Welcome to the August blogging madness fondly known (for 10 years now!) as Blaugust. So far this year we have 76 signed up to participate with 32 who are doing Blaugust for the first time. Everyone is welcome to join at any point during the month of August. How often you post is entirely up to you. What you post about is also completely open, although there is a schedule of weekly themes to give people who need it (like me), a bit of structure. There are also some helpful topic ideas, plenty of fun promotional graphics, and a set of “achievements” for the goal oriented among us.

With this being the kickoff week for the event, you will see a lot of us sharing our welcome posts on Discord and Mastodon with the Hashtag #Blaugust2023. This is the first year that our primary community and promotional focus has shifted over to Mastodon. I, like many others in this group, stopped using Twitter for anything a few months ago. The community over on Mastodon is very active and supportive without all the extra weird drama of the social site that got changed to X. The Blaugust Discord server is also very active and helpful and stays active year round, so I definitely recommend that you join it. 

We probably have a few more people who will sign up over the next week or so (I hope!), but once the list is more finalized I will add it to my sidebar. The month gets busy, but I try to read at least one newbie blogger’s posts each day of the month of August and take the time to comment. Those comments and knowing that people are reading your content are important motivators, whether you are a long time blogger or bravely venturing into this means of self expression for the first time. The whole point of Blaugust is to provide motivation and a sense of community. I also find some really interesting things to read each year and expand my circle of social follows. If you’d like to learn more, be sure to visit the introductory post. I hope you will consider joining us.