blogging – Page 4 – St. Eutychus

My six favourite arguments from 2009

The little post that stirred up a hornets net of atheists and caused a shift in service providers was almost worth the effort of blogging for a year all by itself. Here are my six favourite debates from 2009…

Five things that would make atheists seem nicer
The one where I admit to not enjoying U2 and then suggest some alternatives
The one where I suggest it’s ok to treat subjective issues objectively.
The one about an “open source” approach to producing ministry resources (music especially) that sprung out of this amazing discussion at Simone’s blog.
The one where a pastor I don’t know took my doctrine of creation to task – and I didn’t like that very much – and my apology for being rude about it.
The one where I dared to suggest parents shouldn’t overshare on Facebook.

Thank you to those of you who commented here throughout the year – I do enjoy a good verbal stoush.

January 9, 2010

Spreading the love

Everybody loves getting comments.

I’m aiming to comment on 100 other people’s blogs today. So far I’m at 62. Have I been to yours?

Do you feel less special knowing that you are part of a mammoth social 2.0 experiment?

January 8, 2010

Pack to the future

The packing has started. We’ve only got three weeks left in Townsville and we’re destined to spend those days surrounded by boxes, packing tape and piles of stuff.

I went to bed last night thinking that today was the day I’d be back at work – but I woke up, dressed, and then remembered that I had booked today off as part of my Christmas break.

Blogging is likely to be sporadic both in work hours and after work as I tie up loose ends here and there.

Robyn has set herself the rather ambitious challenge of packing one room per day while I’m at work.

January 4, 2010

I don’t know what the plural form of “hiatus” is. But can I just say, for the record, that I don’t plan on going on a blog hiatus over the Christmas holidays like so many of you. In fact, I’ll probably blog more. Because I like blogging.

If you are one of those people taking a break from blogging – enjoy it – and send your readers my way for good clean holiday fun.

That is all.

December 17, 2009

On the Passive Aggressive Link comment

Sometimes my blogging friends post things that I’ve posted months before as though they’re original, or exciting.

This hurts my precious blog ego. Until I remember that I post so much stuff that sometimes I forget it, and I don’t read 90% of other people’s posts fully (except for you, dear reader).

To draw their attention to the fact that their post is old news I post a nice, agreeable comment. Including a link to my take on the post from months back.

It’ll read something like this…

“Oh yeah, I totally agree, especially in this post I wrote about the same thing four months ago”…

This is the ultimate passive aggressive blogging action. It uses one of Simone’s blog love languages (the comment) to gently rebuke the recalcitrant reader while simultaneously asserting one’s own superiority.

I will try to stop this. My last passive aggressive link comment was last week. I think I’m doing better already.

December 7, 2009

T-Shirt Appreciation Day: Guilty Secrets

So… umm… is this you?

Would you feel vicariously unclean knowing that a post you were reading was composed in such a manner?

Confess your blogging sins in T-Shirt form for just $22.95.

November 16, 2009

T-Shirt Appreciation Day: Shirts and blogs

I’m calling today “T-Shirt Appreciation Day” because I have a bunch of shirts to post and “Shirt of the Day” works questionably if I’m posting more than one shirt a day…

Now, onto the show…

Buy this one for $19. It’s a hard truth, but a truth no less.

November 16, 2009

Top five rules for blogging: #4 Be prepared to write stupid posts

This is, as the heading indicates, the number four in a series of five posts. Here are all five tips, and here’s my post on the first one, here’s the second one, and here’s the third.

As we discussed in tip number one – nothing kills a blog like a loss of momentum. I think this tip is particularly important in the early stages of a blog.

Blogs aren’t a great medium for people wanting to publish polished essays every time. Some posts are going to be not as good as other posts.

More often than not it’s the posts I think are a bit rubbish that get a spike in traffic or see increased comments.

The best solution I’ve come up with in order to keep my blogging juices flowing is to just post. As often as possible. This means I’ve written some absolute rubbish in my time, which on the whole has contributed to the quality of this blog in a negative manner. But, I’ve also managed to stick at blogging for almost 4 years and almost 2,600 posts.

My post rate, and my traffic, have picked up since I decided to take the “just post any old thing” approach…

I have one or two rules that I use when deciding whether or not to post something. There is a limit to how stupid my posts can be without cheapening the experience of visiting this site.

There’s an important overarching precept guiding my posts – I am a Christian before I am a blogger, and this creates a tension… I want to glorify God with this blog – and I use it as a vehicle for articulating my thoughts on what I’m learning or thinking about Christianity. But I also like posting really silly things. Things that are probably at the pinnacle of human stupidity. And toilet humour. Having two columns has helped me come to grips with this tension – it probably doesn’t help feed readers.

I am, in this post, dealing with my tip to be prepared to post stupid stuff, I’m not sure that I see this stupid stuff as a way to do anything but keep momentum going and perhaps entice people here to be amused – I suspect more people come for the stupid stuff than for the thought out stuff.

Here is, for want of a better label, my checklist for posting a stupid post.

Did it amuse me? – If the answer is yes I’ll probably post it. If the answer is no, I’ll consider whether it may impress, amuse, or inform, anybody else who I know reads my blog.
Will it amuse other people – this one’s not a deal breaker and comes down to the blogging for comments principle. I like having readers, but I’d probably approach blogging the same way even if I didn’t.
Is it likely to offend people I care about. I probably won’t post these – or I’ll check first.
Has it been posted everywhere/watched by millions? It has to be really worthwhile to post if everybody has already seen it – you won’t find any dancing wedding entrances here…
Am I breaking any laws? This one is pretty important. Don’t post anything illegal.

November 15, 2009

Top five rules for blogging: #2 don’t blog for comments

Here are all five tips, and here’s my post on the first one.

Comments are great. All bloggers love comments. They make us feel special. Almost as special as a link. Depending on your blog love language (which Simone posted about back in January).

Comments indicate reader engagement. Comments – even negative ones – show that someone cares enough about your ideas to respond.

But if you hang your blogging hat on the number of comments you get – and make a decision to continue, or not to continue, on that basis – then you’re bound for disappointment. People don’t like to comment. I read about 300 blogs, I comment on a handful. I should comment on more – knowing as I do that people like getting comments.

Comments are not a measure of quality. They’re not a measure of how much your post is appreciated. They’re not really a measure of anything except how good you are at annoying people or how cleverly you hook your readers.

Because I like awesome scientific analysis I’ll repost this graph I made a while back.

And further analysis – I mentioned how bad my blog was when I first started the other day (prompting some people to head back to the archives). It was really bad. Terrible. And yet I scored more comments per post in those days by a long shot.

If you’re going to blog for any measurable outcome regular visitors and subscribers. Or blog for google keywords so that you can attract random visitors who might subscribe.

Blogging for comments is a thankless exercise.

November 11, 2009

Top Five Rules for blogging: #1 Keep it regular

Yesterday I posted a list of my top five rules for blogging.

Mikey posted a response on Christian Reflections – and a comment – reminding me of the cardinal rule of blogging (that I missed). Link to other people. Regularly. I like that rule. There will now be six posts in this series. Starting with this one…

Rule One – Blog Regularly

If you want your blog to last past the first week you need to have a plan to go past the first week.

Figure out a scope of topics you want to talk about. Come up with a regular feature. Do whatever it takes to have a steady stream of content – but in my experience most would be bloggers start up with big dreams and fall over after the second post.

The best way not to do this is to just post for the sake of posting until you develop a rhythm. Blogging is all about momentum. Momentum doesn’t build itself. The physical definition of the concept is that momentum is mass multiplied by velocity. You can’t generate blogging momentum without content posted regularly.

Readers won’t stick around if you don’t post often. Your friends might. But unless they subscribe straight away they’ll probably forget about you.

You need to be prepared to publish half polished thoughts and let your commenters do some work – if you can get commenters (but that’s rule two). That’s the beauty of the medium. Don’t see blogging as a place to share essays. It can be. But the pressure will kill you and keep you from posting.

November 10, 2009

My top five rules for blogging

I have been meaning to post this since reading Ben’s reflections on blogging. I’ve noticed that a lot of people I know start blogs (and I get really excited). And then the blog dies. After about a week. Mine didn’t. So here are my tips.

I’m going to turn this into a little series and expand on each idea during the week. In the meantime, share your tips in the comments.

November 9, 2009

A posterous idea

Posterous seems like a pretty nifty service.

Ok, I’ve tried it, it seems to work.

Posterous lets you essentially blog by email – it hosts all media files and syncs with just about every online service I can imagine… like WordPress.

I’m thinking it will be a very useful tool. So useful I’ve set up one account for blogging purposes, and one for personal use, which will probably end up being a scrap book for blogging.

I’m also thinking I might reduce the amount of personal stuff I put up here – so that when tribes of angry atheists come marching through and insulting me they have less stones to throw. Posterous might fill that gap.

Having said that – feel free to check out my posterous page here…

October 14, 2009

How I find this rubbish (and the time to post it)

A lot of readers – both casual readers who I know in real life, and fellow bloggers, have made comments on my seemingly inhuman ability to track down the stupid stuff I post here. And almost as many wonder how I find the time.

I have been umming and ahhing about sharing my “secret” with the world. But today, Jeff, speculated that I have invented some sort of time travelling device just so that I can surf the Internet.

It’s time to come clean. Here’s the method to my madness.

I try to write one or two substantive posts a day in my main page part – and I try to cover off each category in a week (including a little bit of whatever is going on around me in day to day life. These bits are easy. I don’t have to go looking.
I subscribe to a bunch of blogs in each category I write about (I have 349 subscriptions in Google Reader).
Each morning I skim through them as quickly as I can – there are usually about 600 posts when I log in before heading off to work. I read all the posts by people in full, skim the gadgets, bookmarking aggregators and the “how to” blogs I subscribe to looking for eligible blog fodder.
When I see a post I like, that I don’t want to rewrite substantively, I share it.
When I see something I want to post I “star” it.
When I have a spare moment I go through my starred pile and post them. Posts in the curiosities column take me about five minutes. I have 207 posts in the queue. You can see what’s “coming up” on my Starred Items page.
I visit the blogs of people who comment regularly, or who I know, and keep up with discussions because you never know when someone’s going to say something blogworthy.

During work hours I’ll keep my Google Reader open for down time, I have my gmail open all day (and get emails when people comment), and I keep Windows Live Writer open to work on the longer posts when I’m on the phone or waiting for a meeting.

September 7, 2009

Dear Lurker

Ben is very wise. He says I shouldn’t try to scare you out of hiding. But I’ve always been a little hot headed and impetuous. So I’m going to temporarily ignore his wise advice and try to attract further lurkers out of the shadows.

Over in the comments thread on that post – one Mr Rodeo Clown – informed me that he lurks occasionally but isn’t a regular because he is intimidated by the frequency of posts.

I read a fair few of your posts, but I’m hesitant to add such a prolific poster to my RSS, as I already have more to read than I really have time for.

I tend to use st-eutychus as a buffet to feed on once I’ve exhausted my reader.

I guess that makes me the Sizzler of the blog world – which is fitting, because this is one of my most popular posts of all time.

What say you, humble lurker, would you read more if I wrote less?

August 18, 2009

Blogology

I’ve been, as a result of some ill conceived posts in the last couple of weeks, and heated debates here and elsewhere, rethinking my approach to blogging. A little. Not a lot.

My problems involve a gap in my understanding of this blog and its function, and my approach to posting my thoughts and opinions.

Izaac is experiencing similar reservations much earlier in his blogging career. I’d like to prolong that career as long as possible, because I enjoy reading his thoughts and opinions.

To start with – I repent of the times when I have not been loving in the comments. It’s easy to forget that there’s no non-verbal communication at play and that other people own their opinions and positions much more vehemently than I may.

I love discourse, discussion and argument. I love the free and frank exchange of ideas and opinions. What I don’t love is snide pedantry, discussion free of warmth, and comments just for the purpose of disagreement. Wise people whose company I enjoy most in the real world have indicated that I’m not as pleasurable here as in the real world – both in comments here, and elsewhere. One such person made a comment that offering sarcasm and objections without solutions is pretty hollow. I agree. I was convicted by that. And I think commenters here should be too.

Another person suggested that I need to be more careful that I don’t come across as an arrogant chauvinist. These comments both came from people I love and respect – so thanks guys.

It’s also becoming increasingly apparent that not all of my readers know me in the real world – and that’s exciting on some levels, but also scary. Because observers looking at some of my arguments in comments here and elsewhere may not be aware of the real world relationships at play. It’s just something else for me to be mindful as I write, and others to be mindful as they read.

But, the onus for fixing this “problem” does not rest solely on me…

You, dear readers (and commenters), have a job to do too.

1. Understand the medium.
This is a blog. It until very recently was a blog that bore my name, and as such could not be mistaken for anything but my thoughts and personal opinion. It needs to be read as such. It’s not gospel. It’s often not set in stone. I think of some of my posts as a bit of a journal tracking my thoughts, or an opportunity to flesh out my thoughts. I’m more than happy for you to engage, debate and discuss… but if you insult or annoy me it’s likely that I’ll respond defensively.

2. Play nice
I was pretty horrified a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned the oversharing saga on Facebook and one of my friends jokingly took another non-mutual friend to task for their lengthy response.
I’d like to think that the many people who come here would pay each other a certain degree of courtesy.

The blogosphere is a wonderful place – and it’s great for sharing ideas, meeting new people, networking, etc. But in every society there must be “rules”… Communicate Jesus has a list of “rules” that Desiring God (John Piper’s blog) uses to moderate discussion. I don’t really like them. They won’t really work here because I’m happy for people to do many of the things it rules out (commenting off topic, self promotion etc).

But I have one rule to propose. I am happy for people to disagree with what I have to say. I love discussing things. I don’t like constant negativity. I recognise that I will often say things that need to be disagreed with.

Also, given that my wife, and one of my sisters, are now blogging here occasionally (and I’m happy to throw open the doors to other people who express an interest in posting from time to time) I’m going to treat being nasty to them pretty seriously as is my want as a husband and brother…

So I’m instituting this rule:

If you are going to engage in commenting here you must write one encouraging comment for every two negative comments.

I’m not going to enforce this strictly. It would be too hard to police. But if I do notice a string of negativity I’m just going to edit your comments (because I have that power) to make them say really nice things about me. Or delete them.

Your thoughts? How can we make the online world – and this neck of the woods – a nicer place? What would make you comment more often?

August 5, 2009

Tag: blogging