Thoughts on Teknolohiya; Farewell for Now
Having heard the latest Inside the Net podcast where Leo and Amber have an incredible interview with Merlin Mann of 43folders.com, it got me to thinking a whole lot about Teknolohiya - what it is now, what I had originally set out to do, and where it's going. It's no secret that I'm severely lacking in posts, am barely able to keep up with my daily tech fix, and slowly slipping from my position at the forefront of technological development. There's a million and one excuses I can give to why this has happened, but something said in the podcast really hit me. It's gotten to be a grind, and it's seriously not fun anymore - so much so that I'm actually afraid of checking the news wires these days for fear that I'd find something post-worthy, yet not be able to for one reason or another. And I hate it, I really do. It used to be that I'd wake up, go through my feeds and be content knowing that I'm on top of my game, still the tech guy among my friends, still knowing my stuff better than anybody else. Now, just seeing my bookmarked sites in Firefox makes me cringe, because I know I can't look at them, can't afford to see something new or interesting because I don't have time to post about it. So I lose the post. Lose a valuable and interesting piece of information that on any other day I would have just devoured, and that would be it. Teknolohiya has become a huge responsibility, and I hate that it's now more of a burden than anything.
It's been seven months and 359 posts that Teknolohiya has stayed online, with this being the 360th, and honestly, I don't like what's happened to it. I hate that this is just another link site, just another tech blog that repurposes what other more capable sites are already posting. I hate that my original content like tutorials and editorials are less than ten percent of my total posts. I hate being a nobody; I mean, I'm already a nobody to most of you by just being some name on the Internet, and now I'm slowly becoming a nonexistent nobody by merely rehashing news items already available elsewhere and having fewer and fewer posts as the days have gone by. Even worse, I hate having to apologize for the lack of them. Sure I've had my good days and I've always put my own spin on news stories, but how many ways can one look at the same statistics, the same empirical information? I'm not that prolific a writer that I can make mountains out of molehills every time. At the core of things, I'm just a techie who can decently put sentences together so non-techies can understand.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that Teknolohiya needs a change. In the same podcast it was mentioned that projects have a natural life cycle; I feel like Teknolohiya has actually died a natural death. But - and this is a really big but - I don't want it to die out completely. I still like talking about tech. I still like writing about it. I still like sharing cool things I find on and offline. I still like the fact that Teknolohiya is my own personal repository of tech tidbits, and it just so happens that a lot of you find it cool as well. But as it were, some things have to die to be reborn, some things have to be lost to be found. And I think that's what's happening to this blog. So what does that all mean? It means that I'm going to have to rethink of a way to make it great again. A starting over, so to speak. A repurposing, a rebranding, just a plain rebirth. There's 14 million blogs out there, and who knows how many are tech-related, so I need to think of a way, to think of a reason why people should visit mine over anybody else's. Teknolohiya needs to find its own voice in the world, but first, it has to lose it.
So what's next for this blog? For starters, a lengthy haitus, or at least a longer one than the one-week breaks I've taken so far. I'm going to be moving to Cebu in a few months to start my life over - both personally and professionally - and I'll definitely have more time to spend writing/blogging there. I figured, what better time to restart Teknolohiya? In the meantime, I'm going to mull over everything I've done so far and see what more I can do to improve on the blog, and how to make it better than ever before when it starts up again. I don't know if that's even possible, but I'll think of something. For you guys, why don't you put in the comments what you've liked about the blog so far, what you haven't (excluding the lack of posts - I hate that too), and what more you'd like to see? Do you want the new version to have shades of the old one, or do you want something completely different? Would you still want to read through my endless drivel, or would you rather I do a podcast and listen to what I have to say instead? I need all the help I can get, so don't be afraid to go crazy with the comments and suggestions. Half of this blog is yours, anyway.
So thus ends the first lifetime of Teknolohiya. I guess now is a good time as any to thank everyone who has supported this blog through seven months and 360 posts, and to reassure all of you that this is hardly an end, but merely a step in a diffrent (and hopefully better) direction. Rest assured that I'll be back healthier, smarter (I'm going to do a ton of reading and learning after I move), and altogether more prepared to tackle tech once I've figured things out. Until then, salamat, at hanggang sa muli.
It's been seven months and 359 posts that Teknolohiya has stayed online, with this being the 360th, and honestly, I don't like what's happened to it. I hate that this is just another link site, just another tech blog that repurposes what other more capable sites are already posting. I hate that my original content like tutorials and editorials are less than ten percent of my total posts. I hate being a nobody; I mean, I'm already a nobody to most of you by just being some name on the Internet, and now I'm slowly becoming a nonexistent nobody by merely rehashing news items already available elsewhere and having fewer and fewer posts as the days have gone by. Even worse, I hate having to apologize for the lack of them. Sure I've had my good days and I've always put my own spin on news stories, but how many ways can one look at the same statistics, the same empirical information? I'm not that prolific a writer that I can make mountains out of molehills every time. At the core of things, I'm just a techie who can decently put sentences together so non-techies can understand.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that Teknolohiya needs a change. In the same podcast it was mentioned that projects have a natural life cycle; I feel like Teknolohiya has actually died a natural death. But - and this is a really big but - I don't want it to die out completely. I still like talking about tech. I still like writing about it. I still like sharing cool things I find on and offline. I still like the fact that Teknolohiya is my own personal repository of tech tidbits, and it just so happens that a lot of you find it cool as well. But as it were, some things have to die to be reborn, some things have to be lost to be found. And I think that's what's happening to this blog. So what does that all mean? It means that I'm going to have to rethink of a way to make it great again. A starting over, so to speak. A repurposing, a rebranding, just a plain rebirth. There's 14 million blogs out there, and who knows how many are tech-related, so I need to think of a way, to think of a reason why people should visit mine over anybody else's. Teknolohiya needs to find its own voice in the world, but first, it has to lose it.
So what's next for this blog? For starters, a lengthy haitus, or at least a longer one than the one-week breaks I've taken so far. I'm going to be moving to Cebu in a few months to start my life over - both personally and professionally - and I'll definitely have more time to spend writing/blogging there. I figured, what better time to restart Teknolohiya? In the meantime, I'm going to mull over everything I've done so far and see what more I can do to improve on the blog, and how to make it better than ever before when it starts up again. I don't know if that's even possible, but I'll think of something. For you guys, why don't you put in the comments what you've liked about the blog so far, what you haven't (excluding the lack of posts - I hate that too), and what more you'd like to see? Do you want the new version to have shades of the old one, or do you want something completely different? Would you still want to read through my endless drivel, or would you rather I do a podcast and listen to what I have to say instead? I need all the help I can get, so don't be afraid to go crazy with the comments and suggestions. Half of this blog is yours, anyway.
So thus ends the first lifetime of Teknolohiya. I guess now is a good time as any to thank everyone who has supported this blog through seven months and 360 posts, and to reassure all of you that this is hardly an end, but merely a step in a diffrent (and hopefully better) direction. Rest assured that I'll be back healthier, smarter (I'm going to do a ton of reading and learning after I move), and altogether more prepared to tackle tech once I've figured things out. Until then, salamat, at hanggang sa muli.