The Scoop

Yesterday I asked for your thoughts about the Blog Party. Several of you responded, and it seems like for the most part we're on the same wavelength. I'd still like to hear more thoughts so continue to respond, but for now here's the scoop on what I think:

1) I think Monday or any weekday other than a Friday would be good. Monday was my initial thought because I'd have Sunday to prepare my contribution, but it's something I could always write on the weekend and save for the given day. Perhaps my next party will be a Tuesday or a Wednesday.

2) Something about breaking a topic down in to a list appeals to me, and I think makes it more attractive to people. There's some “quiz” mentality left over from school years that I think compels us to answer. It's also very hard to narrow a “favorites” question down to just one, but some of the ideas I have will take other forms outside of lists as well.

3) False. Holidays are too few and far between(an aspect of life that makes me want to curl up and go to sleep sometimes). As readership increases and hopefully becomes global, it's also not fair to use holidays that are only occurring in my immediate vicinity.

4) I'm thinking about a week too, so long as there's a weekend in between to give people time to write. It should be far enough in advance to give people a chance to think about it and announce it on their own blogs, but not so far that people forget or the event becomes anticlimactic.

5) Two weeks apart is my thought too, for several reasons. It takes time to prepare between events, it leaves room for other bloggers to be hosts, and I have other things to write about. If I held them too close together I think I'd risk it becoming gimmicky or falling into a rut of being the “blog party blog”. As it is, several topics that have occurred to me at work this week are sitting in my inbox where I've e-mailed myself reminders to tackle them after I'm done polling.

6) I still encourage comments for the “live” aspect, so readers can visit the other blogs without waiting for the afterparty. However, since comments proved unreliable the last time, I'll definitely provide an e-mail address as back-up.

7) The host's should go up first, and I think the night before might be the best route(especially when most mornings I'm taking too long to get out the door and get to work too.) If I do post in the morning it will be early, before 8AM.

And there you have it. Please continue to share your thoughts on this topic. Tune in tomorrow when I resume “normal” non-BlogParty-related blogging. It should be a good one....