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NaBloPoMo - A Brief History

- For new people who don't know what NaBloPoMo is, and for old people non-new people (Stella!) who haven't figured out why NaBloPoMo's site looks so different this year ;)

NaBloPoMo stands for "National Blog Posting Month." The goal of NaBloPoMo is for participants to write a post a day for an entire month.

Although November is the official month for NaBloPoMo (with prizes and everything!) people are invited to take up the challenge of writing a post a day during any month. To help inspire bloggers, NaBloPoMo assigns a theme for each month, and also offers daily writing prompts, but these are optional. Bloggers are not required to write on a specific month's theme or a specific day's writing prompt. Any post about anything at all counts.

NaBloPoMo was created by Eden Kennedy who wrote:
In 2006 I started NaBloPoMo as kind of a joke because I'd failed at NaNoWriMo the previous year. I decided that if I couldn't write a novel in thirty days, at the very least I could post on my blog every day for a month. I thought maybe thirty or forty people would do it with me. We ended up with around 2,000 bloggers, I think. In 2007 we moved to a real web site and got almost 6,000 people, and by January of 2010 we had more than 16,000 members. WHERE DID ALL YOU PEOPLE COME FROM?!
Eden did a fantastic job running NaBloPoMo, but it was a lot of work and she'd never really intended to run anything! In 2010 she approached other organizations about taking over NaBloPoMo. NaNoWriMo never got back to her (it would have been perfect if they'd agreed since this was kinda their fault!) BlogHer did respond and NaBloPoMo is now hosted there.

I have mixed feelings about the "new" NaBloPoMo. I'm a huge fan of the original! It was small, quirky, and non-commercial. But I understand the reasons for the change and I appreciate BlogHer and Eden's efforts to keep the event going rather than having it disappear into the ether.

Best of luck to anyone, at any time, who decides to take up the challenge.

Edit: I've written an Unofficial Guide to NaBloPoMo to help bloggers find their way around the new site.

 

6 Comments:

Judy said...

I just discovered NaBloPoMo last month (I actually just started blogging in July) and jumped on board. It's nice to have a little motivation and support to write everyday, although I have a hard time with the new blogher home:). Maybe someday I'll figure it out!

Noisy Quiet said...

I noticed you were fairly new to blogging - when I read your whole blog! lol! - I do that sometimes :)

NaBloPoMo was a great way to get a jumpstart in blogging. Now it's very different.

BlogHer is a commercial site geared towards bloggers who take themselves very seriously! That's not to say other people can't blog there, but it's off putting IMO. And far too busy for my taste.

I was very unhappy when the migration to BlogHer was announced back in April, but again, I understand the reasons why and I appreciate the efforts to keep NaBloPoMo going.

Things change. - I hate change :P

Stella said...

I'm not old! ( Just grumpy.) :P

Actually, I can't figure out how to add a photo when I post over at Blogher/NaBloPoMo. . .can you? I just get that add something/insert something and then it wants the pathway. . . doesn't work for me.

Noisy Quiet said...

I should re-phrase that. I didn't mean old as in old age. I meant as in returning or "not new" to NaBloPoMo.

What part of the pathway thing doesn't work for you? Is it not letting you navigate to the picture on your computer? If it's an issue of buttons or clicking not working, try a different browser like FireFox or Camino. Sometimes Safari is wonky. Especially the latest one.

Stella said...

Yeah, I know that's what you meant. . .I was just messing with you. . . or as a radio presenter here says: Stirring the possum.

Thanks, good idea, will change browsers. Yep the problem is it doesn't let me navigate to my 'puter for the pictures.

Noisy Quiet said...

I knew you knew :) But I did think about that when I wrote it ("She's going to think I'm calling her OLD... I should change that..." lol!) - Then I forgot to do that!

Re the browser: I upgraded my Safari a couple of weeks ago and it's been one big headache since. Several sites are screwy now and I haven't had the time or patience to attempt to downgrade to the older version. Hope your browser change helped.

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