More Reasons to Blog

I'm recycling this from my other blog because it relates to a post I did a while back on this blog about why I blog.

Happy Blogoversary to Me
Ok, that's not actually true--this is not the anniversary of my first post. It is, however, almost the anniversary of the date I started tracking visitor stats. I started using Sitemeter in August 2007; during that month I had 14 visitors. As of today--with two more days to go until the actual end of the month--I have had 327 visitors during July 2008.

Granted 327 is nothing compared to "real" bloggers; with an average of about 15 visitors a day I doubt I could ever make a dime with this blog. But such is life--and I did score a free book and (still have yet to receive it so maybe shouldn't count it) a free CherryPal computer as a result of my blogging prowess.

I can't feel too badly, though--I was heartened to read this post by the author of one of my favorite blogs, Best Parent Ever. His wife's blog--even after about 50,000 page impressions in a 3-week period--brought in only $1.87. I could probably find more than that in between the cushions of my sofa.

So why do I keep blogging? Because I don't have the discipline (I was going to say time but if J.K. Rowling can write Harry Potter on napkins at 5 am I can't really claim to have no time) to write much of anything else, I guess. A friend of mine, after hearing from her husband about my guest post in The Washington Post, asked me, incredulously "So, what--you just sit there and write? Why?"

Who knows. God knows it's not for the recognition--not that I don't appreciate my loyal readership of 15 or so a day. Not for the props either--one valuable thing I've learned through blogging is that people are 100 times meaner when commenting anonymously on blogs then they are in real life. I guess the internet gives everyone a chance to release their inner demon-like personalities--read any blog and at least 50% of the comments are usually not only negative, but scathingly so. So blogging does force you to grow a thicker skin, which is generally useful in life.

I read this post today about what defines success as a blogger. It sums it up nicely: If you enjoy it, then do it. This is another good post about not getting too wrapped up in how "successful" your blog is.

Is the Whale Jumping the Shark?

First I thought it was me...suddenly half my followers were gone, as were more than half of the people I was following. Maybe yesterday's post recollecting the time my water broke offended people? Then I logged into my association's account and same thing--more than half of the hard-won followers had disappeared, as had half the list of people we were following--a list that took hours to research and compile.

Wait a minute, though...I was one of the people who stopped following my company, according to the much diminished list of followers; same with the other staff members who had been following. I know I didn't stop following, nor did they, so obviously this mass deletion of followers/followees was being orchestrated by Twitter itself.

So great--here I am, having just a few weeks ago convinced my association that they needed to be using Twitter, gotten it set up...and suddenly it appears that Twitter is deleting followers in attempt to wipe out spammers.

Now what? Just when the higher-ups at work were getting excited about Twitter I have to now go back to them and tell them that a bug in the system "accidentally" wiped out half our efforts?

As far as I'm concerned, Twitter may as well just shut down the studio at this point. It's like having your money stolen from the bank--once it's happened you're never going to trust that bank again and certainly won't be replenishing your looted-by-the-bank account. It's not like we had just dumped a contact list into our association's Twitter account; I can't recreate it without spending hours manually re-finding everyone we had added to begin with. Twitter claims that they'll be restoring lost follower/following relationships; I'm not holding my breath.

If companies everywhere were skeptical to begin with, how are they going to feel when they realize that Twitter is not actually the ultimate social media tool they'd finally believed it to be? When people realize that, at any given moment, well-thought out follower/following relationships can be wiped out in the blink of an eye will it lead to the whale's final demise?

A Vote for Plurk

The other day I blogged about Plurk's eminent rise as Twitter continues to disappoint with its constant "over capacity" messages and general unreliability.

This morning I read this post that sings Plurk's praises.

I must be slow or something because Plurk just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I'm just not a visual person--I swear each time I check it out I'm stumped. Twitter is a no-brainer--a stream of messages. Plurk's whole timeline format just doesn't make sense to me.

Am I not the only one who stares at Plurk and scratches her head, or am I just missing something?

When the Whale Fails Will Plurk Prevail?

A few months ago I didn't know what Twitter was; or, more specifically, I knew what it was but couldn't imagine what purpose it could possibly serve. Now some months and who knows how many posts later I--and the rest of the world it seems--am hooked.

First there were a trickle of blog posts about Twitter--a few Tweets, if you will. Then there were more. Then more, until now it seems like every day, all day someone is blogging about Twitter. Journalists, media outlets and PR folks have taken to it like, well, whales to water.

Being an "early adopter" (code for computer-addicted hyper-focuser), I've spent the past month trying to convince my company that we should be using Twitter as part of our PR/media relations efforts. Yesterday they finally caved in the face of my incessant nagging and the powers that be gave me the go ahead to set up shop on Twitter.

Realizing that not everyone even knows what Twitter is, I asked to take the reins at the computer to give everyone the 5 cent tour of the killer app I'd spent so much time hawking. Instead of the exciting stream of important business-related tweets I hoped to dazzle them with, what do you think they got an eye-full of?

The all-too-familiar "Twitter is Over Capacity" screen--e.g. the Fail Whale. Unfazed, I went on to tell them that this happens "sometimes" but Twitter is working on it and it will soon be resolved.

In truth, it's of course happening more and more frequently and I personally am about ready to bail. If there's one thing I hate in life it's things that don't work properly--especially things that are supposed to be fast and seamless and essential to daily life. Ok, so maybe "essential" is too strong a term to use when talking about Twitter, but if you think about it, maybe not.

As more and more companies and media outlets are now turning in droves to Twitter to pitch and receive pitches, it's gaining more acceptance and, for at least some people, starting to replace email, IM and texting--even webinars! So what happens if more and more people get on the bandwagon and start using it in their personal and professional lives and one day it reaches a breaking point and just crashes?

Enter Plurk....which is another post for another time...I will leave with this one parting post, though--a good, informative comparison of Twitter and Plurk. Plurk seems like a good concept--hell, anything that can offer the functionality of the now-addictive Twitter with even close to regularity qualifies as a good concept to me these days. However, after checking it out a few times I'm still stumped.