Yearly Blog Update 2019

It's that time of year again. I need to look at my online presence and see if there is anything that I want to do differently. I have a few ideas, and I can assure you that there will be changes in 2019.



My plans for the new year include two fairly substantial changes and some lesser ideas. Although I wasn't nearly as overwhelmed with personal projects as I was in the past, I want to leave an opening in case I decide to pursue any one of a number of ideas I have had. I have typically had to work before and after any vacation that I have taken. Part of this could be viewed as a security concern. I have an idea for an alternative approach to handling my online presence when I go out of town.

Moving forward, I intend to take periodic breaks from my online presence. I will typically take two weeks, but there are ways in which this can be extended. I intend to make timing of these breaks somewhat random. During these breaks, I will not be contributing to these sites. Some scheduled posts may still appear. By taking these kinds of breaks, my absence will be insufficient to establish when I am truly away. My first break will be March 30 through April 12. Later breaks will be unannounced.

These breaks are especially important when you look at my other big change. With Google+ going away, I have an opening for another social network experiment. I have just added a Twitter account. So far, I have not been active. With the new year now started, I am trying to figure out how I want to use it. With how Twitter works, it would be much more difficult for me to pretend to be active when I am away, so periodic breaks fit a lot better for security.

Now, I will do my usual breakdown of changes to each site

Random Rants and Ramblings

I have no plans for any changes specific to this blog. My planned breaks will result in new inactive periods. My Idea Outlet, which is already scheduled, will remain active even during breaks. If I have a break during a change in the year, my yearly update will be scheduled for the first just like this post.

The War Between Schooling and Education

Last year, I proposed the idea of basing the location of education posts off of whether they are personal. I moved away from this quickly since Tumblr is not a good platform for longer posts. From now on, all of my educational blog posts will be at the Blogger page.

Tumblr

Since I am experimenting with Twitter, I will not be as active at Tumblr. I will make periodic posts to keep the blog somewhat active, including the continuation of my Flickr archive posts, but I will be reevaluating a lot. This could change throughout the year as I get a better feel for what works best at Tumblr and what works best at Twitter.

#ProudlyProEd

As I already stated, I have backtracked on my intent to post educational views to Tumblr that are not too personal. Additionally, a lot of what I have done here could easily be done at Twitter. I am not currently interested in abandoning this blog, so I will make a few periodic posts.

Flickr

I finally replaced my dinosaur of a computer. Instead of moving everything to the new computer, I am essentially starting out fresh. I will probably play around with a few ideas throughout the year. It may not be too noticeable, but there will likely be differences in how I select pictures to upload to Flickr. Additionally, changes to other behavior such as birding can result in a few other differences in what I will share in 2019. Since I am experimenting with Twitter, I might take more pictures just to connect with some quick posts.

eBird

For years, I have complained about how little say I have in my own life. I have enjoyed birding in recent years, and adapting to the protocols of eBird hasn't been too difficult. Despite this, I have decided to take a bit of a step back. I will likely experiment a bit with birding my own way in 2019. My current plans involve picking a species of the year. I will follow that species more closely than normal while continuing to follow several key species such as Ospreys and Owls.

This is not an end for eBird. I intend to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count. I intend to scatter a few additional checklists throughout the year. There will also be some incidental checklists if I see something rare. To make up for the limited eBird presence, I will likely start a new Nature Log. This will include any noteworthy sightings, my species of the year, and any other birds that I am following.

Google+

Google has announced that the will be shutting down the consumer version of Google+. I was never really active at this site. Most posts were automatically generated each time I posted to a blog. Obviously, I will stop posting to Google+, but the impact should be insignificant.

Twitter

I am essentially replacing Google+ with Twitter. Twitter will be experimental for me. I can't be sure how I will be using it. I will likely include some education posts, using the #ProudlyProEd hashtag. Another likely post type will be photos. Who knows, maybe I will even comment on some posts that I find.