This Blog Is Yours

What should be your posting frequency? One thing that seems to be of some considerable importance is that it should be consistent. Even with feed subscriptions, nothing can be more ‘annoying’ to a faithful reader than a blog that appears to be staggering to-and-fro like an unseen dipsomaniac at the other end of the wire(-less); at times spilling posts like a sprung water mains, at times disappearing from the face of the earth, leaving nothing but silence and a big conspicuous zero indicating that there are, yet again, no new goodies for you to read.

But why am I addressing this issue, I who believe that you should do as you like, I who also know that blogs are like corresponding vessels connected to their authors’ biorhythms; fluctuating on the waves of their personal ups and downs? Because, in all honesty, as long as you are not a professional blogger, as long as you haven’t made any commitment to supply your readers with the information they expect from you, why should you care? There are two reasons.

First, no new post has appeared on this blog since last Thursday. For me, taking in consideration that my blog is only a few months old still and that no statistics could already be regarded as representative by far, that is a long time. But, as the saying goes: Kurtz, he dead. It was the job that killed him; or at least something along those lines. Indeed, I have been swamped in work, with two projects both going to prepress on Monday 9 a.m. and two very nervous clients, their voices trembling on the phone, begging for their texts. I could see them before me, their blood-shot eyes, twitching under the strain of sleep deprivation and the ever stronger shots of coffee to fight back. The image came to me naturally, since I myself saw very little of my bed, the outside world or anything else during those four gruesome but amazing days.

But, although I now have quite a few new and wonderful subjects that I can share and comment on, there is a second reason why I was reflecting on my posting schedule. 9rules, should you be unfamiliar with it, is a weblog community – I adore how they still use the world in its full form; how things evolve so quickly! – that harbours a selection of the finest in their kind. They achieve that level of quality by vetting candidate blogs before they are accepted through a series of admission rounds. The next admission window is scheduled for 17 May and I am considering applying.

On their site, 9rules offers an overview of the criteria they think are crucial in their decision whether to allow a blog or not and what they in fact look for (one of them being consistency in posting). I firmly believe I meet some of their desiderata already, but also realize I am still very wet behind the ears (this is post 101) and that No Dependencies is seriously lacking in others. Over the next couple of weeks I will be scrutinizing my writings, their merits and their weaknesses, and comparing them with the nine rules (hence their name) they adhere to. I will post about this process, criticising my output and my blogging abilities and fine-tuning this blog (as I do most all the time) to raise it to he necessary level. One of the starting questions will of course be: would I want to be a member of the 9rules network in the first place and why?

No Dependencies /No Logo, except for being a nonsense phrase that once flashed across the screen of my dying computer (it recovered), also stands for the independence, if you will, I believe I aspire to, and the lack of determining badges (or logos) I wear; as a blogger and as an individual. On the other hand, should there be any comments on these posts including this one I will incorporate these in my analysis and my approach.

In short, this will be the one and only opportunity for you to help shape this blog: advice, criticism or comments are, as ever, appreciated, but won’t further the road this blog is on (if any). So, dare me to write about any subject, change my style, my title, my point of view even. Get me on Digg or bury me, so to speak. Well, something along those lines anyway. If nothing else, it will be an enlightening experiment and a stimulating exercise allowing me to reconsider the initial goals and motivations I had defined for myself when I finally began this version of this journal (yes, there were other prototypes). In the end, it can only improve the quality of my writing and your reading experience.

Rule number one on 9rules is Love What You Do. That is the case and I will prove it.