The continuing saga of the future of this blog

Blogspot.com, my host, has posted a link to an article from Wired for Thursday, titled "Bloggers Suffer Burnout."

I know what they mean. One blogger I read regularly, Hesiod at Counterspin, has retired.
Another, Billmon at the Whiskey Bar, has eliminated comments. Atrios not long ago made some remark about what a 24/7 undertaking it had become. And even though I'm a real small fish in the blogging ocean, I sometimes feel the same way.

What happens is that you become aware that there are people who read you regularly, meaning at least a couple of times a week - in my case, I estimate that number is somewhere around 40-50. As a result, you begin to feel obligated to post things on a regular basis.

But sometimes, some days, you don't feel moved by anything to really have something to say about it. (Or, as in my case and I suspect a number of others, you may feel moved but also feel you have nothing to add: I try not to spend a lot of time commenting on things that others are already talking about unless I feel there's some aspect not being considered; thus, for example, I've had little to say about the election or the polls surrounding it.)

And other times, dammit, you just don't feel like it. I put a good deal of effort into my posts, which are often enough combinations of two, three, or occasionally more news items about a particular topic, which are rewritten into a hopefully coherent whole with enough information that no reader has to follow the links to the original stories to understand either the issue or the point I'm expressing. And sometimes that feels like a chore.

The resulting conflicts among desire, obligation, and burden are what generate burnout.

Well, I don't want to burn out. And I like that there are people who think I contribute something of value, even if in a small way.

So here's what I'm going to do: Sunday is my slowest traffic day. So I'm pretty much going to take Sundays off. I'll post the Jeopardy! answer/question for the day, but that might be all. I might post more on a given Sunday if something moves or interests me enough, but I'm going to feel no obligation to do so. Six days a week should be enough for a single-person, small-time operation like this.

In return, I will do my best to make the rest of the days worth coming here to check out.

As always, comments/responses are welcome.