Participation
2019 is my first year participating in the A2Z Blogging Challenge. I am already used to posting at least a couple of posts a day, so I felt fairly confident in being able to post once a day for A2Z. Yes, I was on the master list. Yes, I do plan on participating in the challenge in 2020. Yes, I did complete the after survey.
Theme
I didn’t give a lot of forethought to the theme but was sure I wanted to have one. I remembered the big book I have of signs and symbols and how they cross times, geographies, and cultures, which seemed perfect for the challenge, as bloggers come from different age groups, geographies, and cultures. I then proceeded to thumb through the book and chose one or more topics for each letter and gave each letter a page in my hard copy notebook. Then I started doing research. I had two or three done when April first came around, which was some cushion – but not enough. What I didn’t realize is how widespread the various signs and symbols were! A few were confined to one location, but most went worldwide. I was forced to limit the coverage for many/most of the signs/symbols. What I do feel I successfully did with my theme was to pique the interest of the reader to a place where they might want to go out and learn more.
Takeaway from Theme
What I also hope the readers took away from the A2Z signs/symbols is that we humans are more alike than we are different. Sign A might be called one thing at the north pole and called another thing at the south pole, but it is clear that cultures used them for the same or very similar purposes.
Loves, Hates, Indifferents
I loved having a master list to look at and where I could click directly from the list to get to the blogs. I wasn’t too thrilled about how many fields were in the list. I know it was indicated that there was a list with just the thems and the blog addresses, but when I found it once I wasn’t on it even though I signed up to be on it, and then I couldn’t find it. I admit I didn’t look real hard for it and just used the master list. What I would love to see is a text document with 3 columns: Theme, Blog Name, and address link, where it can be sorted by any of the 3 columns. That way I can upload it and edit it as I go for such things as highlighting ones I want to visit again, delete those not of interest to me, maybe add a column to keep track of who visited me and returned comments after I visited them, etc. I’m not enough of a geek to know how to lift fields out of a spreadsheet and make my own table in word processing so if the geek squad could do something like this it would be appreciated.
I loved finding blogs I never would have otherwise found. There are some amazingly talented, artistic, wise, funny, and what I will call resonant bloggers out there. I loved seeing engravers, illustrators, cinema historians, documentary film reviewers, and individuals discussing topics that were interesting.
I didn’t like visiting some of the interesting blogs and commenting on them day after day but never getting a return visit from those blogs. After awhile I just stopped visiting them, even though I enjoyed what I was reading. I understand if you have thousands of followers and just don’t have time to visit, but many of the blogs were extremely low traffic, so there was no reason I could see as to why they wouldn’t check out the blog of someone who was visiting them every day.
I didn’t like clicking on some links where a person was on the master list but not participating in A2Z. I didn’t like the blogs that were signed up but looking more to sell their products than post for the challenge.
Things Learned for Next Year
1. Don’t pick such a vast theme. It takes a huge amount of time; time I don’t have.
2. Try to get more organized at deciding whose blogs I will visit during A2Z. There were over 600 bloggers signed up this year and I read only a small fraction of them.
3. Try to ask more questions of the readers in every A2Z post, as when I did, it became more interactive.
For the Hosts of A2Z
Thank you to each and every one that is involved with the organizing and promoting of A2Z. It’s pretty amazing so many people participate. You did a good job of getting word out about it and I love all of the banners that have been created. I did not buy any A2Z products yet from Jeremy and may or may not this year.
Tao-Talk 
I made sure I tried the whole thing
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It sounds challenging and you did a good job!
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Thank you Punam. I wish A2Z wasn’t the same month as the Poetry month :(
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You are welcome Li. I know, it becomes a difficult choice to make. 😐
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You did a great job! It’s too time intensive for me, so I won’t be participating again.
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Thanks Paula. It must have been really hard to watch a movie or read a book a day for yours! Next year will be way more simple topic for me. I didn’t see your post at SLS and I just checked again? Maybe when Jim gets his router fixed the links will show up.
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Yeah, I tried to remember to manually link everything, but I’ve been out of town. Stuck at the Oakland airport right now. Our plane has a flat tire apparently. Lol
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UGH. Hoping you’re in the air now (it’s been 2 hours since you wrote it.)
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Home! 😀
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:)
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Whilst I can’t claim to have visited you every day, whenever I dd so I enjoyed the experience. I share many of your thoughts about the master list but it really does need simplifying and making more user-friendly. Well done!
Here’s what I thought…’
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Thank you Keith for your feedback. Glad you agree on simplifying the list. Right now it is designed like an accountant would need for running reports.
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Perfectly put!
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I think it was a very enjoyable theme, even if it was vast. I hope to see you again in the challenge next year! :)
The Multicolored Diary
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Thank you very much. I’m planning on it :)
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An excellent reflection. I like your idea of a simplified spreadsheet too.
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Thanks Lael
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Yay! You made it through your first A to Z with flying colors! Your posts were fun and easy to read about all the signs and symbols of the world. Great job, and an excellent reflection post all about it. :)
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Thank you so much, Barbara. I very much enjoyed yours also.
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Sounds like an interesting event! Learned a lot by reading your review!
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Thanks, yes it is. Maybe you might give it a try in April 2020?
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For sure! I think I would enjoy that!
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I saved a copy of the master list and just deleted the columns I didn’t need
Debbie
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Is that easy to do? I have virtually no experience working with spreadsheets.
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Found you on the Reflection List and pleased I did too. The Master List was overwhelming for me so I tended to stick with those who visited me and commented. I have no experience with your content and I am so going to rectify that as I follow you through the WP Reader (love that). Great reflection too. Linda x
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I’m glad you found me through Reflections and hope you enjoy the content. Welcome!
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