As I approach my 3rd Blogiversary, and in the wake of my latest poetic effort, “Blog Years are Like Dog Years” (soon to be my next single – provided I can find a melody writer), I was truly curious about how all of my fellow bloggers and Twitterers got “over the top” – that is,
What was the post that inspired you to not just put up a blog, but actually be an active participant and contributor to our new “Web 2.0″ world?
Can you trace that inflection point to a single post?
I know I can – it was a post by my dear friend Liz Strauss:
June 14, 2006
6+1: The Ferrari Analogy for Organized Writing
This was the one line that did it for me:
“A great blog post is like a car date. We spent time together sharing your view. I follow your logic and then, if we connect, we talk about it.”
That’s when I knew that my journey was going to be more than just “blogging”. It was a way to connect, learn, and grow.
It inspired me to write a comment about my view of a good blog, using a mountain road analogy, that still rings true for me today:
“To me, a good blog is like a good Interstate Highway in the mountains – many signs and guideposts, much visual stimulation, lots of room to maneuver and not get slowed down (4 lanes instead of 2), and easy access to other crossroads and viewing points. A not-so-good blog is like a straight 2-lane dirt road that’s flat for 50 miles – bumpy, boring, no signs or guides, and God forbid you get behind a tractor.”
SO much has come from that one post – it was my inflection point.
Now, I’d very much like to hear from you – what was the post that put you “over the top”?
Go ahead and blog about it, and link back here, or put the link in a comment, or put it in a Tweet (to @starbucker).
I’ll compile everything and put it in one big blog post at the end of the year.
And hopefully, by our sharing at this giving time of year, we’ll inspire many more good folks to take the plunge and join the blogosphere.
Thanks, and Happy Holidays!
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I have memory issues. Can’t remember how I learned about twitter. But began blogging passionately in September out of anger to the world for lack of knowledge, compassion, or openness to change–to save children!
First tweet was 6/24 then jumped to 9/2 cuz had 3 surgeries between those dates. My blog also started early Sept cuz 8/24 was my near-death date. Maybe that inspired me to do something with my life.
What inspired me about Twitter was its acceptance of me and my issues and my cause and just caring people everywhere doing good things for each other. Probably not the answer you were looking for but I have been greatly inspired by many tweets.
Oops time frame memory blip. It was 8/24/07 that was near death date. Don’t know why I didn’t tweet between June & September. BUT, I remembered how I learned about Twitter. SO’s daughter started twittering her blog and I asked her what “twittering” meant. How many wish that never happened? Raise your hands? lol
It was a massive group of people. The entire conference at SOBCon08, when I saw how energetic, genuine, and committed they all were about their blogs, I knew this was the medium I wanted to use.
Twitter, was different, @CoolCatTeacher asked me to sign up, asked ppl to say hi to me… SLow at first, then when I signed up for SOBCon I added all those people and now I have a great group of friends that are priceless.
That was so many years ago I honestly cannot remember. I lost a lot of my early posts so I am not even sure when I started.
It did not even occur to me that I might care back then. The funny thing is that most things since then have been well documented.
Terry – in 2001 we started looking into the evolution of the “internet” from a global phenomenon to a local one. At that time, blogs were just starting to gain some traction – Blogger was out there as an online service, but most were “downloads” that you ran on your own site.
The site we were developing never too off, but what stuck with me was blogging – and how people could just throw anything out there, for the world to read.
I blogged some then, but didn’t really get into it until a few years later. I felt “stifled” by my day job and wanted a more creative outlet for my thoughts and opinions. So, I went back to my blogger account, and began posting again.
So, there wasn’t a defining moment, more of an evolution of my thinking.
I met a guy who was a coach on the same programme as me. I sent him my electronic newsletter by e-mail. He said he had a great idea about how I could reach more people and he would share if I bought him coffee. He has a design company and put together my website with blog as an experiment. I was not really convinced but gave it a go . Baby steps at first and now just past my 2nd blogbirthday. Twitter is a logical and fun add on for me. I can’t imagine not being connected in this way now.
Aloha Terry, it wasn’t a single post for me, but I do know who and when (though I can’t remember how I found him): Scott Hodge, July 2004. I was blogging a month later.
Scott back then:
http://happyweeble.blogspot.com/
Scott today:
http://www.scotthodge.typepad.com/
Whatever I have since done online since then; blame Scott!
(I love you Scott
My story is not nearly as cool as yours…
My first ‘blog’ was a livejournal. I just went back and looked… I created it on September 11 2003, inspired by my online friends in the poetry world. A bunch of us had been on ezboard and bbb forums whipping poetry back and forth for years. Some of those friends were on livejournal. I created my first blog on Blogger around that same time (2004 I believe, although that blog is no longer online).
I just went back and looked through the old posts… and though my livejournal name was tryin2evolv (seriously!) it looks like I haven’t changed *all* that much. As a matter of fact, my first post on livejournal was titled “Beginnings and stuff” — and it isn’t so different from one of my more current posts called “Beginnings and endings”. Though the posts were about different things, it’s a concept I write a lot about… apparently because I’m better at beginning things than I am at following through.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane.