Blaugust and things you must do

Ah, Blaugust! That special time of year when quite few bloggers get out their keyboards and blog daily. I admire those who take part, I really do, as it takes a disciplined mind to last the full 31 days.

Over the past month, I’ve read a lot of blog posts, and a lot of them deal with the subject of…drum roll please…blogging!

This is not a criticism, oh, no. If blogging on blogging is your thing, you do you, mate. Each to their own. As I mentioned above, I’ve read a lot of posts this month, and most of them were quite interesting to me.

My biggest turn-off, however, during this sacred month is what I like to call the “you must do this” posts; there seems to be a mountain of these written in Blaugust every year. You must have comments on your blog (my pet peeve), you must not have analytics on your blog (why?), and you mustn’t do this, or your must do that.

It is one thing to write about one’s own preferences, and then allow others to take them away and ponder carefully over your wise words in their own individual ways. It is quite another to demand they change something.

Imagine visiting someone’s home and criticising their furniture, how it is arranged and telling them that they’ve done it all wrong, and demanding they rearrange. Most of us would never dream of doing something like that.

Imagine, then, someone coming into your home and behaving that way. How would that make you feel? Most of us would never invite that person back in, let alone speak to them ever again.

The irony of the undertone of this post is not lost on me. I am actually asking (not demanding) that we all remember that blogs are people’s personal spaces, their homes. Allow them to be themselves, and express themselves in their own weird and wonderful individual ways. There is nothing wrong with that.

This is a reminder to myself, as well.