Creativity Magazine

The Mailing List That Wasn’t

Posted on the 28 October 2013 by Rarasaur @rarasaur

I’m constantly delighted by the friendships of the ‘sphere.  It’s a wondrous phenomenon and I begin to understand why so many blogging experts say that friendships within this world are one of the most pivotal points in regards to whether you will continue to enjoy the hobby of blogging as time passes.

Because there are hard days.  There are mean comments, and dry spells, and personal disasters that leak into writing, and life celebrations that completely take it over.  There are technical problems (like when I lost everyone on my read list), and physical problems (like when I hurt my butt), and disappearing bloggers, and all sorts of maddening things– but there’s nothing so constant as the friendships that can be found.

You can't say

You can’t say “itsy bitsy” without referencing a spider. Internet Law #1898JBH-9. “The itsy bitsy Spiderman crawled up the city wall…”

Friendship makes those things seems like itsy bitsy tiny specks on the radar.

One thing I didn’t consider, though, is how difficult it is to organize friends.  It was hard enough trying to make a gmail address book with the bloggers who have contacted me before, and those I reached out to– but now gmail is giving me troubles.  I might have to switch emails and start all over.

I asked my husband to fix this situation before I completely lost my mind, and he sent me a link to a bunch of public address books– suggesting that I just ask everyone to fill in their info if they want me to have it.

This dinosaur watches his friends catch butterflies and says,

This dinosaur watches his friends catch butterflies and says, “Guys, this is not a good idea. They will bite us in our sleep!” See? Dinos are paranoid by nature. Source : SoftPorcupine

The problem is, I’m paranoid, and I don’t trust these guys with your information.  They could be nice people, I don’t know– but if a site makes me hesitate to type in my email, I’m certainly not going to ask others to do the same.

So, I went to my old faithful– a strange little company that I’ve trusted with information for years and years.  They’re a mailing list company, though, not an address book.

. . . And that’s how I started a mailing list.

Now to be clear, I’m not actually going to be sending out newsletters or anything. 

I just have a tendency to ask a lot of favors, and do a lot of group things, and ask for guest bloggers– and I don’t want to skip you just because I accidentally file you in the wrong address book box.  I also don’t want to assume that anyone who has ever commented here has a mad desire to hide a wand in one of their blogs for me so I can send a fleet of blog detectives after them.

This way, you can file yourself– and if I forget to send you a personal email because you didn’t add yourself, I won’t feel so guilty.

See?

Everyone wins!

I made a simple, ugly little contact form that will drop you into my address book.  You’ll always be able to go in and change your settings– and it won’t hurt my feelings at all.

You can click the secretary below, and she’ll be happy to direct to you to the form.  No information is mandatory except the email address.

goahead

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How do you organize the people in your life?   Do you use a Rolodex or a little address book, or just your phone?  Did you write an ending for my spiderman ditty above?


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