Friday, October 23, 2009

F2: Boo

Welcome again to Friday's Feast. Today I'll be talking about Boo.


Talking about Boo to me means that I'll be talking about nothing.
No… this is not a Seinfeld post, but rather one about nothing that pertains to food.

Perhaps I should have said "Boo-hoo".
I may just have the unfortunate blessing of having a participatory post that people don't participate in. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I know that there are people who want to participate in Friday's feast, but may be scared away because they feel they must produce. I also know that people tend to get busy and may not remember to link up. I also want to blame myself because I don't know how to promote this feature.

I rather like the concept and feel that it should work. I have even taken steps to make the process easier to do, but have not gotten the type of participation I see other sites have.

It is not that I do not appreciate those who do participate— I do and thank you all for joining in. It is just that I had to resort to drastic measures to get my recipe swap links last week, only to find an empty well this week. I am very hard on myself and tend to blame it all on my lack of experience and/or charisma.

How can I make this feature more appealing?

  • Should I just abandon asking people to participate…
  • Should I just stop altogether…
  • Should I only post when I feel like it and leave it up to the reader if they want to participate or not…
  • Should I post every other week to give people more time…
  • How does one promote such a feature and get people to participate willingly without having to resort to begging…

My apologies for giving you such a Boo-hoo moment. I have been struggling with trying to make this work since April and have not seen any positive momentum. This in turn effects my self esteem and makes me question any of my abilities as a writer— or even as a person in general. I certainly do not want this feature post to effect my ability to post moving forward.

Any advice that you can give me will be greatly appreciated.


If you don't know what Friday's Feast is all about, please read the Friday's Feast page for a more detailed explanation. If you want to join in on the feast— be sure to leave a comment and include the URL to your post so I and others can know of your contribution. Also, if you want to see a particular topic— feel free to suggest it as well (I'm always looking for new inspirations).

Since I didn't really cover Halloween this week, next weeks topic is still Halloween:

  • Are you hosting a Halloween party and have ghoulish dishes you will be serving…
  • Do you have any stories about when you went trick or treating…
  • What is your favorite Halloween candy…
  • What is it about those crazy Americans who tell their children to go door to door and get candy from strangers…

7 comments:

Deb said...

i totally get your frustration. that's why i ultimately threw in the towel with my meme ventures. i don't know which was worse for me... having a huge participation, which just felt like work and obligation, or having no one participate, which was depressing.

i like what you are doing and would encourage you to keep it as is, but just take the pressure off of yourself to see it "grow". remember, there's always more people "participating" (lurking) than you think, even if they don't link up.

Joanie said...

Complete laziness on my part. Every week, I'm going to submit a recipe, and ever week I say next week I'll do it.

Maybe because I don't cook that often any more.

Anonymous said...

Well, Chris, I can only speak for myself here. Your's is the only participatory post that I have ever felt the desire to participate in on a regular basis. I like the idea of your feature, and I see it as a great way for me to post more regularly without much input from my unreliable muse. Clearly, though, I do not, without a personal invitation from you. Every friday morning, I get your FF post in my inbox and think, "Man, I was going to do that one!"

So what feedback can I give here? You probably don't want to be emailing me reminders twice a week, and frankly, that may be what it would take. I don't know if others have the same focusing issues that I do.

I hope you don't give up on it. But I would certainly understand that decision if you made it.

I'm very helpful, I know.

Anonymous said...

I rarely participate in stuff like this... not because I dislike it, I'm just too harried to get it together. Every now and then I will, though.

Melissa aka Equidae said...

I guess it is difficult to get things going! I've been blogging since Jan now and for example have only 22 followers...However, more than lack of followers what I am disappointed on was that I hoped to find more friends and support and yet I havent managed that much yet :( thanks for passing by my blog :) Sorry but have no real ideas on how to help you out ...

Melissa B. said...

Hmmmmmm...I'm new here, but I'd love to participate in a recipe roundup. I usually do recipes on Monday, but I'm flex.

Michele said...

I tend to post recipes on Monday but I seem to forget to send them. If you see that I've forgotten please don't hesitate to grab the link. I'm easy about that sort of think, just really lazy.

I posted a couple of Halloween posts this week. http://michele-dogslife.blogspot.com/2009/10/happy-ohollows-eve.html and
http://michele-dogslife.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-fast-facts-from-us-census.html

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