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Tuesday 12 February 2013

WordPress Daily Prompt: All about me

Explain why you chose your blog's title and what it means to you.



PP-First-Achievment-Award midium



This goes back a long, long way and looking at the dates now I realise that I was 8 years younger, had the blogging world at my feet (tip of my keyboard) and was ready to go. The first time I saw, read and heard the word blog, I had to get my dictionary, which did not help. The word was too new to be included, but Aunty Internet soon came to my aid. I decided I want a blog as well.

My first attempts were in Blogger and that remained as a foundation for all my first blogging attempts. I knew no-one, did not realise there were blogging challenges: but you have to start somewhere. I then discovered Yahoo 350 which was a very good concept for a blogging site. You could decorate it a bit and I also found a few fellow bloggers. Not as many as I would have liked, but some even found me, so with my small exploration on the blogging front I began to get used to it all.

My name at this time was Angloswiss. I am originally an Anglo from London, England but moved to Switzerland when I was twenty years old, so I decided this would be appropriate. At the time of my first blogging attempts I was already more years in Switzerland than England, so Angloswiss was not a bad choice. Then one dismal day in the world of blogging Yahoo 350 decided to close down. It seemed most of the ex Yahoo bloggers had discovered a site called Multiply and this was where I went as well. Many lamented the close-down of Yahoo, but there are things that change in life, and changes just have to be accepted.

So my next station was Multiply. I decided on a different name, and at the time two cats had adopted me with the names Tabby and Nera, so what could be more fitting than a name of Tabbynera. My cats forced me at paw point, so I did not have a choice. Multiply was a very good site. Easy to make contact with others and there were many challenges to take part in. I always was a bit of a story teller, had a vivid imagination and so I joined many writing challenges. You got a picture and wrote something about it and had a week to do it in. There was also a pure writing challenge site, and alternatively various people each week decided on a subject to write about. We visited each other’s works and commented. You really got to know people. There was a poetry challenge. I was actually never into poetry, but was persuaded to join from a few Multiply colleagues and now and again even won a certificate (see above). It was fun, no stress and I really got to know some very nice people from all over the world. There were also photo challenges. You submitted your photo according to the subject given and admired each other’s work. One day this was turned into a competition, appearing about once every couple of months. I was open about this and told the people running it, that I was leaving the photo challenge. I am not here to compete but to appreciate.

Long story cut short – this excellent social site called Multiply decided they wanted more money and changed their policy. They decided to become a marketing site. They moved from the States to Indonesia and closed the social side of things, offering a few links to save your works to other sites, one was Blogger. In the meanwhile I still had my original blogger site and used it as a backup for my works, although it was not complete. I spent a couple of afternoons copying and pasting the blogs which I had not backed up. The links provided for a backup were not exactly the yellow of the egg. At the same time as I was in Multiply I had discovered WordPress and found it a very professional site. I could even have two blogs. I decided WordPress would be my back up for Blogger challenges – writing and photography, but not for blogging about this and that.

I had a few hectic days catching up on my backups in Blogger and realising that this closing down of sites could always happen, started at this time to use WordPress as a full backup. I needed a name for my blogs in WordPress, something new. It was then that my good blogging friend Mitch from Multiply came to my rescue, probably not even realising it. I had started my site for my cats, and somehow he used the word “your cat chronicles”. I decided yes, this was it. A really good name, and above all my cats (I then had three) accepted the name and found yes, Mitch understood the needs of a feline blogging site. My own site in WordPress was known as “My Stories and Poems”, not very imaginative, but nothing else came to mind. Then I decided if I have Cat Chonicles, I could have Anglo Swiss Chronicles as well, and so my name for WordPress was established.

When Multiply kicked us out, many of my colleagues were standing before new decisions – where shall we go?. I also made a tour of various blogging sites, but always came back to Blogger and WordPress. What also made me stay in these sites, was that some of the challenges moved to Blogger from Multiply with a few very good friends (can you hear me Mitch, Baz, Marianne, Riete and many others) and I even linked up to some others in Multiply which were not linked with me at the time of Multiply existence. Of course I have now met some very good people in WordPress in the meanwhile, especially since the day I discovered that WordPress actually does something for its bloggers. Daily Prompt mainly. It is of course clear that if you want people to visit your site and interact with you, then you also visit their sites. I have met some really good writers in WordPress.

So I am now in two places. In blogger I am under my own name, as I am also a member of Google+, but in WordPress I have chronicles. 


alpacaparrot

This was one of my photographic games in a challenge series called Monochrome Monday, lead by a professional photograper Gary in Multiply. I learnt a lot from him. Here I had combined a Lama photo with a parrot photo resulting in a Paralpaca.

3 comments:

  1. My blogging journey parallels yours for much of the time. I started on Y360....then Multiply.....now Blogger. The main difference being I only discovered Blogger while looking for a new home after Multiply decided to close it's doors. I might even have explored WordPress, but the 'Picture This' photographic group takes up much of my time, leaving little left for my own Blogger page, let alone another site as well!!

    I'm very pleased the felines liked my 'Cat Chronicles' phrase and decided to use it as the title for their WordPress page.

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  2. My blogging journey parallels yours and Mitch's. I began my blogging experience in Yahoo 360 where I had only two connections, Belita and a gentleman from Canada. It was a good site to write and share photographs. When Yahoo closed their blog site I transitioned to Multiply. I didn't participate wholeheartedly with photography challenges. My only connection was Belita.
    For awhile I abandoned writing blog entries and when I discovered Multiply's new direction into a marketing social network, I considered Blogger because my cousin's husband is using it for his blog site.
    It was only upon Belita's invitation to join Blogger that I did so. I am glad that my circle is becoming wider through participating in Picture This.

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    Replies
    1. And very glad to have met you here Robert. I seem to meet more people from Multiply here then I did in Multiply. Belita was also a very good blogging colleague in Multiply. You all write such interesting blogs.

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