I have been on blogging hiatus for the last few years because I became involved in a writing forum and ended up running the place. I’ve now stepped away and returned to blogging only to discover 97% of my old blogging buddies have disappeared.
When I started my blog back in May 2010 most of us were new to the blogosphere and we made many blogging ‘buddies’. However, back in the early days there was a real sense of community and I connected with people from all over the world and from different walks of life. We were all new and as keen as mustard to participate in the various challenges set by WordPress.
I loved the fact that WordPress was a real blogging community and we all took a genuine interest in our buddies blogs and offered support. We all strived to be Freshly Pressed where every day a handful of blogger’s posts were featured. I was featured twice and a happy dance followed on both occasions. I note Freshly Pressed has now been discontinued.
Today I went in search of the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge to check if I had any photographs suitable for this week’s prompt, but much to my surprise the last challenge listed was the end of May. Surely not. It MUST be a mistake!
I then searched for other regular WordPress challenges and found to my dismay they had all been discontinued and a notice posted: To the Daily Post Community:
Thank You! Saying goodbye is hard. Celebrating years of community and great blogging is anything but.
Nothing lasts forever, as even the community pool where we helped new bloggers or those who had lost their way, has been abandoned.
The craziest challenge in which I participated in 2011, was the #postaday or #postaweek. I never quite managed the post a day but I was driven to blog three times a week. The most enjoyable, and my all time favorite, was the #weeklyphotochallenge, so I am gutted to discover the community aspect of WP has been set aside.
What a sad day when WordPress turned its back on the blogging community. What am I missing?
So fellow bloggers, what next? Are you suffering from #bloggersblock or even #writersblock I am. How do you overcome this?
Why not join me and draw inspiration from the following prompts by using these #hashtags to promote your posts.
#mymondaymicropoetry – I’m not sure about this one. I love writing poetry and have been considering writing micro poetry using a photo as a prompt. Anyone else want to join me?
#getgardening – Share gardening tips or shout about your latest purchase. Whatever your gardening passion I want to hear about it.
On a diet? I’ve just started so join me for weigh-in Wednesday either on my blog or in my Facebook Group – Piglet’s Porkers
So where to from here? Come on, please don’t be shy – I’d love to hear from you.
Piglet in Portugal 
Aw man!!!! I’m kind of late to this party but I ran across your blog / post looking for the challenges! Life took me away from blogging a few years and I so looked forward to getting back into it, engaging in challenges and connecting with other bloggers.
❤️🤷
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Ever since losing my laptop while travelling 18 months ago, I’ve no home access to a computer and it’s very difficult doing stuff on my mobile phone. Therefore, I had no idea that any of those challenges were discontinued. What a shame; I really liked those challenges, especially #postaweek and #photochallenge, and planned to continue with them once I get a computer or laptop. Too bad.
I hope to be back sooner rather than later. I may stick to travel photos for a bit until I get my own computer or laptop.
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Spinster, that’s a shame re your laptop! I’d be lost without a PC at home. I love looking at travel photos and have actually discovered some nice places to visit in Portugal thanks to this. I won’t say where because I’ve yet to book a surprise holiday for my husband 🙂
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It’s terrible not having one at home, but I’m used to it now. Every time I want to get one, some other bill comes up. I’ll see what happens next year…
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The blogging community changes constantly. I have been blogging for 6 years and many bloggers who followed me or became friends have stopped for some reason, busy live, some passed away. Others who followed just disappeared and their blog does not exist or is made private. I wonder about some what happened and I hope they are all ok.
I have my loyal friends and I am not into numbers ( I know at the beginning we all are) I am not doing challenges, only the odd one, however I like Trent’s weekly Smile as it goes nicely with my outlook and blog theme.
I do love blogging and have met some bloggers personally and my aim is to visit at least another 3, I am close with. There are such wonderful people out there.
Keep going and your community will grow again.
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Utesmile, I often wonder what happened to many of my original blogging friends. We were the modern-day penfriends – sharing our lives and ups and downs. Sami (above) is one of my original friends so it is good to see she is still blogging and we met up a couple of years ago when she was visiting the Algarve.
I am also not into numbers and much prefer to interact with a few regulars so I get to know them. I find the challenges are useful not only and helps overcome bloggers block, but to expand my horizons. I do try to read the work posted by those taking part and leave a comment where I feel I could connect. at a deeper level.
It’s going to take some time to find my feet and new friends. but there you go 🙂
Thank you for dropping by and leaving such a thoughtful and supportive comment.
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The blogging community as a whole is definitely not as prevalent as it once was. It seems like many are now far more interested in videos and video based social media instead. I’ve never been interested/comfortable with that form of social media though. Pictures sure, written (or typed to be more accurate) words of course! But video is a totally different thing. It takes more time and effort for one, and then there is just the general not being comfortable being in front of the camera like that. Not for me at all. I don’t get many readers on my blog anymore which has had an impact on how often I post – most of my posts over the last year or so have just been my Tueaday Tunes where I share a music video for a song I like. Even that has grown tiresome for me and I’m not sure I’ll continue it much longer past the new year. I try to still post every once in a while but while ultimately my blog is “for me” the idea is to connect with others who have similar interests and such. If nobody is reading what I write, I feel like there is no sense putting a lot of time or effort into writing.
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Please don’t become despondent, Cherry. I am not keen on Videos either. I’ve created a couple but they were of local beaches or of the MEdieval fair we have once a year.
As for readers, the more you post the more readers you will have providing you circulate.. As you can see I have a wide range of interests from poetry, real life stories, peeves, mosaics, photography to gardening and cooking. I tend to follow blogs that at least cover some of those interests. I am not so interested in music as such. 😦 I know what I like when I hear it but I bet you I could not ‘name the tune’.
Apart from the music what other interests do you have? what about taking part in one of the weekly challenges I am trying to set up?
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I do all sorts of arts and crafts and diy projects and also some cooking/baking. I love photography but my camera stopped working a few years ago and I haven’t been able to replace it and my phone camera just does not offer the control I want so I only use it for quick snaps. I honestly do not often have time to devote to blogging anymore and when I do find time I’m usually too tired to want to fuss with it. When I am not at work I’m trying to deal with housework and studying since I have gone back to school recently and when I’m not doing any of that I’m just too exhausted to do much of anything but sleep! Lol Hopefully I can pass my certification exams and actually enjoy the work I’m going to school for (pharmacy technician) and can down the road be in a better situation than I am in now and actually have some opportunities to have the time to do more fun things and have time to devote to blogging.
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im still hear Piglet, don’t blog though just read others thoughts, always never seem to have time
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Hi Eric. How are you? Long time no speak
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Don’t know much about WordPress, always blogged with Blogger. That’s sad that WordPress discontinued the challenges.
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Yes, I was really surprised they would discontinue something so popular.
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It was sad as they motivated new bloggers. It wasn’t just the challenges they also offered training like blogging 101 etc. but there you go they have moved on to bigger things.
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I would not be blogging were it not for the terrific support of the blogging community. They are awesome. 🌼
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Agree, but for new bloggers the WP challenges were a great way to encourage them to interact. It’s such a shame they discontinued them. :(.
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