Good Morning Friends! It is that time again for another Blaugust, or at least it will be very soon. Several years ago I started challenging my blogging friends to post something new each day during the month of August. Over the years this concept has morphed and changed as needed but remained as a focus of trying to stir up bloggers. Blogging has been called a dying art many many times in the press, but there are many of us who keep doing it and have been doing it for over a decade. The hope is with each Blaugust that we might spur some lax bloggers back into action and also spread the art form to a new generation. There is something deeply therapeutic about scribbling down a bunch of words and sending them out into the world for others to read.
Why We Do Blaugust
The “why” of Blaugust is relatively straightforward. The blogging community is nowhere near as large as it once was. Many of us have aged out of blogging with real-world responsibilities and others have just moved on to other time-consuming hobbies. Blaugust gives us a chance to infuse the community with a fresh lease on life as we court new bloggers to join the fray. Those of us who have been carrying the torch of blogging for decades now can sometimes lose hope as our blogroll loses a few voices each year. I personally find getting out and mingling with other bloggers to be a deeply beneficial thing when it comes to my own creative processes. We’ve also branched out to support others who do serialized content in any format, the focus being on regularly engaging with the creative process. The bustling Discord Community has helped to keep the energy up the other eleven months of the year.
The Base Game
This year we are shifting things up a little bit to make it more clear what is required and what is purely optional content. Blaugust at its heart has always been about celebrating the creation of content on a regular schedule. The original challenge was to post 31 times during the month of August which is 31 days long. This can be posting every day or doubling up on some days to make the schedule a bit easier. However, we also want to award anyone who starts down this path, because deciding to blog in the first place is a victory in itself. As such we give out awards based on the number of posts that you manage to knock out during the month of August.
- Newbie Blogger Award – You did it! You joined Blaugust for the very first time and we are extremely happy to welcome you into this raucous community. As a result, we are going to recognize your efforts just for signing up.
- Bronze Award – You made at least 5 posts during the month of August 2022.
- Silver Award – You made at least 15 posts during the month of August 2022.
- Gold Award – You made at least 25 posts during the month of August 2022.
- Rainbow Diamond Award – You beat the challenge and posted 31 times or more during the month of August 2022.
The Expansion
Something new that we are introducing this year is the concept of Blaugchievements. Essentially anything from this point forward should be considered optional and will be considered to also be on the “honor system”. There have always been a number of assorted trappings associated with Blaugust like a schedule with specific weeks called out for various purposes. Additionally, some years back we made a pretty ill-fated attempt at doing a shared topic web ring. These concepts are moving forward but being packaged up as extra achievements for those who wish to go through the additional effort.
Each individual Blaugchievement has its own associated achievement “toast” patterned loosely after those from Xbox Live back in the day. By reading this blog post you have already heard the very first one. You can view the extended list of Blaugchievements where I explain each of them in detail, but here is a short version of the list.
- Reading the Manual – Read the introductory blog post with the rules of the event.
- Joining the Cause – Sign-Up for Blaugust.
- Recruit a Friend – Convince another blogger to participate in Blaugust.
- Spreading the Madness – Promote Blaugust on your blog or through your social media of choice.
- Friend of Wumpus – Join the Blaugust Discord.
- Sharing is Caring – Post your content in the “Share Your Content” Channel.
- Forum of Friends – Take part in a discussion in the “Post Discussion” Channel.
- The Pet Tax – Post a picture of an animal friend on the “Stuff and Things” Channel.
- Friend Like Me – Answer a question posted on the Blagust Discord or help out a new blogger.
- Shared Thoughts – Comment on a blog post from another Blaugust participant.
- Getting Inspired – Write a blog post inspired by a post from another Blaugust participant.
- Pickup Group – Play a game or take part in an activity with one or more Blaugust participants.
- Hot Topics – Write a blog post based on the Blaugust Prompt List.
- Welcome Wagon – Write a blog post based on the first week’s theme of Welcoming Folks to Blaugust.
- Introduce Yourself – Write a blog post based on the second week’s theme of Introducing Yourself.
- Creative Appreciation – Write a blog post based on the third week’s theme Appreciating the works of some Creative or Company.
- Staying Motivated – Write a blog post based on the fourth week’s theme of how you have managed to Stay Motivated.
- Lessons Learned – Write a blog post based on the fifth week’s theme explaining some of the Lessons you have Learned through Blaugust.
- Going Platinum – Complete All of the Blaugchievements for Blaugust 2022.
The Schedule
As is often the case with Blaugust, we have a series of “themed” weeks. This is a purely optional feature and designed to help give folks some scaffolding the shape their ideas, and not something strict. August has five weeks and as such we have five different themes.
- Welcome to Blaugust Week (August 1st – August 6th) – The idea behind this week is to give a specific time to be actively talking about Blaugust and welcoming new members to the fold. This could also count as promoting Blaugust for the “Spreading the Madness” achievement. The hope is that drumming up some heavy activity of talking about the event might allow us to pick up a few more stragglers.
- Introduce Yourself Week (August 7th – August 13th) – The idea behind this week is to have some structured time around getting to know the other bloggers. I realize that those of us who are veteran bloggers might have already written half a dozen introduction posts by now, but it is a great time to share anything interesting you might have in your arsenal.
- Creative Appreciation Week (August 14th – August 20th) – Developer Appreciation Week or the D.A.W. was an event that took place in the blogging community independent from Blaugust but eventually died out. The more modern idea is to show appreciation for the things and creators that we love. This could be authors, musicians, developers, artists, or even other bloggers, with the focus being on sharing something that we love so that maybe others might appreciate it as well.
- Staying Motivated Week (August 21st – August 27th) – As we get towards the end of the event, the activity can often trail off a bit. The goal of this week is to share some of your own tips surrounding how you keep motivated and stay focused on creating content. If you are new to the event, you might share some of the things that have helped you stay engaged during Blaugust.
- Lessons Learned Week (August 28th – August 31st) – This week is a reminder that the goal of Blaugust is to refresh the content creators out there for the coming year, and not to burn them out in the process. Some folks are going to cross the finish line and immediately go dormant and others will want to process their thoughts about the proceedings. This space is reserved as a bit of a cooldown lap so that you can share your own experiences.
The Prompts
As hinted at earlier in this post, in 2020 we tried something a little different and created this whole “promptapalooza” event since we had already done the traditional Blaugust style event as Blapril that year. It was honestly a bit of a failure. I am not sure what it looked like from the outside, but trying to keep that event running was sheer chaos as no one seemed to grok the concept. The good thing that came out of it however is that we have a pretty nice list of prompts for those who might need help trying to come up with something to write about during this month. Again this is a purely optional thing but there is a Blaugchievement associated with it.
Mentorship
One of the benefits of having done this at least once in this same style… is that we have existing infrastructure! We already have a batch of mentors ready to help the process, but if you feel like you would be best served in that role we are always open to more. Ultimately mentors should have at least two years of blogging experience under their belt in order to gauge the ebbs and flow of content creation in front of a live studio audience. We aren’t expecting perfection, just a willingness to share the lessons you have learned along the way with fledgling participants. If this sounds like you, please reach out to me on Discord and we can talk about your desire to become a Mentor.
The Details
That my friends are the details for Blaugust 2022. There have been a few tweaks here or there, but largely it should function in a similar fashion. As is always the case I close out the yearly information post with a quick bullet point rundown of the information.
- The Sign-Up Form for Blaugust 2022 can be found here. Since logging in with a Google account has been a source of consternation for some, I have removed that functionality. If you still cannot for whatever reason sign-up but want to participate please let me know. Only those that I am tracking will be assigned awards.
- The invite link to the Blaugust Discord can be found here. Participation in Discord is entirely optional but also a great way to bounce ideas off the existing community.
- If you feel inclined to do so please use the hashtag #Blaugust2022 for tracking purposes and to make your content easier to find for those watching the proceedings.
- We also highly suggest that you utilize the Share Your Content” channel in the official Discord.
- Mingle with the participants of Blaugust 2022. Get out and see the blogs, read the posts, and comment frequently! These folks represent a social structure that you can lean on for advice in the coming years. I deeply value the ties I have made with other bloggers and started this process as an attempt to cement those and build new ones.
- If you are so inclined there is a “Gaming Together” channel on Discord for those impromptu grouping activities. I believe there was even some discussion of doing a one-shot D&D adventure this year.
- If you find yourself getting stuck at any point feel free to rely on the weekly schedule or the prompt list for inspiration or you can hop on Discord and talk through your issues.
- You can also check out the new Blaugchievements list for anything that might spark your creativity and check one of those off.
- Welcome to Blaugust 2022. As always if you have any questions please feel free to ask. My door is always open but I might be slow to respond because I have a bad habit of idling on pretty much all the social platforms at once.
- If you want an archive of all of the various logos and such from this year or past years of Blagust, please check out the Blaugust Media Kit page.
