Happy 100?

I haven't indulged in blogging about blogging for a long time, but I will allow myself this now that Blue to Blue has inched its way to 100 posts over 11 months. However, while I have retained a few core readers (thank you!), overall the readership as reflected in both hits and comments has been smaller than in my first blog Ars Psychiatrica. Reasons?

1. I haven't been as prolific, either in frequency or ambition of posts; it has simply been a more desultory blog overall. For various reasons I haven't devoted the time and energy that I often did last year. However, some Blue to Blue posts have been, I think, every bit as decent as many in the parent blog.

2. While I would hope that most people would visit this sort of blog primarily for textual content, the cool pictures and quotes that often adorned my previous blog have generally been lacking here. All else being equal, people like pictures.

3. Considering style further, I think that the title Ars Psychiatrica, while a bit pedantic, also usefully named the blog's niche in a way that the more inscrutable "Blue to Blue" does not. Also, the midnight blue template, while appealing to me at first, has grown a bit oppressive (or maybe I'm just bored with it).

4. I haven't been as active in reading and commenting on other blogs as I used to be, which affects readership.

5. As Facebook, Twitter, etc. have continued to grow and offer further distractions, maybe fewer people take time for blogs than used to be the case. (?)

6. As compared to its predecessor blog, probably fewer posts here have offered anything like mainstream commentary on psychiatry (again, the niche is less defined).

7. Perhaps the Novalis brand, so to speak, has grown a bit stale. Just as some claim that writers tend to write the same book over and over again, one does tend to revisit the same issues, although hopefully in a spiral more than a circular fashion (theme with variations).

8. In any event, I find myself at another cusp of choosing whether to give up blogging altogether or, on the contrary, to shift gears again and approach things from a different angle. As compared to the past year, I am in a position to devote more attention to writing if desired. I have even considered returning to Ars Psychiatrica (2.0 perhaps), declaring Blue to Blue a finally unsatisfactory detour. Or perhaps I will undertake something else altogether.