The poll has been up for quite a while now, and it looks like the answers are staying pretty steady. Here are the results:
| Political posts | 22% |
| More cat posts | 18% |
| More humor | 17% |
| More personal posts | 15% |
| Popular culture (TV, movies) posts | 13% |
| Nothing, keep it like it is | 10% |
| Other answer… | 5% |
And here are my responses to the various comments and numbers: I like the idea of adding more politics and more non-Israel or Jewish subject posts. I want to go back to the blog that I had a few years ago, which was a multi-subject blog that concentrated on Jewish and Israeli issues, not a blog that almost solely concentrates on Jewish and Israeli issues. The Jewish blogosphere has for the most part ignored me for a very long time. No matter how often I link out, I’m not seeing much reciprocity, and I have to tell you, my generosity only goes so far. There are a few bloggers who have always been excellent in that respect, and now people like Yid With Lid aggregate my RSS feeds (I don’t think I’ve ever thanked Sammy for that, so Sammy, thank you!).
But don’t think that I’m acting out of bitterness. I wouldn’t stop writing about Jewish and Israeli issues because I’m not getting linked. I am, after all, Jewish, and a Zionist. I am merely stating some facts that are influencing my decision. Another fact is that I am no longer linked by other bloggers who are not in the JBlogosphere because I’ve become a one-trick pony, and they have other Israel bloggers that they link. Linking is the coin of the realm, and my blog has been in the red for a while now.
Another reason for changing things around is simple: I’m bored. When I am bored, I am phoning it in. Or not posting much at all. As this is not the Soccer Dad and Snoopy blog, it behooves me to post more than my co-bloggers. And speaking of my wonderful co-bloggers: You can find much more content on Israel at their sites, as well as Jack’s. In fact, there are a ton of Jewish and Israeli bloggers listed on my navbar. If it’s information you want, you can go there. I won’t be featuring as much Israel news as I used to.
I’m planning on going back to the things that made my blog what it is today: A variety of posts about life, politics, Jewish and Israeli issues, and, of course, cats. I’ll be posting at least one weekly roundup of links that I like, blogs I’m reading, or interesting news. I am also encouraging my readers to start adding links in the comments. (I’ll add a comments plug-in that gives you rich text options; I know you’re missing that.) But keeping things the same? Well, if I do that, you can count on my quitting blogging within a year. I don’t keep on doing things that bore me. When I was bored at my job, I tried to work within the company to do something about it, or got a new job. When I am bored in my life, I change things. When I’m bored with my blog, well, the blog has to change. And I stated that in the very first post I wrote, on April 22nd, 2001:
This site will undergo many style changes in the upcoming months, as I have no real idea what I’d like the end product to look like. What I do know is that I’ve spent several years in the industry and know the difference between a point, a pica, and a pixel. I know that the Internet is a wealth of information and misinformation, and anyone can discover just about anything online if s/he looks long enough. I know that my mindset has undergone many changes in the last few years, and will doubtless undergo more as I get older. Growth is change. Stagnation, to me, is worse than death. If I cannot change, just dig me a hole, throw me in and cover me with dirt.
Yeah, not quite ready for that hole yet.
Heh, don’t feel too bad Meryl lol.. Outside of Soccerdad I can count the times I’ve been linked by Jewish blogs on one hand in about 3 years, at least you are on all the blogrolls :) Put a positive spin on that & think of this unlinked zone as an exclusive club for quality ;)
I hope you will not hold this very stingy American bloggers issue against Israel, as we require your continued posts & awareness. I voted for political posts and hope that will will see your opinions on this topic more going forward.
Best wishes for your new approach. Your blog has always been worth reading (I think I may have first found it in 2002), and now with two excellent supporting acts it presents a lively combination of polemic, rhetoric and personal reflection. It almost goes without saying that I agree with a huge amount of what you post. Kol hakavod.
I think that you’ll find a happy medium. If I didn’t take over for Soccerdad as admin of Haveil Havalim I don’t know how many links I’d get.
You’re one of the few bloggers who has been doing this long than I have and I think that is very impressive. It is not easy to get up each day and try to post. It is harder yet to try and build a community that engages with you and each other in the comments section.
Recently I have tried adding a few different widgets to see if that would stir things up on my blog. We’ll see what happens.
FWIW, it appears to me that my readership is still increasing but the number of comments do not seem to compare. I am guessing that Twitter and Facebook have siphoned off some of that.
I have also been told via email that people are very hesitant to comment on political posts because they feel that they do not know enough or are afraid of getting flamed.
I’d also encourage you to try hosting Haveil Havalim. I like to get new faces in there. New hosts always bring a new spin and I usually find a new blog or two that is interesting.
Anyhow, I intend to stick around here. Someone has to balance out the cat posts. ;)
You are very welcome
Meryl,
Actually Elder of Zion and Jack also have your RSS feeds in their sidebars. Blogspot allows a feed from Google reader. I just think that Sammy gets more traffic so his listing shows up more.
I think Elder knows how much I value him. I should be linking a lot of people more frequently. I tend to read more sources and less analysis these days, though, and that’s part of the reason why I link out less frequently. That’s why I would be relying on my readers (and bloggers) to link to other blogs in the comments of that post.
Daled Amos also has links to you in his Google Reader feed in his sidebar.
The Snark News is great.