What of Scottish Blogs?

But first, a cat update: Ollie is fine, no cone as, apparently, they don’t use stitches any more? He was a little groggy last night but was up and hungry as usual this morning. And I said this wouldn’t become a ‘cat’ blog. Hmmmm.

And so, onto Scottish Blogs. The website lost hosting late last year, and whilst I have a backup of the database that was only a week old, most of the site details in the directory are safe. However I’m now faced with starting over from scratch which, from a coding point of view, is a good thing. When I built Scottish Blogs it was largely done piecemeal as I was learning PHP as I went, leading to problems later on that, with my lack of knowledge, I couldn’t have foreseen. So, a clean slate is a good thing and would allow me to ‘get it (more) right’ from the start.

However, to be frank, I’m not sure I have the energy, inclination nor desire to rebuild and relaunch the site and, judging from the paucity of emails bemoaning the death of the Scottish Blogs website, I can only presume that no-one else is missing it either. So why am I bothering?

At present I’m not sure what, if anything, will replace the Scottish Blogs directory. Whilst I harbour grand plans of growing an online community, I’m not entirely sure I have the bandwidth to do so at present. With that in mind I’ve quite deliberately not done anything with the website since it died late last year and the overwhelming silence confirms that it was probably about time I killed it anyway.

Yet somewhere, in the depths of my brain, I am sure the site was useful to some, so I remain unsure as to the final fate of the website. Perhaps I need to co-opt some volunteers to help get it back off the ground, perhaps I need to hand over the entire thing to someone else (unlikely, but possible), or perhaps I need to make more of an effort to illicit some feedback from others.

Regardless, this isn’t something I’ll be looking at anytime in the next couple of weeks, that’s for sure.

Comments

  1. Why not have a cat blogg it’s the only time I saw 25 comments on the one day! Cats have that affect on people (Most People) Simba sends his regards that was when he opened one eye.. I think he is in hibernation. He would not be forced out yesterday and who could blame him

  2. I was just being patient about the Scottish Blog site being down! Jeeze! Please put it back up. Pretty please! I was really enjoying having the little Scottish Blog badge on my blog and was really really liking the blog-meetings. I was so pleased to be a part of it. I hope you don’t REALLY give it up.

  3. Perhaps you pass this on to someone else who cares – I’m afraid “Regardless, this isn’t something I’ll be looking at anytime in the next couple of weeks, that’s for sure.” killed any ideas of the passion you may have for this project.

  4. Ahh but James, I still have passion for it, but I need to pay the bills first! Scottish Blogs was, and will always be, a side project, but please do not think I am not passionate about it. I would think the amount of time I spent creating and maintaining the site might indicate that I think it is worthwhile!

  5. I completely agree with both Peggy and Baxter, neither of whom I would have met had it not been for the Scottish Blogs website – your good self, Richard Leyton and the others whose company I had the privilege of enjoying also cases in point. I would have been deprived of many pleasureable hours of reading into the bargain!! In a nutshell, my life would have been that much more impoverished as a result – so all I can do is urge you not to ditch it altogether, whilst at the same time acknowledging what a huge amount of effort creating and maintaining such a site must involve (I barely have enough time to research the essays for my own blog as it is!).

  6. Scottish Blogs was the first community I joined and I have got to know quite a few good bloggers through randomly clicking on the entries.

    I appreciate that hosting/setting up this must be a hell of a lot of work, so I won’t pressure you (especially as I can’t help, not even knowing how to do bold type in a comment with HTML).

    Just to say that if you feel there’s no point, well, I would disagree. Scottish Blogs is appreciated and was doing a fine job of diverting people to blogs of worth. And lots of other communal things that I was too lazy to get involved in but other people seemed to get a lot out of.

    Would be a shame to see it go, I think.

  7. Well, all I can say MisssyM is that you should feel lucky you even got to join the Scottish Blogs website. I applied to join ages ago, but that request was completely ignored. Then I left a comment on this blog asking to join….but NOTHING!

    Clearly a certain someone has got a problem with what I do for a living.

  8. Slutty, I apologise if you didn’t get add to the Scottish Blogs website. I don’t recall deliberately NOT adding you and it is possible that my rudimentary (read: cobbled together) filter blocked your site without telling me.

    I also don’t recall a comment being left here, although it’s possible that was captured by the spam filter (probably keying of your nickname which contains two words that spam engines will have marked as ‘bad’).

    I certainly did ever receive an email from you to either my personal email address, nor to the Scottish Blogs email address, if I had I would have responded and sorted the problem out.

    If you have such issues in future, would you be so kind as to contact me directly, rather than raising it here? I fear you have been the victim of my shodding coding more than any “problem” I have with what you do for a living.

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