Too Many Identities
I have too many online identities. I have this blog, I have the blog I keep for updates on the kids, I have my Flickr account, and I have Ravelry. I represent myself the same in all those places, but for instance, when I post this photo to Flickr
I forget that I am sharing with only a few people who actually follow my photostream over there, and that my readers here have no idea that my new Rose arrived on Monday - just in time for Dizzle's nap, so I got it assembled and spinning right away. It is heavenly, and I am very pleased with my purchase.
This burgeoning of online locales where I can share my photos and even my knitting, without committing to writing a blog post has me wondering how to balance them all. I love being able to quickly share photos (in the case of Flickr) and knitting projects without having to muster the brainpower, or more importantly for me, the time to write a whole post. I love writing here and I would never forgo the blog entirely, but I find myself wondering if Ravelry and Flickr* had been around when I started 3 years ago if I would have skipped the blog thing and used just those. *Yes, Flickr was around 3 years ago, and I even had an account, but it wasn't quite what it is today, and I don't think as much of the spin/knit community was on there as they are now.
What do you all think - has Ravelry changed how you blog? I'm curious to see what will happen to the knitblog community as Ravelry grows and becomes accessible to all.
I forget that I am sharing with only a few people who actually follow my photostream over there, and that my readers here have no idea that my new Rose arrived on Monday - just in time for Dizzle's nap, so I got it assembled and spinning right away. It is heavenly, and I am very pleased with my purchase.
This burgeoning of online locales where I can share my photos and even my knitting, without committing to writing a blog post has me wondering how to balance them all. I love being able to quickly share photos (in the case of Flickr) and knitting projects without having to muster the brainpower, or more importantly for me, the time to write a whole post. I love writing here and I would never forgo the blog entirely, but I find myself wondering if Ravelry and Flickr* had been around when I started 3 years ago if I would have skipped the blog thing and used just those. *Yes, Flickr was around 3 years ago, and I even had an account, but it wasn't quite what it is today, and I don't think as much of the spin/knit community was on there as they are now.
What do you all think - has Ravelry changed how you blog? I'm curious to see what will happen to the knitblog community as Ravelry grows and becomes accessible to all.
posted by Pumpkinmama at Thursday, November 29, 2007
19 Comments:
I don't think Ravelry is a replacement for blogging at all. I like keeping my projects there and I love using the queue for the things I want to knit but I don't find the social networking to be nearly as satisfying as that of my blog.
I don't think Ravelry has changed how I blog, or that it will, but it has changed how I keep track of blogs. I can see bloglines becoming obsolete for me, because I can check on my friends' blogs on Ravelry and see when they update.
I find Ravelry is where I can get teh most info on my projects, because a lot of it is already loaded in the system. But I find my blog is where I talk about the things I am doing inside and outside of knitting. So I doubt I will use Ravelry exclusively. I am more apt to enjoy blogging and more inclined to hate to have to add the info in Ravelry. But then I never blog too much on the info side of the knitting. Just the photo and minimal info.
I think what I like most about blogging is the writing, the story aspect, the progress aspect. Ravelry I don't feel inspired to contribute to very much, and I have no use for Flickr. I want way more than the photos.
I've blogged as much as ever before since joining Ravelry. But, because I've posted new FO's first to Flickr and then to Ravelry, I sometimes forget that I haven't blogged about them. Eventually they hit Ye Olde Blogge, but sometimes there's a lag...
Because of Ravelry, I've stopped having to google certain things. Like, if I want to know if Araucania Nature Wool would work for felted clogs, I used to google and sometimes I'd discover new blogs that way. Now, I just look on Ravelry.
The flip side is that Ravelry also introduced me to new people, and a lot of them have blogs. There's now another layer to the interactions -- inside and outside of Ravelry.
I do like the social network part of Ravelry -- I've never been into MySpace or Facebook, but the forums in Ravelry are clean (i.e. design, not content) and appealing, and interesting to me. I'm not a huge poster, but I do enjoy them.
I have an ongoing debate in my own head about them though -- tons of Ravelry groups have nothing to do with knitting or fiber arts. Does this add to, or take away from, the idea of a knitting, etc. community? (I could say a lot more about this but I won't...)
I also like that the groups feature keep me from having to subscribe to a gazillion Yahoo groups or similar. For example, I want to learn to spin sock yarn, and the Spin To Knit Socks group has had some really good tips. I can check in when I need to, and since it's linked so easily to my profile, I don't forget how to access the info I want.
My blog is a better way for keeping up with friends (local and online) and maintaining these connections, though.
It is true that Ravelry and Flickr have given more options of showing our projects. I do still blog, but that is mostly because it's November.
Congrats on the Rose. I hope mine will come at the beginning of December. Happy Spinning!
Ravelry is research tool for me. I have more things in the mental queue than ever, but I blog less because I'm tres busy, not because of Jess and Casey's little monster.
And by the way, who are you again?
It's an interesting question. I'm feeling the pull of work/family as against anything on-line these days. But, somehow, neglecting Ravelry doesn't feel as bad as neglecting the blog. And use the Rose well -- it's a lovely wheel!
What Carole said. I like it for the information I can organize and search, but I almost never use the social side of it.
I will say, though, that several times I've checked on a yarn I'd never used and messaged the people who had projects made from it, and they were almost all very helpful. That was nice. But really, that was about the information too.
I think they are separate and each have their own advantages. I have noticed that I am getting less comments tho...my subscriptions are up but my comments are down so I gotta think some of that commenting time is now being spent on Ravelry.
Well, I may be alone in this one, but I plan to shut down the ol' blog when Ravelry goes public. It just takes too much time and I feel like its purpose (to connect with some fantastic people who share my interests) has been served. It's like staying on Match.com after your married.
Well, maybe not exactly like that. And maybe I'll change my mind between now and then, but I've been leaning more and more towards that lately.
And what's the deal with this blogger comment thing? I can't put my blog in anymore so you know which of the many Cheryls this is? Grr. When did this start? Seriously, it's like blogger wants me to leave!
Seedstitch cheryl
Very interesting question (and congrats on the new wheel!).
Like many others, I use Ravelry for something different than I get from keeping my blog. I'm just not a forums kind of girl, so I use Ravelry for organization and information retrieval, and the blogs I write and read to keep in touch with people.
I feel like I've totally missed the boat on the whole flickr thing. I only use my account to store photos for Ravelry.
Congrats on the Rose and her arrival!
I was afraid that some people might abandon their blogs with Ravelry. After seeing Cheryl's comment that makes me very sad. Not having a blog I can't really comment only to say I would continue to use it as a tool. I can understand how you feel somewhat fragmented with all the sites you maintain and what to post where and when and all the time it entails.
I am probably the rare person that almost forgets to check Ravelry and usually I only do that on a weekly basis.
I use it much like Carole does...to research and keep track of things, but I still enjoy keeping my blog for the social end of it :-)
First of all, congratulations on the new Rose! I can't wait to see your first yarn come off the new wheel.
As far as the identity issue goes, I have to say that Flickr and Ravelry have definitely reduced my desire to blog. I upload my pictures to Flickr, and then update Ravelry, and by the time I'm done, I've lost interest and don't want to bother with writing out a whole blog post. I can't give up blogging completely, though, because I really do like the socialization aspect of blogging better than Ravelry. I just can't get into reading and posting on those message boards. Too much catfighting. Who has time for that?
And I'm with Cheryl. WTF is up with Blogger's comments? There's no place to put my blog URL anymore. I guess I'll sign off as have you any wool Rachel :)
I don't think that Ravelry replaces blogs. It just doesn't feel as much like a place where you get to know people. I mostly use it to get a better idea of yarn substitutions and how a pattern I'm interested in will look like on different body types from those of the models in the magazines/books.
Very interesting idea. I am excited that Ravelry lets me see what blogless friends (Manise, I am looking at you!) are working on, and maybe it will even turn out to be a gateway to blogging for some of the hold-outs. ;-)
I agree with Beth about seeing blogless friends' projects. I don't think Ravelry replaces blogging for me, but it does distract from it. I'm still figuring out how Ravelry fits into my life.
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