Baumblog EST 1968 - A blog for the Baumbachs who originated in Syracuse, NY

I have been thinking about what this blog has allowed us to accomplish, or not accomplish, depending on which side of whatever debate we come up with :). One thing is for sure, we certainly keep in touch much easier. Everybody's e-mail inbox gets full of junk, so trying to keep a family wide conversation going through e-mail has never worked. This blog, however, has led to some interesting discussions and certainly is a great way for us to keep up with each other. Maybe it's time to take it to the next level.

Uncle Bruce had mentioned setting up a blog for the whole family a while back and at that point, I think we were running on Google's Blogspot and just couldn't imagine the headache it would be to manage such a huge family. But we're in control now, and I think we could come up with some neat solutions for being able to extend this to the whole family, while being able to keep things within immediate families. Features such as allowing posts to be directed at either the whole family or just your immediate family or being able to create Private Posts that would hide the posts from the rest of the world.

This is just a topic starter, I'm interested in opinions and we'll only move forward with this if everybody thinks this is a good idea.

GJ said about 2 hours later

I like the idea, except for this. What happens to the blog when I get bored with it? Who is the predominant poster on the blog?

Some content stats (approximates):

GJ 62.7%
Steve 11.0%
Geoff 8.5%
Kristen 7.6%
Marc 7.6%
Darcy, Eric and Abby combined 2.5%

I'm not bringing this up to gloat. I'm bringing this up because more than once in the past year I've thought that this blog has outlived its novelty. Don't get me wrong, I like it a lot and you and Geoff did a bang up job migrating this out of Google, and you've continued to add new features to it. However, our total posts have been dropping like a rock, too:

2005: 307
2006: 362
2007: 283
2008: 191

For 2009 so far, we're off 2008's numbers by another 25%.

So--I think we need our audience to tell us--do they really like the blog? Do they use it daily? Would they miss it if it went away?

Will more people contribute? Will existing contributors add more content?

What kind of things would you like to see in the blog? What kind of things DON'T you want to see?

Sorry to be a downer--but the numbers have been bugging me for a while. I would love to expand the blog as you discuss above--I'm just afraid it'd be a lot of work for something that just won't get used.
Geoff said about 3 hours later

Even our Blog is in a recession! Marc's suggestion might just be the stimulus plan we need to grow this sucker. With GJ doing most of the posts, of course our stats are down! (Who wants to listen to him gripe anyway?)

jk GJ. Please don't hurt me.

I think this is a great idea myself. We need an easy ability to upload pictures too. I think that would attract at least some interaction for family photos and such (always good topic starters).

Just my 2 cents. I think I'll post something right now to bring my numbers up!
GJ said about 3 hours later

I've been posting at times when traffic on the blog is pathetically low just to keep the lights on. Most are ripped right off of Fark or other aggregators, so for some of you (Marc, Darcy) they probably aren't even new. Still, content and frequency drive traffic, as does variety. And you're right--if it's 100% me, the numbers will go down! I'm a geek, for crying out loud. :)
Marc said about 6 hours later

You bring up a good point GJ, and based on what I see through the admin system, it's fairly obvious the people who check this blog often (The nerds...and by often, I mean like every 30-60 minutes). I'm interested as well in knowing how people check this blog, whether it's just a casual I check it every day at this time, or I check it when I come across it in my bookmarks, or whenever I remember. For me, I've got an RSS reader pinging this sucker every 5 minutes, so I don't miss a post (Unless I'm out and about, but even then, my phone tells me a new post has come in). If people are interested, I could write a post on using RSS feeds, but I suspect many others (The non-nerds) aren't too interested in this.

My suggestion for the private posts may help influence who posts and what they post. I don't know how aware everyone is that all these posts and comments are available for the world to see. If you are...are you afraid to make certain topics public? If so, that feature would solve it.
Marc said about 6 hours later

Also, uploading of photos would be a definite, I've just put off that feature out of laziness and because many of you seem to find ways to link them offsite anyway, but that would definitely be added as part of this.
Geoff said about 9 hours later

I check quite frequently myself. Usually at least 4 or 5x a day. You can count on me to at least read your posts...and comment when necessary.
GJ said about 9 hours later

yeah, but again, this was supposed to be a family blog. if it's to be a geek blog (just we geeks), I have a whole host of different features I'd want. :)
Kristen said about 22 hours later

I have to admit, I really only have time to comment or ask the occasional question...:( But I really like the idea of a family blog!
Darcy said 1 day later

I like the idea of expanding it to the extended family. It would give everyone a way easily keep in touch--upcoming weddings, new babies, etc.
I don't post or comment much, then again I generally don't have much of interest to say. Besides I really enjoy watching the arguments from the sidelines :)
GJ said 1 day later

Now you see why see married me! I'm an entertaining debater! Plus it means I'm not "debating" with her.
Steve said 2 days later

I think it would be a good idea to open a blog for the extended family, as long as we keep a separate blog for the immediate family. I'm fine with sharing some serious debates with you guys here, but don't necessarily want it to be very easy for others to view those discussions (I know, this is public, but how many people outside of us actually know about it an visit it?)

I'd say keep the extended family blog centered around jokes and notes about what's going on in who's life. That kind of stuff. If other discussions erupt, that's ok, but don't expect me to comment on them in front of the entire extended family.

Steve said 2 days later

Oh, and I try to get to this site once a day, but I don't have 'net access at work, so it only happens when I'm home. And know that I have Parsla, I don't tend to spend near as much time on the computer as I used to. Something about having a life....
GJ said 2 days later

Steve--you probably don't want to look at the site hits log. We get our fair share of non-family hits thanks to all the hot-button topics we cover.
Geoff said 2 days later

wow...I can't believe people would actually read our stuff. Wonder what the average visit time of those users are....?
GJ said 2 days later

Ok, here's some stats to digest:

For the first 3 months of the years, 95% of the hits on the site are direct bookmark links--that's most likely us. The other 5% comes from the various search engines on the web (google, win live, etc.). Top search terms bringing people here:

kurt cameron

Here's the post that seems to draw the most outside visitors.

Not sure if we're getting the atheist crowd, the psycho Christian crowd, or the grown up teenybopper crowd. :)
Steve said 4 days later

Well, Parsla does surf on over here from time to time for the past few months, especially when I point her to something funny posted.
Ruth Ann said 11 months later

And maybe I'll start getting back on--now that I know my name and pswd! I too laugh over the "discussions." Kristen what did you ever decide to get your mother-in-law? laptop or netbook?
Mom