Why I Blog

Recently, Lee Berkovits,
Candidate for Chairman of American Mensa, wrote about me:

“…frankly, why she 
blogs about what happens in Mensa - instead of posting it to the forums or 
discussion groups - is beyond me. Do we really need MORE avenues of 
communication, when so many good ones are available already?”

Wow. A Communications Officer daring to use additional venues for communication?! Outrageous!

Why do I blog? Several reasons:

• Sometimes I write looooong essays— too long for the AML forums, and certainly too long for micro blogging venues, like Twitter.

• Millions of people blog or have personal Web sites for sharing their views with whomever wishes to read them. In Mensa, for example, I know that Dick Amyx ,Sander Rubin, John Recht, Dan Tobias, and Jared Levine all have had Web presences, some for many years. Heck, even Lee himself has a Web site now, so apparently the forums and discussion groups are not meeting all of his communication needs.

• If I were to use the official forums for my essays, I’d be accused of taking advantage of a medium I oversee in order to further my own slanted views, especially in light of no other AMC members doing so.

• My blog site costs Mensa nothing. I suspect that if I used up so much space on the AML forums, I’d be taken to task for spending members’ money for my own advancement.

• There are no appropriate official elists for generic discussion of Mensa issues.

• Using official venues limits what I can write. Like any other Mensan, sometimes I prefer to express myself without worrying about political correctness and oversight.

• There are times when I wish to express myself as just Robin, regular member, and not as “Robin Crawford, Communications Officer” writing ex cathedra. That is harder to do on official forums.

• If I were to use unofficial discussion groups, such as the Yahoo groups Lee is fond of, I would be limiting my audience to only subscribers of those lists, and there are many involved members who do not care for the climate of those groups and would never read what I write.

• Long emails are not generally read thoroughly.

• Email is too ephemeral for some of what I care to write. A blog has a bit more of a static publication feel to it, and new visitors can easily find and read old posts.

I have been sharing information and opinions for years. Quarterly reports, year-end articles in the Bulletin, participation on various official and unofficial elists and discussion groups, Twitter, Facebook, forums, and here. Not every member sees everything, but limiting myself to only one or two of those media would decrease, not increase the flow of information. When I have something significant to share, I do cross-post it, or at least a link—in many venues.

 It comes down to this—there are many ways to communication, and each has different advantages and disadvantages. A good communicator knows how and when to use them all. Yes, Lee, Mensa needs more communication.