Too many drafts, too few posts.
This morning, I was wondering why I haven’t been blogging with the same intensity and frequency as when I began. And the answer to that is so deeply profound, it will shake the very foundations on which the edifice of blogging is built.
You see, blogging is supposed to be spontaneous, impulsive, spur-of-the-moment and other synonyms of the word. It is also about democracy of opinion, of publishing and such like. You know, every asshole and his opinion and things of a similar vein. So you have too many blogs and too many opinions in one blog. So that leads to a kind of fatigue. And then there are cliques and cartels and groups.
Oh, err, the answer to the question.
Yes. Why haven’t I been blogging? Because of WORDPRESS, that’s why!
Let me explain. I have too many drafts.
You see, every time I think up a post, (which happens far more regularly and often-er than you’d think), I write it. I actually do. And then I hit, here’s where reason and logic fails me in coming up with an answer, I hit the save-as-draft button. And therefore, one more post goes into the deep-dark-gloomy regions of wordpress. From which I cannot rescue it.
Yes, Wordpress is to blame. Wordpress prevents me from blogging.
You know those big walk-through aquariums? The ones in which people are in a cage and the fish swim about freely, and laugh at the pointing humans? You can see the fish, the fish can see you. But you can’t touch each other, nor talk (if fish could talk). There’s absolutely no way the two of you can ever establish a communication channel.
Fish are drafts in Wordpress. Everytime I log in, I can see the drafts. Wordpress taunts me with it. It gives me a beautifully underlined, blue coloured link to the draft I can, in theory, edit and publish. But clicking on that link only will wreck eternal damnation upon me and, here’s the second place logic and reason fail, you.
Yes. Drafts are not supposed to be reviewed and published. Drafts will stay drafts no matter how many times you try and edit them. Drafts will forever be unpublished. It has been designed that way. Cosmic law.
More evilly (on wordpress’s side), it is far easier to save a post as a draft than publish it. It is true. The save button is big, bold and a convenient tab+enter away. The publish button is regular sized, non-bold. What’s more, it is two tabs away and hitting enter doesn’t activate the button. It merely laughs at you for a space of few seconds and goes back to clipping its toe nails.
And when you do manage to overcome lethargy and evolution and actually move your mouse (and cursor) and click on the Publish button, you get a connection time-out and or a 404. Not to mention 10 years in the slammer for violating cosmic law.
TO illustrate, let me list the drafts I have been staring at for over a year now.
1) The follow-up to my old Marriage futures service
2) A series of satire called the Theatre of Dionysus
3) A critique of AK Ramanujan’s translation of Red earth and pouring rain
4) Urban violence and its implications for moderns Indian metros
5) A deconstruction of Illayaraaja and Vairamuthu songs
6) Multiple, many many stories of, about, for, in Madras
SO you see, it is not easy to blog. Not when the very tool that lets one blog doesn’t, well, let one blog. Keep that in mind the next time you criticise me for not keeping up the tempo.
(P.S: This post almost nearly went to the draft-hole. Only a critical deadline at work, 4 days of pending jobs and my boss’s repeated complaints that I have been neglecting my work (the one that pays my salary) ensured this post saw the light of your monitor’s CRT. Or LCD for those who like to keep up with yesterday’s technology.)
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October 28th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
ha ha. first time i hear someone cite a damn good reason fro not blogging.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Ah!
Well, Chandrachoodan and Selective Amnesia have always been known for profound, original and logical insights into many of India’s and the world’s problems.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
>> profound, original and logical insights
Shouldn’t that line read “profound, original and logical unpublished insights”
October 28th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Well, in a sense.
Of course, there have been many, multiple numbers of, even lots of insights. Given wordpress’s evil nature, most of them have remained unpublished drafts. But, and because I am the most prolific blogger of “p, o and l” insights, the few that leave the draft hole outnumber the p, o & l insights of others.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Its all true that you say about Wordpress… probably wordpress should look into ur post and do some fix for it.. but i also we feel if we wait for everything to be perfect to start our work (i.e blogging here).. will everything be perfect at all?.. we can learn from his http://is.gd/4Zzr experiences.. i haven’t posted since almost 90 days and is only because of procrastination
October 28th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Procrastination, fortunately, is not to blame in my case. I have diligently and sincerely been writing. Wordpress turns them drafts. I am blameless and without blame.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Now that you mention it, i actually have quite a few of them in the wordpress cupboard. Damn shame that they will stay there collecting dust
October 28th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Proof, no doubt, that this is a world-wide conspiracy by Wordpress to keep earnest voices down.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Just publish the drafts will ya – after all you state yourself that “blogging is supposed to be spontaneous, impulsive, spur-of-the-moment and other synonyms of the word”
Or you should be like me – bury drafts in Evernote and then don’t fire up the app for months. Instant guilt-free relief
October 28th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Well, I would love to publish drafts, but Wordpress doesn’t let me.
October 28th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
How about giving the kiss of life to the critique of AKR’s translation of ‘Red earth..’ Would love to read it. I have a post in my blog on that – difficult to link from my mobile browser (yes, I’m that much of a parama visiri) & I loved your ttranslation of ‘Achchamillai, achchamillai’
October 28th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I so know this feeling. Wordpress did the same to me. Taunting. Haunting. Not posting though!
October 28th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
We use Windows Live Writer & Blogger and we are no different.
October 28th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
“Well, I would love to publish drafts, but Wordpress doesn’t let me.”
Pfft – You should upgrade to WP 2.6 – the Save & Publish are the same size and a uniform grey
Also, in WP 2.6 you can publish drafts by going to Manage>Posts>Drafts and then hitting publish.
October 28th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
lol, Nice going CC. Blame the press as always!
Denying good fair people subscribed to you of such pleasures is a crime!
Actually I’d just go blame you. You’re just selfish, and as a kid you never shared the sandbox with your friends. There’s now that sounds real. :p
October 28th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
You could join me on the dark side and use Movable Type…. as one can set up your admin ui to publish with the first push of the save button…
;oD
October 28th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Neha: At least, you’ve begun reversing the trend with the stories. Something special, they are.
Vijay: Will do, hopefully, soon.
Dilip: Hmm
Balaji: Hmmm…you didn’t read my post.
Cosmic Law. Design flaw. Drafts don’t and cannot be published
WP versions not withstanding.
Rads: I honestly, honestly don’t want to deny you and the rest of the world, but you especially, of my writing. What to do, evil Wordpress.
As a kid I didn’t share my sandbox. True. For the simple reason I didn’t have one.
Ms. Jen:
I did move from MT (was on MT1 through 3, I think) till they went pay. Of course, MT has a save-as-draft button too…so.
October 29th, 2008 at 8:49 am
I know what you mean. Keeping an article in draft is like keeping your freshly brewed filter coffee in the refrigerator and then heating it several days in a microwave oven before drinking.
Not correct.
I am writing my own blog software in PHP to remedy this problem. Unfortunately this also has a “draft” mode, but not a “save as draft” button.
October 29th, 2008 at 11:28 am
This is exactly what’s happening to me as well. Way too many posts lying in drafts!
October 29th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Hari: Good analogy. Definitely not correct.
Aparna: See. I think this is a worldwide conspiracy against earnest voices from India.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
If this be your style of writing, then add me to that list that says “Fans of CG’s writings”!
If not then do write so often!
All you wished to say was that Wordpress were to be blamed for not getting your post published, but you wrote such a big write-up around it, that I was rivettingly amused!!
October 30th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
This be one of the styles of CG’s writing. I hate to stick to one style, one format.
click clickety click whirr – added to list.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:07 am
//profound, original and logical insights into many of India’s and the world’s problems.//
And stupid insights like this
October 31st, 2008 at 9:09 am
Perhaps. No doubt.
But that statement would have more strength to it coming from someone who doesn’t have to hide coward-like behind an anon nick.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Hi,
I was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be very good.. u write well.. Why don’t you popularize it more.. ur posts on ur blog ‘Selective Amnesia’ took my particular attention as some of them are interesting topics of mine too;
BTW I help out some ex-IIMA guys who with another batch mate run www.rambhai.com where you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best make it to the homepage!
This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could become your ardent fans.. who knows..
Cheers,
October 31st, 2008 at 10:48 pm
At least you are writing.
I haven’t written in so long, I don’t bother putting my blog link anywhere anymore
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:10 am
Ray seems to be very altruistic! Does such a survival mechanism work around a cynic?
November 3rd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
You see my blog… you see it not very full. Now come home with me and check my Drafts…
A sad story. Very true though…
I have, however, broken the cosmic law… Drafts do get published… maybe 3-4 months after their origin, or as in one case, 12 months after origin. But my steadfast lack of published posts becomes good cause to dive into my drafts.
I do like my readers, you see…
November 20th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
In my case, wordpress is not to blame. I diligently write thousands of posts in my head while on the pot. When I flush, they get flushed away.
November 20th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Ah!
That is a worrying tendency and one that I’ve observed in myself as well. The government needs to do something about it!
November 20th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
[...] Selective Amnesia » Too many drafts, too few posts. You know those big walk-through aquariums? The ones in which people are in a cage and the fish swim about freely, and laugh at the pointing humans? You can see the fish, the fish can see you. But you can’t touch each other, nor talk (if fish could talk). There’s absolutely no way the two of you can ever establish a communication channel. Fish are drafts in WordPress. Everytime I log in, I can see the drafts. WordPress taunts me with it. It gives me a beautifully underlined, blue coloured link to the draft I can, in theory, edit and publish. But clicking on that link only will wreck eternal damnation upon me and, here’s the second place logic and reason fail, you. (tags: wordpess blogging blog writing) [...]
November 20th, 2009 at 5:27 am
[...] Drafts are still fishes behind glass. Posted by Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan on November 20th, 2009 | Filed in General/Unclassified | This post has been tagged with the: • abstract art • blogs • chennai • Chennai Photowalk • filial • Guns germs and steel • hills • Jared Diamon • meta • other things • rains • reading • Rs • statues keywords. [...]