This post was inspired by Andrew’s post, A half-life of blogging.
Note this is just me trying to piece together how blogging changed and ebbed and flowed for me. It’s probably not 100% accurate as a timeline.
Pre-2005
Anyone remember GeoCities?? I think I had at least two GeoCities sites. I also dabbled with other blogging sites (although I wouldn’t have thought of these as blogs at the time). I wish I still had the details of these sites, I’ve lost them all.
2005
This blog has been around since 2005. I started blogging on 7 June 2005; I had been assigned a project to investigate blogs and figure out if MPOW* should have one. It seemed very simple back then. I picked a free blog hosting site: blogger, aka blogspot. I picked the username flexnib because a) it was a fountain pen term (and as you might know, I like fountain pens), b) the name is somewhat distinctive, and c) it was available. (I never got into LiveJournal or Tumblr. Possibly because I already had a blog?)
In terms of that fateful project that started me blogging, I ended up recommending that MPOW should start a blog. They maintained a blog for a number of years; of course, it’s now been supplanted by social media.
2006 – 2013
I think this period was the “Golden Age” of this blog for me. I was blogging almost daily.
In 2006 (I think?), with Kathryn, snail and a few other people we created a group blog, librariesinteract.info, affectionately known as LINT. We picked and paid for our own URL and hosting. It seemed a no-brainer to move this blog to its own hosting too. I don’t know the exact year I decided to move this blog from blogspot, probably sometime in 2007.
Work-wise I moved libraries in 2010. I don’t think I’ve ever really blogged much about library topics. I’d describe this blog as a personal blog by someone who happens to be a librarian.
#blogjune also started in 2010 – where we try to blog everyday, for the month. (I think social media was already starting to have an impact on blogging in 2010, otherwise trying to blog daily wouldn’t have been remarkable.)
Blogging for me started to decline as social media (eg Facebook and Twitter) really started to take off. I picked 2013 as the last year in this period because from my review of the blog’s archives it looks like 2013 was the last year I still blogged semi-regularly.
2014 – today
Without #blogjune I wouldn’t have been blogging at all during this period. I got a new job at the end of 2014. I’m sure switching jobs didn’t encourage me to blog during this time – lack of time, and I’m not really inclined to blog about management-type issues (it’s so much to do with people, and the Australian library sector is too small. I’d be skirting along the edges of breaching confidentiality way too much. And I dunno, I don’t think it’s really that interesting blogging about library management).
Andrew mentioned that he “no longer crave[s] the validation of seeing hundreds of clicks from around the world”. Same for me. I’m happy that a few people still read and comment, but it’s more about the quality of the interactions/connections for me. I mean, I actually know almost everyone I’ve been engaging with this #blogjune. It’s like this month is an opportunity to catch up with people.
*MPOW = My Place Of Work
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