diff --git a/content/2021-12-31-retrospection.org b/content/2021-12-31-retrospection.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..30a836b --- /dev/null +++ b/content/2021-12-31-retrospection.org @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +#+title: December 2021 +#+subtitle: Looking back on my first year of blogging +#+author: TEC +#+date: 2021-12-31 + +Just over eight months ago, I kicked off /This Month in Org/ with an emphatic +announcement of the blog's in the form of a [[file:2021-04-26-Welcome.org][Welcome]] post. If you haven't +guessed, this is the first "blog post" I've ever written. In that /welcome/ post, +I gave my motivation for starting the blog --- essentially to bridge a perceived +gap in information sources between a subscription to the Org project mailing +list, and nothing. + +That is why I thought this blog should exist, but until now I have neglected to +mention what /I/ want to accomplish with it. By starting /TMiO/ I hoped to: ++ Engage more people with the improvements being made to Org[fn:1]. ++ Highlight some of the great work being done by Org[fn:1] contributors. ++ Encourage more people to consider contributing to Org[fn:1]. ++ Foster a stronger sense of an Org[fn:1] community, outside the mailing list. + +Since then, I've effused about Org to the tune of around ten thousand words. We +started off with a fairly dry recount recent changes, which (after initial +feedback) has shifted slightly to try to give more context on the improvements +and how they may be used. In June I even went as far as to make the majority of +the post about pre-existing features (writing Org for LaTeX). +This change has been made to: ++ Try to make the blog posts a little more interesting, and less tedious. ++ Potentially introduce readers to nice features of Org they weren't aware of before. + +We have now arrived at the first crucial question of this post: /How effective +has this blog been in achieving its goals?/ + +Let's start off by looking at engagement. There is no tracking on this site, and +I'm not even counting page views. We could read into Reddit upvotes (which +usually hover around 100-ish per post), but with no strong trend I'm wary of +reading too much into those numbers. What about engendering an interest in +contributing? This is even harder to consider. It is similarly difficult to +judge whether this blog might be helping (even if only a bit) foster a stronger +sense of community. + +Ok, how about the second crucial question: /Moving forwards, what changes should +I make to the style of posts, if any?/ + +Hmmm, this is a prickly one too. Both of these questions suffer from the same +problem --- /I/ can't answer them. Simply put, I need to hear from /you/. Whether it +be in the Reddit comments section, or by Email (=tec@= this domain), to direct +2022's posts I am /very/ interested in hearing your thoughts on: ++ How engaging you've found this blog? (the content, the style of writing, etc.) ++ Whether this blog has influenced your feelings on the Org project and/or community? ++ Whether this blog has affected your thoughts on contributing to Org? ++ What you think this blog has done well/badly over the past year? ++ If there's anything you'd be interested in this blog doing differently in 2022? + +That's all for now! Thank you for reading, and have a great new year 🙂 + +* Footnotes + +[fn:1] Both the org-mode codebase, and also the ecosystem that's sprung up +around it