A year in the blogosphere
Published on Nov 1, 2006 at 12:21 pm.
7 Comments.
Filed under Uncategorized.
Astroprof’s Page is one year old. My first post was November 1, 2005. It wasn’t much of a post. It went something like “The beginning of a blog,” and I said that I’d be writing about astronomy, being an astronomy professor, and whatever else I felt like. The first few posts were sort of scattered until I settled into the sort of site that this turned out to be. It is more informational than spilling my guts out or ranting about things that I have no control over. I guess some of those things have come through in some posts, but after all it is a blog not a journal paper. Now, this will perhaps be a more traditional bloggy type entry.
I had not really thought much about blogging until I happened upon a couple of interesting ones during a websearch for something else.  I read those couple of blogs from time to time, and then finally over the summer had started to read more.  Then, last fall semester, I had a couple light days each week, and started reading some more.  So, I finally broke down and decided to enter the blog world myself.Â
Now, when deciding where to start my blog, I looked around and decided to go with MSN. I already had an account with them, and so that made setting up the blog easy. Also, it was rather straightforward, and easy sort of appealed to me. It was also free, and that seemed cool, too.  Now, I had looked around. There were other sites for hosting sites, be they blogs, or small business web sites, or whatever.  I had collected some info, and thought that would be cool. I knew that MSN Spaces would be rather limiting, but I didn’t really feel ready to dive completely at the time.  But, there were plenty of other places to have a blog: AOL, Blogger, Journalspace, etc. So, which one? Well, at that point, my own independent streak came to the fore. None of the other people whose blogs I read were on MSN spaces, so I figured that I’d be different. There’s a joke that if you get 10 physicists together to work on a project, they will insist on doing 12 different ways, with no two using the same method. So, MSN it was. Besides, in my mind, I identify with my role as an astronomer and as a professor. So, the moniker Astroprof seemed to fit. I wanted to call my little corner of the internet, my little web page, “Astroprof’s Page.” And, I wanted to blog under the pseudonym Astroprof. Well, it turns out that there are a few other Astroprof’s out there. So, that was taken in Blogger, and it was available at MSN.
Right away, I learned that MSN might not have been the best choice. A few people were turned off by what they had to go through to leave comments.  The format of the site was limited, and there wasn’t really much that I could do to customize it. A lot of HTML coding and most scripts wouldn’t work. It was just text. Loading photos was tough, and I didn’t have much say how or where they were displayed. But, I was being different. And, I like to be different sometimes. Despite there being other people out there calling themselves “Astroprof,” there is only one of me. And, besides, I was lazy. I had gotten my blog going, and I didn’t feel like changing just for the sake of change.Â
So, there I was with MSN Spaces. But, MSN changed their format, and I had to adapt, and I didn’t like that. Then they changed the URL. OK, I dealt with that. Then, they changed the URL again. Then they changed the format of their Spaces again. OK, I was getting sick of this. On top of that, my own space tended to lock up my computer sometimes. Yeah, typical Microsoft thing. Then, the final straw was this summer. They change Spaces again, with yet another new URL for my site. But worse, they TOTALLY changed format, and resolution, and who knows what else. The site looked horrible!  Worse, the computers on campus are rather older and have lower screen resolution than my computer at home, and the new site didn’t work with the screen resolution that we have on campus. And, my readers commented that even making comments was a new nightmare. So, I finally gave up.Â
I’d been thinking of taking up residence on the internet on my own for a while. Every change MSN came up with drove me to research it a bit more. Finally, the total mess that they made of my site spurred me on. I had noticed that a few others were using WordPress, and I checked it out, and it looked to have the flexibility that I wanted. But, who to host it? I could have gone with another free site, or with a blog on WordPress’ site itself, but I had decided to strike out on my own (that whole independent thing, again). So, I found a hosting company that I liked: Blue Host (and they have been really nice, reliable, smooth to work with, and have lots of nice perks). I signed up, got a domain name, and started to learn WordPress. I had been reading up on it for a while, since I had been thinking of doing this, but the sudden shift by MSN finally gave me the push that I needed. I spent the weekend working solid to get Astroprof’s Page up and running. And, then the next week I spent importing most of my old posts from MSN. In typical Microsoft fashion, though, interacting with anything other than another Microsoft thing was a chore, and the posts did not come over smoothly. I am still going back and fixing formating issues with those older posts. And, then, much to my dismay, the first two weeks of my old MSN blog had totally disappeared after they had made the switch from MSN Spaces to the new format! So, though this is the one year anniversary of my blog, the archive doesn’t go back quite that far. But, November 1 really is the anniversary of my first post on “Beginning a Blog”.Â
I still haven’t gotten my site exactly the way that I want it, and there are some extra features that I think would be fun to add once I figure out how. But, this has been one terribly busy semester, so it’s been about all I can do to keep up with things as they are. I am far happier with my site than I ever was at MSN, and I am so happy that I finally did this. Only, I am kicking myself for not doing it sooner.
So, for my loyal long time readers, and any new readers who are just now finding my little corner of the internet, stay tuned. I’ll eventually add more features.Â
I am also glad that a year ago I decided to join the blogosphere. I’ve made some friends here, and I’ve even met a couple of them in person. This blog has been good for me. And, I really enjoy sharing about some things that I am passionate about. This has been a great ride, and there’s more to come.
-Astroprof
Jane on November 1, 2006 at 1:05 pm: 1
Happy anniversary! I’ve enjoyed reading your blog (and have learned quite a bit). Looking forward to another year of insights from you!
Seeking Solace on November 1, 2006 at 1:28 pm: 2
Happy Blog Birthday. I have enjoyed reading your blog and your visits to mine!!!
Ed Minchau on November 1, 2006 at 2:48 pm: 3
Astroprof, your blog posts are generally quite informative, even when you are going on about stuff I already know. You might want to consider pulling together all of your “best of” blog posts and publishing them in a book.
Zavatar on November 1, 2006 at 2:50 pm: 4
I’ve just recently found your blog, and I’m very glad that I did. Here’s to another full year of good astronomy teaching
Astroprof on November 1, 2006 at 3:49 pm: 5
Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Ed, two other people have said the same thing to me offline. I might think about it. But, what constitutes my “best posts”?
Ed Minchau on November 1, 2006 at 6:10 pm: 6
“But, what constitutes my ‘best posts’?
Your blog is generally pretty good. What I had in mind were the essays where you take one specific astronomy topic and explain it in detail, like the one you did the other day on the Yarkovsky effect. Such blog posts always make for interesting reading for space cadets like myself. A collection of a few dozen (maybe 40 or so, each three to five pages) of those type of essays would be a pretty good book.
profgrrrrl on November 2, 2006 at 4:08 pm: 7
Happy blogiversary! I always enjoy reading and often learn something new