things you should never say on a blog

We celebrated the third anniversary of the rose city journal blog last month, which is something of a milestone. The elusive Panther, also known as Vin, also known to Blogger users as the Lord King God of all Blogger Help issues, told me once that he liked the “organic” nature of this blog. Because it wasn’t started to make money. It was started to reveal more about the area of the country where I was living. To talk tourism, and to share information about music, festivals and other events. However.

A couple of what another blogger termed “highly personal” blogs and a raft of comments, and I found my niche: a mix of local happenings, yeah, but also some “other” stuff mixed in. Because apparently, I just don’t have the discipline to talk only of things related to the region. It’s cool. I’m happy with the blog as a whole and rather surprised that I have so many posts now.

Over the years, I have sometimes met people who read the blog, which always makes me stop and wonder: What exactly have you read on the blog? Are you, right now, remembering something that I wrote? Something really embarrassing? Or just slightly quirky?

And I’ve learned a few things over the past three years. Like some things that you should never say in a blog:

“I like giving gifts.”

“I still have your t-shirt.”

“I fall in love a lot.”

I’ve had some interesting input from the readers, too. This, as it turns out, is really the best part of the blog- hearing from you.

Most surprising comment from a reader: “I read posts from your blog to my seminary students.” We can only assume that they filter for content.

Funniest comment from a reader: “I hate it when people start blogs and then just write about whatever they want.” Move along, son; there’s nothing for you here.

Most “ouch, ya got me” comment from a (long-time) reader. “I don’t know if I would have posted that about your ex-friend. Maybe you should just talk to her, instead.” - A comment that actually resulted in my deleting a blog post, something I’ve only done three times in three years. Each time, I worried that something I wrote might offend someone (the wrong someone), so I removed the post in question. Otherwise, no regrets.

Moving into a New Year, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your readership. You keep me on the straight and narrow.

Well, you keep me on the narrow.

Best Wishes for the New Year, dear readers.