I decided to take part in the Blog Improvement Project . The first task is to think about your goals.

That’s actually a tough one because Kim says (and I agree) that getting more hits is something you can’t control and so it’s not a good goal. And I suppose everyone wants to get more hits, right? So I have to think up better goals.

One could be commenting more. I know that I don’t comment much and there are several reasons for that. Sometimes there’s just no time. But more often I would feel dorky saying just “I agree” and so I don’t say anything at all even though I liked a post. Also, I’m a Finn. Finns are taught not to say anything unless we really have something to contribute (celebrities and politicians seem to be able to overcome this programming somehow). We are more talkative when we are with friends but I don’t really know any of you other bloggers and so it feels a bit like I would be invading another person’s living room. I’ve also been burned when I was more active on some SFF forums. But I’ll try my best to comment more.

Second would be making my reviews more personal. I’ve noticed that many people add numerical values to the reviews and also point out highs and lows. I’m not entirely convinced that a number would really add much (although I guess I have to confess that I do tend to check the number usually when I read other people’s reviews) and there are, of course, books that can’t have just one number to sum up the whole book. (For example: characters: 6/10, but setting 9 and plot 8. And in comics art should be a separate number.) But I’m going to try it and I’m also adding a scale on the sidebar. I’ll also put in some plus and minus things about each book. And probably also a short quote.

I did also consider doing reviews of other things as well such as TV shows or movies but I get them quite late. Also, I’m a settings freak and I tend to get hung up on things that other people often think as irrelevant (how the frak can money based economy still work in Galactica??) instead of the, er, more relevant things happing in the episode. I’m also quite poor judge of an actor’s acting ability.

I do enjoy reading more personal stories from other bloggers. However, I don’t feel comfortable posting that sort of things myself so I’m not likely to write those.

So, my goals are to comment more and add some feature to the reviews.