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No more blogs, community, and MVP
This is one of those blog posts I’d rather not write, but it’s one I feel I should write.
For the foreseeable future, I’m going to stop writing blogs and pause my other community activities in the IT world, especially within the Microsoft ecosystem, where I’ve spent most of my time over the past years.
Not because ‘I’m done‘ with it, it’s just that life sometimes needs to take priority.
This isn’t a decision that came out of nowhere. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.
Eleven years of community work
In February, I’ll be doing community work for eleven years.
It started simple: blogging about error messages and issues I ran into during my day job. Back then, I worked in a helpdesk role. As my career evolved, so did the content. Over the years, I moved from helpdesk to DevOps, and with that, deeper into the Microsoft ecosystem.
At my peak, the blog averaged around 25,000 visitors. I genuinely enjoyed that period. Not because of the numbers, but because of the interaction. Customers and colleagues who stumbled upon my blog, random messages from people saying a post helped them, guest post requests, that feedback loop mattered.
Blogging was never the only thing I did. Along the way, I maintained several GitHub repositories, built PowerShell modules, updated Microsoft documentation, and worked on countless side projects.
I even have a to-do list for all of it. I always call it my ‘digital workbench‘. It’s still full of ideas.
No MVP this year
This year, I’ll also be losing my MVP status. Officially, we’ll hear that in July, but I already know the outcome.
I didn’t deliver anything notable, and I’m not going to. So yeah, that part is clear.
And honestly? That’s not a surprise, and it’s not a tragedy either.
The MVP award is about active contribution. I didn’t submit any significant projects, because there simply weren’t any to submit. That’s a fair and logical consequence.
Four years ago, right in the middle of the COVID period, receiving the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award was one of the biggest professional compliments I’ve ever received. I’m still grateful for that recognition.
But the award also came with a side I didn’t fully anticipate.
Pressure and expectations
Suddenly, I had the ‘MVP‘ label attached to my name. People expected more from me than I ever intended to give. Some assumed I knew most other MVPs. Others thought I regularly travelled to Microsoft’s headquarters in the US.
The reality is far less exciting.
I barely know any other MVPs beyond casual conversations. I’ve never been to the US for Microsoft. I’ve never attended an MVP Summit, something I’ll actually be doing for the first time this year.
Ironically, the main reason I’m going is because I’ll also be losing the award this year. I honestly have no idea what to expect.
Looking back, I also have to admit that I didn’t really ‘use‘ the MVP status all that much. That’s entirely on me. Alongside the benefits, it also brought pressure and stress, more than I sometimes wanted or needed.
I still have ideas, plenty of them…
Coming up with new blog topics or project ideas is still fun. Executing them isn’t.
Writing a proper blog post, maintaining a project, or finishing something to a level I’m happy with takes time. More importantly, it takes mental energy. Over the past year, I’ve noticed that the energy I put in simply doesn’t come back anymore.
The idea of blogging about a topic is often more appealing than actually sitting down and writing it. The same goes for side projects.
Part of that is personal. Life is busy. I have a family, already one child, and another one on the way.
Part of it is also the changing tech landscape. Many of the problems I used to blog about can now be answered faster and easier by AI. I used to deny that blogging was dying, I even said so publicly February last year, but I can’t ignore the shift anymore.
Blogging isn’t useless. But it has changed. And for me, right now, it no longer justifies the time and energy it requires.
What now?
At the same time, that thought feels uncomfortable. Walking away feels like throwing away eleven years of work, work that also gave me a lot in return.
I’ll keep everything online, but for now, I’m stepping away.
And that’s okay.
For now: thanks to everyone who read my blogs, commented, disagreed, shared feedback, or just quietly followed along.
- Maybe I’ll be back.
- Maybe I won’t.
See you around!
