The poll has been up for quite a while now, and it looks like the answers are staying pretty steady. Here are the results:
Number of votes for changing this site in percentage quantities
| Political posts |
22% |
| More cat posts |
18% |
| More humor |
17% |
| More personal posts |
15% |
| Popular culture (TV, movies) posts |
13% |
| Nothing, keep it like it is |
10% |
| Other answer… |
5% |
And here are my responses to the various comments and numbers: I like the idea of adding more politics and more non-Israel or Jewish subject posts. I want to go back to the blog that I had a few years ago, which was a multi-subject blog that concentrated on Jewish and Israeli issues, not a blog that almost solely concentrates on Jewish and Israeli issues. The Jewish blogosphere has for the most part ignored me for a very long time. No matter how often I link out, I’m not seeing much reciprocity, and I have to tell you, my generosity only goes so far. There are a few bloggers who have always been excellent in that respect, and now people like Yid With Lid aggregate my RSS feeds (I don’t think I’ve ever thanked Sammy for that, so Sammy, thank you!).
But don’t think that I’m acting out of bitterness. I wouldn’t stop writing about Jewish and Israeli issues because I’m not getting linked. I am, after all, Jewish, and a Zionist. I am merely stating some facts that are influencing my decision. Another fact is that I am no longer linked by other bloggers who are not in the JBlogosphere because I’ve become a one-trick pony, and they have other Israel bloggers that they link. Linking is the coin of the realm, and my blog has been in the red for a while now.
Another reason for changing things around is simple: I’m bored. When I am bored, I am phoning it in. Or not posting much at all. As this is not the Soccer Dad and Snoopy blog, it behooves me to post more than my co-bloggers. And speaking of my wonderful co-bloggers: You can find much more content on Israel at their sites, as well as Jack’s. In fact, there are a ton of Jewish and Israeli bloggers listed on my navbar. If it’s information you want, you can go there. I won’t be featuring as much Israel news as I used to.
I’m planning on going back to the things that made my blog what it is today: A variety of posts about life, politics, Jewish and Israeli issues, and, of course, cats. I’ll be posting at least one weekly roundup of links that I like, blogs I’m reading, or interesting news. I am also encouraging my readers to start adding links in the comments. (I’ll add a comments plug-in that gives you rich text options; I know you’re missing that.) But keeping things the same? Well, if I do that, you can count on my quitting blogging within a year. I don’t keep on doing things that bore me. When I was bored at my job, I tried to work within the company to do something about it, or got a new job. When I am bored in my life, I change things. When I’m bored with my blog, well, the blog has to change. And I stated that in the very first post I wrote, on April 22nd, 2001:
This site will undergo many style changes in the upcoming months, as I have no real idea what I’d like the end product to look like. What I do know is that I’ve spent several years in the industry and know the difference between a point, a pica, and a pixel. I know that the Internet is a wealth of information and misinformation, and anyone can discover just about anything online if s/he looks long enough. I know that my mindset has undergone many changes in the last few years, and will doubtless undergo more as I get older. Growth is change. Stagnation, to me, is worse than death. If I cannot change, just dig me a hole, throw me in and cover me with dirt.
Yeah, not quite ready for that hole yet.