A New Poll and the Future of the Blog

I'm going to beg the patience of my infinitely patient readership and post another poll. But first, you have to hear my litany of woe.

If you've been paying attention, posting has dropped off in recent months. This is not something I wanted to have happen, but it seems that I can't avoid it. With limited internet access at work - and with work becoming busier despite the decline in the economy - my opportunities for posting on a daily basis are now significantly restricted. When I get home, I have very little time to read message boards like RebKell, to follow the Dream at home and overseas through Google News and international basketball websites, and to keep up with all of the great women's basketball websites out there everywhere.

The problem was that when I started the Pleasant Dreams blog, I had hoped that it would be a day-to-day, up-to-the-minute update on the goings-on of our favorite WNBA team. That if a reader needed Dream news - and needed it now - this was the blog that you would visit. Unfortunately, not only can I not do up-to-the-minute, it seems that I can now longer do day-to-day either. Another problem is that I had hoped for the blog to have several thoughtful posts mixed in with the updates - essays on the state of the game, statistical research and observations, etc. However, it takes time to write long posts or to grind out statistical stuff, and I can't keep all of this up at the same time.

My love for the Dream is as strong as it ever was. My enthusiasm for women's basketball has not flagged. I'll still be attending Dream games, and hopefully, still commenting on them. The problem is that the blog can't remain the way it is now.

There are two directions in which the blog can go. The first direction is to simply transform the blog. Posting would be restricted to perhaps just on the weekends - the blog would become "digestified" if you're familiar with an e-mail digest. The blog would probably not keep up with news on a daily basis, not even for breaking important news. You could read the Women's Hoops Blog or RebKell if you needed to know what was going on now in the WNBA. You would probably go to the Dream website or the Dream Facebook page to get day-to-day Dream information. In essence, it would be a very different blog than it is now. Fewer pictures. Fewer updates. What would show up on the blog on the weekends - well, it's difficult to say. We'd cross that bridge when we come to it.

The other direction is to simply halt the blog - but not to halt my writing. I try to make contributions to the Swish Appeal blog whenever I can, but this time - the news would show up there in the fan posting section (and Swish Appeal has been kind enough to make some of my posts front page posts). This way, whenever you read Swish Appeal - and if you don't visit it day-to-day, what's wrong with you? - you could check in for whatever my future contributions happen to be. Moving the "operation" to Swish Appeal would give me a lot more flexibility, in that I would no longer have to post on a regular schedule - I would post when I had something to say, and shut up otherwise.

And of course, the "Game Breakdowns" of Dream games will not stop. I don't plan on giving up my little essays on Dream posts, come what may.

I'm posting a poll that will run for three days. Based on what the readership decides, that's the direction we'll be going. Either we'll turn the blog into a digest, or the posts can be read on Swish Appeal with the other writing there.

Once again, thanks for your indulgence. And Go Dream!