Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ramon Garcia on July 31, 2008 at 12:33am

Humor is very important to me. Let's face it, reading a protracted essay is pretty boring, injecting a few anecdotes here and there makes it a lot easier to read through a post.

Permalink Reply by Yvette on July 31, 2008 at 6:03pm

I always just write whatever pops in my head, or whatever I'm thinking while reading some news or something. Since it's so...eclectic and unplanned (I never go back and read it) it can end up being a little confusing sometimes!

Permalink Reply by Elles on August 2, 2008 at 2:58am

I've only been at this for less than a year but... You know... I'm still not sure what makes a good post. Unique material, I suppose. A perspective that only you can put on the subject and which nobody else can. Maybe something which you have personally experienced, which you can share with others that they can't get from somewhere else. At least, that's one of the major things I look for when deciding if I want to add a blog to my feeds.

If that is entirely unhelpful, I'll link you to a post I wrote which got linked to on Bad Astronomy and one which got linked to on Pharyngula which I suppose is the holy grail of traffic...

Bad Astronomy linkage post.

Pharyngula linkage post.

Oh, and by the way, posting about somebody else's material (like YouTube videos) that you've stumbled upon tends to give you traffic too if it's good material. I don't like that s'much. I prefer to produce something original, but whatever floats your boat.

Permalink Reply by Kristjan Wager on August 4, 2008 at 2:04am

I love Pharyngula and all, but one of the few posts of mine he has linked to, was a short post about Ann Coulter and her latest book.

I don't think I'll claim that it's a particularly good post.

Permalink Reply by Buffy on August 4, 2008 at 9:02pm

One of my favorite posts is "One Issue Voters". I created it after LGBT voters on a particular political forum had been accused ad nauseum of being "one issue voters" because we expressed concern for the way political candidates voted or acted WRT LGBT issues. It not only delineates why we are not one issue voters even if we do vote simply based on a candidates stance on LGBT issues (which I highly doubt any of us do), but I've found it a handy post to use for myriad other reasons as well. For example any time someone asks how LGBT people are denied rights in America or what rights they don't have I have that post available.

As for general topic selection I'll go with things I come across in the news that get my attention, fundie bigotry that I want to tear apart, and other such things. Sometimes that means going over to putrid sites like WorldNutDaily and One News Now, but it's all in a day's work.

For me one personal "no-no" is foul language. I know other bloggers use it freely and I'm not offended by it, but I just choose not to use it myself.