Relaunching (but not, after all,) rebranding!

The Chertsey blog is looking rather tired and old-fashioned (I tried updating the template, a couple of years ago, but couldn't do so without some kind of almighty disruption). It looked pretty old fashioned back when I started it - and I have no idea what possessed me to choose that shade of green.

My posting has been derisory this year - this will be the 54th post of 2018 - worsted only by 2015's measly 44. I'm not alone in this - nearly all the blogs on my blogroll are down, if not on recent years, then certainly on their heyday, and the old boat bloggers seem to have given up entirely.

Yup, we have been hearing about the death of the blog for some years now, superseded, we're told, first by Facebook, then Twitter, and now Instagram and whatever that latest thing is that I haven't even heard of. But as far as I can see, a blog can offer what those can (if not as easily at this end) - a quick picture and a caption, when required - but also the longer pieces, the musings, the commentaries, the (sorry) apologias.

I have been blogging for nearly fourteen years (since April 1st 2006). Weeks may have gone by without a post, but very, very rarely a month. On Warrior and Chertsey combined, I've notched up 1,880 posts over those thirteen years and nine months. That's an average of 11.4 a month, or the equivalent of a post every three days, even taking into account the lean years.

So no way am I giving up. I am, though, going to branch out a bit. I will still blog about boating, on the increasingly rare occasions I get to do any, but will also adumbrate upon autism, shout about Sheffield, and muse upon anything that takes my fancy. I thought this morning about transferring operations over to my Rivetcounter branch, where a lovely new template awaits. But actually, it's not all that easy to read... and I'm not sure what it would mean for recognition on dg's annual blogroll roundup (though actually I can't find any evidence of that having happened for the past couple of years) and... well, I just don't like change, do I.

But - whisper it - I am actually going to try for a post a day in 2019, even if that's just a quick pic and a caption. And I suppose I'd better have a bit of a spring clean of the blogroll and the sidebar. I don't want to expunge you ... but if you haven't posted for six months or more, it might have to be goodbye... But I'd also welcome recommendations for blogs I might add - the criterion for inclusion is simple - it has to be something that I want to read every post of over breakfast.

Let's hope that there won't be even fewer this time next year - but Chertsey won't be disappearing just yet!