This week, Dr. Tanya, over at Blogging Insights, wants to know…
How do you think a blogger can inspire others in the blogosphere?
First, let me apologize for my cynical mood today, but with being surrounded by wildfires and air that is extremely unhealthy, with temperatures still ranging from the upper 90s to the low 100s, with COVID-19 still raging, with Donald Trump and his cronies still trying to destroy America, and with WordPress forcing us to use its convoluted block editor whether we want to or not, I’m not a happy camper.
Now, about how to inspire other bloggers, let me first say that, when I first starting blogging in 2005, I didn’t realize that inspiring other bloggers was part of the job description. My goal was simply to have a platform to express myself. But I have since learned that we all, at times, need someone or something to help us get our creative juices flowing.
My first experience with prompts came from Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday and Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompts. Also from Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers and Kat Myrman’s Twittering Tales. And, of course, from the WordPress Daily Post before they shitcanned it at the end of May 2018. And that was when I started my own daily prompt, FOWC with Fandango — to help inspire myself and other bloggers.
From there, I added four other prompts that I hoped would help other bloggers find inspiration. I was thrilled with the reception to my various prompts and enjoyed seeing the amazing responses from other bloggers when I read their posts.
Sadly, as I recently wrote here, the thrill is gone and I’m contemplating stopping most of my prompts and possibly even halting my blog entirely. While I haven’t lost my inspiration for blogging, I am just not into having to learn a whole new paradigm, particularly one that is not optimized to work on a smartphone, which is my device of choice for blogging. Trying to do so (use the block editor on my iPhone) is burdensome and just not fun.
Today, for example, I was attempting to use the classic block of the block editor to write this post, but right in the middle of writing it on my iPhone, I saved it, previewed it, and after seeing that it looked good so far, I closed the preview. But the editing screen that opened when my preview page shut down, was blank. No text, no images. Nothing. So I had to go to my laptop, boot it up, and sign into WordPress, hoping that the draft was actually saved.
Fortunately, it was there on my laptop. And I discovered that using the block editor on a laptop is, in fact, a whole lot easier than using it on an iPhone, which is close to impossible.
But you may recall that last week’s Fandango’s Provocative Question post asked, “Do we control technology or is technology controlling us?” Well, in this case, I think technology is controlling us. I don’t want to change my blogging habits from using my iPhone, which I’ve been doing very successfully since I started this blog in 2017, to having to use my laptop in order to be able to post using the “new and improved” editor that WordPress has foisted upon us.
Okay, rant is over. I’m sorry, Dr. Tanya, for answering your very excellent question in this manner, but as I said, I’m not a happy camper right now.
This, That, and the Other 
I do hope you guys get some heavy rain before everything gets burned.
I still hope the prompts dont stop and that you find a way to enjoy the blocks too.
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I actually finished this post using the block editor on my laptop when it just disappeared from my iPhone and it’s much easier to use on a laptop than on an iPhone. But I don’t want to have to always use my laptop for blogging. So it’s a conundrum for me.
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What a pain in the but that it vanished like that! Yeah, you don’t want to have to lug your laptop everywhere do you.
I cant believe they didn’t optimize blocks for I-phones too as many use them to work on. Its so frustrating for you.
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Yes it is. Now I just have to figure out my next steps.
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Yeah, well dont struggle if you cant do it, just stop its not worth getting stressed over, We’ll just have to miss you.
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Sorry to hear of all your serious woes. I hope you manage to come through the fires and everything else unscathed.
I’m not looking forward to the new editor, but at least I don’t blog from a phone. I do hope you’ll stick around.
Take care, my friend. ❤
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Thanks, Linda.
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I think I’d be pissed off with all that going on. But I do hope you can find a way to stay. I for one would miss you, but understand about the bloody edutor.
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I’m trying to figure out if I can stay, but the jury is still out.
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I know how you feel. Will miss you so much if you go.
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I don’t blame you for feeling unhappy about the new WordPress editor. Everyone is highly dissatisfied with it but that fact doesn’t seem to have gotten through to the WordPress peeps
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I am still using the classic editor.
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Lucky you!
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Well, I think as far as inspiration it is okay to show that no every day is a good day. There are days that blogging is not fun. I think that new bloggers, because I am fairly new and remember, view the daily bloggers as really into it all and although no one here “hates” blogging, I am sure everyone has a day or two or three that blogging is not on the menu.
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These wild fires are really a cause for concern. Hope it rains and at least one of worries can be taken care of. I still am using the classic editor on my iPhone. If you use the app to write, you can( till now) disable the block editor in settings.
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I’ve never been a fan of the editor in the iOS app, which is why I use the Chrome or Safari browser. But I may have to revisit the iOS app editor if it still supports the classic editor. Thanks.
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I find it easy to use. I hope they continue with this option.
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I actually wrote my last post using it. It’s not great, but it sure beats the block editor.
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It sure does. I just hope they don’t mess it up too.
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BTW, it rarely rains in NoCal during the summer. It’s the dry season.
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That is a bummer.
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Peeps have been writing to WP and complaining about the BE. Supposedly, they are considering our opinions…
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Your blog is one of the very few that I specifically look for each time I’m on WP to read. I will be very disappointed if you don’t hang around (maybe just blog and take a break from creating prompts?)
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Thanks, KC. That’s very nice of you to say that. I will be making a decision probably by the end of the month, but if I stick around, I will be posting less often and will likely drop a few prompts.
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I feel for you with the wildfires. I know what living with all that smoke is like from when we had the fires in the Huon Valley the last summer I was there.
Between that, your idiot President and WordPress I’m not surprised you are feeling down. You could probably use a break. Maybe when two of those things have improved you’ll feel better about the Block Editor.
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I hope so.
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You’ve given a face to the grassroots ‘movement’ against that damned editor and that’s inspiring to me!! Finding perspective is a big part of inspiration for me and you’ve done that admirably. I hope you find a workable middle ground, because if/when you go, those are great huge shoes fill and I don’t think anyone else can really do it like you. Because you’re unique. The laptop sounds like a good compromise, but I have to agree with you. Why change something you enjoyed for something ‘that will do’?
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Thanks for all of those kind words, Melanie. I’m hoping, too, that I’ll be able to figure out a way to continue with my blog.
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I guess I’m lucky I never worked from a phone. My problem with the block editor is that I don’t like what it does. It lacks subtlety. It’s all in your face and regardless of being told (repeatedly) that I’m just unwilling to “try something new,” I know exactly how a block editor works having used one to design books for years.
That was WORK. This is NOT work. For what I do, I don’t need blocks of primary colors to emphasize what I say. Italics will do just fine. I spend a ghastly amount of time blogging already. I don’t need to make it more complicated. I’ve been looking at reducing the amount of time I spend at it, not expanding it.
If you are going to slither away, please wait until after the election. I don’t know what I’m going to do either. If they don’t make this even more complicated, I’ll do what I do as simply as I can because writing is what I do and where else can I show photographs? But I think I’ve been pushed as far as I can be pushed.
Have you considered an iPad rather than a phone? Might that not be easier? I’m using the Old Old Old format from the dashboard and aside from the constant being dropped for frozen out of WP’s servers, it does the job. Not elegantly, but using my current template, it looks a lot fancier than it really is.
I just wish there was another viable platform. If there were, I’d be there.
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I’ve thought about an iPad, but it’s too big to fit in my back pocket and to have it with me at all times. It may sound rigid, but I’ve been successfully blogging from my iPhone for the past three years and resent WordPress forcing me to change devices to keep blogging the way I prefer to.
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I hope the people at the top start to take notice of how unpopular this new block editor is before we lose all the great bloggers.
I have been trying to keep up with the news… are they making any progress on containing any of the wildfires near you. I know the last map I saw looked terrible. Stay safe!
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They are still pretty bad and there are many of them. The air quality is still hazardous.
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Stay inside as much as you can… stay safe!
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