The Future Of The Levee Breaks
When I started The Levee Breaks a few years back, I wanted to create a site where I could write personal thoughts on a variety of subjects. One of my early role-models was Mark over at Occams Razor, who struck a fantastic blend of politcal and personal posting (and still does).
Over time, The Levee Breaks became better known for my political monologues, which I was proud of, because I don’t have a grounding in politics and because my neutral approach was quite unique in the Northern Irish part of the blogosphere.
As you know, posting has been bloody erratic over the last wee while here, and I’ve been concerned about the future of The Levee Breaks. Should I keep it or should I pull the plug?
Parnell reminded me about all of this in a comment the other day, and it got me thinking. Perhaps the best way to inject new life into this blog is to open it up to contributers.
So that’s what I’m going to do. Stay tuned for more information.
In the meantime, if you’re interested, contact me privately through the contact form or leave a comment here (I’ll respond by email).
Mr Levee I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been considering guest posters on Everything Ulster for some time now but to date have only received 2 (interesting though they were). The problem, I think, is that most folks who want to put their thoughts out in cyberspace already have their own blog - it’s just so easy to set up and I think, if most of us are honest, we all like to have something we can call our own.
Like you, I’ve also hit a bit of a brick wall. Whether this is due to a disillusionment with blooging, the political situation or just life getting in the way (or all of the above) I don’t know yet.
I hope you keep writing though because I admire your pragmatism. You know if you ever shut the Levee Breaks down, you’ll always have somewhere to post your thoughts, should you wish to do so, at EU.
I think the brick wall is a combination of factors that you mentioned Beano.
I’ve seen a lot of worthy blogs disappear in the last year. I think a collective of bloggers stands a better chance of longevity, because lone guns like you and I can’t keep posting like we once did.
I also think that more activity on The Levee Breaks might coax me out of retirement a little bit, make me think about NI politics once again and start writing about it.
It would be nice to see newer bloggers using The Levee Breaks, and I’d like to see opposing viewpoints being discussed here too.
I think for all the reasons you both mention ,the NI political blogosphere is suffering from a bit of a lull at the minute. There’s still the party activists posting merrily away within their strict parameters and the two biggies ATW and Slugger, but apart from your two selves and BU there are zero (afaik) “independent” people still working.
I packed in the NI side of blogging because I felt I’d said all I wanted to say regarding my long-term views and to simply cover NI politics on a daily basis is a profoundly depressing activity and not what I came into blogging for.
But occasionally a new thought comes into my head and Beano has kindly allowed me space on EU to post them. Maybe the “collective” idea mentioned is the way forward for those of us outside the mainstream? I’m up for it anyway!!
Mr. Levee: obviously the problem associated with the issue of blogging the political scene in Northern Ireland from whatever perspective is compounded with entrenched attitudes coupled with the inactivity which has lead to amplified apathy from the disenfranchised electorate from all political parishes.
Northern Ireland is no longer the headline grabber it once was, the world’s media perceiving the so called peace process is fully mechanised, has moved on and moved away. The Press Pack are hunting a bigger quarry in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and so on which leaves us, the N.Ireland Bloggers, recycling the same old rhetoric, Or worse, waiting for the crumbs of the Secretary of States non-democratic table.
Having identified the problem we must as a society of Bloggers find our own solution, either that or we will all soon vanish from Blogging altogether, clearly, that solution benefits no-one. One possible solution is diversification either with additional content or supplementary contributors. For my part both have been tried on my Blog. Adding Bloggers is the easy bit, getting regular postings from them proves to be a little more difficult.
The time and effort expended in Blogging rarely rewarded in fiscal terms. The inducement is the pastime of running the weblog in the first instance. Having and holding an opinion is probably a good thing. But publishing the same opinion on the World Wide Web requires certain techniques, a thick skin also helps but it is visitor numbers or an appreciating audience who receives and understands the intended message that in the end of the day wil make or break us.
There are still commenters out in the blogosphere that I wish were blogging. This might be an opportunity for them. There are also poets and writers on My Space that only post poetry on their blogs there I’d love to read what else they’ve got to say.I also believe there is more to life than discussing politics and it’d be good to see the content of this blog being what it says on the tin ‘A family view of life in Northern Ireland’.Whatever you do Mr Levee, don’t give up blogging