and if I go to the zoo, I tell everyone about that too.
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Come visit:
http://why-not-smile.blogspot.com
- you're always glad you came
Posts: 528 | From: Belfast | Registered: Sep 2008
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Dormouse
Glis glis – Ship's rodent
# 5954
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Posted
I have two blogs - publicised on my signature. They are
1) View From the Teapot - just ramblings about our life in the village, mostly. While I'm delighted if other people read & comment, it is mostly meant so that family and friends can follow what we're doing. When I have decent photos I will add them, but I'm not very good at remembering my camera or taking good photos.
2) Fat Dormouse Getting Thinner - this includes my updates on my weightloss (not very good at the mement. i.e. stalled, or even going the wrong way!) and my Cycling Challenge: I'm trying to cycle 1,000 km in 6 months, and to raise 1,000€ for a school in Zambia. There are also some recipes on it too.
I'm not sure either are particularly well written, and I'm certainly not going to win prizes for my photography, but I enjoy writing them. I wrote more when I had more time (fairly obviously!) but I try to update them every fortnight or so. If you visit, please do say hello!
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What are you doing for Lent?
40 days, 40 reflections, 40 acts of generosity. Join the #40acts challenge for #Lent and let's start a movement. www.40acts.org.uk
Posts: 3042 | From: 'twixt les Bois Noirs & Les Monts de la Madeleine | Registered: May 2004
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South Coast Kevin
Shipmate
# 16130
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Posted
I blog too... For two reasons, really. Firstly, it's been very helpful in working through issues on a theology course that I'm studying, especially in the early stages of assignment writing. Having the blog gives me a focus for pulling together all my half-formed thoughts into a vaguely coherent whole, and it's been tremendously useful for a couple of the assignments in particular.
I'm also gently testing the water regarding the whole writing thing. I think one of my skills is being able to explain things, especially difficult or abstract concepts that people can struggle to get their head round, so I'm seeing if the skill might transfer to some written medium or other.
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My blog - wondering about Christianity in the 21st century, chess, music, politics and other bits and bobs.
Posts: 3309 | From: The south coast (of England) | Registered: Jan 2011
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Protozoan
Shipmate
# 15583
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Posted
I don’t exactly blog – don’t think I can cope with too much computer work. But I do have a news page on my website which I’ve only had for about ½ a year. ( Not exactly a blog... ) I visit the Ship most days for an informative, interesting and fun read although I hardly ever post much myself. I haven’t engaged with the blogosphere at all yet. I would be interested in knowing what people get out of reading other peoples blogs and how they stumble(?) across the interesting ones.
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I would rather use pictures than words...
Posts: 92 | From: Exeter | Registered: Apr 2010
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Protozoan:
I would be interested in knowing what people get out of reading other peoples blogs and how they stumble(?) across the interesting ones.
I don't read many blogs because I don't go looking for blogs in the first place. What I do instead is read the blogs of people I've got to know in other places and who seem interesting people - reading their blogs helps me to get to know them better. And people who already seem interesting often (but not always!) have interesting blogs.
No idea if other people do it this way around...
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Caty S.
I read, therefore I am.
# 11996
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
quote:
Originally posted by Protozoan:
I would be interested in knowing what people get out of reading other peoples blogs and how they stumble(?) across the interesting ones.
I don't read many blogs because I don't go looking for blogs in the first place. What I do instead is read the blogs of people I've got to know in other places and who seem interesting people - reading their blogs helps me to get to know them better.
I do this. Most of the blogs I read are by either Ship people, or people from another site I use regularly, or people I've encountered repeatedly via that first set of blogs.
quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
And people who already seem interesting often (but not always!) have interesting blogs.
I have come to the conclusion it's a good job I'm not trying to build a widely-followed blog: I never seem to manage to be interesting, either in person or in print.
Posts: 2119 | From: Devon | Registered: Nov 2006
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wesleyswig
Shipmate
# 5436
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Posted
I sporadically blog at Listen Think Act. It started out six years ago on the same url as 'representation, reflection, review'and was an attempt to Methodist democracy into the late 20th Century.
Since then various things have happened and blogging mojo and time lapsed - I'm always (bizzarely) praised for my blogging and enjoy it when I have the time.
Currently on the hunt for a good portable blogging device - a phone is too small and laptop is too big - writing it on paper works but then I never have time to type up.
So the blogging is strong, time is week but (some rather major issue based frustrations aside) you do find a wonderful community to share with.
Listen Think Act
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"I am still a Methodist, You can never get it's special glow out of your blood" Ellen Wilkinson
Read my ramblings
Posts: 878 | From: Chained to my desk.... | Registered: Jan 2004
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Tilley
Shipmate
# 13687
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Posted
I started my Wordpress blog to keep my parenthood, decluttering and similar musings in one place. I also put in stuff about academic articles I come across that deal with things that interest me.
My live journal account is more for keeping in touch with a number of friends I've known for years, and since many of them don't have kids and have limited interest in my darling daughter's escapades, I put the excess in my Wordpress blog.
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My blog
Posts: 257 | From: Australia | Registered: May 2008
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Tilley
Shipmate
# 13687
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Posted
I should add that I couldn't think of a witty name for my blog, but when things are crazy, it's like juggling cats.
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My blog
Posts: 257 | From: Australia | Registered: May 2008
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kingsfold
Shipmate
# 1726
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Posted
There you are Tilley, you've got your name.
Juggling cats
Posts: 4473 | From: land of the wee midgie | Registered: Nov 2001
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OhSimone
Shipmate
# 16414
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Posted
I go through phases with my blogs - my usual approach to any new interest I have in life is to start a blog about it... The one I've kept up most consistently is this one, which basically details my and my wife's visits to all sorts of random little towns, on the basis of what we can get from the charity shops there.
Posts: 198 | From: The Black Country | Registered: May 2011
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Miffy
Ship's elephant
# 1438
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by OhSimone:
I go through phases with my blogs - my usual approach to any new interest I have in life is to start a blog about it... The one I've kept up most consistently is this one, which basically details my and my wife's visits to all sorts of random little towns, on the basis of what we can get from the charity shops there.
Now that is an original theme for a blog. I'm impressed, especially with the write up you gave to our place; we need all the good vibes we can get!
Two of my favourite summer outfits: a denim dress and a beautiful pair of Laura Ashley cotton trousers came from charity shops; a snip at £2.50 each.
![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
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"I don't feel like smiling." "You're English dear; fake it!" (Colin Firth "Easy Virtue")
Growing Greenpatches
Posts: 4739 | From: The Kitchen | Registered: Oct 2001
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OhSimone
Shipmate
# 16414
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Posted
I haven't bought a new book or CD in about 5 years
Posts: 198 | From: The Black Country | Registered: May 2011
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gamaliel:
I'm a late adopter and can't help thinking that there's a lot more I could do with my blog and with my work blog which I've started but have yet to complete.
I've been asked to start one on behalf of a writer's group I'm involved with, so I'd better pull my finger out.
I find it very hard to get started and although I get hits from Shippies and from Facebook contacts, I'm not getting many followers. Any tips on how to increase the number? Or have I got BO?
An idea I'm trying out is to have a "next time ..." line at the end of each post. I've no idea whether it'll increase traffic or not, but I hope it might. Of course, it does have the slight drawback that before I write this post, I have to know what the next one is going to be about!
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
Good suggestion, Adeodatus.
I've looked at the traffic on my personal blog (my work-related one is work in progress) and the vast majority of it comes from Shippies. That's fine, I like Shippies, but I don't want it to become an extension of what I do here - although that'll inevitably creep in to some extent.
I'm going to have to devise a strategy, I think, rather than just tinkering.
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gamaliel:
I'm going to have to devise a strategy, I think, rather than just tinkering.
When you do, let me know! If I can make my blog take off a bit, one thing I want it to do is to showcase my paintings - sooner or later I want to start making money out of the little buggers.
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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marzipan
Shipmate
# 9442
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Posted
I used to have a livejournal but I don't really write in it any more, mainly because the people who I knew with livejournals stopped posting.
I've recently started a blog for my cake decorating (and also recipes), which is mostly visited by my facebook friends and ship friends I think (it's in my sig). An offshoot of that is my crafting blog, which is also not very old. At some point I'm going to do some posts on things I've made in the past, but I need photos of them first.
[ 27. June 2011, 12:28: Message edited by: cheesymarzipan ]
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formerly cheesymarzipan.
Now containing 50% less cheese
Posts: 917 | From: nowhere in particular | Registered: May 2005
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
When I first dipped a toe into the blogosphere, I found a directory of blogs, arranged under subjects, and tried a few of those. Pretty soon, I didn't need to use the directory any more, but was exploring the links on the blogs I liked, on the assumption that, if I liked that blog, I'd also like what they liked. This worked quite well, but I'd end up with a dozen almost indistinguishable knitting blogs, or blogs about ex-pats in France, or even gay Buddhists who knit(!) and then whittle them down to the ones that were most interesting to me. I was also fairly ruthless if the blog hadn't been updated for a while - after all, millions of blogs out there, and only a limited life span!
At the moment I have three A4 sheets of paper with the blog names in double column - I visit each one (strictly alphabetically, so I don't visit all the knitting/ex-pat/female Anglican clergy ones one after the other) about once every six weeks, and I also have a short list of forums that I visit about once every week to ten days.
I found some of the blogs I visit by clicking on the sigs of people in the forums.
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Chelley
Ship's Old Boot
# 11322
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Posted
Well I want to thank you for the prompt here to go back and revisit my own blogs! It's mainly time that stops me posting much now but I do have fits and starts again when I can. My first blog - Chelley's Teapot was started in March 2006 (I see from the archive) and it has varied from the mundane, to my attempts at poetry, to sermons, to reflections on life, and the funny things that happen at times, to the cat, to my football team. So I didn't quite get the hang of that 'one theme' thing - unless you count 'random'! The other blog Chelley's View (...from the window and of the world) was started specifically to be a part of the wibsite community, though I've been very neglectful there too. But I now consider myself kicked up the bum to get back and read, and even post again.
(I was going to put the links in my sig but I couldn't bring myself to lose the Doctor Who quote!)
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"I love old things, they make me feel sad."
"What's good about sad?"
"It's happy for deep people!"
Sally Sparrow to Kathy - Doctor Who
Posts: 2870 | From: Wonderland, UK | Registered: Apr 2006
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leo
Shipmate
# 1458
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Posted
I started a blog a couple of months ago. It is the result of a three-year course of biblical study by a mixed group of Christians and Jews looking at the readings set in the lectionary and specifically at the negative portrayals of Judaism in them.
There has been a spate of books on this topic in the past four years but there was virtually nothing before then.
I want to make this issue more widely known since many sermons are still, often but not always unwittingly, anti-semitic.
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My Jewish-positive lectionary blog is at http://recognisingjewishrootsinthelectionary.wordpress.com/
My reviews at http://layreadersbookreviews.wordpress.com
Posts: 23198 | From: Bristol | Registered: Oct 2001
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Miffy:
quote:
Originally posted by OhSimone:
details my and my wife's visits to all sorts of random little towns, on the basis of what we can get from the charity shops there.
Now that is an original theme for a blog. I'm impressed, especially with the write up you gave to our place; we need all the good vibes we can get!
Whereas with my town, 'She came, she saw, she blogged nothing'. I'm not too sure what to make of that. ![[Confused]](confused.gif)
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Rosa Winkel
Saint Anger round my neck
# 11424
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Posted
There are various interest-groups on t'internet where one can advertise ones blog. On http://www.expat-blog.com for example, one sees blogs written by English speakers in various parts of Poland. That blog works worldwide.
I daresay special interest sites exist.
I seem to get decent traffic from expatblog.
I disobey the 'one subject' rule, myself; well, Poland becomes at the most an avenue to channel my ramblings about politics, history, bird watching and other seemingly non-related stuff.
Edit: Oh, and write often.
[removed extraneous comma so the link would work]
[ 29. June 2011, 02:03: Message edited by: jedijudy ]
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The Disability and Jesus "Locked out for Lent" project
Posts: 3271 | From: Wrocław | Registered: May 2006
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Miffy
Ship's elephant
# 1438
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
quote:
Originally posted by Miffy:
quote:
Originally posted by OhSimone:
details my and my wife's visits to all sorts of random little towns, on the basis of what we can get from the charity shops there.
Now that is an original theme for a blog. I'm impressed, especially with the write up you gave to our place; we need all the good vibes we can get!
Whereas with my town, 'She came, she saw, she blogged nothing'. I'm not too sure what to make of that.
The Creamtealand charity shops aren't posh enough, maybe?
![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Posts: 4739 | From: The Kitchen | Registered: Oct 2001
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OhSimone
Shipmate
# 16414
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Miffy:
quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
quote:
Originally posted by Miffy:
quote:
Originally posted by OhSimone:
details my and my wife's visits to all sorts of random little towns, on the basis of what we can get from the charity shops there.
Now that is an original theme for a blog. I'm impressed, especially with the write up you gave to our place; we need all the good vibes we can get!
Whereas with my town, 'She came, she saw, she blogged nothing'. I'm not too sure what to make of that.
The Creamtealand charity shops aren't posh enough, maybe?
Oh dear, where's that? Is it somewhere I haven't blogged yet or somewhere I've done, just not very well...?
Also, despite the moniker, OhSimone is a he
Posts: 198 | From: The Black Country | Registered: May 2011
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
I've never paid much attention in the past to the wibsite. Is there a reason it seems so popular among posters here?
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
I suspect the reason is its connection with Dave Walker, who is a shipmate here, once known as W. and before that as Wibblethorpe if my memory serves me correctly.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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scuffleball
Shipmate
# 16480
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Miffy:
quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
quote:
Originally posted by Miffy:
quote:
Originally posted by OhSimone:
details my and my wife's visits to all sorts of random little towns, on the basis of what we can get from the charity shops there.
Now that is an original theme for a blog. I'm impressed, especially with the write up you gave to our place; we need all the good vibes we can get!
Whereas with my town, 'She came, she saw, she blogged nothing'. I'm not too sure what to make of that.
The Creamtealand charity shops aren't posh enough, maybe?
In our days at Lee Abbey Devon - which, I suppose, is in the general direction of Creamtealand - we would try to find the tackiest thing we could in Lynton's charity shop(s?) as a mock prize. I kid you not.
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SPK: I also plan to create ... a Calvinist Ordinariate
ken: I thought it was called Taize?
Posts: 272 | Registered: Jun 2011
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
Starting tomorrow, I'm going to be blogging for the first time, so the hints and tips above have been really useful. Thanks for them
Basically, I am going to be incredibly short of money this year. So I decided to make penury more fun by making a one-year project out of it. I'm intending to include various money-saving tips and recipes, but mainly just to do some lighthearted blogging on the various discomforts, social embarrassments, and the general lack of chocolate!
I have never successfully kept a diary before now, but I am hoping that this public forum will keep me on track. And if anyone actually reads it, that will be a real bonus.
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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