Jan Edmiston, at A Church for Starving Artists, blogged with the above title on October 13. It caught my eye on Facebook because her illustration was the RevGals "button:" a photo taken of a group of feet at the BE 1.0. (My toes are the ones barely visible at the bottom of the frame...)
I was interested by her writing and wanted to pass it on for more discussion. Please share your own thoughts about this in the comments; if you want to link to a blog post, here's how:
<a href="the url of your blog post goes here">what you want the link to say goes here</a> For a complete how-to, click here.
And here's Jan's post:
And here's Jan's post:
My fifth blogoversary passed and I didn't even notice.
There was a time when I read about 5-8 blogs each day - most of them posts about church life or faith, with an occasional venture into blogs by moms or chocolate lovers. I don't have time to do this anymore.
It's not at all that I don't care what's going on in the lives of Cheesehead or Zoecarnate or Sarcastic Lutheran. I actually care more than ever. But I don't have time to check in every day.
My own blog numbers are down too, and so I suspect that others are feeling the same.
Our grown kids have blogs about travels and college life. My brother was thinking about starting a plumbing blog. If everybody has a blog, does anyone have time to read them?
I want to salute RevGalBlogPals for getting me started - with a specific nod to Reverend Mother. RGBP started with a handful of members and now has hundreds. Who can read all those blogs?
Even if no one read this one, I'd still write. But I confess that it's humbling and fun to be at a conference and have someone introduce me as "The Church for Starving Artists" and the introducee has heard of the blog. Nice.
So for now, I'm still writing these posts while I also write sermons and liturgies and emails and the book. And screenplays and thank you notes and agendas. Keep writing and reading, everyone.
(And thank you for reading this blog.)
Based on the number of comments to this post, I'd say yes.
ReplyDeleteBased on the daily visits to this blog, I would say "no." We have about 335 visitors per day, with roughly 490 page views, which means people opening posts to read the comments or checking on a second post after reading the main page. But RevGalBlogPals is not simply a personal blog. It's in a sense a message board for a community of 300+ bloggers, many of whom value the place to gather as much or more than the practice of daily blogging. We are hosting our fourth Big Event in just a few months, and it will be attended by 36 participants as well as the presenter, Carol Howard Merritt, who is still blogging.
ReplyDeleteI don't think blogging is dead, per se. There is a lively community of mom bloggers out there still, for instance. But this particular group of bloggers, who didn't necessarily know each other in person, do now in many cases. We've met, we've talked, we've bonded, we call each other on the phone, and we connect on Facebook and Twitter as well as blogs.
My own blogging has become less regular, for reasons that are more about my personal life than about social media in general. Perhaps blogs are on a downward trend, but I don't think this particular blog is anywhere near to finished.
Thanks, MaryBeth and everyone, this definitely is worth blogging about, which I hope to do in the next couple of days. I've been blogging since July 2002 and will explain more about that in my blog about blogging, but I'd hoped connecting with the RevGals would mean re-connecting at least some with a community of people with similar interests and background, despite the fact we usually learn more and grow more when we're around people very different from us.
ReplyDeleteI still love blogging and blog almost daily. I miss the conversation and dialogue that services like google reader have all but done away with. Back in the old aol journal days, it was not uncommon for a post to generate 30 comments. But I am as guilty as anyone else; despite my frequent resolutions to the contrary, I frequently just zip through my reader without commenting.
ReplyDeleteI'd say no, too.
ReplyDeleteThe folks who started this blog ring aren't all still bloggers. Some of them are, but are much less frequent in their posts (this includes me). Many of us keep in touch on Facebook and Twitter, now, also.
Five or so years ago, I typed "women in ministry" into a search engine, because I was lonely to meet others who had that interest. First I found Sara at Going Jesus. Then Reverend Mommy. And from there, the discussion at St. Casserole's blog that became this ring.
And there are a group of new folks just coming online, or just finding the ring. They are "where we were." They comment regularly on the Friday Five, the Tuesday and Saturday lectionary and preacher posts. They are continuing this community. I read them. I get to know them. I see blogging alive in their words.
The point of the Wednesday Festival is to bring out a post from a ring member that might not otherwise get read, in our Facebook/byte size lives.
and by the way, my editorial error caused this post to be put up late...which also may have affected the commenting.
I could have written Jan's post too. I miss the time of reading several blogs a day, and commenting. FB has been part of why that happened, but FB is NOT a blog. I am also a much less frequent blogger than I used to be, but I am not yet ready to give up! I'm glad some of the rest of you aren't either.
ReplyDelete