(lights off a firecracker)

2008:
1,565,266 total published words from 4,763 posts
12,402 comments

Wow, here we are and it seemed like yesterday that I published the first post, 4,762 posts ago. If you look at the monthly post counts along the right of the home page, you’ll see the writing has slowed somewhat this year, but I’m feeling good about the quality of posts being published. It’s a different blogging world than it was in 2003.

What the numbers above don’t show are the 77,835 total unpublished words from 318 unpublished posts. These numbers continue to rise with each passing year and one of the biggest things that makes me go hmm is what to do with these posts. Someday hopefully they can be published in some form or another. I think about this now and again.

The state of blogging in 2008
Today there are too many blog posts that cover areas already blogged. I hope over the next five years more bloggers will stop before hitting publish and ask themselves if they are truly adding anything new to the web. Some bloggers are and they deserve to increase readership. Others are adding to the post landfill in a blatant attempt to grab ad views. There are very few quick bucks that hold value over time in the world.

Tip for readers with blogs: put a little more of you into your posts. Blogging became popular in great part I think because of the individual voice. Refine your voice. Making sure each published post has you in it somewhere helps to separate your posts from thousands of others that are similar.

Today there is also way too much emphasis on fragmenting discussions around posts. Giving readers the ability to comment somewhere else is a good thing in concept but puts unnecessary reliance on third party sites to stay up and running. One only need examine the scaling woes Twitter has been having to analyze that this isn’t always a good thing. I’m still not convinced the current generation of commenting elsewhere will stand the test of time, but we’ll see. I reserve the right to change my mind.

Today on a positive note, sharing on the web is all the rage. It’s great to see so many different ways to share ideas, thoughts, blog posts, pictures, videos, podcasts and so on with others. The spirit of sharing has never been louder than it is today. I just hope with all this sharing with relative strangers online, that people don’t forget about spending time with the people who aren’t strangers offline.

I have been spending more time with family and friends offline in 2008. I started playing guitar again regularly and practicing with a band offline Sunday nights. This has eaten into my blogging and online time but it’s giving me perspective that will help fuel my future writing. As human beings, we need to experience new and/or different things to make use of the valuable time we’re given on this earth.

My wife was teasing me that I have been “reliving my high school days” lately. There is a kernel of truth in this observation. Sometimes it’s good to go back and find things that gave you pleasure in the past and see if you can incorporate them into the present.

Now let’s walk back through time here at MakeYouGoHmm.

2007: 1080p Yowsa!

1,371,277 total published words from 4,354 posts
9,867 comments

In 2007 there was a focus on trying to videoblog or podcast five days a week. I made it a good nine months before being buried by video editing time. Probably would have made it if I skipped the whole HD video experiment. But who can forget the series of SAW Hmmcasts including the one below:

Of course the whole ThurSAWday project turned out a failure, but it was fun building up the promotion.

2006: Families more fragmented these days?

2005: v4: Cheap Tablet PC car stand

2004: v3: Day 1-2 in Silverwood

2003: Tabasco Scratch Cards

The future of MakeYouGoHmm
Today and throughout the weekend I’m going to kick back and party with the family. Next week it’s back to work. Oh, and yes, let’s do another 5 years of blogging here at MakeYouGoHmm? I mean, come on, did you expect me to quit already?

Thank you for reading MakeYouGoHmm.com.

“and miles to go before I sleep …”
- Robert Frost

Did this post make you go hmm?

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