Ruth Lucas - Blogs - Good or Bad?

Continuing with the debate about blogs, I decided to get in touch with a few students regarding blogs which enabled me to see what they thought about producing a blog.

The first student I got in touch with was, Ruth Lucas. Ruth goes to University of Wales, which is the same as Tom Harle, this is where the link comes into it.

Question and Answers;

1. When participating in a group/individual blog, how do you find it? Do you enjoy it and why?

I enjoy updating my individual blog when I know people are reading it, hopefully people will discover something they didn't know or something they like. At the moment though I suppose I don't really update it enough to get too much enjoyment out of it. I hope this will change in the next few weeks though.

2. I've found that a lot of student's aren't safe with putting there design work up on blogs due to the idea getting stolen. How do you find this. Are you happy to put your work up?

Hmm, good question. I haven't really thought that much about it before - I haven't personally known of anyone I know having their work stolen, but I think you have to be cautious. It'd be a shame if it stopped other students putting their work up on blogs and things as I like browsing other students work to see what they're up to and to get some inspiration. And it's helpful to promote your work whilst you're still studying.

3. Are you pressured into doing a blog, or do you just want to do it to get yourself noticed and more involved with topics?

Bit of both really, my course requires us to produce an on-going 'reflective diary' of the projects we do and I thought it made the most sense to do mine online.

For the first few weeks I kept that up, but soon realized that when I'm forced to do something it sounds really unnatural, so have decided to just post stuff that I like, and things I notice - which is much more interesting and fun!

4. What do you find positive and negative about having a blog?

The negatives: it's hard to motivate yourself to update when you don't have many people reading it. It's also hard finding the time to keep up with saving bookmarks of things you like, taking photos and commenting on other peoples blogs, especially when you have other pressing issues need dealing with like course deadlines and such!

The positives: noticing that people are reading, when you get an occasional comment, the satisfaction once you've posted a new update, and discovering some really nice and inspiring blogs through having your own.