I love blogs! I like blogging! I also love online forums and communities. I believe they have different purposes. I’ve often said that some people need to stop ranting on forums and get themselves a blog! Forums are for sharing ideas, resources, etc whereas I see blogs (within the home-school community) for personal sharing, ranting and raving and expressing one’s own thoughts, being as biased or straight forward as one likes. Your blog is your personal soap-box. Forums are a bit different and much more netiquette is needed.
B U T …
I believe that the blogging explosion has stolen something from community forums.
Think about your early days of homeschooling. Did you belong to an online forum, email group or online community? Did you receive help and support? After having received help and support are you now one who gives support? Have you noticed that as the blogosphere has grown the online community forums have diminished? How do you feel about this? How do you think newbies feel about this? ( I don’t have the answers – feel free to comment)
I love having my online home, where I can decorate as I like, rant and rave…write or not write! But, I will never give up forums…I love the combined effort that online communities offer. I started blogging as I found I was writing the same answers over and over again – it seemed more time efficient to simply put it in one place, but I know that many people prefer a more personal response – they prefer forums. So, I will continue to be a part of online communities – it’s my way of trying to serve others.
Blogging can be addictive.(It has it’s own dangers= the lure of popularity, to come up with ‘new’ information or thoughts, etc) To be a self publisher and see one’s own words in print – wow! Once one starts to post regularly the comments start rolling in…one can gain in popularity, get ranked in the blogging social bookmarking sites. It all looks rather professional really. However, there are dangers that every Christian needs to be aware of. Guard your heart.
Online communities offer something that the blogosphere doesn’t or can’t by its very nature. An online community can offer support, encouragement, information, resources, laughter, fellowship in the one place – from more than one member! Which means one can go on holiday and feel at peace- instead of worrying about the readers wondering when the next blog post will be written.
We’re created to be part of a community…and the blogosphere provides an online community – to an extent. But community forums are where newbies go for help first…
So I ask, why do you blog? Are you blogging for you or with the heart motive of serving other’s. Should the answer to this question change your actions at all?
Susan, you share some good meat to chew over. Personally, I began blogging at the end of ’05 because (as you know) we move a lot, all over the country, and I wanted a medium to stay in touch with friends we’d made along our travels. To stay in touch individually would have kept me busy 24/7, so the sanest option was to blog, allowing those who wanted to know how we were going to stay updated. Over the last 3 years I have been encouraged by those very people on a regular basis, and for my own pleasure I have been able to ‘watch’ via their own blogs the rolling along of their own lives.
The other reason, which evolved over time, is exactly as you stated here – [quote]“whereas I see blogs (within the home-school community) for personal sharing, ranting and raving and expressing one’s own thoughts, being as biased or straight forward as one likes.” [end quote]
Encouraging others is another prompting for blogging, and it feeds my need to write! LOL!
I’m at the end of my homeschooling years so forums are not a high priority for me – blogging allows me to read those blogs which inspire, teach and encourage me without tying me to the computer for hours at a time, hours where I am able to pursue real time interests and relationships. I believe some are called to be a face on the forums (you do that well, and help many more than you probably realise), but others are shifting seasons in their lives and blogging can be a part of that. I love that it is there when I want it, with no pull to keep contributing when life calls me elsewhere.
As I sign off here I have that little light bulb of understanding towards myself shining – some are called to nurture homeschoolers, some are not because God has other directions for them. I have been directed elsewhere and that’s ok! 🙂 As long as we bloom where He plants us then we are helping those we’re meant to.
Ah Jenny,
This is so right. We are all at different times in our life…different seasons. Tehee, I always thought I’d want to continue serving the hs community long after my children had graduated but now I’m not so sure- there are other things I want to do!
You know me too well – I always have to ask that “WHY” question eh?
Thanks for sharing!
I *love* that you ask the WHY questions! Just being confronted with that this morning made me put into words a question I’ve asked myself this last month or so – “why do I blog?”. We both mull over our thoughts and life choices when we write. 💡
Jenny´s last blog post..Fourth Joyful Mystery – Dedication of Jesus in the Temple
Good stuff here. Blogging is fun, because I can say whatever I like. But! Online community is better because there is conversation. Oh, there can be some semblance of conversation via blog comments, but really, it’s one-sided. I can put up a blog post with the hope that it will generate some reaction. But, it might not. In an online community, most likely there will be some response, some give and take.
I do sometimes use my blog to, hm, how can I say – indirectly inform or education people; for example, during the election some of my posts were directed toward certain people who I know read my blog, but by using the blog I was not directly engaging them on the topic, thus they could ignore my points if they did not want to converse on that topic.
It is easy to get caught up in statistics and wanting to have more readers. Since I am not blogging for money, it doesn’t really matter to me. But it can be alluring…
Margaret´s last blog post..Scientific inquiry of the day
Great post Susan.
I blog for all kinds of reasons. I love the social contact it gives me with other mothers who home school since there are so few around our town. I love getting comments and reading new blogs. I also like checking out my sitemeter and seeing where people have come from and what lead them to my blog.
That said, I am a member at a couple of online forums. One I visit everyday because I have been a part of the community for years and the other one I visit occasionally. They are just as important to me as my blog. I suppose I see that blogging has a place and online forums have a place too.
Therese´s last blog post..A Simple Womens Daybook.
I hear you. 😉
But I’m having fun 😛
But I will go away and think about what you’ve said :kiss:
Joi´s last blog post..The Almond Orchard
Thanks for sharing your thoughts ladies…for those of you who know me IRL or have read my blog for awhile, you’ll know that I have tended to struggle with blogging balance. While that isn’t my problem now I still have balancing issues- I just find it hard to create that balance.
It’s always good to examine why we do what we do though eh?
Susan