Saturday, December 26, 2009

What to Expect - Yet Another Blogger's Manifesto

Before starting on this blog, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on what I expect from these posts. My intention is to make this blog an eclectic one, not focused on any particular topic or even a consistent way of presenting ideas. Sometimes I plan to write a long essay, other times I'll just mention ideas that strike me as Quite Interesting.

As you may have realized from my last post, though, I have strong opinions about what constitutes a worthwhile blog post and a sensitivity to the needs of someone reading them. If I am just spouting off about my own opinions then I am just wasting my time and I shouldn't even bother making the effort.

With that in mind, I thought I'd try to discover a set of guidelines that reflected the patterns in the posts of other blog writers that I appreciated.



My Blogger Manifesto

1. I will not post about a topic unless I have spent at least 3 months thinking about it.
Elements of a post may be more recent, but the basic concept must be one I have spent a significant amount of time thinking about. The universe does not need any more unconsidered opinions published.

2. Writing a second post on same topic must say something original.
It will often be the case that a topic can't be covered in a single post. But if there are multiple posts on the same topic, each post must say something new and original about the topic that is not covered in any other post.

3. The post must be to the point and not ramble over unrelated terrain.
By this, I do not mean that the post is terse. As you can see, that is not my style. What I mean is that each post must be on a particular subject, and although there may seem to be a rambling nature to the prose, all of it must be relevant to the subject at hand.

4. The post must deal with perspectives and ideas that are not currently mainstream.
There is no point is saying something that everyone is aware of. If something is controversial and some have chosen to reject one side or another after hearing the standard points, there is no benefit in me adding my voice to the chorus. Posts must say something new or at least unconventional.

So far, that is my simple list that I intend to keep to. If I think of others as I go along, I'll mention them and update the guidelines here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey,

I have a question for the webmaster/admin here at callenish.blogspot.com.

May I use part of the information from this blog post above if I provide a backlink back to this site?

Thanks,
Harry

Unknown said...

Absolutely, feel free.

Anonymous said...

Hi - I am definitely delighted to find this. cool job!

Anonymous said...

Good day! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could find a captcha plugin for my comment form? I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having problems finding one? Thanks a lot!

Unknown said...

If you are using Blogger you can go to the Settings tab and select Comments. Most of the way down that page you will see "Show word verification for comments?". Turn that on and you will have a captcha.

Hope that helps.