Hi all:
Just wanted to drop everyone a line and explain why I chose to dump the Blog Roll page from Disappearing in Plain Sight. It was a separate page (like the About page) where I was listing all the blogs I follow with a link and a few words describing each.
It was one of those things that seemed like a great idea when I came up with it but turned out to be counter-productive. Have you ever had one of those kind of ideas?
After the initial work of creating the page it had to be constantly updated and culled. There are so many wonderful blogs to follow and, it seems, I can’t resist pressing the follow button. On top of that, some blogs are here today and gone tomorrow. I felt I should stay on top of that.
The task became overwhelming. As I fell behind, I found that I was resisting the urge to follow new blogs, telling myself – think about how long it’s going to take to update that damn Blog Roll page.
Reassessment was in order. It’s unlikely people are going to scroll down the huge list that now exists on that page. I don’t want anything on my blog that is out-of-date. My blog has a nifty feature on the sidebar for readers to check out the blogs that I’ve liked as well as an area that highlights bloggers who have made comments on my posts. Promoting others is important to me.
Bye-bye Blog Roll page – a good idea that didn’t quite work. Let me know if you have gone down some avenues with your blog that required reassessment and perhaps revamping.
And, enjoy the Illuminated Crowd – my favourite Montreal sculpture. Those blogs listed on that page were most certainly that !
disappearinginplainsight 
I understand. I understand. {smile}
Thanks! For some reason – no idea why – this post went up 3 times 🙂 Crazy. If you liked or commented on one of the two I trashed my sincere apologies.
I dumped mine as well, for many of the same reasons. It’s made things easier and I think like any process, you start to drill down to the things you want to spend time on in blogging.
Exactly – the whole blogging thing is such a learning experience. At least that’s the way it is for me. I don’t want ever to be afraid to try something out – it’s okay to reassess and change my mind.
I don’t blame you Francis – sounds like extra work you can do without! I’ve been avoiding doing all the updates for my site (self-hosted) because I was terrified it would crash. Summoned the courage yesterday though and I have the same kind of satisfaction you get after cleaning the house!
I hear you on that one, Gemma – sometimes we just have to grab the bull by the proverbial horns and plunge in. I’m reminding myself of that as I move closer to trying to format my next novel on my own. We’ll see – it’s also good to know when to ask for help. And speaking of cleaning house – another job I need to get to.
Blogging is definitely one of those trial and error kind of things. Your blog roll page was a good idea, but I can totally see how that would get out of hand quickly. 🙂 I think it’s hard when we go into something to really know how complicated or time consuming it will be until we’re already neck deep, or at least that’s been my experience.
If I ever write my memoirs, I think I will call it How Hard Can It Be? I’ve said that so many times…and then found out just how hard it can be. But that’s the fun of experimenting, isn’t it?
Yes, indeed. I long for the days of writing the first novel when I didn’t really know what I was getting into. Fourth time out of the gate, I sure know how hard it can be. Thanks for stopping by, reading and commenting.