(Source: Microsoft Clip art)

A few weeks back I wrote a post on something called the “the blog post trail game” or a thing along those lines, for it had not yet been given an official name. I have as yet, still to set this up, for a variety of reasons, but I am planning to go ahead with it. I will host the “home page” which will be a dedicated section or pages, of my blog relating to this game. If someone wishes to participate, but doesn’t know anyone from the blogs who have participated thus far, or simply want to participate but have not been chosen, or wants to be there so someone can choose them, then they can comment and be added to a list of willing participants stored there. The list of posts thus far, or the trail if you like, will also be stored there. As will a reserve list of prompts / ideas. So with that in mind, here is what I consider to be the rules:

• The blog writer will have 13 days to post in, based on the prompt or idea given to them. They can do it at any point within that period. I don’t know why 13 days, but I liked the number.
• The blog writer must be willing to pass it on to another blogger either chosen themselves, or chosen from the “reserve” list on the home page. It can be passed to one blogger only. The blogger receiving it must be willing to receive it, otherwise someone who is willing must be chosen.
• The blogger passing it on must also pass on a prompt or an idea that the new blogger needs to write about. It can be anything they want. For example it might be “The Snake”. Another example is, “Ten ways the seventies were better than the eighties”. Whatever they want really.
• The blogger who receives this prompt or idea can deal with it in any way they want. They can write about the subject, write some fiction, a poem, put up a recipe that is related in some way, a song list / mix tape, an essay. Really anything they want to so long as it relates in some way.
• The blog writer must link back to the previous poster in their post.
• The blog writer must link to the next blogger (when known). That the trail is maintained not just on the “home” page.
• Somewhere in the post, the blog writer must post a link to the “home” trail page, so I can track the trail, and others can use the “Home page” to follow it.
• No re-blogs. Other posts or links can be referenced, but the majority of the post must be original.

So it is a game where the blogger is committed to writing a post from a prompt or idea, and coming up with a new prompt or idea which they pass on to someone else. It ought to be simple. It ought to give a taster of many different bloggers and styles.

Still to do:

• Come up with an “official” name, although I think it will be “the alternative map of blog”
• Come up with a badge or icon type thing that can be displayed on the side of the blog, stating “I’m a participant in the alternative map of blog”, or whatever I eventually call it. Or stating something else along those lines.

A few bloggers said they would like to participate from the earlier post. If anyone else wants to be in the list (or wants to make sure they are on the list), please let me know below. I think to begin with I will have my wife pick at random from the list, and that will be the first person it will be passed to. Everyone else gets to go on the reserve list. What I also need are some potential ideas or prompts for me to start the thing off. I would kindly ask that you post any ideas below and again, my wife can choose the idea at random from those submitted. Of course if you have any other questions or ideas, feel free to mention those.

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Lexicon word of the day: Quadruped.

Rocket ship tours the blogsphere

Today I have a question or two that I would like a little feedback over. Let me explain first. You might have seen the blog “tag” where you are posed a series of questions for you to answer (obviously), but for you then to pass on to some fellow bloggers. The purpose is to learn a little about your blogging community and for them to get a small dose of you. In fact,  have an outstanding tag to post on, with some very interesting writer questions, posed by jmmcdowell. I shall apologise for being slack on that front, I will get to that soon. However a few days ago, I had another idea.

This game of tag is different. No come back, just bear with me a moment. It is less a game of tag, far more simple, and involves passing it on to less people. It works like this: Lets say it starts with a blog post, derived from a prompt of some kind. The writer, lets say I start, then chooses someone to pass it on to. The person must be willing to accept, or someone willing to accept must be found. What is passed on is a prompt or idea of some kind. It might be something simple for example, “The Trail”, or something a little more specific like for example, “A taste of chocolate”. The receiving blogger then has to do a post of some kind, using this. The thing is, they can do anything they want. It could be a poem,  some short fiction, a story from their life, a recipe, mindless ramblings on the subject, a song list, or something entirely different. There is the freedom to do whatever the writer likes, so long as it relates in someway to the passed on prompt or idea. When they are done they then pass it on to the next willing participant, with a new prompt or idea of their choosing. And so on, and so on. At the beginning of their post they must link to the previous post in the trail, and if they know at the time of posting, link to the next person’s blog home page. When they do know who it is to be passed on to, their post must be updated to include this.

Now to make it a little more interesting, lets say I keep a page (or more if necessary) dedicated to the trail. When a person posts they also send me the link to the post, perhaps they post it in the comments of the page, which I will pick up and add to the page. A reader can then use this page to get a quick look at the trail, to see where it has led and get an idea of the posts in the trail. If someone wishes to participate, but has not yet been picked, they can submit their blog name and link, for others to choose if they want to. Or perhaps a second trail could be started. It might be interesting to see all the different ideas that are passed around, but also interesting how they are dealt with.

The good thing is that, you do not have to select any more than one blog to pass it on to, and even then the person has to agree to do it. The downside is you can only pass it on to one person where you might have several in mind. I’m not entirely sure how to deal with that bit yet. However the main reason to keep the number down is that you want to be able to read the post, plus others following the trail will hopefully want to as well. They might not want seven new posts to have to read, then again with whomever they pass it on to. In this way it will quickly get out of hand and lose it’s purpose, see? Part of the fun is the prompt, part of it the post, and part of it the trail to see where it leads. The hope is the poster puts a little, or a lot, of themselves in the blog posts and the trail gives us a nice map (of sorts) of the blogging scene.

It might need an interesting name, along the lines of “The alternative map of the blog” or something along those lines. I’ll come back to that one. It also might need a little picture along similar lines to the blog awards, stating, “I was part of whatever I’m called“. No requirement to have to post that, on the poster’s blog, but it will be there if they want to use it.

So rules will be simple:

• The poster might have a maximum of a week to do the post in (although it could be next day if they wish).
• Must be willing to pass it on.
• Must link back to the previous poster.
• Must link to the next poster (when known).
• Must post the link to the “home” trail page, presumably here, when I create it.
• No re-blogs, other posts or links can be referenced, but the majority of the post must be original.

So thoughts please? Does it sound interesting, or is it a bad idea? Would you be willing to participate (don’t feel obliged on that one, you can comment and not have to volunteer)? Any questions about the details? Any suggestions?