Blogs..... what do we say?

[Bravo Six]

Just curious if anyone still uses blogs these days? If so, what platforms are still out there? I remember Blogger as being a free one way back.

I found out the hard way after re-booting the Fields of Fire forum that people aren't using forums as much as they had been in the past and that Facebook Groups had more or less replaced forums and Yahoo Groups. While I like FB for connections and news, I don't find larger article writing suits it the way blogs do.

Anyway, interested to see what people have to say on this.

[Codsticker]

I am a blogger (see signature) and I love reading them. Definitely a fading platform though but it is the best way to document and track your work and also the best way to follow other hobbyists' work.

[Bravo Six]

Thanks Cod!  This is true. I think that's why I'd want one, to track and document the many fires I have, and will have, in the proverbial fire.

@Westfalia Chris, I think I should have placed this in general discussion. Dunno why I put it here. Feel free to move.

[War Monkey]

I still blog myself, I am a little late on posting, January was my last posting. I have a lot of subjects in drafts, it's just a matter of which one I finish first for posting. 

[Bravo Six]

I'm afraid that's probably what I'll end up doing myself.  Although I recently came across a blog that hadn't been updated since 2017, so it could be worse.

[War Monkey]

My problem is life gets in the way too much right now. However, when I get my current project all together, I will be posting like a wild man again.

[AKULA]

Nah.

Ditched my blog...just post on LAF now...feedback (good or bad) seems more immediate here, plus the more (time) I spend on here, the more inspiration I get 

[OSHIROmodels]

Don't get 'Tangoed' 

[Bravo Six]

Is that a reference to the Page that shall not be mentioned??

[FifteensAway]

If you blog for traffic and 'ego' it isn't so 'rich' but if you blog for yourself and others who care 'enough', go for it.

I do it more to record for myself than others but appreciate when others stop by for a look.  I really need to do more posts with photos than not.  But, again, it is more for me than for others.  Maybe when retirement arrives soon (June unofficially, July officially) I will be able to devote more time to hobbies and blogging.

As to "Tangoed" - that is a dude who seems to spend his life searching blogs and then posting about them without properly crediting his sources.  But I abandoned visiting that site - too much a commode of a place.

[Bravo Six]

Thanks for the input Fifteens. It would mainly be for me and, like you said, people who care to follow it. Ego doesn't play into it for me.

As for Tango, yes I figured that's who you were talking about. He's a verb in Fields of Fire's "Code of Conduct" in regards to spamming the place.

[Blackwolf]

Todd if you get going with a blog,you may just get me inspired enough to re-start mine

[Emir of Askaristan]

I blog, and continue to do so, although, yes life and work does get in the way. Posts are not always regular therefore.

I blog for myself in the first instance and enjoy the feedback I get, but I don't blog for comments and feedback. My blogs really a record of what I am up to, what I'm working on and what games I've played. It's nice when folk with the same interests get back to you with encouragement or ideas, and I've had a good number of off-blog discussions with those who've got in touch.

I enjoy reading other peoples blogs, those I find interesting and inspiring I feedback on and borrow ideas from.

On this forum there is a wider range of ideas, topics and information and I post regularly here too. If someone has an interesting post, I'll follow to their blog to find out more.

Other social media seldom gets me interested enough to respond to, but I usually read posts on facebook groups which I'm a member of. They seem more suited for sharing snippets of info and news, whereas a blog allows more detail and depth.

I use blogger and continue to do so, using the website via my iPad to write and respond. It works well enough and people have managed to use it to get in touch to order books from me, so it seems to do the job ok.

[zemjw]

I haven't updated mine in years

I used to write the draft on google docs at lunchtime (yeah, just lunchtime ). I had the photos on Picasa (the one before photos) and a script to link the document to the pictures and upload to blogger automatically.

Even with that level of automation I still struggled to find time to take and edit the photographs etc.

However, Google dropped Picasa and redid all the APIs, which completely broke my script. Work then blocked all Google sites (apart from search), so it just kindof died

It was for me, rather than fame and glory, but finding that only 10 people or so (on a good week) viewed the article sapped motivation as well. When more than half those visitors were automated web crawlers, that made me realise my time would be better spent painting stuff.

I have made a couple of half-hearted attempts to restart it, but they fizzled away within a day or so.

I do still read some blogs, but generally only those that come up when I'm searching for something. However, I much prefer them to podcasts and vlogs, as those media are difficult to skim, and I'm usually in a hurry

[Bravo Six]

I really appreciate all the input and experiences with your blogs (or not blogs) guys, thanks so much.

Todd if you get going with a blog,you may just get me inspired enough to re-start min

I'll PM you directly Guy if I get it up and going.