Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - ,, 17 comments

Come Along ... If You Want

Only eight more days left of the National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) challenge!  Actually, it hasn't been nearly as tough as I thought it might be. While every post hasn't necessarily been the height of literary greatness, overall, I think that the content has been pretty solid. I'm really enjoying the experience.

Apparently, one significant thing happened to the whole NaBloPoMo franchise this month.  It relocated or was incorporated into BlogHer, a website/platform/whatever whose focus is to promote women bloggers. Their vision statement is:
To create opportunities for women who blog to gain exposure, education, community and economic empowerment
And you know what, that's great. I have no issue with supporting and empowering women. What I don't understand is why this is the place to host NaBloPoMo?  Is this now a "female" event? Should it really be FeNaBloPoMo?

Are men excluded from participating? No, not exactly. In the kickoff post for November, we are told, "Yes, men are always welcome on BlogHer."  That's fine in theory, but in reality, I find male voices conspicuous by their absence.

This month I have seen one, one male participant, who acknowledges that he may be the only man playing this month. That doesn't mean that there aren't others, but it can't be many.

It's like a woman going out for a night on the town with the girls, and turning to her guy and saying, "Come along ... if you want." It appears that it's an invitation that many men have been quite willing to refuse.

One of the things that I wanted to do during this challenge is expand my blog circle. As mentioned on Vinny Bond's blog last Friday, many of the people on my blog roll aren't as active or as interested in blogging as they used to be. The prolific posting during this monthly challenge proves that there are plenty of people out there who are active, but I'd like to hear from some men too.

I think that BlogHer is great, and I think that NaBloPoMo is great. I just don't think that they're great together.

It almost seems ungrateful for me to be complaining about this. After all, according to my stats, I've had over 3300 "reads" of my posts since the beginning of the month. That's almost half as many as I've had on this blog for over 3 years.

I've had a featured NaBloPoMo post (which provided over 1100 of those reads). Moreover,  my post from yesterday is/was listed as the featured sports story on the home page for the whole BlogHer website (of which NaBloPoMo is only a small part).

Let me be clear in saying that I am very grateful and honored by the exposure that I've had at BlogHer. All I'm just sayin' is it would be nice to have more men in this month's NaBloPoMo.

17 comments:

I could not agree with you more! When the whole shift happened I thought to myself: "Really? Blogher?" I feel like NaBloPoMo is deserving of its own site...one with no other affiliations. I, too, am grateful for the exposure I have gained, but I feel sorry for the men who would probably not get featured posts, or who might not want to be bothered to join a site with a distinct female focus.

Maybe it's that whole verbal debate about male/female communication. I know that if I don't pose the right question to my sons and husband I won't get information. My daughter, however, is a stream-of-consciousness chatterbox.

Is it more difficult for men to do a daily blog not related to a theme (sports, politics, business) than it is for women?

Krista: Yeah, it's unfortunate.

Joy: I don't know about the theme vs. "niche-less" thing, but NaBloPoMo does not prohibit themed blogs. They have all those categories in their link headings. And believe you me, there are tons of men out there who have a lot to say, they're just not participating on this female themed website. I'm also cross-posting this post on that site. It'll be interesting to see what kind of feedback that I get over there.

Hmmmm. Seems an odd pairing to me. An event that encourages bloggers to post every day for a month combined with a site that actively promotes the female blogging voice.

I respect both ideas, but I'm not certain they necessarily enhance each other.

I'm a man and I'll admit I felt a bit uncomfortable registering at blogher. I guess my discomfort was outweighed by my desire to participate in nablopomo.

I'm a new blogger and didn't realize it wasn't originally a BlogHer concept. I would have to agree it doesn't really seem to encourage male participation by having it hosted by a female community.I know many men who could blog every day! About tech, sports, the ocean (I'm in Hawaii), cooking....the list goes on and on.

Tangent but...the other suggestion I would make it to not have it during the same month as NaNoWriMo. I know that was kind of the point of the whole thing but so many bloggers are aspiring writers too. I personally would love to do a different kind of challenge each month. I generally blog daily anyhow but taking say, every weekend off during NaNoWriMo might have made the difference for me.

Travis: Exactly.

Doc: Well, I can't tell you how glad I am that you stopped by! Now, I know that there are at least two of the gentlemen gender. I'm glad that you were able to overcome the discomfort. :) And congrats on 10 years. ;)

Maui: It might interest you to know that they now do a NaBloPoMo every month. Nov is still the most popular and the only month I know of with prizes, but for purely exercise purposes, one can sign up any month.

I agree! And now I'm going to read more, and see what you had featured on BlogHer (congrats!) And congrats on keeping up with NaBloPoMo - it's been a challenge!

Jenn: And congratulations to you too. And I see that you've been ill as well. Hope you are feeling better. :)

Oh, wow. It actually let me post. The last couple of times I tried to comment on your blog, Blogger was feeling disagreeable.

Stacey: I'm sorry that blogger was thwarting you. I hate it when computers aren't feeling well. ;)

I definitely think something that started out as a project for ALL bloggers shouldn't be sucked up into something that is really only for women regardless of what they say

I'm going to check out BlogHer again but I think I did and I think I didn't like that there seemed to be constraints on content BUT I could be confusing this with something else.

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and Hope says not to be scared of all the Homer stuff, it belongs to her Daddy. He collects.

Dianne: That's a relief. For a minute there I was afraid that the Homer Simpson clones were taking over the earth. :P :D

I really don't know anything about the project but BlogHer looks like an interesting site. I can't imagine ever being able to blog every day, though, and am rather jealous of those who can. LOL

Lisa: Actually, it is a great site. I wanted to do it for the discipline of it. And also a way to balance out the scales for my non-posting for the last two years. I wanted it to become more of my regular routine. While you have enough on your plate. ;)

I'm still very impressed that you can be so disciplined. :)

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