I hate this time of year. And it’s not about the weather. December/January is when all “The best and worse of” get published pretty much everywhere. A lot of them are nothing but “Click Bait”. It is also the time of all the award shows. Most of them are “an Apple vs an Orange” arguments. They really aren’t a good metric to use to judge one against another.
However, if you are trying to create anything you will unavoidably be compared to them. Then the question “Why can’t you do that?”
I also get an Annual Report from WordPress on the traffic to my blog. I also get a different monthly chart from my web hosting company. The two of them are completely different from each other that I cannot draw an accurate conclusion at all about my site.
My site has not had my comments lately either. However, when I read other sites I am thankful that I am nowhere close to having to deal with Level: Troll comments. I have my site set that I have to approve the comments. I will as long as there engaging the post. And it does not have to exactly agree with my point of view. I am willing to try to have a conversation. I occasionally get the “You are so stupid. So Shut the Fuck Up!” I don’t approve this. Not because I can’t take it. It is because that statement is nothing but Noise Without any Substance behind it. And the same the same time the comment that says “I found your post interesting. I will check back for more in the future.” It is positive. However, it is generic. Plus more times than not the person’s URL is bogus website of “spams and scams”.
I need to figure out a better feedback loop for the future of this site. Using Web Stats is at the moment a very unproductive use of time with frustrating guess work. I also do not have anyone at the moment in my daily life to “debrief” with. There is no way I will ever mention this with my coworkers. I remember years ago reading from various writers stating that the “Friends and Family” plan will fail as a feedback method. The reality is they are Indifferent to what I am doing. I am not saying this out of anger or disappointment. I am just recognizing how things are at the moment. Their lives have obligations and catalysts that are not mine. I get it. However, they are things I will never have for myself. It is what it is. So I have to leave it at that. Plus, I do not want to anymore to be Mentally Waterboarding them with questions such as “Did you read it?” Or “What do you think about it?” I need to get away from the Painful Awkwardness that this causes.
The worse part has been it has caused me to be Indifferent about my work the last few months. I also slid a bit into what Seth Godin calls “The Tyranny of Being Picked”.
I needed to make that confession. Because it is time to get moving again.
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