The Daily Prompt closed its doors and it was about time. The good, old fishing ground for new readers and followers, had been hanging on for too long. It had lost its brilliance a few years back and I wondered when it would give up -had expected it to happen much sooner.
I found The Daily Prompt about six months after I started blogging. First I had to find my way around but then, after I had found it, that’s when I was hooked. I learned what a pingback was, learned to link a post and finally, I was a proud blogger and a member of the Daily Prompt community.
Back then -about three years ago- the prompts were asked in the form of questions. It was so much fun. Of course, there were always a few knuckleheads who abused the prompt but 90% stayed on target, and that was the magic of it. It was not just about writing, it was also about reading.
I spent hours reading other blogger’s answers and I enjoyed the different approaches to the same subject.
Then, somebody at WordPress must have lost interest, and they repeated the same questions over and over. Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse, they changed it to The Daily Word Prompt and it all went downhill from there.
Many -too many- bloggers didn’t even bother on target. They promoted their own blog mercilessly. Medical advice, fitness instructions, unrelated animal pictures, books, and poems, even cooking recipes could be found on a daily base.
The Daily Prompt helped new bloggers to find their voice and for that, I will be entirely grateful. It helped me to find out that I can write about nothing and everything, that I can laugh and cry with fellow bloggers and readers any time. I assume it helped a lot of new bloggers and sent them on their way.
Like so many, I left when it became a one-word prompt.
I hope nobody will try to copy The Daily Prompt. Trying to replace it, would feel like watching a bad Elvis imitator, who is trying hard, but will never even come close to the original.
The Daily Prompt had its purpose, may it rest in peace.
Kick off the training wheels people, ride alone!
I also loved it when I first started blogging- the questions were thought provoking.. it was fun. Then it became 1 word, and often a negative word. I rarely participated. Glad to see it go too.
You just hit the nail on the head. Many (too many) of the words were negative. Why did I not notice that before?
I wish I had been here when they did the questions, that does sound more challenging.
It was indeed more challenging.
I rarely participated because I work full-time. I do notice that many elderly and retired people were sad to see the Daily Prompt go. To me it didn’t matter one way or the other. My time is spoken for. In fact I cut back on blogging. Free time is rare.
I suppose most of us work full time.
Yes, you are right, I assume the elderly bloggers will be a bit lost without their daily prompt, but I suppose they will survive -at least the good ones.
True. Plus other bloggers have picked up the Prompt banner. So the Daily Post Prompt continues elsewhere.
I’m retiring on August 29th but I won’t be following the replacement prompts. I prefer the photography challenges. I enjoy photography and after retirement I will be able to follow my dreams.
I agree completely on this. Out of interest, and following your prompt – sorry! – I looked back at my previous posts. I used to tag them with a ‘Daily Prompt’ category so they were easy to find. In total, I posted 16 times in response to the prompts, 11 of these within my first year of blogging. Like you, I found it an interesting way to stimulate my brain and find other blogs to read. Four of those 16 were reworkings of previous posts, when they had asked us the same question again, albeit in slightly different words. But not once have I posted since they went to single words. I’ve seen plenty of posts that did use these and, like you, often wondered how the writer could claim any relevance to the prompt word. The whole thing became ‘pointless’ and ‘boring’ – two words they should have used – and I lost all interest. I won’t be mourning its demise – but I have already seen one blogger trying to resurrect it. I’ll stand on my own merits, or otherwise, not by cheap gimmicks in an attempt to improve my reading stats!
And I am glad you stand on your own. I enjoy reading your blog.
Thank you, that’s very kind of you – and ditto!
I am always intrigued with the different memes that catch on and I often think they’d be fun! I enjoy joining a good thread, but I’m not that disciplined to keep up! I am sure there will be something intriguing to pop up again! There is a lot of creativity “out there!” 🙂
I love that image you used. I never participated in that prompt but I see another has arisen using the one word format, but I can’t keep up and often a single word leaves me with nothing to write about.
Thank you, Michael