30 in 30 Relay 01

   This is where I usually write a wrap up summarizing who finished with 30, who made at least made an admirable effort. (well not here actually, I usually wrote it in my own lj). This year however there were just too many of you and I was just too busy with my misguided idea to do this twice at once to really keep up with everything as much as I'd like. And so, it's self assessment time!

   This isn't mandatory of course, as you noticed we don't really like rules around here, but it is nice to have a good wrap up post so in future years one can look back and see in one place a summary of what happened. So if you all cold comment to this with a brief assessment of how it went for you, and maybe your favourite 30 in 30 entry of your own and of another participant (and heck whatever else you feel like commenting. maybe a link to your own conclusionary entry if you made one) I would greatly appreciate that.

   Tomorrow or so I will try to weave an entry out of it ... and distribute the digital geoducks! (:

   So I haven't kept up with this as well as I planned (in that in the good old days I used to link to everyone else's entry of the day every day) -- 21 people is more than we've ever had before and last time I checked you were all doing great. Unfortunately, while everyone seems to be doing better than usual at staying caught up, I don't feel people are interacting as much as they used to (probably also a result of the large group) ... so, get on that! (: Follow the other participants and interact! (:

In other news it's come to my attention that we have one more late joiner, bartgroks, who has come out of the woodwork for 30 in 30 after not posting in 14 months! So give him a warm welcome.

And tomorrow is the halfway point, goodwork everyone!

   Okay ladies and gentlemen, rogues and trollops, we're one third of the way through (hooray!) and I just completed an investigation into who is actually doing it. My results show... that nearly all of you are keeping up! Good work. The friends list of this lj is now up-to-date. The following is the official list, in absolutely no particular order other than noted:


New People Announced or Discovered Since Last List
klig
invader_kitty
lunaminor
ubiquityblues
ziuziuziu


Everyone Else Still In
xaositecte
tonytornado2003 (note the 2003, I accidentally left it off in the last list and that is someone else)
memeworrywort
whirled
hereticxxii
qweenkaren
markmade
superhappytime (entries friends only ): )
skitty
kittychaos
wickedsin
awdrey_gore
beeker121
theafaye
thethornbird
and of course both
emosnail
emo_snal (mostly friends-only, but who isn't friends with emo-snal?)


   So there you have it. 21 participants, and it looks like there is only ONE who has fallen behind, which is miraculous compared to the casualty rate of previous years. So go team. Once again I'd like to encourage you all to read and comment to the other participants -- and they can all be found (and only they) on the friends list of this lj (and that f-list is really the purpose of this lj). Note also that tonytornado2003 has already issued a challenge for you all (a tradition that began last year).

   Greetings brave 30 in 30ists! My apologies that by "I'll try to post here daily(ish)" I apparently meant "maybe I'll post here again someday, maybe."

   But I've popped into the arrrghonaut friends list here from time to time to see how you all are doing and its nice to see that people are trucking along. Unfortunately that friends list includes a lot of people who aren't doing it at all and may even be missing a person or two who is. I am in theory going to fix that when I get a chance... in theory.
   And you can help! If you noticed someone (or you yourself) on the original list is not doing 30 in 30 or has ceased, if you can let me know I'll take them off the list. Also if you're not on the list if you could comment advising me of this (even if you already did somewhere), that would also help.

Thanks. Now time to write my (two) entries for the day d:

   It's that time of the year again! I know you're excited!

   To recap, 30 in 30 is of course officially completely non-centralized and this is NOT the official anything of it. However, this IS the only journal I know of that attempts to coordinate among participants, so we thank you for your attention here and we will endeavour to serve the participants from here as best we can.


   Last year I didn't really post here except for the two FAQ posts. This year I'm thinking of posting daily(ish) with links to entries of the day. You are welcome to help me by commenting to these posts with a link to your entry for the day but that is absolutely not necessary.


   Anyway to start off here is a list of fools valiant bloggists who have at least vaguely expressed an interest in participating this year:

tonytornado (Day 1 Entry)
xaositecte (Day 1 Entry) and, previous to that, a nice little 30 in 30 promo
qweenkaren (Day 1 Entry)
skitty (Day 1 Entry)
thethornbird (Day 1 Entry (friends-only))
emosnail (Day 1 Entry)
emo_snal
boxsofrain
superhappytime
beeker121
awdrey_gore
wickedsin
memeworrywort
whirled
kittenboo
gaeln
kittychaos
theafaye
markmade


will update as people's entries come in today... maybe?

   Everyone, at least once, finds they must explain what exactly 30 in 30 is to their friends list. I thought I'd put a definitive guide to what 30 in 30 is here to be consulted and linked to.

The Rules
(1) 30 posts in 30 days (the only real rule, really) (more than 30 is okay, but see Guideline 6 below)
(2) Your entries should be worth reading!!!

Suggested Guidelines
(3) Your entries should be worth reading -- EVEN TO SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T KNOW YOU!!!
(4) You should have another entry up every day. (4a: But if you miss a day you can catch up) (4b: If you started later than the 1st of the month you'll have to post more than one per day to catch up to 30 by the 30th)
(5) You should read the 30 in 30 entries of the other participants (usually a sense of community develops. Its quite fun)
(6) You should not post an excessive number of posts (People following 30 in 30 don't want to see everyone else flooded out by your excessive number of posts. Don't be suprised if you aren't for example friended by this livejournal if you are posting several times every day)
(7) 30 in 30 should be a change of pace for you (for most participants 30 in 30 requires posting significantly more frequently than they usually do. For the few that usually post excessive numbers of posts per day, you should take it as a challenge to curb your enthusiasm and control the flood -- move those one line thoughts to twitter! (see also Guideline 6 above))


   30 in 30 is presently (June 2008) in its fifth year. The maintainer of this lj does not claim to have invented 30 in 30 -- he didn't join 30 in 30 until he stumbled upon it halfway through the first year.


Why You Should Do 30 in 30
(A) To prove you have the blogstamina to complete this epic achievement!
(B) To meet exciting and entertaining new bloggers!
(C) Induction into the Order of the Geoduck!
(D) 30 in 30 leads to introspection: "in the selection of topics and how they're portrayed one must always consider the intended audience and purpose of the blog. When one is just casually blogging whenever one feels like it this isn't nearly as much an issue as when aiming to blog daily.
   And of course, this keeps one thinking more deeply about things. To come up with something worth writing about daily one has to go through the day thinking about all kinds of things that come up, exploring whether one can come up with something interesting to say about anything that comes up. And this of course, leads to a lot of critically evaluating daily things which one otherwise wouldn't pause to think much about."


Previous Season Recaps by emosnail
30 in 30 I
30 in 30 II
30 in 30 III
30 in 30 IV
30 in 30 V - No recap :[
30 in 30 VI - In progress! (2009)

   As you can see I have created another account so that all 30 in 30 participants can be displayed on one friends page.

Why don't you just create a custom friends group? you might ask. Well other people can't view my custom friends groups, and I wanted to save everyone the trouble of individually adding all the other participants and creating custom friends groups.

Why not create a community? Well, there is one actually, 30in30. The problem with that, however, is that, well, for example 26 former participants will currently appear on the friends page of the community. One would have to as the maintainer go on a booting frenzy to create a friends group of only current participants. I'd rather let people remain members of that community regardless of whether they're currently participating. Also it needs a major overhaul but the maintainer is no longer active on livejournal /=


   Additionally, there's the awkward truth that not everyone who participates is really worth reading. Some people are, well, totally boring. I don't want to discourage anyone from participating, but I'd like a list which, if one is not included in it, its not tantamount to being "officially banned from 30 in 30." It must therefore be an unofficial list. All thirteen current participants are presently listed here. BUT
I'm participating in 30 in 30, why am I not friended? If you find yourself no longer friended by this lj, your blog may have many merits of its own and merely was deemed not of particular interest to people who do not know you.

The Future
   Also I envision a day in the future when more people are participating in 30 in 30 than one person can reasonably keep track of. To deal with this situation I think there would have to be multiple relays (like this LJ) which each only carry as many people on their friends lists as people can be expected to digest.