Confessions of a Blog Litter Bug
Yes, I’m ready to confess.
I leave a lot of blog litter.
In fact, I’d say I’m a blog litter lout.*
Yes, it’s time to confess that I have:
- 41 domain names to my name
- 19 never used
- 10 sites started and long since abandoned
- More than a few that I’ve told you about and pointed you to, now left to languish
Yes, if I’m being honest with you know I’ll admit I’ve
- 3 twitter accounts that once were the home for the best idea since sliced bread and
- 2 facebook pages that are dying or dead
Yes it’s true, me, the girl who’d never drop litter has left a trail of post, pages, urls and dead domains littered loosely round the web.
And yes, I’m still doing it: three new sites in gestation and one FB page just published and a new twitter account I’m trying to keep up with and yes, if I’ve learned anything from the last three years it’s that this pattern is unlikely to stop.
I’m going to keep strewing litter as I go.
Why?
Because this is how I learn.
How I develop and test an idea.
How I see how it looks: on a site, as a blog, in digital form.
And although there’s part of me that has pangs of I’m sorry, or how careless, or why couldn’t I know at the start where I wanted to get to rather than needing to explore all these ideas and create all these sites and how will I know if I’ve actually got to the end point and can I really point people towards yet more creations when they might not last, when I might change my mind again,
Truth is: I know this is just how things are.
How I am.
And what the medium allows us to do.
What it encourages us to do.
Which is why I’m ready to confess.
I’m a blog litter lout.*
And probably always will be.
~~~
How about you… do you have a secret trail of tried and abandoned ideas behind you? Or do you manage to clean up as you go?
* Litter lout is the UK version or at least rough translation of litter bug, which I’ve used as a nod to my NA readers. Any other international versons / expressions gratefully received!
I’ve never heard it mentioned quite that way, but I’m a litterer too! My blog is full of half-started stories and even now I have a number of half-finished, unstarted stories and articles to complete.
Ah, you poor things!
.-= Naoko´s last blog ..[Copywriter's Chronicles] Mishearings =-.
Wow… I never thought of it that way, but yes, I have a similar path of all that left behind. Finally gave up one domain name last month and I’m still not sure I should have. My name for it is clutter bug. Saving things “just in case” I might need it.
Chris
.-= Chris Brown´s last blog ..Brand Positioning of a Region: Northeast Ohio, Cleveland-Akron-Canton =-.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Elizabeth S Craig . Elizabeth S Craig said: Confessions of a blog litter bug: http://bit.ly/d7GJPo @joannapaterson [...]
I collect unread blog post. However, they are not yours.
I need a system to make time to read all of them. Thanks for reminding me.
Hi Joanna (or Jo) .. now you have a new identity .. it makes sense to continue the trend? I can see how you go – and testing and trying new things is always a good idea. Love the term ..
Have a good weekend .. and here’s to successful littering in the future .. Hilary
Hi Joanna .. I’m going again .. my blog wasn’t picked up .. funny things happen on the way to the forum ……?
.-= Hilary´s last blog ..Fancy a Cornish Cream Tea? In Cornwall, in Tokyo or at home? =-.
This reminded me of a quote I had heard before, by Einstein, and I couldn’t find it but then I found this one:
“Remember the two benefits of failure [e.g., litter]. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.”
Roger Von Oech quotes
I have a fair amount of digital littering on my computer, and one day I will be brave and purge/delete, but for now it still holds a sentimental spot in my heart because the sum of it , the entirety of it, led to some great things. Perhaps in the great metaphorical compost heap of our litter, fertile greatness awaits!
Nice to hear. I’ve been so afraid to start my own blog site because I’ve been afraid of not being able to keep up or finish, or simply doing it all wrong. But your perspective makes me reconsider my hesitancy.
.-= Leah Pauls´s last blog ..Emulate the qualities of healthy families =-.
In our neighbourhood the residents have had enough of real litter louts and have taken to stalking them with hidden cameras and then putting the video & photography on youtube and flickr.
see our flickr at http://bit.ly/cvz7E9 and Youtube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/stpetersnm .
I am wondering if one day a form of what we do will be carried out on those of us who clutter up the net which even we must admit to doing ourselves with the amount of social media we have tried, tested and left by the digital wayside.
Naoko half-started, half-finished… sounds just like me
The way I look at it – there are worse sins in the world 
Chris that’s an interesting slightly different take… mine are generally things I’ve already discarded (so not clutter in the sense you describe) but I guess still cluttering up some corner of the web
Sheila thank you for making me smile
Hilary glad the comment luv worked second time round. Yes, I’m now reconciled to the way I work and it is all a part of becoming who we really are
Eleanor I love that you turned the litter into a compost heap! That makes so much sense to me… and yes, fertile greatness there awaits
Leah of all the things I’ve learned about blogging this one is perhaps the most significant: you can only learn by doing it. You will learn, grow, develop, change the way you do things, experiment, discard, outgrow, get frustrated, want more space, reconfigure, wish you hadn’t, find a new creative seam, expand, grow… but you can’t know just what those steps will be before you start. Yes, you can have some idea of theme, topics, style, approach… but I guarantee you’ll shift and develop as you go, which means there’s only one thing for it, jump in, the water’s lovely!
To the visitor from StPeter’s NM – interesting approach and I understand the frustrations that have led you to it. Re your second point – I guess if the web got full up with clutter that might just happen, fortunately for now the old discarded stuff can just lie quietly in some corner somewhere hopefully not getting in anyone’s way…
But all historical rubbish tips become archeological gold mines in time to come. Usually a very long time to come.
In a hundred years or more a special field of archeology will exist for research through digital detritus that will track people who become someone through their embyonic formings and ramblings online.
Imagine for example being able to read the tweets of a young Albert Einstein http://bit.ly/blHKGK . “E= M… mc ? Must be squared? #relativity”
Well of course we can’t go back and do that. But in future the depth and breadthe of digital detritus all over the place will mean that even school children in 100 or 150 yrs time will make daily discoveries about the early lives of people now young and unheard of who will by then be deceased and famous.
Pehaps they will leave a message in this place.
Great perspective … it’s not a trail of litter … it’s a trail of learning.
.-= J.D. Meier´s last blog ..Spring Cleaning Sources of Insight =-.
Lol! Joanna, this has me so tickled! I think it’s wonderful that you are unafraid to test, try, tinker and have the courage to abandon. I don’t have much digital litter, my unfinished business is in notebooks, and pads and journals and yes I felt awful about it…but now with your encouragement, I can happily say, I’m a notes lout and it’s unlikely to change!
.-= Karen Swim´s last blog ..Rock it Out in the Key of You! =-.
@bear_faced that’s such an interesting thought… I like the idea of children in the future making discoveries through our explorations. I hope some it proves of value to them!
J. D. indeed, and how can we get to new places and wider thoughts if we don’t make those trails?
Karen I wish we could all stop being so hard on ourselves about our jottings… me too… am also a notes lout, knew I was in good company!
ah yes there’s trails of me around the internet, most of it is very well hidden and you probably wouldn’t realise it was me unless you were watching very carefully. however they probably provide one of the most accurate accounts of my life really!
.-= Paddy´s last blog ..False Evidence Appearing Real =-.
[...] One of the things I did during my blogging break was read through my archives, not just here but at other places too like my old coaching site, and Joyful Jubilant Learning, plus a site I’d created on journaling and another on poetry (yes, and a few more, I told you, I’m a blog litter bug). [...]
Paddy blogging is such a powerful tool in figuring things out and pioneering new directions… I too feel my blog litter tells the story of my journey, more than I could do if I sat down and tried to write it
I’ve only been blogging a year, and yes, I already have a litter trail of four blogs, one unused, and one facebook page that I use, plus a “business” one I never finished creating . . .
It seems I’m constantly seeing a new reason to have a separate blog about something like I have one that kind of includes my writing, faith life, and reading life, and then I have one for the life I live as a home school mom, and one for cooking free of gluten, corn, and all the other food intolerances my family and I have.
One blog just doesn’t seem to be enough.
I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels that way.
.-= Tyrean Martinson´s last blog ..What Can You Write in Five Sentences? =-.
Tyrean you’re certainly not the only one who feels that way
I think it’s possible we’ll find patterns that unify these different virtual places later, and bring them together, but you can’t know what those are going to be when you’re exploring them… and if it’s free and possible to use and create different places to explore them, why not? Sounds like you’re going in lots of interesting directions anyway!
[...] be pride to be swallowed, and humble pie to be eaten. You will need to confess your crimes as a blog litter lout. You will need to accept that some of your ideas are… less than totally [...]
[...] 5. Yes, I am still exploring ideas by creating sites. [...]