There’s a wonderful cartoon about blogging at Online journalism Blog, which states the “5 states of blogging” (via Marjut/matkalla.org), drawn by Alex Hughes and concepted by Paul Bradshaw. The five states, according to Bradshaw/Hughes, are:

1. play
2. feedback
3. community
4. fame
5. exhaustion/death

As for myself, those states go quite well together with my own experiences as a blogger.

And what exactly are my experiences?

Blog A:

My first blog was (and still is) an anonymous (or relatively anonymous) blog about my life. Soon it became a travel or “Erasmus” blog as I was in Germany some years ago as Erasmus exchange student. I used it as a way to notify my family and friends about my life and stuff over there – saved me a fortune on phone bills. After I came back to dear old Finland it became a personal ranting place about my daily life for a couple of years till I got bored and pissed with the amount of people who knew me as the writer.

Statistics:

• Type: travel blog / personal blog (ranting)
• Established: 2003, Q4
• Active?: No / random blog postings
• Main intended focus group: relatives, friends, finnish web community
• Estimated amount of (“active”) readers: 5-20
• State: 5. exhaustion/death
• Language: finnish (random bits in english/german)

Blog B:

My second blog worth mentioning was a natural followup of the previous one stated above as too many people already knew who wrote that particular blog. Couldn’t really write anything personal as someone always was hurt (or thought him-/herself hurt). And as the first blog was in finnish I wanted to write in english, too, and anonymous once again. Wanted a place to vent my rants and not so politically correct ideas about my personal life. Wanted a place for me, not for everyone. So I put up a new blog. First 2 years plain anonymous, today I have told perhaps four people about it. Still write the blog, nowadays not so often…

Statistics:

• Type: personal blog (ranting)
• Established: 2005, Q3
• Active?: Yes / random blog postings
• Main intended focus group:myself, random web surfers, lately a selected group of friends
• Estimated amount of (“active”) readers: 5-20
• State: 2. feedback / 3. community
• Language: english

Blog C:

Third blog mentioned is actually the first incarnation of blog B, in finnish. Long story short, told too many people about it, got bored and sick with all the shit written there. Nowadays dead.

Statistics:

• Type: personal blog (ranting)
• Established: 2005, Q1
• Active?: No.
• Main intended focus group:myself, random web surfers, lately a selected group of friends
• Estimated amount of (“active”) readers: 5-30
• State: 5. exhaustion/death
• Language: finnish

Blog D:

My first so called professional blog (Hypermediaa ja elämää) at TUT HLab. Whole blog was at first a platform to publish answers for students’ home assignments. Established first at blogger.com, then at wordpress.com and finally at HLab’s own blog family. At some point turned to a professional researcher blog about accessibility and blogs as communication methods. Died as I got a new job.

Statistics:

• Type: professional researcher blog
• Established: 2005, Q1 (at HLab Q1 2007)
• Active?: No.
• Main intended focus group:students, research community
• Estimated amount of (“active”) readers: 5-150
• State: 5. exhaustion/death
• Language: finnish

Blog E:

The re-incarnation of blog D at it’s own address (ilkka.kaikuvuo.com), actually this very blog. Changed the language to english. Nowadays focus mainly on links, but should write more.

Statistics:

• Type: professional researcher/ethusiast blog
• Established: 2008, Q1
• Active?: Yes
• Main intended focus group:students, research community, potential employers, enthusiasts
• Estimated amount of (“active”) readers: 5-30
• State: 3. community
• Language: english

Blog F:

Underwent a major surgical operation last year, was at sick leave for 4-5 months. Started writing the blog with my mobile phone when I was at the hospital, to vent some of my feelings. Later turned into link collection of the operation and so on. Perhaps intended as a place where peers could get some support, didn’t sadly become one.

Statistics:

• Type: personal / targeted blog (operation)
• Established: 2007, Q1
• Active?: No.
• Main intended focus group:relatives, myself, peers
• Estimated amount of (“active”) readers: 1-10
• State: 5. exhaustion / death
• Language: finnish

Conclusions

My own experiences support the given blogging model, although I might describe myself as a lone wolf blogger – no need for community most of the time. Most of my blogs are alrady dead or will be quite soon, major reason being exhaustion or annoyance with the so called community (to be frank: commenters).

I have had over ten blogs during the last five years, of which two with my own name (and face). Of the anonymous blogs perhaps a third is pseudo-anonymous and the rest more so.

My blogging career contradicts strongly with my job at the moment as I can’t/won’t write about my work (NDA’s are nice things, aren’t they?). Perhaps in the future I have better possibilites to blog also about my work (and not only about my research inteterests), time will tell.

I still want to keep on bloggin’!

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