Gather Housekeeping

I will be removing a lot of my content from Gather. No, I'm not leaving. I'm not even mad. Many of my connections are concerned about the "Related Articles" that are now showing up at the bottom of their articles. This got me to thinking about what articles of mine I would want to have show up at the bottom of someone else's article or even in the "More by Andrea R." list at the bottom of my own articles.

I am deleting all the articles that don't serve to define who I am at Gather. I am Slacker Mom. All articles that help define me as Slacker Mom will stay.

I try to be funny and usually succeed. Most of my connections expect to laugh or at least smile when they click on an article of mine. So my funny stuff will stay.

Articles that will go or have already gone are point-whoring articles like Gathering for a Dog House. Yes, I added my usual humour to it but it doesn't define who I am at Gather.

I will probably remove three out of four of the articles I wrote about my adventures in baking Christmas cookies. It was fun but it doesn't define who I am. If I'd set the kitchen on fire while baking the cookies then the articles could stay. Kitchen disasters help define who I am.

I will remove any homeschooling articles I might have on Gather and then leave all the homeschooling groups I belong to and disconnect from anyone that the only thing I have in common with is homeschooling. I may start a homeschooling blog somewhere else but it doesn't define who I am at Gather and doesn't interest the vast majority of my connections who read me for my sarcasm and sense of humor.

I can't decide if tomato hornworms define who I am or not.

Of course this article will have to be deleted too so I'm not sure why I wrote it.

I started the clean-up this morning but got sidetracked disconnecting from people. I started the day with 152 connections and now have only 131. The criteria were as follows:

1. Do they usually capitalize the first word of a sentence? If no, then gone.
2. Do they capitalize every letter in an article or comment? If so, then gone.
3. Do they regularly publish games that are not creative or thoughtful? If so, then gone.
4. Do they publish point checks or links to "Get Paid to Click" sites every day? If so, then gone.
5. And so on. I'm not finished yet. I got sidetracked again.