I'm not sure what the deal is but lately I've noticed a rather annoying trend here at ProgressiveU. When one blog pops up about a topic, a slew of similar entries seem to inevitably follow. If one individual blogs about religion, 10 others follow. If one blogs about how college sucks, others follow with their own tales of why college sucks.
Are we lacking in creativity here? I don't think so. I think we're just feeding off of one another instead of letting that creative roam where it will. So... I have a few suggestions.
Most of those posts aren't really necessary. Put them in a comment on the original blog and be done with it. If you have done that and still find yourself reading a post and deciding to write one inspired by, in answer too, kind of like, etc... wait a day or two before you write it! If it's still something you want to blog about then, go for it (and make it good) and we won't complain.
In the meantime, blog about something that no one else is blogging about. Did you read a weird news story? How do you feel about killing spiders? Why is there such a big debate about why sex is better than chocolate? What does "I farted and a flag rolled out" mean? Nearly anything is better than reading what we just read in another blog (either in the content of the blog itself or in the comment section)
If you need ideas, check out the News Team feeds. We have created several news feeds solely for the purpose of giving you more tools with which to blog. And not too long from now, we'll be starting the Topic of the Week as well. In addition to those, you can also find ideas by reading the news from various sources (if you don't have a Google Reader account already, get one and use that to keep track of various news sources) and reading posts from past contests. If neither of those are doing it for you, consider writing a how-to post about something, or explore some of the controversial but rarely seen on ProU topics. Write us a satirical piece, or research and write about that subject that you've always meant too and just never have.
Jot down ideas for posts from conversations, daily observations, forums, random questions that pop into your head, and any other place you can think of. When you're running low on ideas, refer to that list. And remember that, as cruel as it sounds, we very rarely care what's going on in your life. Unless it profoundly affected you, is progressive, or makes us pee ourselves laughing, users really don't want to hear it, read it, whatever.
Two and a half months is a lot of blogging for one serious about winning the contest. Make those two and a half months count for more than just another post about the same old shit we've already read 6 times in one sitting! In the end, you are responsible for how you fare in this contest. If you don't make the effort and give ProU readers quality, thought provoking pieces, they aren't going to reciprocate and allow you to win the contest. Your posts will be shunted off to the "rarely read" section to gather dust and none of us want that! We want to help you succeed... but only if you're going to help us help you.
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ay ve, i am guilty of writing one but see religion is a topic that everyone is touchy about and then someone mentioned something about skinny people being you know very judmental, i am sorry but in my defense, my blogs range from news to stuff such as music which is my most recent one, so i am new here but i think i will get the hang of it
thanks for all the helpful comments and blogs, i admit i need guidance
edited to add that people do sometimes read all the religious and other stuff and have the emotions to comment on them but not on certain light hearted subject matter
Above All - Do no harm
Blogging about the deeper topics is fine. I encourage the heck out of it. I love a good debate more than anything. But, if you're going to do it after someone else has, make it count. Take abortion for instance. There are more blogs on the subject here at ProU than I care to even consider counting. And fully 98% of them are the same thing; one is either for or against abortion and they spew their opinions about it. We've read all those arguments before, we want a fresh look at the topic... whether it be religion, abortion, the death penalty, sex. Give us something new (and do it well) and we won't complain.
And you will get the hang of it... which is partly why I am writing these. I've been here for over a year and have seen a lot. I'm on the A-Team now and I know how much I appreciated having the advice of someone that had been here and knew how things worked when I first started. It's time to reciprocate and help those of you that are new now that I've been here for what feels like forever.
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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see, my policy is, that i only write about stuff i can say truthfully i have knowledge about and abortion is not one of them, i didn't even want to get involved ina religious "battle of words" i only asked if people thought Muhammad could classify as a sociopath and then the skinny thing is something i have been dealing with all my life and it is a part of me, i don't like being judged just by you seeing me or even if you haven't seen me ("you" refers to anyone, i need to stop using it but...it's hard to change this bad habit)
Above All - Do no harm
I use 'you' a lot when I shouldn't as well. Like you said, it's hard to break a bad habit!
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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and i love the meaningful things you ahve quoted in your signature, i was going to put something by Che Geuvera, "let the world change you and you can change the world" but i am thinking about it....do i actually let the world change me? i have to say I DO, but i need to feel strongly before i can change. like i have to feel that the opinions or my own views are not right so then i can change them...yeah, it's my head ache
Above All - Do no harm
Thanks. I keep a collection of quotes that I personally find meaningful and attempt to put into practice in my own life. Every few weeks, I change them up here so that others can read them as well. Before we moved, I had a nice little collection on the wall in my bedroom. But since we've moved, I've decided that I want to do something more artistic with them than simply tack them up. I'm thinking about making a 'coffee table book' for the living room and scrap-booking all of them into that.
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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i should add that your little profile pic looks a little like something my best friend , now an Art major, drew in high school, i am guessing you are also a sort of artistic person. you know, that is true genius, the artists, they have unlimited creativitiy. but genius comes in all different fields, colors, shapes and sizes :)
Above All - Do no harm
I'm not sure where the picture came from. It's called Gaia's Tears. I came across it somewhere one day and really liked it. And I'm not at all artistically inclined. I can write, but that's as far as my abilities go. Painting, drawing, sculpting, playing musical instruments... I can't do any of those
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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aah, so you're sort of like me, sometimes i wonder how i ended up with a best friend who is awesome at all those things you listed but that's human nature and personalities for us,
it's just weird and cool but i like art to an extent when we use words to state our ideas and paper or whatever we use is our canvas while they can just express is with paint or something and they don't need actaul words and then anyone, anywhere in the world can relate to art but with words in a certain language you have to translate and then the meaning sort of gets lost.
regardless i am a wordy person too
Above All - Do no harm
I wouldn't say the meaning gets lost in all writing. Poetry is my personal favorite. I get a lot of emails and notes from people saying they read this or that poem and it really struck a chord with them. Quite often what they took away from the poem isn't the same as what it meant to me or for me when I wrote it and that's part of the beauty of it I suppose. You can sit down with a piece of poetry and come away with something you didn't have before. It doesn't matter if what you end up with is the same as what the author intended (at least from the boat in which I write). All that really matters if that you were able to take something away that meant something to you personally.
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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i actually commmented on and was thinking of urdu poetry written by Iqbal
his really intense and deep poetry can actually only be fully appreciated in the language that it was written and there has been such great translations done of him and his works that even i am awed
but then i have read the actual works because fortunately i can still read and write urdu---
and in urdu, it is 100, 000 times better and in that sense i feel awful that he isn't alive to actually write it and translate it to so the actual meaning he wanted to express does not get lost.
"Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right."
all truths are easy to understand once discovered; the point is to discover them ~galileo
very very true, i am guilty of this! which is sad because i consider myself a creative person. thanks for inspiring me
This is very true...Thanks for writting such an honest and original blog
Well put, I am a new blogger here, but I already find that I enoy the posts that are original and show a lot of thought better than reading the same general post 20 times.
Writing about issues that piss you off is also a good way to write creative things. Generally, if you're pissed off about something you're pretty passionate about it. Some of my best blogs are the ones where things really piss me off. Its really true when we say blog about something you care about. Recycling other people's blog ideas is annoying and shady. Don't Do It! Just look at Fallon's blog here. Its about how people repost the same blog one after another which pissed her off and now its on the top rated.
"Its all very well in practice but it will never work in theory."
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/daimler
ok, i've never blogged before but thought i'd give it a try. i don't really know what to do though...do i just write about something random?? would you mind giving me like a helpful pointer at how to start this??:)
Write about something that interests you. If it's something you don't really care about, it's generally obvious and boring to read. Look at some of the other blogs that are doing really well reader wise and see what they're talking about. Does that spark any ideas for you? Did you hear something on the news that pissed you off? What are you majoring in (or planning to major in) and what's the latest about that particular area (is there a debate about ethics in journalism and why is it such a big deal for instance? why are so many CJ focused groups rallying against capital punishment?) Anything that interests you and has a point beyond "my life sucks" or "here's how my day went", that is well written and thought provoking I'll read and generally comment on!
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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I haven't seen any blogs like mine yet and I think it's pretty creative. But what do you think? I want my blog to get a little more attention than it's been getting, so any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.
Good content. You might think about breaking the long paragraph into shorter paragraphs. Content is only half the battle, the rest is presentation. Users really dislike even moderately long paragraphs.
With so many new posts coming in, they often get lost in the recent list. Don't take it personal when your posts don't get a lot of attention right away. Keep blogging and commenting on other blogs. The more your name is out there, the more people will take an interest in your blogs.
And utilize the Buddy List if you haven't started using that yet. That is one thing that a lot of veteran ProU users go for first. If someone on their buddy list has written a new post, they tend to read those first because those people are on the buddy list for a reason (generally because one likes another's style, etc). And as new users get more familiar with the site, they tend to go for those buddy posts first as well.
Keep blogging! You've got a good start!
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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Nothing is more annoying than seeing several different articles about the EXACT same thing. If nothing else write it and than post it a different day. There's an easy solution for you.
Well yeah. WHen one person reads a topic there own story pops into their mind and they just have to write. If they want to write, let them write.
We aren't stopping them from writing it, just saying that it's not going to help one win the contest to write what we've just read.
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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WHOA, I should have read your blog before I posted my first one. I definitely didn't think anyone else would have had the exact same experience as mine. Your's is really helpful by the way.
What's been annoying me is the sudden burst in short, very pointless blogs that really have nothing to say at all. Though, I must say that I have noticed those that you are talking about. Creativity is important...If it's something new it's more interesting to read, as well. But whatever it is, it should be substantial and have some sort of point...very few people are going to want to read it otherwise.
Anyway...that was my minirant... :)
Peace
Tahni
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"Tell me - if no one ever hears what you say, then why don't you shout it?" -- Floater
Everything you said is very true. I have been trying to come up with new things and ideas to blog about myself. I don't like doing what everyone else is.
Reach for your Dreams!
KDragos
seems to me everyone is here in competition and everyone is guilty of the same thing even u. So, i guess its all on how you want to look at it?
Not everyone here is in the contest, myself included. I'm a moderator therefore not eligible for the contest. One can take or leave the advice as one will. I just thought since I had been around that particular block for the past year, I'd give the advice that makes the difference between winning and not even making the top 25.
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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You're always so effective and have great advice, and topics to write about! How do you have the time, and what's your technique to your bountiful blogs and replies to comments?! You're amazing fallon!
Thanks dear. I wouldn't really say I have a technique though. I'm at the computer 8-14 hours a day, 6 days a week writing, doing school work, and organizing staff members, campaigns and such for the two organizations i volunteer with, so ProU is my sanity saver. When my mind starts drifting from what I'm working on, I get up from the computer and tinker around, play with the boys or refresh ProU to see what's happening and spend a few minutes puttering around here. I have two monitors (makes life so much easier) so a lot of the time, I'll have one project up and going on one screen and am replying or scanning blogs on ProU on the other.
As for writing, if it isn't something you feel passionate about, have a lot of curiosity over, etc... it's not worth writing. If it can't totally divert my attention from the story I'm working on, I don't finish writing it nine times out of ten. And I have realized that moving from writing that difficult scene to writing something for ProU makes it easier for me to then go back and finish that scene because instead of obsessing over it and beating my head on the keyboard, I just switch gears and forget about it for a while to concentrate totally on something else. You can tell when my other writing is going well and when it isn't based on the number of new posts I put up here.
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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Oh dear I always wondered how you did so much writing. Those are alot of hours to spend at a computer terminal (or two as the case maybe).
Do you ever find time to be healthy or excersise? I would really dislike to lose such a healthy mind to soon.
~Me
all truths are easy to understand once discovered; the point is to discover them ~galileo
I go to the resident gym twice a week for 45 minutes. I also chase Kaia (nephew) around the house everyday, and we try to swim at least once a week. And when I can work up the motivation to do so, he and I do Yoga or Tai Chi (watching a three year old attempt that is hysterical) or I take him walking on the trail across from the apartment to investigate the trains.
I'm not at the computer 8-14 hours straight; that's just all told throughout the day. I'll sit down for an hour or two, and then get up and go do something else for a while and come back. I have nightmares a lot so don't sleep as much as I probably should.
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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Pro U gives me nightmares too...okay pobably a dumb joke but at least you are not chair glued and I am glad.
all truths are easy to understand once discovered; the point is to discover them ~galileo
As a new writer I have selected some original topics. I just need the extra encouragement to know that I don't have to follow the sheep. So baaaaaaa to the followers I will have some fresh topics.
Tiffany Southall signing out by keeping you up-to-date.
Thanks for posting this. I realize that I need to write meaningful blogs so im not jsut wasting my time here.
Thank you for writing this blog because I'm starting to run out of things to blog about.
This must have been very helpful for many people
This was very good, so I hope more and more new people to the site will find this post.
I actually do write down comments, observations, or something that starts and idea in my head. Sometimes I create whole lists of topics I want to explore in future blogs. I don't use all of them, but it sure does help to have something handy.
~ *~
Visit my blog! I'll even provide a link for ya:
Comments are always appreciated! :)
Great ideas! I know I am guilty from getting inspiration on other blogs, and the more blogs posted, the more difficult it is to find original topics, but original topics DO exist. Making lists is a great way to prepare for future blogs. You never know what sorts of inspiration can come from everyday conversations.