QotD: What I Love About Vox

In honor of Vox's launch tomorrow, what's your favorite feature or aspect of Vox?

Take 2, this time with feeling:

When I first heard about blogging I was very skeptical. Why would anyone do it? Why would a person put themselves out there, live in the public eye and open themselves up to public comment (aka ridicule)? My sense was that you had to be a special kind of person to do it well, and that the blogoshere (damn I still really hate that word) was full of  pontificaters. People who loved to hear the sound of their own voice.

Flash forward a bit, and I'm contracting for Six Apart, mecca for blogging. It was a surreal and wonderful experience. I got to meet some incredibly smart, articulate and talented people, several of whom have since become friends, but I never really felt like I was one of them, I never felt like I should try to blog. In fact my experience working at Six Apart had kind of a boomerang effect; I could see why others would blog, but not why I would do it.

I started a TypePad blog quietly, to try it out. I did it sporadically, mostly to assuage my guilt at not keeping in touch with my family or even keeping a decent record of my kids' childhoods. I told my parents about it, and my sister. I was a little embarrassed about it.

Then in the spring I was invited to try Vox. I was working someplace else by then but Ginger generously invited me (thank you) to try out the alpha. It was soooo fun. Safe too, because it was just a bunch of friends in there. And it was liberating. Suddenly I found myself writing about things that I hadn't thought about before and I found that I wanted to write and to share in a way that I had never done before. Growing up I was a voracious reader. And though I was good with words verbally, I never showed any talent for stringing stories together on paper. My personal expression was always music, never writing.

So it was strange to find myself needing to write. I started carrying around a notebook because I would get these ideas for posts that I didn't want to lose track of. Some were just titles, some were full blown stories, and some were visuals. As the Vox beta went on and new functionality was added I realized that I had found my medium. I could use words, pictures, video and music to express myself. But the core is still writing. I love it now.

I find it so interesting that I could find this out about myself at this stage in my life. I wish, I wish that I could get my friends to try it and to do this too. But it could be that they already know who they are and don't need this kind of outlet. Or maybe they do need an outlet, but don't know where to begin. Or maybe they just don't have the time.

I certainly should not have the time. I steal this time away from other things: my husband, my kids, my projects, my sleep...

Anyway, I owe some thank yous to some of my favorite 6Aers and this launch seems a good time for it: Thank you, Barak, for introducing me to this whole crazy idea in the first place and bringing me on for six months of fun. And to Ginger and Lilia for encouraging me to write when I was sure I was too old for any of my stories to be interesting or relevant. To Sippey, Anil and Mena for being such amazing role models for blogging. Andrew too. Your style is completely different and frankly you're the one who made me feel like it was ok to blog things that were silly or mundane (I really mean that in a good way). Alaina and Miz Genevra, who encouraged me to blog my attempts to get fit, along with my lunch. And just like the Academy awards I'm sure I've left some important people out, not the least of whom are my newly found non-6A Vox friends. And I will remember everyone I've forgotten to thank just as soon as my head hits the pillow (in about three minutes) with an "oh shit." Please forgive me for that, Byrne.

Thanks to all of you for building such a great place to hang out.

I love it here.