A New Kid On The Block

There's a new kid on the block and I'm beginning to think it is having a profound impact on the local blogging community. Prior to the arrival of INWBA the 800 pound gorilla has been Huckleberries, a site run by an associate editor of the Spokane, WA Spokesman Review. The format is more like a chat room in that the exchange is often instantaneous and covers a large amount of subject matter. I've been a part of it almost since day one and find it fun - probably because my blog is often one of the "local blogs of the day".

Then a couple of friends had a brainstorm. Would a site for an association of bloggers, with the purpose of promoting blogging and bloggers, fly? Well, it has. It is growing like topsy. Still in beta, new features are always being tried while computer illiterates like me try to keep up. Fortunately they are my friends and have infinite patience with me!

What is particularly interesting to me is the bloggers who have joined with INWBA seem to be the more sedate and thoughtful of the local blogging community. As I watch this shift I find the content on Huckleberries to be more edgy than it had been and in some cases more than many of us are comfortable with. I think it is probably a generational thing in many respects. We older folks still have it in our heads that some restraint is prudent not to mention expeditious.

I watch these changes as I rethink where I want to go with my own blogging. My intent has always been to encourage thought before forming concrete opinions. And to have some fun. I don't think I've been particularly successful with the first and the second has gone by the wayside more than I've cared to experience.

So I'm going to sit back for a bit, post when something strikes my fancy or hits my hot button but no more crusades. I'll leave that to those who may actually have some clout.

That's what has come from three weeks away from the keyboard. Ah, spring. A time for new beginnings.