by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2008/01/08 10:01 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2008/01/08/7013885.aspx
From the recently pre-recorded blogs collection...
The other day I had somebody ask me about a blog that was going to be posted that she could not find. She wasn't sure whether it was problems with the search capabilities or it just wasn't put up yet or some other reason.
I had to tell her that the post wasn't going to be put up (in this case because the behavior the blog was going to describe does not actually occur as it was reported (yes, I do verify stuff before I post about it!). Often times if I am talking to you about it that may be part of me investigating the issue. It may have been your answers that disuaded me!
She persisted for a moment, wondering what other factors kept a blog from being posted.
I tell her a whole bunch of reasons, and after she asked for examples I told her I'd write a blog about it.
This is that blog. :-)
There are of course the conventional reasons -- like product info that a team doesn't want covered yet, or that they want me to delay coverage. This has held up posts for months and one particular series for years, even (this is the TableTextService.dll thing, which I hope to be able to finally start posting the already written series soon).
And other conventional reasons, like information that is available elsewhere with me feeling like I couldn't really add substantive content to it.
Occasionally I just can't put it all together right, and I feel like that whole Chaplin thing where I feel like I almost have it but I just can't get it right. It hasn't been able to come together. Some posts get over-thought, which is I suppose better than the ones that are under-thought....
One reason that can hold up a blog is that I can't come up with a title that meet my particular [low ]standards for blog titles. This can hold up a post, sometimes for days or weeks or months, or even forever. Occasionally it is the other way around -- I have the title but there is some substantive content I can't get the information on to finish -- those blogs are either re-done or if I think they will come together eventually then they too may end up in blog limbo.
Sometimes when a blog is about something personal, changes in circumstances make the post's content less relevant (or, less often, less interesting) to me, causing the content to fall below my minimum criteria of "stuff that interests me". Interest may be overstated here -- I can find something to be interesting in the abstract without it being interesting to me anymore. I don't tend to delete them if they are good, but I just don't see a place where it makes sense to post them. Generally in this case the others involved know something has changed so they usually don't start asking about random undone posts....
Then of course there are times that I have just forgotten, a-la-Of course I will be doing it, I just haven't done it yet. Which is why I don't mind the reminders.
In fact the only time you never have to remind me is when you put it in the Suggestion Box or, to a lesser extent, when you use the Contact link (the latter less so since I do not look over those emails as often as I look over the Suggestion Box).
Plus if a blog is not going to happen, I can warn you about that if you are asking the "are we there yet?" question.
This post has no sponsor as the characters who sponsored blogs that are not going to be posted