All the Cool Kids are Blogging

OK, generally speaking, I think peer pressure's a bad thing. It gets people smoking and drinking and watching Cougar Town. But there's one thing about peer pressure—it works. So let me just say this:

All the cool kids are blogging.

Well, maybe not yet. We've just rolled out our new blogging platform on Patch this week. We're pretty open as to what we'll accept for a blog—more or less anything with a connection to the community served by a given Patch site, even if fairly casual one. But if the reader feels in some small way plugged more in to his or her neighbors, then a blog has done its job.

And because there are lots of people eager to share their views and thoughts about our community, we're hearing from a lot of people who want to sign on. To see just the first few that have flowed in, hit the "News" link at the top of the page, then "Local Voices."

You've got some interesting thoughts to share too, don't you? Then that's exactly what you should do—share them. Come on. You know you want to.

The great thing about being a Patch blogger is  that there aren't a lot of hard requirements around it. You can submit items as often or as infrequently as you'd like. They don't have to be of any particular length. And they can be on virtually any topic, so long as there's some kind of a community hook (and it could be as simple as this: you've got a subject you're passionate about, and you're a member of our community).

So write about music. Write about local politics. Share your photos from around town, or from your personal adventures. Tell jokes. Whine about traffic in town. Update everyone on your kid's youth sports teams.  Just keep it civil—no profanity, no unfounded accusations, no crazy-crazy nutty-nuts conspiracy theories or hate speech (passion about politics is fine—insults and slander aren't). 

Sound like that might be interesting? Then stop reading, and start writing. Start with an e-mail to Louis@Patch.com about what sort of blog you're proposing, and we'll take it from there.