Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Death Of The Blog. Plus Tags, Part 2

The blogs not really dead, but it is definitely sick. In the last month we’ve seen a lot of Jamison, quite a bit of me, and a smattering of Mullins. No Sipper, no Mrs. Sipper, no Stubbs (Mrs. or otherwise) no anyone else.

I’m not really complaining, just stating the facts. We’ve seen very little action around these parts for some time. I realize there are reasons, Josh can’t blog at work, and would rather spend his home time with his family instead of us (this is a credit to Josh, again not a complaint.) Mullins seems to have landed a job where they actually expect him to work, and likewise spends his home time with family. I’m sure Diana is busy with school and Charles was eaten by a crocodile. We’re all busy. I haven’t posted as much as I used to, and I’m less busy than any of you folks.

The truth is, for whatever reason, we all haven’t been that active. Even the discussions have been bereft of the regular Café-ers. Thank goodness we have some new readers who have greatly added to the discussion.

My point here, is what’s next? I very much don’t want to see this blog die. I know in the past, I have spoke out against inviting other writers, but times are changing. I’m suggesting we grab a couple of other folks and invite them to join our little blog family. Ryan, I’m looking right at you. You’re already a member, and kindly have only kept yourself to the comments, but I see no reason you can’t chime in with posts of your own.

There are others we could invite. In fact, I have secretly made Kellie a member, due to the fact she agreed to help me with the tags. Anybody have a problem with her adding new posts? I would so much rather this blog take on new voices, than fade away due to our busy lives.

What say ye?




Speaking of Kellie and tags, she has spent many long hours helping me tag the 600+ posts we have written over the last two years. This was not an easy task, as the blogger software doesn’t let you mass tag very easily. Our posts are also often rambly, covering multiple topics at once and thus, are not easily tagged.

I am proud to say that we have finally completed this endeavor and every single post we have written is not gloriously tagged and categorized.

A few notes about the tags:

Names were tagged when you wrote a post. “Life Story” is simply a personal post written in long form with some sense of storytelling. “Personal” denotes a more personal post meant to pass along simple details about our lives. Although, somewhere along the way life stories also got tagged with “personal.” So there is overlap.

“Internets” for the most part denotes a post with an external link to various things we felt were worth mentioning. “Literature” denotes any discussion of the written word. The rest is pretty self-explanatory.

Some fun facts:

Jamison is king of the blog with a whopping 153 posts written, followed closely by BigSip with 143. Rounding out the top four posters with over a hundred posts a piece are me and Mullins. Person with the fewest posts is one Charlie with a mere 4 posts written.

Our favorite topic is “personal” of which we have written about 212 times. Showing how literary we all are, “life story” closely follows with 143.


I beg, nay plead with you to please add tags to your new posts. It took a lot of time adding these things in, and I don’t want to have to go back and do it again, because you all are too lazy. If you don’t understand how to do it, just ask. Please also note that you can click on “show all” while you are writing a post and it will give you a list of all the tags we have thus far used. Though if you feel it merits it, you may add new ones.

Tags are a great way to organize the blog. At a touch you may now read every post by Jamison or tnmommieof2. Want to know if we’ve ever blogged about the evils of instrumental music? Click on the religion tag and find out. Want to create some categories for next years blog awards? With the tags you can easily look through all our posts and find the best of the rest.

Now go forth and write!

16 comments:

JS said...

My thoughts...

The blog is not dead and has no threat of dying. As in any relationship, it has up and down times... dry spells if you will.
I may be the number one poster, but I have gone WEEKS in row without posting anything due to life getting in the way, no biggie.

I love the fact that Kellie is a member, I welcome her to post as much as she likes. FYI, Kelliw is an awesome friend to all she claims friendships with. If you ask her to do something and she says yes, the follows through each time.

As for tags, i dont and probably never will use them. I cant see why i would personally, thats why I may post and just overlook the tags... I dont see a point. I will try to remember to add a tag, but I may not put in anymore than my name.

Youve told me what they are for, I understood, and I see no reason FOR ME to use them nor do I find them helpful. Again, for me personally.

I encourage Ryan to post more. CL is new to us, so I hesitate giving him to omuch say so yet, but I dont see why he cant be a poster in the near future.

Mat Brewster said...

It's not dead. But its the least active it has been in a long time, maybe ever.

Please use the tags. You may not use them ever, but others will. It's so amazingly simple to do and I'm begging you to do it. When you're done writing a post, all you have to do is think what did you write about then click on those subjects.

CL said...

I wanted to say how much I am glad I found you guys here. I didn't realize how much I missed all of you - I really did, I know that sounds bad, but I will always be honest!
I'm loving this discussion group and specifically love the openness, authenticity and love which is preserved here.
Shalom friends!

CL said...

BTW, Mat after you mentioned the post on instruments, my curiosity got the best of me. Suprised? I didn't think so. All I can say is, MAN I WISH I HAD BEEN HERE MONTHS AGO!

Mat Brewster said...

Aye, we may argue until our faces turn blue, and get so angry we throw stuff at our wives, but in the end its all love. These fellas here are my best friends,and shall always be, I hope.

And don't worry, we've hashed out the whole musical instruments thing a dozen times in various forms, so I'm sure it will come again.

lilsip said...

I guess I'm a bit of a lurker/commenter. I think I've originated, like, one or two posts. Probably afraid I don't have much to say that would interest "the guys," but only in an underlying and hopefully inaccurate way. I shall try to do better.

Long live the blog! It may be the only non-spousal adult interaction I get in any given day.

lilsip said...

Who ever said anything about musical instruments? ;)

Mat Brewster said...

According to my tag calculations you have written a total of 30 posts. Not bad for a mother and wife who has nothing of interest to say to the guys.

The blog shall live, I think. but tell your husband to visit once in awhile. He's been out for weeks.

Charlie said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Charlie said...

I guess I'm bit of a lurker, too. I add comments every now and then, but sometimes it's been a while since the post in question was created, so you guys might not even know that I posted. I honestly cannot think of anything worthy to add sometimes. I like to think of myself as a writer, but I guess I'm really not.

Anonymous said...

Sorry I've been away. I miss blogging and am sorry I haven't been around as much.

I WILL try harder.

Perhaps I'll post an update or something sometime soon. That's about all I can muster at the moment, unfortunately.

Love you guys and gals!

JS said...

Stubbs will always be the 'bigfoot' of the blog...

He is seen a few times by few people and when someone asks about him, the other person will say "Yeah! I saw him comment on the blog once!" "Really? I didnt see him!"

So, newbies, get your cameras out and snap a pic of stubbs if you see him.

Surprisingly, the boy has a myspace page.

mullinz8 said...

I’ve tried to do a bit of blogging recently but haven’t had a chance I do have one very wonderful blog that I’m going to post very soon so expect one coming down the pike.

I used to blog at work but like Brew stated I now have a job where they are expecting me to actually work. We’ve got the web at the house but in the evening Isaac and Caleb hog the machine for Lego Star Wars, ok I do it too.

Sort of like the ice age, sometimes the whole ball of wax just cools down a bit before it has the spark to reheat itself.

Mat Brewster said...

Aha. All it takes is a post about the death of the blog to get everybody writing again. Sip, no worries, write when you can. Family is more important than this.

Charlie, just say hello from time to time. It's not like this is a serious academic treatise. It's the boys hanging out like always, just in internet form.

Diana said...

Hi! I'm still alive to. I read the blog, I just don't always post.

I'm teaching school everyday and carrying a human around in my body, so I'm pretty exhausted by the end of the day. I'm doing very well. I can't think of many times in my life I've been happier than this, and I know it's going to get better!

I have a job interview with our local school district on Saturday, so keep me in your prayers.

One day when I have time I'll blog some stories about internship. There's horror stories (the first teacher I was placed with) and funny stories (the class I'm with now).

mullinz8 said...

Di, I would love to hear about all of your wild school craziness not to mention your pre baby adventures.

I mean once you have the kid, then you'll be busy...