Blogging and burnout
Richard Fernandez reflects on the announcement by blogger Marc Danziger (former “Armed Liberal,” in recent years at Winds of Change, and friend of mine from some years back) that Danziger is taking a break from blogging.
Fernandez writes:
Once, at the first and only time I ever sat on a panel in New York City, I described the pressure that comes with having a modest readership. “When you’ve got ten visitors a day you can say what you like. When you have ten thousand, you become very careful.” The other rule, which Marc has probably discovered, is that at ten visitors a day you don’t give a hoot whether you write that day or not. When the site gets to a certain level of traffic, that luxury disappears. You have to show up every day because you know ten thousand readers will. The only thing worse than having your own business is having a moderately successful blog.
That made me smile.
I don’t have a readership of ten thousand readers a day, but I have considerably more than ten. This blog could definitely be described as “moderately successful,” and I understand the feeling of not wanting to disappoint my readers, many of whom come here not just to read me but to talk to each other.
A very successful blog, such as Instapundit, is more like a job, and probably a fairly lucrative one at that. Although money is hardly the entire impetus that drives it, and most likely wasn’t at the blog’s inception, it can mightily reinforce the desire to continue.
But a “moderately successful” blog can never be the monetary equivalent of a job, despite the wonderful efforts of readers (thanks again, all who have donated here!) to help out as best they can. So it will always be mostly a labor of love—or perhaps of OCD.
My friend and fellow blogger Dr. Sanity weighed in on Fernandez’s comment thread with this:
I keep taking vacations from blogging, always with the thought that I might never return. After a while I come back because I feel something inside compelling me to write about what’s going on. I suppose as long as I have something to say, I will continue. I will say this: it was liberating to get rid of the sitemeter and not worry about how many people were coming to the blog.
I share Dr. Sanity’s compulsion to write; it’s what drove me to blog in the first place. I had spent spent quite a few years with lots of opinions and few people to listen to them. I realize now I was often composing blog posts (even though I’d never heard of blogs), if only in my head, and wanting to discuss them with a group of people I hadn’t yet met but assumed existed out there. So blogging, for me, has had its own substantial rewards, not the least of which has been talking with all of you, and meeting other simpatico bloggers such as Dr. Sanity herself.
I haven’t yet freed myself of the tyranny of the sitemeter, although I don’t check it all that often and I’m not ruled by it. I still write pretty much what I please, although I don’t do a lot of personal stuff about other people in my life, in order to protect my privacy and theirs.
But it’s still hard to watch that sitemeter climb (for example, in the months before the 2010 election, when traffic in general was up around the blogosphere) and then see it drop afterwards. It would be so very nice if traffic just built and built and built, instead. I know life is full of ups and downs, but a sitemeter is so—well, so graphic about showing them.
For several months now news and traffic has been relatively slow. Yes, there’s the occasional big story such as Bin Laden’s death. But that doesn’t really change the fact that energy in general is low right now for politics, and that I’ve been doing this for over (gulp!) six years.
Don’t worry, I have no plans to follow in Danziger’s footsteps and quit blogging, although I might take a few days’ vacation here and there. No biggee. But I think I understand quite well what drove him to make that decision, and I wish him the best.
It really is wonderful to have discussions with people we know exist out there somewhere, even if we rarely encounter them in daily life. Neo, you do a great job of guiding us all through serious dicussions on politics, through enlightening ones on cultural themes, right on to jello. I don’t quite trust anyone who can’t be silly once in a while. I’m so glad you like to write. That is a blessing for many of us.
I blog entirely for my own purposes.
For a brief period, I thought about trying to be one of the grand blogs. I started very early, and when I blogged about controversial issues, I got a lot of traffic.
Controversy wore me out. Controversy is not what I live for. Too much anger. Too easy to get cemented into a corner. I didn’t want to face the demand to be consistent and logical.
So, I backed off, and wrote only about the things that interest me.
I get a few hundred visitors on a good day. And, I’m under no pressure to produce. I like it that way.
You are more than a blogger. You’re a researcher and thinker. That makes what you have to say valuable.
Dear Neo-Neocon,
I would far rather that you write only when you feel the impulse and keep the shop open than that you write out of duty and then close shop because of exhaustion.
Also probably, for the reader as well as the writer, the former posts would be more interesting than the latter.
Best wishes,
Jim Nicholas
You’re in my top 5 – for the quality of the posts and the commenters. thoughtful and informative – we need you.
You are in my top 5 too. I love your pleasant style and the interesting comments from readers, and I never feel embarrassed to write a comment, even a silly one.
Wretchard is also in my top 5, and so was Dr. Sanity. I still check her site regularly to see if she has a new post.
So, this is a letter of appreciation. If you run out of things to post, that’s fine. I’m sure your readers are grateful for providing us a terrific place to get together to share thoughts.
I think of blogs like yours, Wretchard’s, Dr. Sanity’s, and similar sites as 18th-century salons, where people exchanged ideas. Thankfully, we don’t have to dress up or even be invited. We can just show up and be polite–not too hard in a social situation.
I do want to stress, however, that blogs like yours are important weapons in the fight against Islam, government dictatorship, and communism. Those of us who live in the liberal bubble have few ways to share “neocon” ideas. We normally just have to sit in polite silence while our friends and family natter on about nothing important. So you are doing a great service in helping to preserve democracy.
I enjoy reading your blog. I visit about 12 blogs a day separated into an afternoon session and a morning session. I visit Althouse in the AM and you in the PM. You two I look forward to because you surprise me. It may be plants, politics, or jello. I admire your depth of knowledge and your skill at presenting it to me. I respect your opinions and am envious at your presentation.
Plus, I learned a lot about jello and ballet, two subjects I never thought about at all. And Sergey’s comments about liquidity, plasticity, and the other state (butter?) was most enlightening, even though I don’t remember the terms. Good arguments against the global warming “science” scam. Something I never would have heard about without your blog.
I can’t think straight right now because I’m listening to Die Walkure, and they’re loudly going nuts about something. I’m sure that it’s important to the plot, but Wagner is an example of a lost soul whose ideas were all about decadence, decay, and death–like what Europe has become.
See Bookworm’s latest post on Geert Wilders. Bookworm is another wonderful blogger.
I read you daily and very much enjoy the range of topics. Your writing is freesh and very timely. I especially like you political comments because they are “right on”
Please pace yourself as you please, but if you quit that would be a tragedy.
Regretably, you are a rare feminine, rational, conservative voice.
So it will always be mostly a labor of love–or perhaps of OCD.
For me, it’s an attempt to stay sane.
How successful that attempt will be has yet to be determined. 🙂
–
I am going to take a break from reading and posting. There is simply too much afoot, most of it bad or stupid or both.
I have worked pretty hard in our little local Tea Party for a while. Locally we have become the Party of No for the nominal Repubs in power. The more we dig and learn the more crony capitalism turns up. It is awful.
And of course the BS extends in unbroken strings from the very lowest to the highest in our system.
All it does is make me angry, and that ain’t good for me and mine.
So I’m going to retreat and lick my wounds, concentrate on the small personal things where my judgement and effort can have the desired effect, at least some of the time.
May I also state this decision came before Neo’s post, which reinforced it.
I don’t think it’s fair to compare a blog like this w/ Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit. First, Insty is like reading the headlines of a newspaper; many topics, some commentary from Prof. Reynolds, no discussion. I visit several times a day, but never stay very long.
This blog, and others like it are special because, as neoneocon states, people come here not only to read entries, but to discuss. In an earlier thread, someone called this site a remarkable acre of cyber real estate and I wholeheartedly agree. The discussions here are lucid and evince a wide variety of opinions and expertise. I visit and comment because it sharpens my own thought processes as well as broadens my perspective about issues. Look, for example at the 80+ comment thread which started with a neoneocon comment about those “mean” Republicans wanting to make English the national language. It saw not only input from many commenters, but there were many tangential thoughts which were as interesting as the main topic.
I relish the debate and exchange of ideas with kolnai, occam’s beard, artfldger, parker, curtis, rickl foxflier, sergey and others (apologies if your pseudonym was not included).
I and other commenters have acknowledged exactly this in past comments. They were kudos that were justified and well deserved, and they remain so.
Sincerely, thank you neo for all that you do. I find it such a relief to get the perspectives of everyone here – politically astute, learned, but always rooted in solid common sense and experience. These days a fella just can’t get that in grad school.
Thanks to neo, and thanks to all who contribute.
I live in a community for active older adults. That means we are all trying to stay out of the grasp of the grim reaper and the usual conversation here revolves around health. (Or the lack thereof.) Perfectly pleasant people but for some reason not much interested in thinking about politics, foreign policy, economics or jello. Thus, your blog is a form of escapism for me. Yes, I’m active in TEA Party activities. However, most of the people I encounter there are conservative, but have not thought much about the issues other than the black and white, right or left, up or down aspects. They are conservatives more out of faith that conservatism is the correct path for citizens of a Republic rather than intellectual grounding. Your blog and all the great commenters provide that for me.
Like many others have mentioned, this is a treat for our brains and we would feel a great loss if you shut down. Thanks for your dedication.
I fequent Dr. Sanity and Shrinkwrapped as well. SW has been on a hiatus while he adjusts to a new work situation and he has been badly missed by his regulars.
Neo, pace yourself. As others have said, better to slow down then to go full speed and then stop from exhaustion.
Keep it up, Neo. People who matter read you and your commenters. You and we are working on the most important questions: What’s really happening? And what is going to happen next? If you wait for the MSM, you will always be late for the fair. If you wait for the NYT to set you straight, you will always be hopelessly lost.
Wretchard (who I believe reads this site) would probably say, this is an Open Source intelligence agency. Neo is the Director. To be in competition with the press is to be in the intelligence business.
Furthermore, this is a site where we work on ways of expressing the alternative narrative in ways that can avoid the metropolitan liberal framing of the issues and speak to independents and liberals who aren’t wholly lost to fantasy. It can also distinguish that narrative from the ravings of certain paleo Rightists. It’s not an accident that so many of us came from the Left. It is also a big advantage.
So you have a lot of work ahead you, Neo. A lot is going to happen. The Republic is still at risk, and with it, the future of Western Civilization.
This must be what 1936 felt like.
I think most people who have blogged for a while can relate to what you are saying. I also think a touch of OCD (but only a touch) is a real plus for a blogger.
Your blog has some of the most insightful commenters that I encountered on any blog. How is it that trolls have not overrun it?
Another wonderful blogger who recently decided to stop is Martin Solomon:
http://www.solomonia.com/wp/
It’s a real loss.
Dessert Survivor
Your blog has some of the most insightful commenters that I encountered on any blog. How is it that trolls have not overrun it?
If certain commenters come across as equine posteriors [or trolls] too often, Neo bans them. Here is an example of a “dialogue” with a troll who eventually got banned. In fact, there are two commenters on this thread who got banned. If you bother to read the thread, you will have no trouble figuring out who the other banned commenter was, nor why they got banned.
Trolls usually get hammered pretty hard here by commenters who will not put up with their nonsense. Accordingly, some trolls retreat from the battlefield before they get banned.
Sometime in the last 6 month or so there was a comment from someone with the same blog name as one of the persons who got banned . The comment was on the order of ” still the same inane comments here, I see.” I didn’t bother dignifying that with a reply.
Neo,
Your blog, ACE’s, and VDH’s are my favorite blogs.
Here, we also have great commenters. We aren’t quite “family” but we ARE, at least, damned friendly neighbors.
Please keep up your excellent work.
And there’s one other factor that comes into play:
SiteMeter doesn’t tell you if someone is reading your site via the RSS feed, unless you’ve somehow managed to embed the SiteMeter code in your feed. (I’ve tried, with no success.) I installed a gizmo to monitor the feed, and discovered that about 35 percent of my readers are taking the feed rather than coming directly to the site. So part of my “traffic decline” is illusory: it’s just that not everyone is getting counted by the meter.
you are literally in my top 5 under “political”. I check daily. We need you through November 2012. I’ll keep checking if you change at least three times a week. I like your gang of commenters, too – very much. Where would we go without you? Awwww: We love you, neo.
Neo, you are an incisive thinker and a wonderful writer. Both are gifts. And I don’t think there needs to be “news” in the traditional sense of how we think of news (i.e. some dramatic event that captures the public’s short attention span and then blurs into the next event the media push at us). You can write about issues that are pressing, that are of the utmost import, whether or not there is “news” about it. Make the news. Define the news. For goodness sake, nothing less than our country, and perhaps western civilization is at stake. Seriously.
You are truly talented and have found a voice that is unique and intriguing. I appreciate your blog greatly, though I rarely post.
Thank you.
CGHill: I had no idea that was the case.
I’ll have to imagine most of my readers are using RSS feeds, then :-).
To everyone: Believe me, I do appreciate your appreciation. And I don’t have any plans to quit in the immediate future. I’m still too hooked.
Agreed on both counts.
Neo, you’ve established a cyber salon!
Dessert Survivor: years ago I had one of the most troll-ridden comments sections ever. Perhaps it was the “neocon” moniker that attracted them, but I’m not being paranoid to say that there were a number of people out to make the comments section of this blog inoperative through their constant trolling. Some of it was really disgusting stuff, and very hard to keep up with on my old Blogger account. I tried various methods, and finally changed the blog, which was a big pain in the butt but well worth it. This format has much more powerful tools for banning trolls, and I am pretty much on it. Most of it goes on outside the awareness of the readers, who often don’t even see the worst comments.
OB: yes, I would have called it “Salon,” but the name was taken.
I only wish we could have refreshments here, too.
Neo, please do not retire. You kept me sane during 3 years in Europe. I would be interested in what your sitemeter shows in terms of international readers. In America, we have talk radio and some conservative TV and newspapers but in the rest of the world there is no option other than what we see in the MSM. I never met a Brit who wasn’t in love with the BBC. I am sure they are out there but you never encounter it in person. I know obligation is a big word, but I do feel that with your talent you are obliged to continue writing. That’s a fact. Hang in there.
Neo: I echo the praise from earlier commenters. I check in here every day, and while I don’t usually have much to say about dancing or jello, I’ll still read the posts and check out the videos.
I read tons of blogs and comment at several of them, but this is one of my favorite places, and there are a good bunch of commenters here. It’s OK if you take a day off now and then, since that often helps keep the older threads alive.
Refreshments? You mean no one else is sitting down to comment without a martini or whipped cream vodka and orange juice? Wow! for once I’m ahead of the curve.
Tom:
I just scrolled up and saw your comments. You have to do what you have to do, but I hope your absence here isn’t long.
By an unworthy usurper.
everybody here is the alligator-free refreshment.
David Mamet is coming out with a new book, which I plan to order for my kindle. There are current discussions on Weekly Standard and Powerline.
It will be interesting to read his take on getting outside the bubble. The first Matrix movie came out around the time I began to identify myself as “conservative.” I thought the idea of the Matrix was the perfect metaphor for what so many of us urbanites face.
While some of your readers may have large and varied social circles, I quickly realized that the number of people I talk to in a year’s period is actually quite small. Hence the “bubble.”
Blogs like yours are so important on so many levels. For example, one of my favorite blogs is Ace of Spades, which I started reading when it was a milblog, but I also learned a lot about “guy humor.” Ditto learning about firearms, which I learned about from reading Little Green Footballs. Oddly enough, I learned a lot about Christianity from that site, before the siteowner had a nervous breakdown or whatever happened there.
Anyway, my point is that blogs are a fabulous way to talk to people whom we would never cross paths with in real life–the opportunities just aren’t there. Since 9/11, I’ve managed to discover ONLY TWO conservatives among all the people I work with or know socially. Sad, but true. I’ve been introduced to a few others, but that was a special circumstance.
Here’s a little personal fact about myself: I like reptiles. So bring on the alligators!!!! And the crocodiles. For the moat.
I’m glad you’re sticking around. Your site is important to me.
There are actually two kinds of “blogs”. One is the traditional blog, where the blog owner posts articles and the commenters comment. Neo-Neocon is in that category.
The other is the “forum” structure. In that case, nobody posts much original content, but forum members can start topics about whatever interests them, and then the other members can comment. I like that, since I can play at being a blogger without the bother of running my own blog. As I said, there isn’t much original content, but the different interests and reading habits of the various members will lead to posts and links that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
One forum where I hang out is My TitleIt’s About Liberty.
Another is NASASpaceflight.com. That place is heaven if you’re a space geek. I haven’t commented much there since some of the members are actual engineers, rocket scientists, and even NASA employees, so there isn’t much that I can tell them. I mostly just read.
Then there is the Market Ticker. That’s a hybrid, since Karl Denninger writes the main Ticker posts like a regular blogger, but the Ticker Forum has a forum structure so the members can start their own topics. But Denninger is a stickler for posting in the proper categories, so be sure to read the pinned posts before posting.
Neo, please let me express the deepest appreciation for the work you’ve done and continue to do to fend off the trolls. The happy result may look effortless to the rest of us, but it must cost you a great deal of time and effort, not to mention aggravation, behind the scenes, so that the rest of us can enjoy happy result.
As for refreshments, though — if we had them, this would be the only salon on earth where thoughtful conversation was stimulated by jello, candy corn, and jelly beans!
This blog is one of my first reads in the morning. The fact that I don’t comment in all the articles doesn’t mean I skip them. (Just following parental advice: “If you don’t have anything to say, don’t say anything.”)
Everyone needs a vacation from time to time. As long as you come back, it’s all for the best. I’m right now in some kind of blog fatigue myself. “What blog fatigue? You don’t have a blog.” But I used to have one, a Hebrew-language blog and that’s why I don’t link to it here. After some four months of updating it, I felt tired out and decided to content myself being a parasite on various hosts, a commenter on other blogs and nothing more.
Right now I’m in a dilemma: I’ve been floating a plan to set up a new blog, an English-language newsblog with the tentative name of New Israel Newswire, where I can indulge in writing “Arab Settlers” instead of “Palestinians” when reporting on recent events. But the thing is, I’m not sure about launching the blog at all. I fear a newsblog might wear me out after just two weeks.
“As you adequately put it, the problem is choice.” – The Architect.
Neo, did you ban Truth, or did he slink away of his own accord?
Gringo: I don’t remember whether he was banned or whether he merely departed. After a while, it all starts blurring together.
Neo — I was trying to find your post where you wrote an incisive description of how one can tell one is arguing with a lefty who’s arguing in bad faith: do you remember that one?
Something about the zombie-like repetitiveness of their attack, the fact that they don’t address the evidence one cites, but always something else, and so on. You did this in reply to some troll whom you then beaned with the Ban-Stick.
I don’t remember how I found your blog, but you’re one of my “go to’s” for down to earth brilliant psychological / cultural / political insights.
I’m shocked you DON’T have 10,000 or 100,000 readers. But you’re like a fine micro brew that I will enjoy imbibing.
Don’t leave us. We’ll feel so abandoned. Vacations are OK though.
Beverly:
There are many characteristics of arguing in bad faith, none of which are universal. In my comment @ May 14th, 2011 at 8:17 pm I provided a link where I fisked someone arguing in bad faith – though that wasn’t the term I used.
Some characteristics of bad-faith arguing from that particular commenter (L) which I pointed out:
Dismissing the source . (Fox is @$##)
Changing the goal posts.
Misrepresenting what others say ( what blogger BB did: my reaction several comments up, November 28th, 2007 at 1:39 pm)
Your examples of zombie-like repetitiveness and not addressing the evidence given, but something else, are other examples of arguing in bad faith.
When do I conclude someone is arguing in bad faith? After I fisk an argument, and conclude that it is a waste of time to continue the “dialogue.”
Though I’m certain that at some time Neo addressed the issue better than I have.
I wrote not too long ago about my past experience with blogging fatigue here: On Blogging & Blog Visitors
I gave up political blogging a few years ago. Now I blog purely for myself, and I enjoy it more that way. It allows me to write as much or as little as I want, but not always on the topics I want to weigh in on.
James Delingpole, The Telegraph’s environmental skeptic, had a great article in The Spectator about quitting cold turkey and not liking it one bit. I have it here: http://americanhousewifeinlondon.blogspot.com/2011/04/bloggers-write-out-of-suicidal.html
As for families of commenters, I love it when I’m reading Ace of Spades and they get one of their frequent instalanches. They are all ‘Instalanche. Quick put away the beer.’ Cracks me up.
@Bluewaterneocon, where are you? Still in Europe? London? Commiserate over coffee?
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all hug and shake hands …
and have some beer and pizza…
and pass out on the floor – well maybe not that.
I reminisce of my days in the Navy – solving the worlds problems with the other guys till 2 AM.
This one guy was like Truth 🙂
I haven’t yet freed myself of the tyranny of the sitemeter, although I don’t check it all that often and I’m not ruled by it.
I confess to being much too obsessed with it.
The most frustrating thing is to see some little trifle that was a reaction to something get hit after hit after hit, while another post that was about something I truly love and into which I poured my soul (and really thought I did a pretty decent job on) apparently attracts no interest whatever.
AURRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!
I suppose this is a sign that I need to get a life or something. 🙁
–
To prevent burnout, I decided a couple of years ago to add a few other authors and keep my postings lite. Having said that, I’m delighted that you and Pat Santy continue to keep up the Psych-bloggers (along with Dr. Helen, Stuart Schneiderman, Gagdad Bob and Siggy) tradition.
Maybe it’s time I post another Tour of the Psychbloggers.
I’m fond of this and theconservativetreehouse blog sites in particular, because both are friendly troll-free gatherings of people coalescing into small communities within anonymous cyberspace. Both are represented by participants from all corners of North America and beyond, who are seeking and testing this sort of collective bonding. I believe we social creatures now need this relatively new form of community; otherwise we remain stuck in bubbles of impotent anomie, where certainly we do not want to be stuck.
I’m very grateful for the people who keep these sites running smoothly; and I’m distressed when a favorite goes down. So better a break than a breakdown.
Paul_In_Houston: I’ve had that same thing happen, where some of the posts I’ve worked hardest on and am proudest of sink like a stone.
You’ve got a great blog and nice pace to it. Just keep plugging away. You have an enviable commentariat as well.
And no, I love the Sitemeter … it’s like blogging blind without it!!
http://www.two–four.net/weblog.php?id=P8
My very first post, over eight years ago. I haven’t changed a single thought about it since then.
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I never realized how much my blog would take over my life and ultimately how important it would become to me.
Because I’m most definitely a minority within the lesbian/gay community and not exactly embraced with open arms within many conservative circles, I’ve come to believe, that even if my posts are few and far between, what really matters is that I’m OUT there on the Internet.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, a major Orthodox Jewish Rabbi from the last century, was purported to have said– “Not everything I think do I say, not everything I say do I write, and not everything I write do I publish.” I’ve had these musings for over a month, once I started blogging a few months prior.
Great to see writing, while important, effects people in similar ways. I think I can get back to the blog now.
This reminds me of how often manga authors in Japan have to take a break from their weekly or monthly serializations.
Naruto and Bleach, for example, have been going on for more than 5 years. One week after the next.
1. You are a good writer.
2. I read your blog through Google Reader, so if you took a vacation or something, I do not have to worry about checking in everyday to see if you have posted anything. I am automatically notified when you post something.
After having several blogs, I decided to stop blogging altogether. I took down several other sites I created as well. After a time-and it did take a few months-I realized that I did not need to put my face out there on the Internet. I did not have to react to whatever was going on in politics nor react to all the tragedies in the world. And you know what? I appreciate having my time back.