EverCats

I’m guilty as charged.

EverCats started out as a means for me to express the world from the viewpoints of my newly-acquired kittens.  These posts were supposed to be a fun hobby with lots of cute pictures, and more more or less serve as an online photo album and journal to record the lives of my furry family members.

Cat Blogs

I quickly noticed I wasn’t alone – just about every single “cat blog” out there was written from the perspective of somebody’s cats.  These blogs would get 30+ comments per post (something we haven’t even achieved yet!) due to their cute and fun nature.

Just about every cat-related blog on the blogger.com or wordpress.com platform is a “day in the life” of some cat.  Our friends over at Catster.com providing free cat community blogs as well, for those interested in doing so.

While I enjoyed the concept, I quickly realized a community was more enjoyable.  Having people participate, voice their opinions, and discuss topics was more important to me than logging my cat’s supposed thoughts and stalking them with a camera.

The Transition

Thus began the more formal version of EverCats – one where helpful tips, hints, reviews, and featured cats reigned supreme.  Educating those who needed wisdom and helping correct misunderstandings became ultimately more important than popularity.

We formed EverCats into a non-profit organization to further it’s educational goals, which we later undid.  The legal implications and restrictions weren’t worthwhile, and we wanted to expand into more and more areas of cat-dom.  Keeping the brutal pace of an article per day for months, we flourished as a community who learned, laughed, and cried together.

Unfortunately that break-neck pace was difficult to keep up, resulting in an extended period of dormancy.  Through much time and patience, Google slowly absorbed the articles like any normal blog, and began to resurrect the community with fresh eyes searching for knowledge and understanding.

The Temptation

Often I’m tempted to blog about my cats, to picture how their day had gone, follow them around with a camera and post the 2-3 good shots I took with their story.  This kind of blog would achieve much greater numbers and outward success – a constant temptation for a web developer like myself.

The last thing I’m trying to do is discredit those amazingly fun and joyous cat blogs – they can be quite the source of entertainment after a hard day’s work!  I only wish our niche passion to see all cats understood and respected carried the same weight in people’s hearts as cute cat photos.

From a creator’s perspective, I yearn for the day we become a massive community of cat lovers, all helping one another for the sake of our cats.  I hope to see our forum thrive with questions and answers, the Daily Cat Contest crammed with contestants, and a readership of true subscribers.

The Plea

Do you like to read cat blogs?  Do you run one?  Do you prefer helpful and educational over strictly entertaining?  I want to understand the desires the cat community has, the needs to fill and the wants to deliver.

Please tell us your stories and opinions in the comments below.