On blogging

Way back in March, I mused the following : 

"To me there seems to be 3 types of blogger :

1. Those who enjoy posting on other people's sites but don't have a blog themselves.

2. Those who enjoy writing on their own site and no-one else's

3. Those who try and combine 1 &2

I'll be honest and say that I set up this blog for various reasons, not least because I've got things to say about the world etc. Therefore I'm going to endevour to be more like number 2 on my list .It is not that I don't enjoy posting on other sites or discussing comments on them, but I simply cannot afford the time to really give each site I enjoy reading my full attention and do this blog (even with fellow contributors) any justice. So whilst I will continue to read various other blogs, my comments & time spent on them will reduce drastically. I will say what I have to say here. And I think it is fair to say that both Esther and Hannah feel the same way. "

Rather stupidly, Esther aside, I and Hannah continued to 'fight the good fight' on other sites, although not as frequently as before. I think it is a moth to a flame matter with both of us.. We both enjoy an argument & like to win. But so often, unlike in real life arguments, you can get sucked into this &  these can degenerate into pages and pages of discussion, which achieves very little, debates which are like this : 

I and Hannah were discussing this at yesterday's Shabbat lunch.. I think we both agree that we are at a stage where we want to be more like 2 on the list I penned back in March, so that would mean we are  going to refrain from comments on websites, unless the topic is 'very interesting'. Why is this the case? Too much time has been spent by both of us getting involved in arguing with people who have extreme views, who will never change and to whom, frankly it is not worth bothering with exhausting dialogue; life is far too short for that. We also both feel that we want to focus our efforts here. 

One thing we feel that gets missed in some blogs is that lack of participation by the author of a piece and the commentators. We try on the whole to respond to people's comments (unless they are obvious trolling  to piss us off ) as we both enjoy the interaction. But by commenting at other blogs and getting involved in depth discussions, it leaves less time to interact here or write good quality pieces; one can read other blogs without necessarily commenting on every single thread or blog post. So this time ,we are both going to refrain from diving into conversations and write occasionally on other places. That way we get to spend more time here, building this one up .Who gives a toss if we only get between 70 to 100 readers a day, rather than 5,000? It is quality and not quantity that counts.