[postaday2011] Why did you start?

Most of the postaday prompts have been, in my opinion, pretty much crap.  Not that I expected otherwise, especially since Automattic acquired Plinky and most of them are coming from Plinky (and you might recall me mentioning that I quit Plinky a while ago).  But today’s warranted a response, I think…

What made you decide to start a blog?

I suppose it could be said that I was “blogging” before there really was such a thing.  I had a website and, like many personal websites at the time, I kept a log of the various updates and new stuff I added to the site.  I’m not sure who I was writing to — then again, I’m not entirely sure who I’m writing to now — but it was probably friends who happened to revisit my site.  It was a way to say, this is what I did while you were gone.  Over time I started adding more personal touches, like what I was listening to lately, or what I was selling on eBay.

Later, when I decided to turn my box into a fileserver, I kept a similar log of what I was doing, what software I was using, what improvements I was planning.  This got ever more personal until it became more of what am I doing these days rather than what’s new on the server.  That was nine years ago.

The blog has evolved into something more blog-like over the last nine years.  It’s been occasionally a bitchfest and quasi-journal whose target audience was a couple co-workers and friends, and occasionally had haughty desires to be something that attracted high amounts of traffic.  In the end, this blog is more or less an extension of me, especially now that I have feeds from my Tumblr, Museum Themes, Arcane Palette, and anywhere else I might post content.

But I suppose that doesn’t answer the question.

I guess I started because deep down (or maybe not so deep) I’m an egomaniac who likes to hear my own voice.  Then again, I doubt that is something that would be considered rare among bloggers.  Let’s face it, if we weren’t egomaniacs, why would we have this bizarre notion that anyone out there in teh internets cares what we have to say?  I’ve always been on the extroverted side, and though that’s been tamed quite a bit as I get older, I still have this desire to have my voice heard, to make my mark in one way or another, to leave something behind in the memory of others, to not be forgotten or ignored.  For that matter, that’s probably why I built my first website, and continued building and updating websites to this day.

If anyone is interested in seeing a mirror of the last incarnation of my website before it evolved into what it is now, you can see it here. Be forewarned, it is 7 years old and uses tables and frames.


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4 responses to “[postaday2011] Why did you start?”

  1. Peter Weis Avatar

    Whats cool about bloging in general is you can give people a a way to keep up with you, and you can have a way to share all the cool things with them. I have conversations with people all the time, a book i read, an album I bought, how to do something. Now I still do that but I like to add that kind of stuff to my blog to share and help other people as well.
    My recent post Writing Down The Bones – Notes

    1. jazzs3quence Avatar
      jazzs3quence

      I got over 1,000 hits to this site once. It wasn't for any personal revelation or an amazing insight, it was for something I thought was valuable and useful to share. There was a scam floating around on Facebook that was responsible for spreading an email virus. The site it came from promised a free iPad to test, and when I got several emails from a client (automatically sent by the virus spoofing his email address), I looked into it and posted about it. I still get hits to that post, and I can sort of see when the scam is resurfacing again. I guess it falls under The Long Tail theory, that eventually someone will happen on something you wrote and find it invaluable.

  2. connieemeraldeyes Avatar
    connieemeraldeyes

    I like your blog. I blog like my life. It is a memory keeper. I like to share some of my pictures I take. I only have a few people who read it. In this world of millions and millions, only about 30 people view my blog a day. They probably land on it and go "Oh, NO, I don't want to be here. I used to be on Spaces. I had lots of blogger friends on there. Every single person that I traded comments with got featured. It is like they read my blog to find who I follow. It kind of freaked out the people that got featured. They didn't like the instant attention and a lot of them stopped blogging. I wil subscribe to your blog, because you have been blogging a long time. I have too. Nice to meet you via your blog.

    1. jazzs3quence Avatar
      jazzs3quence

      Well thank you and I'm glad you like my blog. As they say, it isn't much, but it's mine. :)

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