My site turns seven today. As I pondered last year I’m not always certain that my site maybe a dubious achievement. Because I ofter wonder what has the site brought me? And the unfortunate answer is that it played a part in getting me fired. So should this be an occasion to celebrate?
For me to answer this question you have to look at what my goals were for this site. When I first decided to start writing about the hotel that employed me, my honest intentions for this site was for it to become a hub of sorts for all employees of hotels to find a safe place to discuss (and bitch about) their work environment. A place that anyone could use. A place for all levels of hierarchy to feel free to rant and rave just so they could blow off some steam. And in that respect the site has failed miserably. I do now and then attract a stray night auditor in the forums. But not many tend to stick around. I understand maybe people are afraid. I guess that’s the only thing I see as what stops people from sticking around.
Of course I do happen to have the honor of also hosting the forums and website for a Dark Age of Camelot guild called the Acolytes of Destruction. I’m happy to say the guild has been around for a number of years. We even recently branched out into the game World of Warcraft. So to a certain degree my original idea is not a total failure. The site has become a gathering place for some like minded individuals. It’ just that the target audience I was shooting for didn’t turn out to be my target audience. Which I guess isn’t a bad thing.
One last thing that does baffle me. While I don’t particularly like the terms blog or diary, this is what my site has become. It’s really what it always has been. Every now and then I attempt to make the site a little more known by signing up for places that keep track of this sort of thing. For example in early march I submitted my site to a place called the Diarist.Net Registry. And for a brief time I was indeed listed. Now I happened to to take a look earlier this month to see if I was still there and to my surprise I was not listed any longer in this registry. The requirements as found on their Submit your site page states:
This registry is specifically for online diaries, journals, and personal weblogs. Please do not submit commercial sites, generic personal sites (i.e. poetry, pictures of your dog, etc.), or topical or link-only (non-journal) weblogs.
And I’m pretty sure my site could be considered as an online diary or a journal and quite possibly a personal weblog. And I’m also pretty sure this site isn’t a commercial site as I don’t make a sent doing it. Neither is this a place to find poetry or pictures of my dog. So I just wonder why my site isn’t listed in their so called registry. So maybe I thought because it was that I write about my job. But a search shows there are many sites listed that do cover a persons line of work. Which makes me wonder just why I’m not listed? I find it all funny of course. It’s just something that baffles me.
Maybe someone read my post and took offense to it. Which in the end it doesn’t really bother me all that much. It’s more of a curiosity really. And maybe if and when this site hits the decade mark I’ll have earned the right to be listed with all of these other diaries, journals, and personal weblogs.