Tag: blogging

My newspaper publisher blog, stumble.press

Earlier this year I launched a blog to share some short, informal reflections about my life in local news and newspaper publishing. It's called stumble.press. Since it's where I've done almost all of my limited personal writing lately, I thought I should mention it here on my main personal blog.

My posts so far have covered everything from newspaper finances to pet obituaries, from how we went about increasing our subscription rates to stepping away from Twitter/X, from how our metered paywall works to adventures with U.S. Postal Service mail delivery, and from how much disk space a newspaper issue takes up to hiring and management practices. I also occasionally link out to other articles and resources I find useful.

If you're interested in following along on this adventure, you can visit stumble.press, subscribe to the RSS feed, or sign up to get an email notification when there are new posts (just check the box next to "Email about journalism and newspaper publishing posts"). And of course I welcome your feedback and comments.

The artwork for this post was generated by DALL-E 2 from my prompt "a drawing of someone who appears to be drowning in a pile of newspapers."

My new tech and software blog

I've launched a new blog where I'll be posting most all of my future technical writing about technology, software and hardware including release announcements and code examples from my various personal projects, reviews of gadgets and services I use, how-to articles and more. If you'd like to know about new posts there, you can subscribe to the RSS feed or sign up for email notifications.

The latest post is about a new WordPress plugin I released today to help consultants, counselors, wellness professionals, attorneys and others who need to sell access to their time online.

Even though a best practice for blogging in general has always been to find a niche or subject area focus and stick to it, I resisted that for a long time with this main personal blog because I wanted it to encompass all of the various things I think about and work on. In the early days of blogging, I found my audience didn't mind too much that I would post one day about something technical and the next day about something personal and non-technical and the next day about something very specific to my local community; it was easy to hit "next" in their RSS feed reader and move on if they weren't interested in the subject.

Continue reading "My new tech and software blog" →

Beyond Tweetstorming

It seems "tweetstorming" - using a series of tweets on Twitter to share commentary that requires more space than a single tweet can hold - has become a thing.

For those of us who have been using various web tools to publish online for many years now without any notable space constraints, it's a puzzling trend to say the least. Why would you put your thoughts in a format and on a platform that was not at all designed for longer form writing, makes it hard for others to link and respond, and risks a loss of ownership or availability of that content later on (for starters)? I've expanded on these concerns in posts like Owning our digital homes, and made light of them in my own tweets.

But we know that the most elegant and flexible practices don't always win out over ones that are popular or compelling in other ways. So I'm trying to resist the temptation to be entirely dismissive of tweetstorming, especially as I see people call out why they prefer it over blogging: they're more likely to follow up on a conversation on Twitter than they are to check back on an individual blog's comment thread, they like the immediacy and wide distribution of Twitter, they like being able to respond to single thoughts one tweet at a time, and so on.

That said, I still see tweetstorming as a disconcerting trend for the realm of publishing and discussion online. In a time where we need more clarity of thinking, constructive dialog and interactions that don't shy away from details, nuance and truth-seeking, tweetstorms seem like a move in the wrong direction.

So what to do about it?

Continue reading "Beyond Tweetstorming" →

Figuring out what to write

I've started about five or six different posts this past week, but none of them have made it to "Publish." No matter how firmly I was convinced when I sat down to write that I would make it through to the end, one of these blogging insecurities always managed to creep in. I was even trashing drafts of tweets, sure that I would just waste some of the most frequently wasted digital space. Ugh.

I want to write about elections and politics in the U.S. But I have spent so much time reading other people's commentary and I'm in such a dark place about finding any hope in political systems that I just don't have anything all that constructive to say.

I want to write about the people I know who have recently died of cancer, or who are struggling with it right now. But I don't have the patience to find words that move through the anger and sadness toward something good, or even useful.

Continue reading "Figuring out what to write" →

Blogging insecurities

(In a future post I'll discuss this list and where it fits into my own experience of writing and blogging. For now, I give you a partial list of blogging insecurities as collected from many conversations over the years about what keeps us from hitting "Publish" - please comment to add others you've encountered.)

What if my words doesn't make sense?

What if someone else has already written a better post about this topic?

What if my post is too long?

What if my post is too short?

What if the moment has passed?

Should I update or replace my WordPress theme before writing this?

My TTFB seems high, maybe I should fix that before publishing?

Maybe I need a new keyboard that will help me write better?

What if there's some more important use of my time?

What if I'm not meant to be a writer?

What if I offend someone with my views?

What if I don't challenge or provoke any useful conversation with my views?

What if this post is too personal?

Continue reading "Blogging insecurities" →

Richmond Matters, a new local blog

I've created RichmondMatters.com, a new site dedicated to commentary about life in Richmond, Indiana.

As I've occasionally done here in the past, I'll be sharing my thoughts about Richmond news, politics, leadership, community life and more. It's a simple site. The name is kind of boring. I've no ambition for it beyond having a place to write with a more narrow focus on a topic that's important to me.

Sometimes I'll cross-post those essays here or tweet out links to them, but usually I won't. I'll continue to post here about all the other random stuff I enjoy writing about, but the posts about local stuff will go in this new site.

So, if you'd like to follow along with my posts about Richmond, I hope you'll use the email or RSS subscription options on Richmond Matters. I'd enjoy having your feedback and comments along the way.

Blogging about economic development in Wayne County

I'm excited to see that Valerie Shaffer, the new President of the Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County, has started a blog about her activities in that role.  The blog is complemented by a "frequently asked questions" section on the EDC website, which tries to address some of the common questions (and misperceptions) about the organization.

Whatever your take on the EDIT Tax, the EDC and their role in economic development efforts, this is a new and welcome level of transparency.

Shaffer's posts so far are authentic and to the point, bypassing some of the marketing spin that it might be tempting for an organization of the EDC's prominence to engage in when they know site selectors are looking.  She links to related resources, encourages questions and feedback, and makes repeated commitments to opening the lines of communication between her office and other voices in the community.

Continue reading "Blogging about economic development in Wayne County" →

I'll pay you to help improve local public discourse

A few weeks ago, one of the online community resources I maintain, ProgressiveWayneCounty.org, soft-launched a new program where we're paying local community members to blog for the site.   During that time, we've already had some great contributions with reflections on affordable housing, national politics, over-simplifying our choices in the world, some heartfelt advice on caring for pet dogs, and what the life of Richmondite Esther Griffin White can teach us about how we plan for the future.  (Thank you to Matthew Jenkins, Aaron Nell, Cassie Oaks, Robert Hertzog and Anne Thomason for serving as the pioneer contributors and testing out the publishing system!)

Today, I'm happy to publicly invite others in Richmond and Wayne County to join in this effort to raise the level of public discourse in our area.  Whether it's commentary on the local arts scene, restaurant reviews, political news analysis, your experiences with religion and spirituality, technology tools, sustainability tips or perspectives on education, we welcome contributions from those who feel they can provide a local connection and provoke conversation that might help move the community forward in some form.

Continue reading "I'll pay you to help improve local public discourse" →

Pause

SwimmingMy blogging has obviously been a bit scarce lately, certainly a long ways off from the target frequency I'd set at the beginning of the year.  I continue to compose blog entries in my head and the list of topics I'd like to cover grows weekly, but I've not made the time to do the most important part, actually sitting down to write.

It will make me feel better to acknowledge that here, so: my blogging is paused right now.

I plan to resume a regular schedule later this summer.   I'm still tweeting, although with less frequency there too.  Make sure you're subscribed to my RSS feed or e-mail subscription so you know when I start up posting again.

Thanks for tuning in!

Shiny things for you to click on

Let's see, how am I doing on my target of blogging three times per week in 2010?  FAIL.  Actually, January and February were pretty good, but March has been sorely lacking.  I will for now use the excuse of "I was busy" and throw in some specifics like "I was planning an open house" and "I was writing a new vacation policy for my staff," but I don't expect you to be any more forgiving as a result.  Let's see if I can start to get back on track.

In the meantime, as a distraction, here are some things you might want to click on and check out:

Continue reading "Shiny things for you to click on" →