I have come across a lot of blogs recently where the blog owner apologizes for not having posted regularly. In fact, one particular blog owner blogs only to let everyone know that he/she has been busy and will blog when he/she gets the time to do so. (Edit: I’m not talking about posts where you let your readers know about your whereabouts. I’m talking about blogs where the authors only blog about their busy-ness in different permutations and combinations.) I feel that nobody should ever apologize for not blogging regularly. It’s your blog, your content, your thoughts! Blog when you feel inspired and most importantly, blog when you feel like it. Don’t blog because your “readers” need you to blog everyday or every alternate day!
I’m going to sign the “Blogging Without Obligation” Pledge Today because I’m not blogging under any compulsion. I don’t earn even a single cent from all the time I put into it. It’s not my profession either. And thankfully, my readers don’t expect me to blog regularly. 😉 Let the people who comment on my blog also take some well deserved rest.
After coming across what seemed to be the 4000th or so post on someone’s blog starting with “I’m sorry I haven’t posted in awhile.” I decided it is time to rethink what makes a good blog and the expectations that have come to be part of it. I am thinking that no one should utter those words again . . .and with that thought I give you Blogging Without Obligation.
If you feel the same way feel free to grab the logo, make a logo or whatever you would like to do!
I release all the logos, thoughts and words mentioned here about this concept into the public domain. Take the idea and run with it. . .or walk away. It is all good.
- Because you shouldn’t have to look at your blog like it is a treadmill.
- Because its okay to just say what you have to say. If that makes for a long post, fine. Short post, fine. Frequent post, fine. Infrequent post, fine.
- Because its okay to not always be enthralled with the sound of your own typing.
- Because sometimes less is more.
- Because only blogging when you feel truly inspired keeps up the integrity of your blog.
- Because they are probably not going to inscribe your stat, link and comment numbers on your tombstone.
- Because for most of us blogging is just a hobby. A way to express yourself and connect with others. You should not have to apologize for lapses in posts. Just take a step back and enjoy life, not everything you do has to be “bloggable”.
- Because if you blog without obligation you will naturally keep your blog around longer, because it won’t be a chore. Plus, just think you will be doing your part to eradicate post pollution. One post at a time. . .
My personal favorite is “Because they are probably not going to inscribe your stat, link and comment numbers on your tombstone”. So the next time you worry about not getting enough hits, or comments or track backs, just think about this! Don’t ignore other parts of your life by getting too obsessed about one thing.
In fact, I would like to add another point to this entire issue. So many times, we comment on other blogs not because we really care, but because we think that by writing that comment, we’re obligating the blog owner to make a trip to our blog. I really think that it’s very important to get over this feeling and comment only when you have something to add or you really feel like it. Don’t do it for the sake of it. Don’t do it because writing that extra comment will earn your blog post another comment. I admit that I’ve done this several number of times in the past, but I’ve stopped doing it now. Since the past couple of days, I’ve been analyzing the hypocrisy of the entire issue. Do we really make good friends if we comment with such shallow thoughts in mind? Blogging, for me, is another way of making good friends, in addition to a method of letting people know what I think. We misguide each other into thinking that we really care about each other’s blog posts, but in reality, all we care about are the stat and comment counter of our blog. Bottomline: Don’t comment just to keep up with appearances.
It’s amazing that a blog that gives pro blogging tips advised blog owners to blog “everyday”. Not everybody finds the need or the desire to blog everyday. It works for some people. It doesn’t work for some people. Like the oath above says, “because sometimes, less is more”. 🙂
So remember that and hopefully, you feel better (or maybe worse) after reading this post. You have the full right to agree or disagree with me.
Time and Again 
i agree that blogging is not an obligation since you’re not paid to do it. however, i still feel some sort of obligation in the sense that there are expectations of me. for instance, i’m not obligated to keep in touch with my friends if i don’t want to, but then they too are not obligated to stay friends with someone who doesn’t keep in touch. i guess in a way, those who apologise for the lack of updates realise that there are some expectations of them and as much as they would like to fulfil those, circumstances don’t exactly allow them.
besides, it’s another way of filling up the post. 😉
@ sulz:
It depends upon how you define “keeping in touch”. Doesn’t mean that your only way of keeping in touch is through commenting on their blog posts (even if you don’t feel the need to) or by writing blog posts that are only published to keep the content “fresh” and for no other reason. 🙂 I keep in touch through emails or some other method of communication. It’s very important to separate the “obligation to keep in touch with friends” part from blogging, me thinks. Besides, what kind of friends do we really have if they stop being our “friends” just because we haven’t kept in touch? I haven’t seen so many of my friends since ages, but every time I meet/talk to them, I feel as if nothing has changed.
Do we really care if a blog (at least in 90% of the cases) has not been updated since the past couple of weeks? Heck, we can go and find more blogs that write on topics that interest us! So why work so hard under such an obligation? 🙂
i didn’t mean keeping in touch with friends in connection with blogging. and if you meet your friends, i would think that is one way of keeping in touch! i’m thinking about friends who you invite for lunch and who keeps turning you down for reasons, that sort of keeping in touch.
honestly, i do care if someone hasn’t been blogging in a while. i wonder if something’s up with them, or if they’re going through some problems. i’m more concerned about them rather than their content in that sense.
@ sulz:
I see! Your previous comment made me feel that you were talking only about your blogging friends.
Of course! And that is how people really become friends 🙂 There are some people on my blogroll who matter to me that way too.
Actually, if you have a large following (i.e you are a pro blogger – 1000+ RSS readers), you need to justify why you are keeping away from the blogging world.
But if you are a personal blogger & you have close blogging friends, they also have a right to know why you’ve stopped posting. I know a blog’s personal first… but a blog in itself is a way of interacting with the world.
& i’ve seen many people who’ve jstopped blogging without any explanation… 🙂
//all we care about are the stat and comment counter of our blog//
reading a blog is like reading a periodical… u do it for ur own entertainment.
Carrot- I’m not talking about pro bloggers or personal bloggers. 🙂 I’m talking about bloggers like me, who don’t have a big following and are not making money by blogging. If you’re a personal blogger, then you will let your readers know about your lunch, dinner, sleeping, eating etc anyway! 🙂 My blog is quite impersonal and doesn’t stick to any particular theme either. So I don’t think that I need to feel obligated to blog.
Ankur- Exactly! If someone has a blog like mine (not personal or professional), then who cares? So why fret over it? 🙂
@ Ruhi: It seems you define obligation as an external motivation. Sometimes bloggers say something aloud in their blog which may sound like an apology or an explanation. Like I did in a recent post. But since both my blogs are my writing outlets for very different purposes, not always articulated to the readers, isn’t it entirely possible that I am addressing my own considerations about not blogging regularly enough? 🙂 In my case, I have never been extrinsically motivated to do anything! I also believe if anything is worth doing, it is worth doing well or not at all.
Another reason why others – including me sometimes – make such apologies or explanations is in response to emails wondering about their welfare. For instance, I know some people do not comment on my blog but they read it regularly as a way of keeping sure that I am alive and kicking. One post helps respond to several emails at once, allaying people’s concerns and well, eliminating the need to write several emails saying the same stuff over and over again.
Not being extrinsically motivated is another reason why I do not sign pledges, however well-meaning or ‘liberating’. 🙂
@ Ruhi: And by the way in case of some bloggers, whose welfare I have enquired after, I was glad I enquired. In many cases, people stopped blogging because something awful was going on in their lives. For whatever ‘blog-friendship’ is worth, it is worth asking after someone’s welfare, even if he/ she sees it as an obligation to make a post with an apology or an explanation…
Shefaly- I’m not really talking about external motivation. I’m talking about blogging just for the sake of it. If you read the pledge and my reasonings again, you’ll understand that my gripe is against people who take blogging too seriously, even for their own good and when they do that, then it doesn’t remain as a “fun activity” anymore. Again, I’m not taking about professional bloggers. I’m only speaking for myself and perhaps, for other people whose blogs are quite impersonal.
If you write a blog post telling your readers that you’re fine, then that’s another thing. I don’t cover that point in Blogging Without Obligation at all. You seem to have misunderstood me here. 🙂 Inquiries from your regular readers is a common thing, of course. Probably my first paragraph misled you into thinking that I don’t support people who write posts to let everyone know that they are doing fine. What I don’t like are blogs where people only write about how busy they’ve been (Edit: and different permutations and combinations of the same thing.)
@ Ruhi:
“What I don’t like are blogs where people only write about how busy they’ve been.”
And that is not so evident from your post 🙂 Hence my comments. As you can see I am online and yes, read your conversation with Guy on that post on Monday too. Interesting! Since he uses Typepad (I am guessing) and hosts his own, I think he is unfamiliar with WP’s peculiarites. Nonetheless as an industry commentator he needs to be on top of things, I think. Guy 0 – Ruhi 1
Shefaly- I realized that. I’ve edited the first para accordingly. So many times, I think that I’m being clear and it’s only when someone comments that I realize that I was not so clear, after all. 🙂
Re: Guy- He surprised me by his ignorance, really. WP.com is a big blogging platform. I would have expected him to know this.
Hmmm good thought… 🙂 Do I need to take that pledge ? I am still thinking coz I have been trying to change my blog from just a hobby ( Its not that I want to earn my my living from Blogging.. ads are there for some reason other than that )
I feel alone among all those blogs without ads, and are purely personal
That is why it’s important to know Why one blogs. I did that and it clarified my thoughts. I feel strongly about a lot of things, and I could keep them to myself or I could blog about it. Everyone has a different motivation.
I don’t know about the opologizing thing, I don’t think I’ve ever done that, but I do leave notes as to where I am going and how long.
About comments, I feel differently. I visit people’s blogs because I like them as people, because I think a particular person is warm or intelligent, or well-read, or sweet or just someone I like! At times I don’t feel their posts are too hot but I that’s fine, at times my posts aren’t too hot either! and if someone comes and comments on it, I love that person all the more.
I don’t know whether I am making sense, but each blog is a person, a human being. I visit them and I expect them to visit me. Not everyday, but whenever they have the time. I don’t expect them to visit me only when they find me being very interesting (as in an interesing post!). In fact if a person visit my blog only when he finds my post intereting is no more important to me that a stranger who arrives on my post via the search engine.
I don’t know whether I have explained myelf well.
sorry for all the typos. but my eyes are closing, it’s late.
@ dinsan:
I didn’t make this post to make anyone adopt this pledge. 🙂 I did it for myself. And btw, why do you feel lonely? There are lots of blogs that I visit that have ads and are self hosted. Lots of people at WP.com would love to go self hosted and have ads. The pasture is always greener on the other side. I realized it after I switched to self hosted and then came back to WP.com.
Nita- Thanks for your comment. Your blog (unlike mine) has a big following and people would want you to blog regularly, which you do. In fact, I don’t know about others, but even I open my reader every day in the evening around 9 pm, expecting a new post from you. 🙂 Whether any other blog is updated or not, I know for sure that yours will always be updated. Regarding the commenting thing, I’m not sure if I really understood what you meant. I think visiting and commenting are two different things. I have seen that you make an effort to always comment, whenever you can. 🙂 Lots of people visit my blog, but not everyone comments. That’s fine with me. I read more than 150 blogs (in my feed reader) every single day and given my time constraints, I find it difficult to comment on each and every post that I read. So, I comment only when I have something to add to the discussion or if I like the post to an extent. I don’t comment only to let the blog owner know that I’d visited. That’s why it helps to have the MyBlogLog Widget in the sidebar. It definitely helps me know who’s visited (even though that person might not have commented).
This post was more about me and setting my boundaries than about proving a point to anyone else.
very interesting post – on blogging id say to each his own
Yes, your post was personal and it was very honest and straightforward of you to write it. It’s not easy to say what you did.
Let me explain the commenting thing further. Now that I read all the comments I can explain myself better. To me the blog I visit are of my blogger friends, those I consider my blogger friends and connections. I rarely talk to anyone by email. Also, I do not read as many blogs as you do. But let me assure you that when I comment I never comment because I feel obligated to comment. I comment because I want to communicate, because I want to reach out. Sometimes it’s to comfort people. Sometimes comment is like giving a hug. Sometimes a comment is to say, hey I read your stuff and liked it. But If I cannot relate to the post, I don’t comment. I certainly don’t comment on each and every post of a blogger friend. Only if I can relate to it. Leaving comments without relating to the post is not being fair to the writer.
Hope I explained myself better this time.
Also there are some people who will not comment on an interesting post even if they really liked the post and related to it. This is because they might feel the other person is not commenting on their posts. I never ever do this. There are some blogs I comment on regularly, like Paul’s blog for instance. He rarely visits my blog and I understand as mine are Indian related issues. So to leave a comment as a kind of reciprocal gesture is a not right, at least it doesn’t seem right to me.
Pingback: Been too busy to blog? | DesiPundit
Good Post Ruhi….I am not very sure about taking blogging as an obligation…I write blogs because I like it…. its as simple as that for me…
And like you even I dont earn a single penny out of blogging.
Yeah, I too don’t make a single penny out of blogging! In fact I spend because I pay for my internet connection (use it for research), increased telephone bill plus time! Time is money but I like to spend it blogging! I love blogging!
Anyway, I came here to clarify something in my above comments. By posts which I called not too hot post I meant posts which are not that well written, not that well researched, and sometimes confusing but yet I can relate to them. Either because of the subject or because they touch a chord in me.
So if I relate to a post I will comment. If I don’t, I will not comment, even if the person is my blogger friend and even if the post is excellent!
Thanks.
Nice post!
Well you definitely cant say i comment only so that i get hits on my blog!!! 😛
@ Prax:
thanks!
Nita- Equating commenting to a hug is a wonderful thought, esp. when the blog author needs it. I guess now I can understand what you mean and it’s a relief for me, because I feel the same way too. Maybe you and me don’t feel obligated to comment on each and every post of our blog friends, but I think there are many others out there who do that and therein lies the hypocrisy. The entire system loses its genuineness, no? 🙂 And I know what you mean by people not commenting on your posts because you haven’t been commenting on their blogs. Even I have seen this happening to me, but I don’t bother about it. In fact, such incidents only teach us more about different people. For their sake, I hope they grow up and realize that we should always appreciate the good stuff, even though it might not be happening to us. What we give is what we receive, after all.
I think all of us at WP.com can sleep with the thought that we’re blogging without getting paid in any sort of manner, else we would have been kicked out. 😉
Yes, agree 100% here. Most of the times, I don’t care about the grammar and things like that. Not everyone has the patience to run spell checks or the capability to write flawless posts. As long as I can understand what the blog author is trying to say and I can relate to it, I try to comment.
@Anirudh
Good to hear that you don’t treat it as an obligation. 🙂 Your blog will last much longer! So many people stop blogging because they were doing so under compulsion. In fact, more than 90% of blogs fail within a year.
@Ulag
Thanks for your comment. Definitely can’t say that; maybe you should start a blog, then I’ll re-think this point. 😉
// So many times, we comment on other blogs not because we really care, but because we think that by writing that comment, we’re obligating the blog owner to make a trip to our blog.//
LOL this was the best part of the blog for me.. cos I have done this a lot for my first blog (the name of which I don’t remember nw!) when i started it two year back! I learnt gradually and realised that blogging was not abt grabbing eye balls but a kind of socialising with words!
yay yay! lot of times I wanted to tell people the same thing. although those who maintain a blog as a way to keep the writing “habit” going (and it has it’s own advantage — the habit), tend to have a self-obligation to update their blog regularly. and i guess, adding up obligation to readers to the self-obligation just might be doing the trick for some. of course that doesn’t apply to blog as a journal — a spontaneous, rather than planned activity. one could say that later is what a blog actually is, but that’s only how it was intended. people have been using it for much more diverse reasons now.
still, i liked the pledge 🙂
asuph
Somehow, I’m feeling worse after reading this post. I’ve been like that..you know making posts just to tell people that I’m having exams and hence I won’t be around and now this post tells me how really illogical it is since after my death, a majority of the people won’t know that I ever wrote a blog. And I’ve done so with the comments too sometimes, I feel. But hey, I didn’t do that because I want people to visit my blog. But yeah, I agree I reply to posts on your blog even when I don’t have anything to say about it. But that’s because you are a friend and I know that if I post a comment, it will be replied to and maybe finally something I can talk about will begin. But it’s wrong. I believe one should reply only when he/she has something to say. Damn, I suck. 😦
The post was interesting, no doubt. The discussion was even more so 🙂
@Balu
Yes, I think blogging has more to do with expressing yourself and connecting with like-minded people. 🙂 We can do without the rat race here.
@Asuph
Thanks for your comment and welcome to my blog. 🙂 Even I’ve seen this- people blogging to keep up with the writing habit. I know that lots of writers do this because it helps them with the systematization of their thinking process! Since I’m neither a serious blogger nor a serious blogger, I prefer blogging when I feel like it. 🙂
@Ish
OMG! 😦 I feel so horrible now. This is not at all what I meant. You seem to have misunderstood in a bad bad way. First off, this post is only about me and how I feel. It has nothing to do with how others think. Everyone is different when it comes to blogging, really. Second, I don’t think your comments are ever stupid, seriously. What is amazing is that you always find something to write about and no one else can comment in the way you do. I, for one, would have never been able to comment in such an intelligent way if I were only 18! So please please don’t feel this way. And you’re just a student and you know how successful your blog is 😀 As long as your readers are happy, then who cares? It’s amazing that you find the time to blog, considering the fact that you have exams going on all the time. I would have given up on it a long time ago. And how could you forget that you’re my favorite commenter? PLEASE get this stupid thought out of your mind.
@Anil
Thanks for your comment and I hope to see more of you. 🙂
*Clicks on the stupid thought, Presses Shift+Del, poof.*
There you go, stupid thought deleted from my mind. Yeah I guess I kinda over reacted too but I felt that. I feel you’re right. Agreed everybody is different and stuff but what is right is right. I’m very happy you made this post, cause it helps me to look at things in a different way and perhaps make some tiny little changes here and there to make them better. And chill, I’m not gonna stop posting lame comments for anything in the world. Now, that’s one thing I’m saying from the heart.
Sorry for making you feel horrible yaar, aur sunao what’s going on these days? Health wagehra theek hai na ab?
Ish,
What tiny changes, may I ask? I don’t want you changing anything because of this post. 😦 I’ll delete it if you change anything., seriously. You’re a great friend and I love the way you blog. So please don’t change. And yeah, I really like your lame comments. The lamer the better. And when you put out of context Hindi songs, then toh I go beserk. 😉
I’m quite busy these days…stepping in to the “real world” slowly. It’s sad and painful. Health’s fine now. 😛 Full hatti katti. Abhi kaun sa exam hai next?
Tiny changes as in less cribbing about being busy and stuff. Otherwise, I’ll be what I am. Itni asaani se nahi badalte mard log. After all, mard ko jitni marji baatein keh lo, usko dard nahi hota. Bas you need to be careful about where you’re hitting the mard. Ek aadh jagaah par to mard ka baap bhi kuch nahi kar sakta..dard to hoga hi. 😛
Exam abhi officially to boards hi hain but school waale retest pe retest le rahe hain. Jab tak I don’t get satisfactory marks (by their standards), they’ll not give me the admit card, and without admit card, I can’t give the boards. So us hisaab se kal Physics hai and 18th ko Chemistry. Uske baad dekho, depends on the marks. Boards practical toh saare ho gaye. Computers ka kal tha, acha hua. External ko hamaara project bahut pasand aaya, she even took a copy of it with her so that she could show it in her own school. It was based on a Cinema and we had christened it SpectraMax Cinemas. I’ll e-mail you the screenshots. Bataana kaisa laga.
Chalo, it’s good to know you are hatti katti and ready to kick the world’s ass. As far as I’m concerned, I’m still singing “Main aisa kyun hoon, main aisa kyun hoon..main aisa kyun hoon, main jaise hoon main waisa hi hoon.” 😛
Also, another thing yaar, how do you get these blue boxes? Blockquote use karke? Mere waale theme mein nothing like this happens. Actually, jitne bhi themes maine try kare kisi mein bhi nahi hota and I’ve seen other people doing it. This is one thing in WordPress I’ve never been able to figure out.
Cribbing is fine…really. 🙂 You should blog about whatever you want, else your blog won’t last long. Since your readers (like me) don’t mind, then why do you care? Yours is more of a personal blog anyway!
Good to know that your Comp. pract went great. I had royally screwed mine in the 12th. 😉 You know how much I got in boards in Comp? 69. 😉 And yeah, do email me the screen shots of your project. Anything to do with Cinema always interests me, as long as it has nothing to do with Hindi cinema. Or put it up on your blog. Others can also view it then.
Main aisa kyun hoon is not a nice song. You should be singing “Ajab ajab si” today, because it’s V-Day 😉
And yes, I use the blockquote tags to get that special formatting. Depending upon your theme, I believe you should get some different formatting, if not a box like this. Do you use
? It should work. Btw, can you change your theme? I’m a little bored of it. 😦 Do it when you get the time after your re-tests, if possible.
Yeah, you’re right. Maybe I should keep cribbing. That’s been the highlight of my blog for the last couple of months. Moreover, I’m wondering what I’ll blog about once the exams are over lol. Fir toh baat karne ke liye kuch bachega hi nahi. And it’s also surprising how my blog turned into personal from being professional. My hits have been going down and down and down. I used to get like 500 till December. It dropped to 400 in January and now stands between 300-400. But I don’t care now ’cause I know that I can make a post for hits anytime and the stats will go up. Stats seem to have become almost immaterial now.
I know my computer practical would go reasonably well because frankly that’s the only thing I put my heart into. And I was pretty confident about my project too. I knew me and my mates had done a reasonably good job with it. And well, it’s not about Hindi or English movies. It is basically like a website which lets you book tickets. I would have uploaded the screenshots on my blog but I decided against it because that would be like destroying my anonymity. If anyone from my school or house lands up at that image, they’ll know it’s me in one microsecond. Hence, I don’t wanna upload it there.
Ajab Si, I really love that song par usko gaane ke liye you should be in looove. Nahi to feeling nahi aata and feeling ke bina gaana nahi banta. Maybe I can sing one of those TZP songs. Some of them were nice…especially that Mera Jahaan one. I liked English part in it.
I don’t understand what you’re telling me about the blockquote thing. Probably it’s because maybe you tried to show the formatting here and it got converted to a blockquote. Reply to that in the e-mail which I’ll be sending to you.
I’ll see if I can change my theme. There aren’t many nice ones on WordPress that’d make me happy. I’m trying to do something else. I found this website called ampli5.org which gives you a subdomain and space with a WordPress.org installation for free. As in I can have a blog called something like deadend.ampli5.org with all the features a WordPress.org blog offers. So I’m waiting while they can fix up their bandwidth issues and contact me. Otherwise I guess I should buy a CSS upgrade. How much does it cost again?
And btw, congrats for the 3 lakh hits. I forget to add that everytime. 😛
I always thought blog stands for Be Lazy Or Goofy. Blogging it a privilege available to everyone, but not to blog frequently is the prerogative reserved for only the bloggers. Hope everyone realizes it is there to to shout we need it. It does not need us to be there all the time.
I needed that! I keep beating myself up about not posting often enough – I just corrected a point I made on my latest post with a link to this post 🙂
My other confusion is with people who apologise for long comments and ‘hogging’ comment space… what’s there to hog? Its free!
Ish- First off, even I’m wondering what you’ll blog about after March. Heh. All of us know your exam time table by heart, I swear. 😛 It’s like I’m your mom or something! Funny na? I’m actually laughing a lot while typing this comment. Regarding the stats, don’t worry about it. Write a post on a TV serial, cricket, or some movie and people will start flogging again. 😉 If you’ve noticed, I’ve stopped doing those “commercial” kind of posts now. 🙂 I don’t care about the hits, only about regular readers like you. Anyway, all those people who land up on this blog through Google Search engine rarely come back again. And I don’t know if I care about the lurkers either.
Yes, what I was trying to show you got lost here. 😦 I got your email and will reply now. I’ve not been online since yesterday only!
Regarding that subdomain, tum bilkul pagal ho!! I have a better solution for you and you’ll jump with joy if I tell you 😉 x10hosting gives a similar deal to the website you’re talking about, but frankly speaking, I don’t think ki this subdomain shit is good. You can get free FTP server and hosting throug this web hosting thing called 000webhost.com. jThis way, you get apna domain and a free server (NO ADS!!) and it has some 100 GB bandwidth per month, which is much much much much …..more than you need. 😀 I’ll email you the details now.
And thanks for your wishes. 3 lakh hits sure feels good.
@helloji
Helloji. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by. I’m not sure if I really understood what you meant, Maybe your comment is filled with typos? But yes, blogging means you get to make your own rules and pretty much do what you want.
@Rohini
Glad to know that you feel better. 🙂 This is what I meant- don’t get too serious about your blog if it’s not professional or something. I’ve realized that it’s not worth it. It’s the process of sharing and getting to know people that’s more important, compared to counting stats, comments etc. Regarding the long comments bit, I agree with you here. If you notice, I write very long comments. I have unlimited space and I plan to utilize it. Besides, I’m a girl 😉 So I can’t talk in fewer words.
I agree…
“Blog when you feel inspired and most importantly, blog when you feel like it.”
Precisely why I Have NOT been very regular.. WITHOUT feeling the need / compulsion to justify being away! 🙂 …
Good work!!
LOL, please don’t be my mom yaar. The last thing I need now is all the girls reading my blog becoming my mums. Ek hi kaafi hai. Otherwise it will become that typical swami waala statement – “Vats, apne se umar mein badi aurat ko maa aur apni umar waali aurat ko behen samjho”
Yeah right, aise sochne lage ladke to ho gaya hamaara. 😛
Ruhi..
You stole the thought of my mind..Infact i was irritated when i read the cliche ” apologies for not having posted regularly”..Somewhere they think that we live on their blogs. Or maybe People do expect them to blog quite often which is why they show respect by posting such apologies.
If I get that much famous in the blogging world then probably i will also post apologies. The only key idea to this whole debate is “For whom are you Blogging”???
Right now, I blog for me and only me.So no obligations
Heh… I like the concept..
@ Ish
Sahi bola!
..
Amyth- Yes, I’ve seen that with you and really like your blog for that. You really seem to be following this thing of “Blgging Without Obligation”. You always blog about stuff that interest you and blog when you feel like it. Cheers to that!
Ish- Heh. Didn’t know that you’ll have such a crazy reaction. 😉 Never heard of that saying before somehow but it’s funny. I’m wondering what the saying would be like for women? “Nari, apne se bade umar ke mard ko apna pati maana karo and apne se chote umar ke mard ko apna bhai? ” 😛 You are my bhai then.
Nitin-
Haha…that’s funny! Never thought about that before.
Sums up my post and my thoughts exactly. 🙂 My greatest joy is forming a wide circle of friends and carrying on the conversation in their blogs, even though my blog might not be updated.
Munim- Thanks. 🙂 Where had you disappeared?
ROFL. Dude, it’ll be like “Vatsni, apne se bade umar ke bande to apna baap maano aur chote ko bhai”.
Maa ka male Pita hota hai Pati nahi pervert! 😛
Heh…you’re too clever for me. 😛
Obviously. 😛
Pingback: I believe in Frisbeetarianism « Three Drinks Ahead
Hi,
Came here by Rohini’s blog and have to say I Loved This Post. I have definitely been guilty of feeling guilty for not posting often enough – and often get goaded by my ‘readers’ into posting something whether I feel like it or not.
Sometimes I just have to remind myself that I do not get paid for this – and then taking a break makes me feel a lot better, and I’m able to come back with a bang – instead of agonizing over a post, just get it out of my head in a flash – and that feels pretty good.
Yes, it’s not something to be taken seriously – it’s supposed to be fun. And guilt and fun don’t go together.
Thanks for writing this, very nicely written. Will be back for more.
Y
@ yashodhara:
Thanks for your comment and welcome to my blog. 🙂 I took a look at your blog and commented too. Definitely looks like you are a regular blogger. I really feel that blogging remains fun as long as the blogger doesn’t get pressurized into producing content. Anyway we don’t get paid for this. So, we shouldn’t worry so much about it. I think we start forgetting our earlier reason for blogging as our readership, comments and hits grow. Sometimes, it really helps to stop and think and re-analyze the reason for the existence of your blog. 🙂
Pingback: Blogging Without Obligation « evolution’s blog
Well said.
read what is in the major newspapers