Blogging .. right way or a wrong way on Ex..... open for discussion

[bonniebee]

   My own opinion is  it should be whatever is on ones mind,  if they have the need to share, or vent ,or ask for help, or tell their  story or just  share what is going on in there life or in there quit . It is how i have gotten to know other Ex'ers .

    I don't think there should be rules or comparisons . Sometimes a blog is written so well and is so inspiring that it is  shared to the Best of Ex . I don't think others should feel  intimidated if they cannot "compete " with the Best .  

     I did write many more blogs in my early weeks and months because I needed that daily communication and support. Now I mainly read and comment on the blogs . 

[CommunityAdmin]

AbasKid wrote:

Rant? Vent? I', sure. So if this gets moved or relegated to the trash bin, that's fine.

Nope it's not going to get moved or pushed to the trash bin.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[crazymama_Lori]

a blog is a blog no matter where it is published.  For instance, if you posted this as a blog but you published it under Conversations, if you look on your profile, it's still listed under blogs and it's also still listed as a blog on the home page.  I find it easier to think of discussions as topics to discuss, or add to a category.  If you are writing about COPD, sharing information, you would publish the discussion under the COPD group.  If you are sharing a joke you heard, you would publish the discussion under https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/laughter-is-the-best-medicine‌.

[bonniebee]

I think that is to complicated how many of us have the time to go to so many places ? And because we don't then we miss many nice or important things that were shared . Why so many groups ? If i want something shared in a group I would go there myself and post it there .I barely have the time to read the blogs go to the train and now the cafe  and now add in the pledge conversations discussion and questions Wow I could be here all day and still miss many things !

[crazymama_Lori]

I hear you totally.  I just go to the home page every morning and view the recent active blogs, then click on more at the bottom of those that are listed, hit all content so that I can see everything, and then I filter by either date created first or latest activity first and then I log off.  That way I get everything all in one spot.  When I want to blog as I have always done, then I do and publish it as my personal blog.  I don't worry about sticking it in a certain category because it really doesn't apply to anything.  It's just the flava of the day, that's all

[CommunityAdmin]

BonnieBee.quit.2.8.15 wrote:

I think that is to complicated how many of us have the time to go to so many places ? And because we don't then we miss many nice or important things that were shared . Why so many groups ? If i want something shared in a group I would go there myself and post it there .

Groups were created to get a badge previously.  The idea of a group is great but simply to get a badge, that seemed a little silly.

There used to be over 600 groups. We reduced it down to just over 200 so there wasn't duplication and finding a group that pertained to you might be easier.  All the groups that were copies of other groups were consolidated together and the content from the groups were moved into the consolidated groups.  Some people had reported to us that they wanted to see Groups become valuable again. On Ning, groups were great but on Elgg they were horrible.  We're hoping that Groups become popular again and that people can congregate around topics that interest them.  People who want to share DIY things can go to Creative and Crafty Quitters‌. People who are bartenders can connect with other https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/bartenders?sr=search&searchId=a3775550-02d2-4c03-995c-70a2...‌.  People considering https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/bariatric-surgery?sr=search&searchId=d117fe20-3ee0-48b1-9e...‌ can meet together as well.  In many ways we're all the same but there are also some things about us that other people just wouldn't get.  

Perhaps people from https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/california-quitters?sr=search&searchId=a4a86300-6700-427e-...‌ want to get together.  There are groups for that too if you can't make it to https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/ex-weekend-2017?sr=search&searchId=96f4ab6b-9820-4b7c-8fba...‌.  

These are all opportunities to get people together with similar interests and hopefully help them quit.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[crazymama_Lori]

I didn't realize there were so many groups on here.  you know, and maybe that's the issue that some older members are having.  This is becoming more of a social environment rather than focusing just on smoking, quitting, and staying quit.  Don't get me wrong, I'm discovering more and more on this site every single day.  I'm just the type of person that when I see the same thing repeated and repeated, I want to find the reason behind it first before pointing the person to another direction.  Trying to understand why this is so hard to understand, trying to see the cause of the general problem.  I think what it is, is that we went from a small narrowed focused site to a broad spectrum social site.  I saw that today with your diagram and it finally dawned on me.  I did snoop around on some different groups.  I discovered that if you clicked on the  you can get a short description of what that group is about, which I never knew about

[CommunityAdmin]

 Yeah we added a little description for each group.  This way people can get a sense about what the group is about. It also helps for search if someone is looking for a particular topic it will show up in search results. The descriptions might even get people coming from Google.  

Each of the groups has Tags (aka keywords) so that that will also help match people to a corresponding group.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[Giulia]

This is becoming more of a social environment rather than focusing just on smoking, quitting, and staying quit.

Yup.

[elvan]

I think it can be both, we have the option to comment on what we want to comment on and to be as involved as we want in whatever ways we choose.  I have made really strong friendships on this site, when I first came to the old site, I literally poured my heart out and introduced myself and felt immediately embraced and welcomed.  I felt supported through things that were not all smoking related but certainly could and would have caused me to relapse in the "old" days.  We can say as much or as little as we want and we can make the site just about smoking but the fact is that smoking was part of everything we did and thought, it was part of our social lives, it was connected to everything.  Without addressing any social aspects, the site would be a clinical snooze fest.  It's an adjustment to get used to all of the new things that are here but I never used all of the things on the old site and I am sure I will never get to all of these.  Remember the saying, "Take what you like and leave the rest."  It seems pretty applicable here.

[bonniebee]

I like that reminder " take what you need and leave the rest  " !  I often post that myself ! I did not go everywhere on the old site  either and I rarely went to any groups, I stuck with blogs and comments and the freedom train. I will probably branch out here a bit but not to much for lack of time . My social media time is on another site and I am glad some of my Ex friends are there too ! I like to spend my time here on Ex reading the blogs and commenting to give support and advice to new and old members