I’d say most of the folks who read my blog regularly have noticed that the number of updates has grown much smaller and become less frequent. Indeed, if you just look at the number of posts per month on the archives page, you can see just how much the number of posts has plummeted. A breakdown of the number of posts since June:
- June: 28
- July: 22
- August: 10
- September: 9
- And October, counting this post, thus far, I’ve posted six times.
I’m not at all happy about this, and it has certainly not been intentional. So, what gives? That’s a good question; I don’t really know.
I haven’t lost the desire to write here; I hit the WordPress administration frequently with intentions of starting drafts, of writing about things that have been going on in my life, and… nothing happens. I look at the blank editing window for a bit, type a word or two which I don’t care much for, and then go on to other internet abodes. I’ve even taken up the oft-recommended habit of writing down my ideas on paper while away from the computer, so I’ll “have” them when the time comes to write up a post. That just adds another step in my currently broken routine: I stare at the editing window, look at my notes, type a few words, sigh, and bail out.
Yesterday I turned to those who are smarter and sexier than myself, my fellow 9rules members. They gave some good advice. Cas recommended that if I need a blogging break, make it official; put up a “gone fishing” (or in my case, probably “reading”) sign and let readers know I’ll be back in a week or two. Others recommended that I relax a bit. Beating myself up over the fact that I’m not blogging doesn’t help; it probably just exacerbates the problem. Perhaps I’ve also been overly hard on myself on what I’m writing about; I suppose not every post has to be a masterpiece. I also think that, in the back of my head, I’ve been really wanting to write lengthy posts about history; when those didn’t come to me right away, I felt that I couldn’t write anything at all. This being my personal blog, I thankfully have the freedom to write about whatever I want; mentally boxing myself in in regards to what I can write is more than a little silly. Special thanks in particular must be given to Kamigoroshi, who rightly pointed out that, on a personal blog, the very problem of not being able to write anything can be turned into a post; it was this advice which gave me the impetus to write this.
My plans, then, are pretty simple: relax, experience life, and not be so damn nitpicky about my own writing. I think I really need to focus on that last one, because I think being my “own worst critic” has been a major factor in my writing (or, lately, the lack thereof). I’m also going to relax on swinging the beat-stick; if I find that on a given day, I can’t write something, so be it. Hopefully putting these mindsets into place will help things run a bit more smoothly around here, and the number of posts will raise again. I’m sure, though, that if it does nothing else, it’ll help me feel a bit better. I’ve been positively bummed about my blog here lately.
Cheers to those who gave advice. You guys rock.
Bad Spammers, Bad!
February 2, 2008 | 6 comments
It seems that the amount of spam comments my blog receives is directly linked to how old the blog is – the older it gets, the more junk it gets thrown at it.
Akismet has done a marvelous job in blocking most of the spam – it’s caught nearly 40,000 spam comments so far – but alas, it’s not enough. Every day, I get 1 or 2 comments to be moderated that are total junk; apparently someone really wanted to spam my site during the night, because when I checked my email, I had 10 comments to moderate, all of which were spam.
To (hopefully) cut back on the amount of spam I need to manually check, I’ve just installed the Bad Behavior plugin, which catches spambots in the act, long before they’ve had a chance to actually post anything. I don’t really know how this works – at the time of posting this, they’re claiming it works via black magic – but if it works, I don’t really care. I’ll be thankful.
In the unlikely chance that Bad Behavior blocks you from commenting, you can get in touch with me at: myfirstname @ my domain name. I’ll whitelist your IP address for you.
To my dear spammers who have stuck with me this long: hah! I hope I don’t see much of you anymore.
Update: So much for my hopes. I checked my email today (the day after setting up Bad Behavior), and found 2 spam comments to be moderated.
Bad Behavior is indeed working – it’s caught around 200 spam bots so far – but I also had over 100 spam emails hit Akismet. 2 of those got through, and I’m not really sure why. They’re not subtle in anyway, they’re just comments with tons of links about porn, photos, etc. Akismet has literally blocked thousands of comments just like these, and yet some keep popping up in my moderation list. It’s strange.
Tags: All Entries, bad behavior, comments, plugins, site updates, spam, System 13, WordPress