Yes, it’s been awhile. I’ve been a terrible blogger. But wait. I can explain. Well, things have been kind of busy. With what you ask? Too many things to count I suppose. Yes, dear old 7iber has been keeping me busy preoccupied these days, as have all the million other little pieces that make up a life. So blogging has taken a backseat. No matter how much I promise myself, there just never seems to be enough time in a day.
However, I’ve realized that this blog has taken me in a direction I never intended to go. How? When you start blogging, and a readership begins to build, certain expectations do as well. And pretty soon you find yourself self-censoring. You find yourself posting only the content you think people demand or expect of you. And that’s all fine and dandy, especially if you care as deeply as I do about adding some sort of value in this world. But along the way you forget. You forget that you started blogging to keep sane. To spill your gets out on a digital floor. To ramble and rant and rave. To give a home to the randomness in your head. To shoot from the hip. To break all the rules of conformity that the world demands of you (for example, I would never start a sentence with “and” & “but” in real life, but online, well, things can get a bit wild).
Along the way, you forget all of that. And life can keep you busy enough to keep you from remembering what was great about blogging to begin with. So I’m going to consider this a wake-up call, and I’m going to try and find a way back to normal. Time to stop caring about what happens when you press that “publish” button. It’s time to go retro.
Retro, huh… sounds interesting. Are you going to replace the black background with some funky 70s puke green or bright orange shag carpet? And there was something else I wanted to comment upon – I can’t remember at the moment, though. But I’ll probably remember in a minute or so. 😛
Hey Nasim,
But, do not you mean the expectations of the commenters rather than the readers?
I do get comments from different people, but there are the ones I see visiting my blog, daily, who never comments! I love those people, and I think there is this very special thing about them, they just push me to be myself! When I started my separate blog, I had a couple of readers whom I later lost after certain posts! They made me think twice before posting! But then those mysterious readers started to crawl into my site, and because I know them by their geographic locations I formed some real strong relations with them! If the guy from Melbourne did not visit my site for sometime, I feel kind of worried, not because I want him or her to keep following but I just wish nothing bad happened to them!
I like the ones who comment as well, I mean I am a human blogger who like to communicate with others, but then there is the future! There well be people who will like what you wrote, so I think you should write regardless of the expectations of your current commenters! Yes we all like to see (20 comments) under one of our posts, but that should not effect the content of the blog!
I miss your frank comments and analysis on life and politics in Amman and Jordan. Let go with both barrels.
Best Regards Ed
Welcome back!!! Write for your readers’ expectations at times, but write for yourself always. Rant on and let the pieces fall as they may. I’d rather anger a few and be true to my reason for writing than compromise.
Good to finally some new posts, and great to have you back Nas!
Loyal readers will be there reading and waiting to read what you’ve got, that is after all what got them here in the first place. So fire away on that keyboard. 🙂
@chris: let me know when you do!
@haitham: hmm. i dont think i was referring to commenters as reflected by the number of comments under each post. i dont think ive ever been the kind of blogger who was interested in numbers generally speaking. im referring to the general audience, whether they comment or connect with me via email or social networks – and the general feedback received regarding the direction of the blog.
@ed @kinzi @iman: thanks for the kind words! much appreciated! 🙂