Bloggernacle Burnout: It finally happened…

June 8, 2011    By: Geoff J @ 8:19 pm   Category: The Thang

I just noticed that I haven’t posted here at The Thang in the last 5 month. I guess it finally happened. After more than six years I finally got completely sick of blogging about Mormonism.

I guess it was inevitable. And it’s not like I am the only one who just got bored of this hobby. Jacob seems to have burned out too and our other contributors like Kristen and Blake and Kent sort of drifted away.

Maybe the itch will return some time. Or maybe I’ll just put up posts on BYU sports during the season… In the meantime Matt has done a terrific job keeping us afloat over here.

Anyone want to discuss their experience with bloggernacle burnout? Do tell.

(I can’t promise I’ll have enough motivation to chip in much though… (I kid, I kid!)).

39 Comments

  1. You lasted far longer than I before slowing down. No problem; take a breather.

    The sad thing is that I pretty much stopped commenting on others’ posts, too. It hasn’t helped that this was my first year as a new teacher.

    The funny thing is that I still have things I want to think and write about, but I just haven’t made the time. Summer may be nice for that.

    Comment by Ben Pratt — June 8, 2011 @ 8:44 pm

  2. Yep. I too have faded a good bit from my online presence, both active and passive.

    Comment by Ben S — June 8, 2011 @ 10:40 pm

  3. I have experienced a slow burn myself. Part of it seems to be that I fell I have had my say in several topics of interest. And coming up with more material is difficult. I am not a Mormon scholar really, so it is not like I am digging up really original things to say or report.

    Also, the bloggernacle will often point to other things to read. It often points away from itself.

    Anyway, thanks for your past contributions, I have enjoyed them and feel improved by them.

    Comment by Eric Nielson — June 9, 2011 @ 4:04 am

  4. It’s normal. We move on to other interests in life.

    Comment by Dan — June 9, 2011 @ 5:32 am

  5. Apostasy is a very sad thing. Inactivity is almost as sad.
    Are there NO hometeachers here at NCT to save the inactive bloggers?

    Comment by Rameumptom — June 9, 2011 @ 5:43 am

  6. I’m burning out a bit as well, mainly in that I don’t feel like I have enough time to put together intelligent thoughtful posts on a regular basis, and then I don’t feel like I have time to rigorously respond to the comments. On top of that, very few posts around the blogs grab my attention lately. There’s Aquinas and DLTayman who are putting out good theology stuff, but Geoff, Blake, Jacob, Eric, Clark, Stapley, Kevin Barney, and Mogget have limited to no postings of late. Add to that the fact that I don’t feel like we are covering any new material and we end up burned out. Part of me wants to reinvest, but another part of me says “screw it”, I’ve got work from 8-6, Kids from 6-9, and then I’ll watch BBC’s Sherlock instead of Blog after that.

    Comment by Matt W. — June 9, 2011 @ 7:26 am

  7. What I find interesting within Mormonism is still the same as what I used to find interesting, it is just that I no longer have any angst to fuel it. Dan, Chris H., and others have so much more angst that they likely won’t burn out for a lot longer. I have also made a close friend over the last two years who is always eager to talk to me about these things so I have an outlet there. One thing I would love to blog about is my encounter with Catholic Social Doctrines and Distributism as a path towards Zion. I am really interested in economics right now and maybe what this blog needs is some cross pollination with other types of topics. Korean tacos are all the rage, go fusion!

    Comment by Kent (MC) — June 9, 2011 @ 8:35 am

  8. Told ya so Geoff! Mr. Johnson, Shut Down This Blog!

    To all those interested in Bloggernacle Burnout and how to survive it, I have put together a few secrets gleaned from my many, many years of experience being at the forefront of the movement. Contact me if you would like a copy of my treatise.

    Comment by Steve Evans — June 9, 2011 @ 9:37 am

  9. er, Johnston. Whatevs.

    Comment by Steve Evans — June 9, 2011 @ 9:37 am

  10. There’s a lot of negativity on the bloggernacle. That is physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining… Getting bored with dealing with others just makes sense after awhile. Why do we harm ourselves by continually coming back to the abusive… ?

    Comment by psychochemiker — June 9, 2011 @ 11:23 am

  11. Yeah.

    Comment by Rusty — June 9, 2011 @ 12:07 pm

  12. I think Kent might be on to something with this idea of angst as fuel. Perhaps my creeping universalism has made me unworried about the fate of our eternal souls and thus I’ve been overcome by an irresistible case of “meh”…

    Add to that my increasing conviction that nobody — prophets included — really knows the answers to the metaphysical questions I love digging into. I am certain God exists but it seems clear to me that God has never been big on divulging answers to those metaphysical questions to us.

    Comment by Geoff J — June 9, 2011 @ 2:50 pm

  13. Angst? Me? Sigh.

    Comment by Chris H. — June 9, 2011 @ 5:37 pm

  14. I went most of a year. I’ve gone occasionally with posts. But part of the burnout was just that I think all the discussions I found interesting have happened. It’s hard to find new things.

    Comment by Clark — June 9, 2011 @ 6:01 pm

  15. To add – time honestly was the biggest issue. I’d come home exhausted and then just want to veg. It’s hard to maintain the effort to blog. Although I have gone through a day here or there where I’d comment. I’ve just now restarted posting at my blog this week.

    Comment by Clark — June 9, 2011 @ 6:02 pm

  16. Add to that my increasing conviction that nobody — prophets included — really knows the answers to the metaphysical questions I love digging into.

    It’s all in the scriptures – hidden in plain sight.

    Comment by cadams — June 9, 2011 @ 6:58 pm

  17. Well far be it from me to rain on your parade cadams. If you want to believe all metaphysical truths can be found in our current canon knock yerself out.

    Comment by Geoff J — June 9, 2011 @ 7:51 pm

  18. Thanks for the kudos Matt. Burnout is completely natural and healthy. It’s the mind’s way of stretching for new challenges, urging us to explore new directions.

    Comment by aquinas — June 9, 2011 @ 8:19 pm

  19. Geoff, I’ve got a good post on MMP coming up — who will read it, if not you??

    Comment by Steve Evans — June 9, 2011 @ 9:36 pm

  20. Don’t worry, I’ll still take appointments for reading posts Steve.

    Comment by Geoff J — June 9, 2011 @ 10:07 pm

  21. “….but Geoff, Blake, Jacob, Eric, Clark, Stapley, Kevin Barney, and Mogget have limited to no postings of late.”

    Mogget posted this week. So did Stapley and his has done a number of things of late.

    I think that FPR does a lot of good theology and religious studies. Sure, I may often be an ass, but the meds have been helping.

    I think that Clark is right about time. Even as a lowly community college teacher, I have time to post and comment in ways that I might not otherwise. So…it is not just angst.

    Comment by Chris H. — June 9, 2011 @ 10:37 pm

  22. Not JUST angst. I do like you Chris, thanks for your contributions.

    Comment by Kent (MC) — June 10, 2011 @ 8:59 am

  23. Trolling for seven years has gotten tiresome.

    Comment by Jack — June 10, 2011 @ 10:42 pm

  24. See Geoff, after all these years and you now tell me that I don’t know a thing about the theological issues we have been discussing. If that isn’t motivation, what could motivate us?

    I stopped because the time was killing my relationships with my kids and wife — and they are growing up way too fast for me to have time to just sit around and pontificate on the bloggernacle.

    The hard part is that I still love the issues and the discussion. I learned to love all of you and appreciate your different views. I appreciate your faithfulness and care in approaching issues that most never care enough to address. And yeah sometimes I just like to hear myself think out loud.

    I suspect that after my 4th volume comes out I will want to push a lot of the issues I discuss about things like the reliability of spiritual experiences as a basis for knowledge, the meaning of religious experiences, the import of contrasting religious experiences in other traditions, why being spiritual but not religious is a crock of crap and a denial of Christ’s basic teachings (take that you evil Huntsman), why we confront the kinds of evils in the world, how the plan of salvation explains so much of our experience of evil, and a meditation on the temple endowment. Well … maybe.

    Comment by Blake — June 10, 2011 @ 11:51 pm

  25. well, being a mormon is living the gospel.
    Sometimes we don´t have the will to share it in writing, but it does not mean that we don´t believe it.

    we have the best philosophy of thought ever conceived as its based on the platform of truth.

    Comment by sergio — June 11, 2011 @ 12:18 am

  26. “why being spiritual but not religious is a crock of crap and a denial of Christ’s basic teachings (take that you evil Huntsman)”

    Haha yes. My day is fulfilled.

    Any idea when we can expect Fire on the Horizon Blake?

    Comment by Riley — June 11, 2011 @ 12:46 pm

  27. It’s funny how often I still mentally write posts about things going on which I never put in the effort to write. I could easily rattle off 6 posts over the last 6 months, which was a much as I was every posting. There are so many reasons for my burnout: work gets busier every year, the response from most of the bloggernacle has become incredibly predictable, the stuff I have been studying the last year (the Bible mostly) has not been the kind of thing I blog about, tinywings, the most interesting people in the bloggernacle don’t engage in conversations or venture far from their own sites, I’m lazy, etc.

    I still read from the bloggernacle frequently and check in at NCT to see if I can comment on whatever Matt has posted (nice job keeping this place alive Matt!). The thing I miss most from the days of heavy blogging are the people I got to know here. Obviously Geoff, Matt, Blake, Clark, Mark D, but a bunch of other people too. I would enjoy a bloggernacle ward, especially if Steve was moderating the sunday school comments, provided he thought I was cool.

    Who knows, Geoff posting about burnout might inspire me to write. Everyone commenting about how they have burned out makes me feel like its over, which makes me sad. Hopefully there are some good threads to come before we close up shop here. At any rate, I plan to keep visiting MA until the day that FMH is delisted. Mogget should be able to point me to a passage in Revelation I could interpret as being a prediction of that day.

    Comment by Jacob J — June 12, 2011 @ 2:23 pm

  28. Nice. We get appearances here from almost all of the old crew including Blake and Jacob. Well if nothing else this post served the purpose of getting the band back together for a little while.

    That rocks.

    Comment by Geoff J — June 13, 2011 @ 1:38 am

  29. Riley: By the end of the year. The sections on the problem of evil have been constantly rewritten for 3 years. It has been done for two years at least three times.

    Jacob: the problem with a bloggernacle ward is that we would all be just the same. We’d never meet people like Anna Mendel who is a sweet German lady in my ward who is one of the most amazing people I know but who couldn’t formulate a coherent argument if her life depended on it.

    Comment by Blake — June 13, 2011 @ 7:05 am

  30. “…one of the most amazing people I know but who couldn’t formulate a coherent argument if her life depended on it.”

    I meet these people on the ‘nacle quit a bit. :)

    Mogget just posted at FPR for the second time in a week. FYI.

    Comment by Chris H. — June 13, 2011 @ 1:35 pm

  31. As someone who flits about on the outskirts of the bloggernacle, and came late to it in the first place, and has spent way too much time going through the old posts, I’m a little sad by this. I understand, of course, but it was great while it lasted.

    Comment by Jacob S — June 13, 2011 @ 2:10 pm

  32. Well let’s not treat this post like an obituary. NCT is not shutting down or anything. We just have slowed down recently. As it turns out, this post seems to have given us a mini jump-start so maybe things will start picking up again.

    Comment by Geoff J — June 13, 2011 @ 3:53 pm

  33. OK Chris, you got me. I hadn’t considered Moggett.

    Comment by Blake — June 13, 2011 @ 5:18 pm

  34. Geoff, you’ve had a great run. It has been enlightening and entertaining, a fine body of work. It would be great to have a wiki to organize all the discussion, but who has the time for that?

    Comment by Jonathan N — June 13, 2011 @ 8:19 pm

  35. Maybe it is the season to focus on fulfilling the promise of the baptism covenant and diligently seek for a remission of sins.

    All kinds of subjects are discussed in the bloggernacle. However, this is a neglected subject. Yet, obtaining a remission of sins is the greatest blessing we can obtain in mortality.

    Comment by Jared — June 14, 2011 @ 6:33 pm

  36. My feeling is that, after contemplating the mysteries of the universe over a period of years or decades, one inevitably comes to the conclusion that what is really important is merely how we live our lives today. Mostly what we learn from contemplating the mysteries is the enormity of our own ignorance—which we never would have suspected had we not contemplated. But, I think just coming to understand that is worth all the effort. Not that is isn’t also fun, while it lasts…

    Comment by Bill B. — July 20, 2011 @ 10:33 am

  37. I agree with Jonathan that the next step is a wiki. It would also make this site more influential since the arguments would be fashioned much more digestibly. I think that Jacob is one of the most logical people here and should be editor in chief. The format could be similar to Matt’s post on pre-existence. The beauty would be to show how many schools of thought exist and to footnote those schools for others.

    I like to give myself .5% of the credit for persuading Terryl Givens’ to write his forthcoming book which will provide an intellectual history of Mormonism. What people will want are the Cliff Notes and I think that is totally doable. Who knows, maybe we could just use the existing FAIR Wiki and expand it? Does anyone have energy for a wiki project?

    Comment by Kent (MC) — July 26, 2011 @ 10:56 am

  38. Does anyone have energy for a wiki project?

    Note the title of the post.

    Comment by Jacob J — July 26, 2011 @ 2:40 pm

  39. Kent MC,

    Sounds like you’re pretty influential…How about giving Blake a nudge to get his 4th volume out already.

    Comment by Riley — July 27, 2011 @ 10:12 pm