How was 2010 then?

Pretty rubbish to be honest! Just taking a quick look at my "blogging resolutions" from last year makes me think I may give up resolutions.

I said I'd try to improve my use of twitter. Well, I'm still using it, find me here, and enjoy it in an unfocused sort of way - but God alone knows whether I'm using it "a bit more intelligently".

I also said I'd get back into more non-partisan blogging. I don't make any secret of being a Green Party member but I was very conscious that there was a big election coming up and it was going to be hard not to over blog on the Party. Certainly I managed to tone down the partisan-ness after the election.

My ideal would be for people new to the blog to be unaware, from the content, that I'm a Green Party member at all until they become regular readers... but this may well be an impossible dream (short of leaving the party, which seems a bit drastic). Generally I think I achieved this as long as you leave aside the fact that whether I was a member of a party or not I'd still be disgusted with the Lib Dems.

Blogging projects: I tried my hand at local blogging, not particularly satisfactorily, and although the Carnival of Socialism still walks among the living (Luna 17 will be hosting the next episode any time now!). My gut feeling is that the political blogosphere is going to undergo some radical changes over the next year and any new projects I'm part of (watch this space) are going to undergo a trial of fire I reckon.

The Best Blogging is toughening up and in the process the old style midnight underpants blogging is beginning to slip away. By the end of this year I think it will be hard to tell the difference between the biggest blogs and straight online publications with comment facilities. At least that's the way I see it.

I also wanted to host more interviews and guest posts which I have done. I've got a few plans for more collaborations, which is nice, although I wonder whether the tension between an individual blogging voice and an online publication with many voices works. Certainly group blogging is one way I think things are going (as well as hyper-local hyper-specific blogging).

At the end of the day I still just blog for the enjoyment of it and never check my stats or care about where I appear on any chart or table - blogging is not a competitive sport - although appreciation is always nice.

If I have any blogging resolutions for next year I think it is these;

1) Do more to continue help promote other bloggers.
2) Take part in more collaborations and group blogging.
3) Comment more on other blogs, and lastly,
4) If I give up blogging at the Daily (Maybe) this year, to make sure I don't leave myself with no online outlet once I've hung up my mouse.