A-Z Challenge Reflections
I thoroughly enjoyed the A-Z Challenge. From my perspective. Clearly, from the perspective of other participants, I was sometimes a pain. Why?
– My Blogger login goes to a long-dormant blog, so anyone who participated in the challenge from a Blogger blog got that link if I commented back (until I realized the problem was even worse than that several days into the challenge).
– The top post in my defunct Blogger blog does link to my primary blog. An extra step that busy challenge participants wouldn’t appreciate, I’m sure. But it’s worse still.
– The blog I was blogging from for the challenge wasn’t either of those blogs. In fact, I was blogging from a blog that has search engines blocked, and it would have been very difficult to track down if you were coming from any comment link, because I use my primary blog to link in WordPress information blocks.
– About two days after people were complaining about poor linkage to blogs in general (nobody specifically complained about me — they couldn’t find me, and I was okay with that), I realized this could be a problem if I was commenting on blogs I liked, so I began adding the URL in my comment (which can also be problematic, depending upon blog settings).
Putting that behind me, visiting blogs was a pain until I discovered the randomizer button on the A-Z site. I’m not sure I could find it again, now, but once I found that, I clicked through a lot of sites and found several I enjoyed. I understand there was code to install it on a sidebar, but I didn’t try it. I understand some people had trouble getting the code to work. Since I didn’t try it, I can’t say. If there were problems, that would be something to get fixed, because those buttons were great.
I’ve been blogging a long time, but I didn’t get the whole “follow” blogs instruction. As far as I know, that only works on Blogger. Maybe the term was generic for link to, or add RSS to, or something else (Pin on Pinterest, maybe?). Maybe on WordPress.com there is a follow button as well. I’m not sure, but it’s not a big thing on WordPress.org sites. I’m sure there’s a plug in, but I wasn’t that interested in it.
Perhaps, therein, for me, lies the problem. I love the challenge of doing the A-Z posts. I don’t care for the rules (which can’t really be enforced anyway, but there was a lot of griping going on). If you’re a challenge organizer and you’re required to visit every blog entered, I can see the hassle. If you’re a participant and someone isn’t making it easy for you to check them out or follow, skip them. You both may be missing out on something amazing, but there were nearly 2000 participants. Everyone isn’t going to do it exactly the way you want or the instructions say. One friend of mine thought she had to drop out because near the end she got a day behind. That was ludicrous. Fortunately, several of us encouraged her to stay with it, and she decided to finish the last couple days of the challenge. She’d been making some tremendous posts. I would have hated to have missed a few because she thought she was too far behind.
For me? Next year, I may do the challenge from my primary blog, which will make linking easier. Or, maybe I’ll do something different. I guess now that I’ve been retired for four years, I chafe more than I used to at arbitrary (but admittedly useful) rules. It is, after all, my blog. On the other hand, it’s their challenge. If I’m not willing to play by their rules, perhaps I shouldn’t say I’m playing.
I am looking for structure to keep me posting to my blogs regularly. I could come up with something on my own, but I haven’t found what resonates with me yet. I’m trying various challenges to see if something strikes me as worthwhile, but I’m not working particularly hard at it.
Once I realized there were rules…I changed my mind about doing it. They weren’t overly bad, but I wasn’t in the mindset to go with it. Maybe next year.
I follow your blog. You know that little ticky box beneath the comments, that says “Notify me of new posts by email”? I think that’s WordPress.org’s primary method of following, although you can also pop in a plug-in or set up Feedburner e-mail lists (I did that).
I didn’t see a lot of the complaining about the rules. Wonder how I missed it?
Good luck finding what works for you, for the challenge and blogging in general.
I noticed the complaining about people’s links not matching up on Twitter. I was miffed at first, then I realized how impossible I was to track back and began including a URL in my comments.
The rules weren’t bad, Maripat, and there was no way to enforce them — which would have involved only delinking someone from the challenge page. Ultimately, it,s your blog, but, yeah, if you’re going to use the challenge name, you should try to follow their rules.
I’m thinking of usung the A-Z format as a guideline to posting regularly. Some letters would be tougher than others to do every month, so I’m still evaluating that idea.
Oooh, a vowel challenge week!
Or maybe a month where you post based on your name?
I have to admit, the last time I did an A to Z on my own, I didn’t do it all in a month — I did one post a week (roughly). Then again, I was reviewing books and stories, and trying to read even as much as I did was pretty insane.
I remember you spreading it out, Erin, and that was a good idea. I’ve resisted planning and publishing a blog schedule, but I’m feeling called to do that recently. I just haven’t decided how I want to do it, but spreading out A-Z would be one good idea.
Vowel challenge week? How would you do that? Sounds interesting.
I’m glad you talked your friend into staying in the challenge despite falling a day behind at one point. I’m also unsure whether I’ll participate again next year, but for different reasons LOL Maybe some time away from the challenge will make up my mind for me.
~ Rhonda Parrish