Who do I still think I am??

This one's not about the made-up words.

BCF PROMPT: "A fortune teller at the local county fair tells you two things. She tells you something good that will happen, and something awful that will happen. What are these events or incidents?"

Hey folks, what's up? Here's the deal...I'm gonna kind of start to rant and probably ramble for a little while. I might get snide, angry and sarcastic, so consider yourselves warned. Now might be a good time to attempt anything you've been putting off for the last thirty or so years rather than reading what I have to say.

I've made this argument before, and I'm going to say it again. Fiction has no place in blogging; more specifically, in my blog. Of all the many great and wonderful things blogs should be, one of them is not storytelling under non-truthful purposes. I'll stick to factual accounts, please and thank you, and bonus points if I can make them a little humorous or at the very least readable.

Now, I understand there are times and ways around it, and there are ways to get me to participate in ways that aren't exactly relative to mundane details of my life, but also aren't Mr. Dress-Up scenarios as well (see: "This one's about life among the seven days."  for the most recent version of what I'm trying to say). Or, how about not blatantly asking me to write fiction, because then you'll know I'm really not gonna do it?

Don't get me wrong. I know I have the choice to participate or not to participate. I know we as bloggers can write whatever the hell we want. Geez, I even wrote a Blogging Bliss newsletter feature about it a few months ago. I get it...sometimes we're not going to like the prompts we get. But not all blogging has to be prompt-based or driven, and while I've come across blogs that are funny and some may have played fast and loose at times with reality, the fact is most blogs I've seen revolve around or are a damn good reflection of its writer's life. This goes both for WDC and offsite blogs. Here's all you'll get from me regarding today's prompt: I've been through the good times, and I've been through the not-so-very-good times. I've been on cloud nine and I've dwelled in Hell on Earth. Why now would I want to speculate or consider some great thing that's most likely never going to happen to me, only to have something of equal or greater (or lesser) weight, but it's awful, happen as well? Like I won a million bucks in the lottery, but I get hit by a car on the way to cash in the ticket? No! Why would I do that? There's a thin line between being creative for the sake of the craft and being absolutely narcissistic because that's what the topic wants the imaginative side of you to be. That's not something I care to explore at this time.

And while I'm at it (speaking of being narcissistic...look at me roll), I'm not calling anyone out or specifically throwing anyone under the bus, so don't all get the old knickers in a twist while I continue my episode of rambling malcontentness. I've defended people, and the BCF as a whole, for almost as long as I've been a part of it. I feel like I've been a fair, friendly and consistent member of this group. I've seen plenty of changes. And what are we given to show for it? Another survey in lieu of a prompt. It seems like whenever people start to get a little upset, or participation dwindles, it's "let's roll out a survey and see what happened" time. Look, I know it's impossible to predict how people are going to react to things. But even I know that when you take something that's successful or at least functioning properly, the last thing you should want to do is change things! Change makes people nervous and uncomfortable...and less likely to participate. Furthermore, when you take away the "happy place" some people have seemed to develop, they're not always gonna be so forthcoming about it. Some are just comfortable enough to accept that things have changed, their voices won't carry the weight necessary to enact whatever it is they feel is enough to keep them around, and they just move on. Unfortunately, that's life in the big group setting.

Along those same lines, common sense needs to take precedence sometimes over the prevailing powers that be when it comes to certain group functions. Does anyone think aloud, "Hey, what if this isn't a good idea? Then what?" Or are activities just plowed through with heads down, hoping they'll catch on until after the fact and it's too late to reverse course or try something else?

Ok, even I admit that so far everything sounds a bit on the harsh side. and perhaps I sound unfair. Like I mentioned, I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes here, nor am I offering many answers (I think I said enough during my survey response). I understand people are trying to run a well-functioning group, but obviously something isn't working. Numbers don't lie, and inconsistency doesn't hide. Running this group the way it has been run in the past isn't working in the present, and that's probably due to reasons that aren't hard to see. Too many leaders, too many ideas, not enough cohesion, and waning enthusiasm by everyone involved, and that includes bloggers. Everything's getting stale. Look at the forum; count the number of posts that aren't prompts or entries written by those who also write prompts. What do you notice?

I have one theory worth sharing. It's nearing the end of August. It's the end of summer for some, and for others it's back-to-school time. People are busy. Last minute vacations are being taken. Kids are settling in to a new routine. Nothing else really happens this time of year. Either writing takes a back seat when free time is pinched, or people simply don't want to spend what's left of summer sitting in front of a computer trying to come up with blog entries for prompts they don't care for or are invested in. And that leads me to the reward system...the weekly and monthly blogger awards. I think the biggest exodus came as those notifications were phased out for the summer (with the second-biggest being the image prompt nightmare). The lure of friendship/kinship within a group simply isn't enough to entice people to stick around when there are so many other alternatives and options. Their incentive and personal investment isn't there. Not everybody wants to write just to write. Personally, it doesn't make a big deal to me. But I've seen cases where it has. It's too bad.

Ugh. These entries get to be emotionally exhausting and frustrating at times. I don't envy the powers that be right now. No, I don't have any suggestions, and no, I don't know how to fix a group that's not performing the same as it used to. But something hasn't been right for a long, long time. It's not my job to fix it; I'm just a guy who shows up, does his thing, and gets out. I make the rounds and move along. The problem is, there's not as many rounds to make anymore, and it's a shame.

/end rant Oh, ps...I saw tomorrow's prompt right before I started putting this entry down. Not sure how I feel about it, to be honest. At least it's not asking me to make stuff up. This is the one time where, to paraphrase something I once said, there's a million different definitions of blogging...only right now, none of them make sense and nobody will agree on any of them.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

Let me think...I could either find something to augment my arguing, or go in the complete opposite direction. Why not just do both, and top it off by posting a video from an album entitled "Gimme Fiction"?

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

4 to 1: Number of personal emails I'll receive as opposed to actual comments on this entry. I can practically guarantee it. Sometimes you just know how the trends are gonna play out.

Is it just me, or has WDC been very slow to function (load pages, write reviews, add comments) today? Of course, I spent a good part of the afternoon without any internet, and when I did have it, every other site but WDC seemed to work just fine. But nothing's working now, actually...I'm dreading finishing up writing this because if I have to hit "Save Entry", I fear that it's gonna take a half-hour to tell me I'm no longer connected to the internet. It's been almost 15 minutes and I'm still loading the emoticon page, and YouTube hasn't actually begun to play anything yet.

Walking more than to the bathroom and back has become quite a pain in the ass...and the hips and the back also. For the last few days going anywhere has been a struggle. My hips and lower back are killing me from going up a flight of stairs. I didn't ask for this when it was decided for me that I was to going to turn another year older.

Alright. I'm gettin' outta here. I've been disconnected for the umpteenth time today and I'm currently somehow not technically online right now, which means fun and games trying to get back on before I lose this entry completely. Peace, the beast and dragon adored, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!