I’ve positioned myself as a blogging referee before, calling people out when their blogs are whack in substance and style. Maybe I’ve been wrong, but probably not. The time has come for me to blow the whistle again.

My blog reading list is vastly diminishing as more blogs are adopting the “365 project” – a series in which bloggers reflect on themselves or 365 people that have impacted their personal lives in a year (ideally).

I’ve seen the concept done right on Flickr, where people take creative self-portraits each day, and I’ve seen the project done boring, where bloggers name such a wide range of people they’ve known that they disconnect with their readerships. Don’t get me started on the sappy blogs that come out of this project.

I’m all for the blog series – travel, food, wedding, dating – but the “365 project" has moved beyond the blog series and become “blog cliché.” Bloggers looking to install new, creative content on their blogs are doing just the opposite by jumping on the “365 project” bandwagon – they’re showing no creativity at all.

365ers: Quit the project, buy a diary to vent the past and get to brainstorming ways to keep your blogs fresh and compelling, without copping a template.