Metrics bite, content rules

In a Fast Company article about Boing Boing (I haven't read the whole article yet but this jumped out at me and I really need to write about this):

"It isn't that Pescovitz doesn't understand what the blog business has become; he just figures that however it works now is anathema to what's made Boing Boingpopular in the first place. The editorial policy is just what it's always been: The principals post whatever they want, whenever they feel like it. They don't bother to copyedit in advance, let alone vet or discuss one another's contributions. "

People who think like I do (only better, to be sure), and they make money from it. Now if only they wanted to bring me on as partner because they want content on fashion, reality TV and people who are wrong. What? That's not going to happen?

I'm probably going to be more honest than I should right now...

I think things have changed for my blog here (internally here, not "out there") and I'm not really sure that people get why I do this, or care about it right now (no violins folks...I'm just trying to think through priorities at work and in life). It's no longer part of my job description and I have to admit that this makes me a little sad. Yeah, the whole metrics thing...it's really hard to integrate my feelings on content with a metrics driven organization like staffing...<sigh>. It's how it is. Not just here but almost everywhere. I'm not sure my writing here is relevant anymore.

I've been tossing this around in my brain for a while: since I'm blogging less about "careers at Microsoft" and I'm not getting the sanctioned vibe, do I take this offline? I mean, do I take this offline here and put it online elsewhere? Not the Microsoft-specific stuff, by my opinions on things, including career-related topics and dumb stuff other people do. If someone walked into my office right now and told me that I should be doing this for Microsoft, I wouldn't be thinking about this. I'm just wondering if my legacy posts stand on their own (which is great), and I should take my opinions, and writing stuff from the heart, and make it "officially" a personal activity. I love writing, so I wouldn't be going far.

And I am not trying to bait comments. It's just that I am thinking that maybe I have some other priorities to focus on at work that don't really have anything to do with the blog (which requires a little more care and feeding than I have been able to give it lately) so I may need to make this a personal activity. Don't go away though. No final decisions have been made...I don't want to be overly dramatic. I just want to be smart about what I am spending my time on at work and what hole this blog would fill for me personally if I made the change. This has been on my mind for a while...it may be time to get to a decision.

No sugar coating. No whining. Time to get real. Life is about decisions and after 6.5 years of /heatherleigh, this is one I need to make.