I share your experience of blogging for 10 years before letting my blog go into neglect. I was a science blogger, and in 2007 we were a very small community of

I share your experience of blogging for 10 years before letting my blog go into neglect. I was a science blogger, and in 2007 we were a very small community of educators, PhDs, and science enthusiasts (I was an enthusiast). It was really exciting then because everyone knew each other and we had a yearly "Science Online" conference where just a few hundred people would show up and hang out. Then twitter, facebook, and the blogging world exploded. My traffic went up, but my engagement dropped to zero. I would gladly trade the traffic for thoughtful conversation. It reminded me of the BBS days, where communities were small and local and we'd get together at the mall or house party to meet one another in person. Then everyone went to WWW, and suddenly I was just another post in a thread of hundreds. I'm not sure how to get those small, close-communities full of engagement back. The best I have now is hanging out in-person at my local gaming shop and chatting with the locals on facebook.