Martin Weller wrote an entry in his blog recently entitled Who needs money in the blogosphere? It got me thinking - why do I blog? Well it certainly isn't for money! It is enjoyable to post to a blog without a doubt, and maybe it can help build a reputation.
For me though I find it a handy place to record my thoughts and more importantly notes on technical questions. As part of my work and also because I am a Linux user I have to find ways on how to get things to work or to achieve the results I want. Over the last couple of years I have been finding that the answers to my questions are being found more and more in people's blogs than on formal support sites. I'm not saying that formal support sites are not important any more, they most definitely are, but they can't cover every scenario, they are also greatly limited by what their respective organisations chose to officially support.
Blogs though provide an opportunity for people to say "hey I got this working - here is how I did it". They can just tell their story. The blogs all get indexed by search engines so when searching for a solution to your problem you just might get pointed in the direction of somebody who is in a similar position to you and can help you.
As I have to make notes when I solve a problem, if these notes are not sensitive in any way, I might as well store them on the blog. I have saved many hours of work over the years thanks to items that people have blogged and I hope that some of my notes might return the favour. If you are in a similar position, why not share your solutions in this way?
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