Discussions yes, blogs no?

[F, Calla & Luca]

It seems that Adina is concerned that sometimes the blog format is used when a discussion would be more appropriate. This has led her to screen blogs, a time consuming task and a delay in publishing blogs.Yet Adina is reluctant to do away with blogs because of the archived blogs we have, 2500 versus nearly 8,000 discussions. Why not consider just keeping the archives but not having blogs going forward? People could still tell anecdotes and blog-like things in a discussion format. If a response about something in the original post, or to something someone else has said came up it always works best in this format. There is no way to do that in a blog and the meaning of a response is sometimes unclear in terms of to whom you are responding or even what you are trying to convey. You can edit your response in a limited time frame in a discussion. All in all, it seems to me that the discussion format is the better one and I think we don't need the blog format. It is possible that there may be a technical reason this won't work but it seems a note indicating that all future posts should be discussion would solve this. What do you think?

[Adina P]

Either we have blogs or we don't. I can't put them on future hold. I can remove the Blog tab entirely and THEN I believe they are only visible on member pages...but there will still be people who post blogs only nobody will see their post and then they'll feel like nobody cares. So...blogs are staying and if/when it becomes cumbersome to check I will quit moderating them. The delay in publishing blogs is a mere minutes to within the hour usually. It's not uncommon for there to be moderation in such things and thus a delay. Anything that is a true emergency needs a vet call.

[Wendy and Eddie]

Is a future hold like a flash sideways?

[Adina P]

Hee heee :)

[F, Calla & Luca]

Had to look this up. I gave up on lost last year when it became just too weird for me.

[Missi]

Keep the blogs!! :-) I know Adina already said they were staying, but I like to do photo blogs, or anecdotes and whatnot that blogs provide. I know it's a niche, but I enjoy them! They are rarely controversial and usually entertaining! Keep 'em!

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I don't care as long as I can still brag about Peri (LOL). But really, if it gets to burdensome for Adina, it doesn't matter. Only good thing about the blogs is that they are not as controversial - as Missi says - you can't go back and forth and reply within.

[F, Calla & Luca]

The Dried chicken breast discussion http://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/dried-chicken-breast is a good example of what I am trying to say. I ordinarily would have written a blog but I wrote a discussion instead. Now people are commenting and replying to one another. As it should be, I think.

[Adina P]

I think putting that chicken breast in the forum was the correct thing to do. You are trying to get everyone's attention with some helpful info...so you bring it to the community forum. Sounds good to me.

[F, Calla & Luca]

There is no reason they couldn't continue to do so, just that all postings would be in the discussion format. The content of the original post could be anything . No need to worry whether a blog or discussion would be appropriate. The responses could be more interactive and the thread of the responses more readily followed. I think that would be better but I didn't know what people in general would think so I asked. But I hope everyone understands that I don't mean that people couldn't write about their dogs or themselves, etc.

[Camilla and Darwin]

I would probably worry about everyone being annoyed that I am junking up the forum with silly stories about Darwin. That's why I like a blog... I don't feel as though I'm annoying anyone with the fun little things I like to write about. I agree that it would be fun to have more advice/discussion on blog posts... but do you think people would be irritated at all of the non-discussion type posts?

[BG and Gavin]

I feel the same way. I don't worry about being long winded and prattling on in a blog while I try to be a bit more succinct and to the point in a discussion, particularly if I am looking for solutions to a problem.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I hear you but people could glance at a discussion and skip it if they are not interested. Or maybe there could be a separate category of personal discussions?