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Friday, May 28, 2010

If All Else Fails, Forge Ahead!

My blog is not connecting to other sources such as blogcatalog. It's not updating and I'm not getting visitors. I switched to a laptop and this may be contributing to the problems. Unless...There are three other conclusions I may draw from my last blog:
  1. Either the similar name "Work in Progress" kept people away, thinking it was the same blog; (Actually there are two blogs. The first blog by that name, and the second, called: "Work in Progress II.)
  2. or, people didn't like the progress and didn't comment;
  3. or, There are graduations, vacations, etc. and people missed it!
At any rate, I had no visitors from blogcatalog to "Work in Progress II" and none from the usual people who visit. Feedback is so important! When you don't get feedback, you assume the worse. Feedback also tells me when I'm on track or off course.

So the subject of this blog is: Feedback! (Did you guess?)  Feedback is lifeblood to the artist. We sometimes call it critique (although it can be brutal!). Simply put, feedback provides guidelines, suggestions, and commentary when needed. Without feedback, an artist can get lost in a forest of zealous brushstrokes, vivid colors, and impulses that may be labeled "inspiration" when they're not. Feedback holds an artist's feet to the fire and keeps him or grounded.
Hot air balloons are wonderful! They sail upward in a flurry of color and they give you a sense of power and freedom. But if you don't observe the rules, the experience can become an overheated blast of hot air that comes dangerously close to disaster.

I've had a semi-love affair with hot air balloons. It began years ago in Kansas City when I saw my first festival. Now every chance I get, I see a show if there's one in our area. Balloonists are fun people. I even watched a couple get married in a field where hundreds of balloons awaited their scheduled flight. Everyone who attended, and all who participated in that event joined the wedding party. After the couple said "I do," they climbed into their balloon and lifted off with hundreds of others. What a sight!

So if I get too far afield on my hot air balloon (my art journey), don't hesitate to give me feedback. I'm just sayin'!

7 comments:

  1. An old friend of my wife's had a hot air balloon ride as part of her wedding ceremony. It was quite spectacular. "If all else fails, forge ahead!" is definitely the right attitude.

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  2. Carol, your blog is updating just fine as far as I can tell. Maybe people are just using their RSS readers to follow your updates (and thus not showing up in your visitor stats).

    Your RSS settings are on "full feed," which means that your entire post appears in the RSS reader ... so people don't actually have to visit your site (and thus get counted in visitor stats) unless they want to leave a comment.

    You could change your RSS settings to "partial feed" so that only a few lines of the post show in RSS. That forces people to click Read More and go to your site (and thus get counted in stats).

    But now that I exclusively read blogs through RSS, I really prefer full feeds so I get the whole post in once glance through my RSS reader. It's ironic that we all spend so much time on formatting, etc. and yet I hardly go to anyone's actual blog anymore. I just read the text summary in the reader because I just want to keep up with what folks have to say as quickly as possible and move on to the next blog on my list.

    I assume that many folks do the same, so don't rely on the # of comments you get (or even visitor stats) to assess your blogging success. Also, keep in mind that when you have slide shows and info in your sidebar, people who use readers will never see that content unless your remind them (in a post) that they're there.

    RSS readers, I guess, are a bane for blog writers and boon for blog readers. LOL

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  3. Today I don't have a masthead. I don't know if this is a blogspot problem, or the fact that I have a newer computer???

    I appreciate all of you for taking pity on me and coming to my resue with your comments. I've never been so frustrated with learning a new computer before!

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  4. Why do you say that your blog is not updataing. Everything is OK. I sometime go here, but not all the time put my comment. Perhaps other do the same...

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  5. Hi, Robert. The blogcatalog web master said they had a problem on their end. But I'm having issues with my Security software Norton. They block all my photos, and I can't even see my own Masthead. Bugs me! They won't even let me alter it. Any suggestions?

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  6. Hi Carol,

    My name is Bill Brown. I'm a programmer here at BlogCatalog. Just curious which webmaster mentioned an issue and what it was so I can help fix it.

    Thanks!
    Bill

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  7. Actually, Bill, all problems are resolved except mine. I bought a new computer and for some reason when I go to a web site, I can't see any color or background material. Even my own masthead on this blog is white. I'm not sure how to fix it. I have Norton and they only allow me to do so much. Tomorrow I'll be installing a "Microsoft Office" and I hope this may clear it up. TNX! Any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete