dilluns, 21 de juliol del 2014

Years may come (Hermans Hermits), blogs may go... on.

Bé, en aquests ultims mesos que no he penjat gaires apunts, m'ha passat per alt el 5é aniversari del blog! Vam fer 5 anys el 23 d'abril. En aquests 5 anys i 3 mesos hem arribat a penjar 848 apunts i cançons, i diu la maquina que hem rebut gairebé 60.000 visites. 
Les coses han canviat en aquests anys; al primer any vaig aconseguir complir amb l'objectiu de penjar una cosa cada dia, i durant dos anys més potser vam anar a 3 o 4 per setmana. Des de llavors ha anat baixant el ritme fins arribar al "lamentable" ritme del 2014 - 23 punts en 7 mesos! 
Al principi només escrivia en català, ara intento fer apunts bilingües. Els primers anys rebia més visitants i comentaris - cosa normal, ja que la gent no visita tant un blog mig mort com ara; i també crec que le gent hem canviat. Em consta que gent continua visitant (perque m'ho diuen en persona) pero ja no es paren tant  a escriure un comentari. Gràcies al gran augment en smartphones, facebooks, twitters, i whattsssups, ara tots tenim molt més acces a tot - i molt menys temps o paciencia per res. La gent tendeix a llegir moltes coses rapidament en diagonal i au, però prendre el temps i calma per escriure un bon apunt (el blogger) o pensar en lo que has llegit i comentar-ho (el lector), pos, cada cop semblen més habits del passat.
Aquests ultims mesos despres de sortir d'un problema de salut i caure en un pou de feina, a més a més que el meu estat d'anims, m'ha portat també a centrar-me molt menys en el blog - cosa que em fa rabia perque m'encanta escriure! Com és habitual quan no puc blogguejar, aquests mesos he pensat en deixar-ho correr, però com sempre he decidit continuar encara que sembla que cada cop em costa més...
...
Missed the 5th anniversary of this blog while I was busy making other plans. 5 years old on 23rd April! In these 5 years and 3 months it turns out I've written 848 posts and posted about 848 songs, and received almost 60,000 visits.
Things have changed over these years. The first year I almost achieved my "post a day" aim and in years 2 and 3 I managed about 3 or 4 per week. Since then things have slowed down dramatically, or even ground to a halt for most of 2014!
At first I only wrote in Catalan, imagining my audience would be basically people I know, but about 3 years ago I started writing in English and Catalan so as to please my international visitors. Visits and comments reached a high point around year 2 to 3, but have since fallen. One reason is obvious; if your blog is half-dead (case in point) people don't keep coming back. But I also believe the boom in smartphones (and social networks and the dreaded whassup thing) has led to a change in habits. The easier it is to surf, from anywhere, any time, the more we surf and the more we waffle and the less time we have to take anything seriously. Many people just skim straight through stuff all day without the time or patience to read it carefully or leave any kind of comment. (I'm not complaining for my blog as my aim isn't to be "famous", just I think this is a rather common problem looking at many sites I visit). I'm also guilty. I used to comment all the time on a local newsite, but no longer find the time for it. Back to my blog, I do have a couple of loyal commenting visitors - owe you a beer guys! - and also a few local friends still read me but no longer write anything (they just tell me in person "Oh, nice post"). 
Given my struggles to keep blogging - this year's excuses include recovering, physically and mentally, from a health problem, work overloads, family and friends, other ways to "waste" my time on the net etc - I have thought, for the umpteenth time, about giving it up. But, as usual, I've decided to carry on. There's life in this dodo yet...

3 comentaris:

  1. Wonderful news Brian ~ I enjoy your music shares however frequent or infrequent they are ~ "Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans" Lennon

    ResponElimina
  2. Glad to hear you are keeping on keeping on. To get more blog hits may I suggest more pernickety personal hygiene - including the daily use of "Tarzan" under arm deodorant. I thought your reflections on changing habits re. personal technology are probably most apposite. Oh - changing the blog title to "Knickers and Brazilians" might also pull in more visitors.

    ResponElimina
  3. Thanks for the encouragement and advice you two! I have found time for a flurry of activity, just before I stop again for the summer holidays! Swings and roundabouts, as they say!

    ResponElimina