Why Do You Walk? - A Blog Experiment

Following up to 'Paul Saunders said:

I've been trying this blogging lark for nearly a month and a half now, but I
have to admit that I'm getting a little demoralised by the lack of feedback.
I know from my webstats that people are reading my posts, but hardly anyone
is bothering to comment.

I've always relied on website to share facts and photos from where I
know about and usenet to blather on and discuss. I dont feel inclined
to start a blog, although my view of photography could be one,
unfortunatly one of my low hit pages, I suspect.

How would I insert a blog page into my website?
--
Mike Reid
Cutty Sark appeal"http://www.cuttysark.org.uk"
to email remove clothing.

Skyewalk said:

Unfortunately the vast majority of those reading websites / blogs /
forums and even newsgroups do not contribute. Don't get too down on
the lack of comments - as you say you probably have quite a few
readers. Blogs with lots of comments have absolutely masses of
readers, as do newsgroups such as this.

I've had difficulty getting people to actually use the forum on my own
website, but I know the visitor numbers are very high. I reckon
there's some sort of 'tipping point' where people want to see a
certain amount of activity before they are willing to contribute, as
if they think no-one will read it, they won't bother.

My latest attempt to get more contributors is to enable people to add
their own photos of walks on my site, and of wildlife - but I'm still
waiting for any of those!

Don't give up - people will be be reading your blog - and you'll start
attracting comments at some point. Your website looks good.

I think one problem is that blogs are scattered about on tens, hundreds,
thousands of individual websites. I'm certainly not interested enough to
trawl through them all. To me, Usenet is still the best "conversational"
tool. Maybe I'm a Luddite in computer terms but I don't even like forums
very much.

Roy.

Paul Saunders said:

I've just written a post about this on my blog. Please click on the link
below to view it.
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/outdoor-opinions/why-do-you-walk/

I know that this is a classic urw topic, which is why I chose it. Please
read on for more explanation.

I've been trying this blogging lark for nearly a month and a half now, but I
have to admit that I'm getting a little demoralised by the lack of feedback.
I know from my webstats that people are reading my posts, but hardly anyone
is bothering to comment.

....snip...

As others have said many people read blogs (and forums and NGs) and only
rarely or never comment on any conversation or post. Also blogs can be
difficult to find and usually awareness is spread by word of mouth or
from links on other similar blogs.

I did have a look at that post as a resulting of reading this but to be
honest I gave up pretty quickly as it's a very long post! I usually read
blogs etc in a few spare minutes while at work and reading a long
convoluted post would put me off before reaching the end. However,
others will love your style of writing. As usual YMMV 😉

Good luck with the blog 🙂

Chris Townsend said:

I think it's worth getting on the various lists of outdoor blogs.

Yes, I agree.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Actually, I've looked at your blog and you don't seem to be using
conventional blog software? You don't seem to have an RSS feed for
example.

My blog is just the first page of my website. I'm not using blog
software at all. However that will shortly change!

Glad to hear it! It's much easier to keep up to date with new posts via RSS
feed.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Yes, I really must make more effort to communicate with the other
bloggers. I guess I'm having a hard time pulling away from urw and
getting fully into the world of blogging! :-)

It is possible to do both :-)

I'm sure it is, but it's all so time consuming. I must learn to be more
concise and divide up my time more evenly.

Quoted message said:

Most bloggers also contribute to outdoor forums.

More of a problem is trying to keep up with all the outdoor forums.

I daresay. I've never bothered with forums. Which are the main ones I should
look at?

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Why Do You Walk?
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/outdoor-opinions/why-do-you-walk/

Skyewalk said:

Unfortunately the vast majority of those reading websites / blogs /
forums and even newsgroups do not contribute.

Yeah. And I guess I'm just as guilty of that too. I just don't have the time
to comment on everything I read.

Quoted message said:

Don't get too down on
the lack of comments - as you say you probably have quite a few
readers. Blogs with lots of comments have absolutely masses of
readers, as do newsgroups such as this.

Yeah, fair point. I guess I've got a reasonable number of visitors
considering that it's still quite new, but then again, being an extension of
my website which is already well-established, I expected a little more.
Currently my main site is still way more popular than my blog, even though I
haven't updated that for ages!

Quoted message said:

I've had difficulty getting people to actually use the forum on my own
website, but I know the visitor numbers are very high. I reckon
there's some sort of 'tipping point' where people want to see a
certain amount of activity before they are willing to contribute, as
if they think no-one will read it, they won't bother.

Yeah, it's a vicious circle, isn't it? No one comments because no-one else
is commenting! I guess that was part of the reason for this experiment, to
try to kick start the comments side of my blog into life. So far it seems to
be working, I've had more comments on this post than any other. But will
interest die off again with my next post? Probably.

Quoted message said:

My latest attempt to get more contributors is to enable people to add
their own photos of walks on my site, and of wildlife - but I'm still
waiting for any of those!

I'm not sure that's such a great idea any more. It may have been years ago
when fewer people knew how to design websites, but it's so easy to have a
blog these days, why submit your walks and photos to another site when you
can put them on your own?

Quoted message said:

Don't give up - people will be be reading your blog - and you'll start
attracting comments at some point. Your website looks good.

Thanks for the encouragement. When you say my website, you mean my blog,
right? Not my main site?

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Why Do You Walk?
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/outdoor-opinions/why-do-you-walk/

Roy said:

I think one problem is that blogs are scattered about on tens,
hundreds, thousands of individual websites.

This is very true. In this new era of "social networking", things are
becoming more fragmented. But also there are new ways of pulling it all
together.

Quoted message said:

I'm certainly not
interested enough to trawl through them all.

That's what RSS is for. Have you tried that? Basically you use some kind of
RSS reader which alerts you to new posts in blogs that you've subscribed to.
It provides you with a list of post titles and you simply click on one to
read it. In many cases you can read the whole post in the reader itself
without even having to visit the blog. This makes it very convenient to keep
track of many blogs at once, and only click on posts that interest you (not
unlike usenet in some ways). It also means you don't have to physically
visit every blog website to see if there's anything new.

I'm currently using a Firefox plugin called Wizz RSS for my blog feeds,
although there may be better options. Apparently Thunderbird (a better
alternative to Outlook Express) also has RSS capability built-in, which
might make it more like reading a newsgroup (I don't know, I haven't tried
it yet), or for a really simple option, try Google Reader, which is a web
based reader. Just sign on, subscribe to whatever blogs you want and read
their posts from Google Reader.

So if you haven't tried it already, try one of these RSS readers (not just
you but anyone reading this). RSS is one of the big advantages of blogs, and
is a lot more convenient than the old fashioned way of visiting websites via
bookmarks.

Quoted message said:

To me, Usenet is still
the best "conversational" tool. Maybe I'm a Luddite in computer terms
but I don't even like forums very much.

I agree, but I don't see a blog as a conversational tool, I see it as an
extension to my website, a place to write trip reports, articles, post pics
and so on. The potential to add comments is a bonus, but it's not really
designed for conversation per se.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Why Do You Walk?
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/outdoor-opinions/why-do-you-walk/

dino said:

As others have said many people read blogs (and forums and NGs) and
only rarely or never comment on any conversation or post. Also blogs
can be difficult to find and usually awareness is spread by word of
mouth or from links on other similar blogs.

True.

Quoted message said:

I did have a look at that post as a resulting of reading this but to
be honest I gave up pretty quickly as it's a very long post! I
usually read blogs etc in a few spare minutes while at work and
reading a long convoluted post would put me off before reaching the
end.

Now that's exactly the sort of thing I want to hear! Without feedback I
don't know how many people are giving up and how many are reading the whole
thing.

Quoted message said:

However, others will love your style of writing. As usual YMMV 😉

I hope so. I've read a bit about this and it's a crucial point. Whether to
write short snappy posts or long articles. Or whether to split long articles
into a series of shorter posts.

Thus far I've opted for the long articles approach, although this contrasts
with my "Pic of the Day" posts which are very short and snappy. I'm
currently experimenting with writing a series of posts instead of a long
article. It would be nice to know which style people prefer.

Steve Pavlina tends to write really long articles, but I think they're
fascinating to read, and clearly many other people do too, which is why he's
one of the top bloggers. His blog convinced me that there is a market for
long articles, even though most others seem to prefer shorter posts.

Quoted message said:

Good luck with the blog 🙂

Thanks.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Why Do You Walk?
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/outdoor-opinions/why-do-you-walk/

The Reid said:

I've always relied on website to share facts and photos from where I
know about and usenet to blather on and discuss.

A blog isn't really either of those. It's more like a website, but with the
potential for readers to comment.

Quoted message said:

I dont feel inclined
to start a blog, although my view of photography could be one,
unfortunatly one of my low hit pages, I suspect.

How would I insert a blog page into my website?

Well it's not really a page as such, a blog can actually be a website in
it's own right. Think of it as a separate mini-site which you link to. If
you set the path within your own site then it effectively becomes part of
your site.

Ther are two kinds of blogs, those which are hosted on other sites, like
Google's Blogger, or those which you install on your own site, like
Wordpress (that's the Wordpress software, not to be confused with
Wordpress's own hosting).

In my case I created a folder called weblog within my site, then installed
the software into it. I then set the path of the blog to match. The software
requires a MySQL database and Apache I think, so your webhost needs to
provide that capability.

Installation literally only take a minute or two, and you can start blogging
immediately. Much easier than designing your own web pages. There are
literally thousands of different themes and plugins available, so just pick
a theme you like (preferably Widgets compatible, although I think Widgets is
built into the latest version), tweak the CSS and layout if you want, then
off you go.

The easy thing about blogging is that adding a new page is as simple as
writing a new post, you don't have to design new pages and set up links and
all that. It's handled automatically.

If your web host has the capability, give it a try, just download the latest
Wordpress software, install it and test it. Just to be sure to untick the
box where it alerts the search engines when you post, that way you can test
it without anyone knowing about it.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Why Do You Walk?
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/outdoor-opinions/why-do-you-walk/

Following up to 'Paul Saunders said:

If your web host has the capability, give it a try, just download the latest
Wordpress software, install it and test it. Just to be sure to untick the
box where it alerts the search engines when you post, that way you can test
it without anyone knowing about it.

i'll look into it, thanks
--
Mike Reid
Cutty Sark appeal"http://www.cuttysark.org.uk"
to email remove clothing.

In message <[email hidden]>, Paul Saunders
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

I've never bothered with forums. Which are the main ones I should
look at?

The biggest and one of the most active is Outdoors Magic:

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/forum.asp?sp=360220552289358832640&v=8

I'll also put in a possibly biased word for the new TGO forum:

http://forum.tgomagazine.co.uk/
--
Chris Townsend

http://www.auchnarrow.demon.co.uk

Paul Saunders said:

I've just written a post about this on my blog. Please click on the link
below to view it.
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/outdoor-opinions/why-do-you-walk/

I know that this is a classic urw topic, which is why I chose it. Please
read on for more explanation.

I've been trying this blogging lark for nearly a month and a half now, but I
have to admit that I'm getting a little demoralised by the lack of feedback.
I know from my webstats that people are reading my posts, but hardly anyone
is bothering to comment.

One of the appealing features of blogging is that people can leave comments
on posts. I never expected these comments to develop into the same kind of
conversations that you get on urw, but I did expect (or at least hope for) a
bit more response than I've actually had. As I mentioned a short while ago,
I'm not craving praise, I'd just like a little feedback on what people like
and what they don't like about my posts, to give me a better idea about how
to develop my blog in future.

Do you blog for others or just for yourself?

I've yet to find a blog that isn't in effect just a personal diary
online. TBH I'm totally lost as to what purpose they serve or why
anyone would want to keep one!

Quoted message said:

So I've resurrected this classic urw topic on my blog. Many of you will no
doubt already know my views on this, so it will come as no surprise that I
ramble on a bit about it. But the title of the topic is a question - Why do
YOU walk? So I'm specifically inviting comments here.

I guess what I'm really trying to do is test whether or not it's possible to
generate a newsgroup type conversation on a blog. So I'm respectfully
requesting comments on this topic, not on this newsgroup but on my blog. I
just want to find out if some kind of blog discussion is actually possible.

Why would you want to do this? If qwe all split off into sperate
blogs the NG will die.

Regards

Tim Jones

Tim Jones said:

Do you blog for others or just for yourself?

I've yet to find a blog that isn't in effect just a personal diary
online. TBH I'm totally lost as to what purpose they serve or why
anyone would want to keep one!

I keep a personal blog as do a few of my friends. I don't see them very
often and find it a great way to keep in touch with them and be aware of
what is going on in their lives.

It's also a good way to keep a track of my own life. I will often go
back a year or more and read old entries and it can bring back some
pleasant memories like reading an old written diary.

In effect it's an online diary which I allow certain people access to.

One word of caution to add Paul - some OMers appear to be anti-blog and may
take the opportunity to go on the offensive a little too aggressively at
times.

Besides that - probably the best UK Outdoor forum around when its happiness
and light. Lots of info and people willing to give advice on gear/routes etc
;-)

There's also a UK Outdoor Blogging Forum to discuss the whys and wherefores
without boring the non bloggers.
Very active and constructive.I want post the link here, but E-mail me if you
want details.

Ditto you Chris

"Chris Townsend" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Paul Saunders
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

I've never bothered with forums. Which are the main ones I should
look at?

The biggest and one of the most active is Outdoors Magic:

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/forum.asp?sp=360220552289358832640&v=8

I'll also put in a possibly biased word for the new TGO forum:

http://forum.tgomagazine.co.uk/
--
Chris Townsend

http://www.auchnarrow.demon.co.uk

"Do you blog for others or just for yourself? I've yet to find a blog that
isn't in effect just a personal diary online. TBH I'm totally lost as to
what purpose they serve or why anyone would want to keep one! "

Yes many do take the form of on-line diaries but they are also reflections
and advice on outdoor matters, so just another information source really. OK
some get a little too this-is-what-i-did next but its early days in the UK
group so still feeling there way with the approaches.
And if you don't like the blogs, you don't have to read 'em.
;-)

"Why would you want to do this? If we all split off into sperate blogs the
NG will die"

Compared to the level of activity on OM this NG is quiet. The days of the
NGs are slowly being replaced by moderated forums that protect against much
of the spam/flame/troll problems associated with NGs.

In message <[email hidden]>, Bryan Hall
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

One word of caution to add Paul - some OMers appear to be anti-blog and may
take the opportunity to go on the offensive a little too aggressively at
times.

Besides that - probably the best UK Outdoor forum around when its happiness
and light. Lots of info and people willing to give advice on gear/routes etc
;-)

There's also a UK Outdoor Blogging Forum to discuss the whys and wherefores
without boring the non bloggers.
Very active and constructive.I want post the link here, but E-mail me if you
want details.

Ditto you Chris

"Chris Townsend" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Paul Saunders
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

I've never bothered with forums. Which are the main ones I should
look at?

The biggest and one of the most active is Outdoors Magic:

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/forum.asp?sp=360220552289358832640&v=8

I'll also put in a possibly biased word for the new TGO forum:

http://forum.tgomagazine.co.uk/
--
Chris Townsend

http://www.auchnarrow.demon.co.uk

Thanks Bryan. By coincidence I finally got round to registering for the
Outdoor Blogging Forum today.

I think some OM regulars understandably see blogging as a threat to the
OM forums, especially as some other regulars who have blogs don't post
there as much as they used to. With blogs and forums and newsgroups
choices do have to be made as to where to spend time. It is noticeable
that newsgroups have become quieter in the last few years. I must admit
I actually like newsgroups because they are unmoderated and debates can
get fierce and sometimes totally over the top.
--
Chris Townsend

http://www.auchnarrow.demon.co.uk

Paul Saunders said:

Don't worry about having to subscribe or leave your email address, my
blog is unmoderated so anyone can post anything, with or without an
email address. I'm trying to encourage comments, anonymous if you
like,

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. If you do give your email address when
you comment, it won't be published on the blog. Only I will be able to see
it.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Shakehole Country

Chris Townsend said:

Quoted message said:

I've never bothered with forums. Which are the main ones I should
look at?

The biggest and one of the most active is Outdoors Magic:

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/forum.asp?sp=360220552289358832640&v=8

I'll also put in a possibly biased word for the new TGO forum:

http://forum.tgomagazine.co.uk/

Thanks for those links, I'll look into them. And TIA for the mention on TGO,
much appreciated.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Shakehole Country

Bryan Hall said:

One word of caution to add Paul - some OMers appear to be anti-blog
and may take the opportunity to go on the offensive a little too
aggressively at times.

Thanks for the warning, but being anti-blog is like being anti-website, or
anti-word processor. Aren't they confusing the medium with the message? I
can understand people being anti the "inane drivel" type blog, but that's
got nothing to do with the blog software itself. It's just another kind of
website and it's entirely up to the user to decide what they want to write
on it.

Quoted message said:

Besides that - probably the best UK Outdoor forum around when its
happiness and light. Lots of info and people willing to give advice
on gear/routes etc ;-)

There's also a UK Outdoor Blogging Forum to discuss the whys and
wherefores without boring the non bloggers.

Yes, that would be much better for discussing blogging.

Quoted message said:

Very active and constructive.I want post the link here, but E-mail me
if you want details.

I think I have the link somewhere, thanks.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Shakehole Country

Bryan Hall said:

Compared to the level of activity on OM this NG is quiet. The days of the
NGs are slowly being replaced by moderated forums that protect against much
of the spam/flame/troll problems associated with NGs.

A change for the worse IMO. I'd sooner filter trolls and spam for
myself than suffer heavy handed forum moderators with their own
agendas.