Reflections on the A to Z Challenge

 

  In the rear-view mirror, the dust from the A to Z Challenge of  April is almost settled. Perhaps with the flurry of activity it is even unsettling to see things returning to normal, whatever my undirected normal at Incoming Bytes may have been.
I haven't evaluated specific statistics, but  marginally  increased traffic to Incoming Bytes  continues to be a good thing. A number of amazing new and absolutely incredible writers  and followers have been discovered.  New friends. Stuff learned.






A couple of  off-the-cuff comments on the challenge:

• Many wonderful blogs were signed up, and I looked at a lot of them  -it was impossible time-wise to read anywhere near all of them.  I simply did  not find myself with enough free time to devote to that luxury.  

• I was amazed to find the incredible quality of writing and diverse content on impressive blogs that I was fortunate enough to visit, perhaps 400(?) or more.  Most were solid-value blogs,  high-calibre content -- and highly readable.

• I certainly was not able to write comments on every site visited by any stretch of the imagination. I only commented on a few; I  found myself too challenged for time. The 'capcha's on many of them were  a  distinctive nuisance.  Waiting around for 'boxes' to show up and faced with trying to interpret smudgy idiotic captcha's  made me instantly "forget it an move on" with a vengeance. Yes, I  gained a few followers which I very much appreciated, and I reciprocated, but that doesn't preclude the fact that time is limited.

• The blog list was HUGE which was good, but I ended up just clicking through a number of them.  What was the deciding factor?  Content type .                                                                                                
•    I would have liked to see some kind of directory, an indication of the 'general content' of blogs. Even a category definition  "general interest" in many cases would have been helpful.
•  A basic directory would be very simple and makes sense:

 As an example,  "Incoming Bytes:  A diverse, general- interest blog. 

•  It wasn't a race or a rule by any means, but not surprisingly, I found it mildly annoying to be told 'you're ahead'  and "post "x"  or 'other'  on a certain day.  That  raised the middle finger of the mind.  Waved the red flag at the bull.  If anything was annoying about the challenge, that was  it.
  

 Excuse me, but let's digress and examine the question:
 
 Q: Whose blog is this anyway? 
 A:  Guess. Writing is a personal thing.  A freedom enjoyed. One to be kept free, and kept enjoyable.

In arbitrary observation, would one care if they were 'lagging the pack'  a couple of days? 
No.
 Bottom line,  individual writing schedules are highly erratic--so, surprise! -- We  post offerings when enabled, when written, when the schedule allows, early or late, the kaflooie of being a non-conformist --or not. 
Interestingly, I even tried to 'meter' the  A-Z  postings to the 'correct day', -- only to find others ahead, behind, all over the place, or, imagine this, in some cases, abreast of whatever 'letter'  I coincidentally happened to be doing anyway. The spirit of the challenge was certainly not broken, displaced, or ignored.

•  The objective:  26 posts using all 26 letters of the alphabet in 26 days

• Status:  Completed.                                                                                                                          

 Overall?  It was an enjoying challenge and will be-- until  the fun is eventually micro-managed right out of it.    
Will writers continue to generate interesting content to generate excitement, making the A to Z Challenge an actual event?   
 Will we participate again? Perhaps.  

Is that incoming I hear?