Putting it to rest
Before it becomes irrelevant, here’s how I felt about nablopomo this year:
It felt different than last year. I guess I think nablopomo has gotten so much bigger this time around that it actually feels less social. Last year I found so many new blogs that are now daily reads, many of whom are people I consider “blog friends.” I used the Randomizer and stumbled upon some interesting and well-written blogs, and in turn, received many new visitors to my site.
This year I think the Randomizer was broken. It brought me to the same few blogs over and over again, and usually those were poorly done and hard to read. Oh my god with the same six Blogger templates! And like my friend Jen said, there’s just a lot of bad writing out there. I’m trying not to say that with any arrogance because I know I’m not about to win a Bloggers’ Choice Award, but for any of you who looked around last month… it’s painful right?
And speaking of painful, what’s with all the complaining? I know most of us don’t post every day on a regular basis, so it’s perhaps a little challenging at times. But, um, you do realize it’s voluntary right? If it’s really that painful for you, opt out. I suppose I did my share of complaining too, but mostly that was sarcasm. The truth is that I really don’t think it’s that difficult to sit down and write something once a day. I’m not saying I want to do it for the rest of my life, but I mean come on, there are no rules! No guidelines! Just write something, anything, whatever, doesn’t matter as long as it’s posted before midnight. And if you can’t do it, who cares—it’s not worth all the turmoil. I guess I got sick of all the bitching.
And like I said, it’s not as fun when it’s not social. To be honest, it took all my available web-surfing time to keep up with the daily posts of the people I already read and love. I didn’t have much time to explore or use the randomizer, which would have been pointless anyway, because see above.
Finally, I think another benefit to nablopomo, along with finding new blogs to read, is exposing your own site to new readers. Last year in November my traffic for this site hit record highs, and with each new commenter, I made a new blog friend. This year I’ve had a few new commenters (hi! glad you’re here!), but my traffic has been stagnate. Which doesn’t matter, but the point is that I had hoped nablopomo would be as fun and social as it was last year. And though I had fun writing, loved hearing from those who did stop by, and am glad to have found a few new lovelies to read, it just wasn’t the same.
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Oh man, you’re preaching to the choir here. I forgot to mention in my post that I HATED the Randomizer. Same six or seven shitty blogs over and over. Toward the beginning of the month, I saw a few hits to my blog from it, but then nothing at all after the first week, so I agree. I think it was broken.
And gah! What’s with people saying, “I just found out about NaBloPoMo today (two weeks into the month), so I’ll just post a whole bunch more to catch up.” Uh yeah sure, that’s not how it works, you idiots.
That said, I came across a handful of new blogs I really like, so I guess it was worth it in the end, even if I didn’t win a prize.
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I just had to comment with a great big “Ditto!” The large scale, the fancy sign up page, the whacky randomizer - all of it make this year a lot less fun, IMHO. I did manage to find your blog, so that’s a plus, but I really have to consider whether I’ll do it again next year. We’ll see. Thank goodness for the (much smaller scale) Holidailies.
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:13 pm
The problem with the “social” network went beyond the randomizer. I think it might have been more social to chit chat in the groups, but my browser crashed every time I tried to post to them.
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:55 pm
okay. at the risk (ok, guarantee) of sounding completely pathetic, i have to tell you this…
the other night after having drifted off at the computer once again, i woke up with an acute sense of panic. and do you know what was on my mind? no more postings from shannon! seriously. i seriously had a mild panic um, situation, thinking about how you wouldn’t be posting daily anymore.
yes. i am serious.
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:02 pm
I agree. NaBlo just didn’t seem as fun this year, and I think was one of the reasons I dropped out after the first week. One thing I really enjoyed last year was surfing through the Randomizer and posting links to blogs I liked at the end of each post. With this year’s shitty Randomizer that became an exercise in frustration. I’m surprised with all the complaining that people were doing that no one ever complained about that! Or did they? I didn’t see anyone posting about it. (Other than the brief rant I posted right before I gave up on the whole thing.)
Anyway, congrats on sticking it out!
December 3rd, 2007 at 9:43 pm
i am nodding over here ~ as you know, i pretty much felt the same way but i’m okay with that i guess. its the little nabo that got too big i think …
last year will always be special to me
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:20 pm
i didn’t try super hard but i really only met a couple more people, and they were friends of blog friends, so not necessarily through nablo. but i liked that it put a mechanism in place to get me to post more. . .so that was good.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Couldn’t agree more with all of it.
Also, on the randomizer I kept ending up at websites that were not blogs. So, a lot of spam-like links on it somehow.
I just gave up with all of that and tried maneuvering through the links on people’s blogs to others.
December 4th, 2007 at 8:39 am
I tried using the randomizer but it only took me to blogs that… well… I didn’t find interesting. Not to say there weren’t interesting to others but they just weren’t my taste.
But sadly, I’m coming off of the high if posting everyday. Its like I’m weening myself off of the blogging. Its kind of sick.
December 7th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I didn’t use the Randomizer much either.