A Slower Pace

One thing I'm noticing about blogging is that it works at a much slower pace than the stuff I've done before. Cyber-events on forums can move very quickly; conversations on unmoderated lists can be almost like chatting "real time". Email can zing back and forth many times a day, and certainly will if there's a hot debate going on, which is how it can get to be so absorbing and the old "Get a life" adage applies. Also, the feedback is immediate, or at least within the same day you post.

Weblogs, by contrast, are updated once a day, and sometimes not even that. Instead of opening multiple email, or clicking on several posts on a board, you go surfing from site to site to read the latest entry. Also, a personal weblog like this is a drop in the ocean. When you arrive on an email forum, or posting board, you are already among people that are focused on your subject, and you know you've reached that small circle of 50 or 100 or 300. The only people who even know the weblog is here are people from the forums I'm on, those that check out my main website, and perhaps anybody who might run into it from a search on Technorati or Google. I think I've only got three or four responses since I started the weblog -- and the earlier format didn't have a place for comments; the responses were on email. I haven't heard from anybody since I started becoming active over here again -- of course, at Christmastime I expect folks have better things to do. The forums are slow right now, too.

That's another thing -- one has to be actively posting on a blog if interest is going to keep up, but that means doing an awful lot of writing without hearing from anybody. I guess I'm spoiled; I'm used to the attention. On the other hand, it's certainly a more peaceful way to make one's voice heard in cyberspace. One thing I'm probably doing wrong is that I'm writing too much in too short a space of time. If anybody does meander over here, some of the earlier stuff I've written is likely to be missed. All in all, it's probably a needed exercise in patience.