I have been reading this with interest over at The Coffee Lady.
For some time I have become increasingly wound up with blogs becoming less of an interesting and informative read, and more of an exercise in samey-ness with a splash of up-your-own-arse-ness. In short, there are bloggers who have started to believe their own hype. And it shows. In colour. Lots of skippity colour.
There is loving stuff, and there is loving stuff sooooooo much that it almost makes it plagiarism for other people to love stuff too.
I am probably not making sense now. And I am probably straying from the point the Coffee Lady is making, but I agree in essence with it.
Certainly there is the very real and valid point of view that if it cheeses you off, look away. After all, blogs are the personal mouthpiece of the author. However, the point at which a blog moves from being on your blogroll, and referred to on a daily basis for genuine pleasure to a reader-driven site where the writing style morphs into self-inflated twee prose reflecting the opinions of its obsequious comments is almost tangible. And depressing. And makes me shout obscenities at my computer screen.
And these bloggers stop replying to comments because there are just too many, and become one of the Untouchables. Blog to Site in four easy steps. Sad.
I want to say they are hoisted by their own petard, although this is not quite the right expression, I think you will get my gist. A victim of one's own success. And the original purpose of blogging, one assumes, is lost in a sea of self-promotion.
That's what I think. And if you don't like it, look away. Ha ha.
Thought you would get it ;)
ReplyDeleteI read this and Coffee Lady's post with interest. It's a bit of a minefield this blogging thing. Blog etiquette, to reply or not to reply to every comment, etc etc. I am afraid I don't reply to every comment on my blog - I tend to assume people won't go back to look again anyway - and I try to use my available time to visit commenters own blogs instead but it's a fine balance I guess. I think there's an issue also around why we read blogs and it may not always be for the same reason. I like and visit blogs that make me laugh and lift my spirits with witty writing and I like and visit blogs that give me creative ideas and inspiration. I don't mind if I leave a comment and there's no reply although it's always nice with some blogs to have an ongoing conversation. I do worry about the time it takes though both to write and to read and to comment as I like to do all of those things with care and attention and there are only so many hours in the day (and night). I suppose the truth of it is that there are only a limited number of real connections that one can maintain but if a blog / site is inspirational then it offers something slightly separate from that so I do still like some of the blogs that have become so big they can't possibly make personal connections with all their readers. I've noticed that one or two are beginning to trade on their extensive list of followers to lean on people to part with their money though and I really don't like that even if it's for a good cause. Again there's a fine line between talking about one's own involvement in something and exerting pressure on others to do so. Perhaps this sounds a bit cynical or ungenerous but I face so much charity mugging via work and H's school I certainly don't want to encounter it in blogland. I will look back to see what what you think on this! E x
ReplyDeleteYour comment is longer than my blog post! And considerably better written.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I don't think it's the fact that some of the bigger blogs don't acknowledge every comment which annoys me, but it often seems when I scroll through to justify my irritation, they appear to acknowledge NONE of them. You are, of course, right - as a blog grows in popularity, the ability to maintain personal connections with readers will become harder to manage. The blogs on my blogroll are blogs I read and comment on regularly, and usually these bloggers will make comment on mine, although not every post, and nor I on theirs, although I ALWAYS read every post once on my blogroll. I would hate to lose the connections I have made through blogging, and who knows - maybe the big bloggers feel some loss at this sacrifice as they move into different circles.
Charity mugging is a funny thought, and a very apt description!
People visit different blogs to find different things, and despite my irritated griping, I probably will still visit them to take what I want from them, and probably still be infuriated with reading 'me, me, me. Now that's enough talking about me - what do you think of me?'
Thank you for taking the time to comment E, I relish your words, they usually shake me out of my childish tantrums and make me look at things more rationally.
Again, you are right - it's all about balance.
xx
I have no idea how I arrived here - half an hour ago I clicked on someone's blogroll and just kept going. Ah, but what fun and how true your words; I have visions of one or two bloggers hoisted by their own petard.
ReplyDeleteI got rid of my blogroll because as soon as I added anyone they seemed to go into terminal decline and only posted once in a blue moon but maybe I should redo it.
I've had the same problem with mine Anne! My solution was to move it and remove the terminally declined, and then I felt awful in case they'd been planning a comeback!
Deleteha ha, well, by accident or design - welcome anyway. I luurve blog hopping - it's a real eye opener. I am so very easily influenced that I have taken up several new hobbies that way.
ReplyDeleteYes, the unending 'squeeeey!' of the skippety rainbow-coloured blog..s......I'm not a blogger, just a reader, and an enjoyer, but sometimes it's like eating golden syrup off a large spoon.....
ReplyDeleteindeed.
Deleteshame, really.
I think I'm probably guilty of this at times, even though I'm small potatoes.
ReplyDeleteI started blogging because I'm a lonely sole and I still prefer to be in my own little world - which is why I'm so bad at coming out to look at other people's blogs!
A growing audience can bring added pressure to perform and I struggle with that a lot to the point that sometimes I feel like a parody of myself because I feel obligated to put something out there. It's all silly nonsense, of course, and I seem to go in cycles of getting caught up in the idea that I need to be something that's just not sustainable for me and then coming back to what I'm actually about.
Those conferences about SEO and tricks to get more of an audience make my skin crawl with boredom but also fear that I'm not doing enough - I just want to write about what I'm inspired by.
It bothers me to see other bloggers I read getting inflated, becoming a site rather than a blog or being untouchable but I totally get how it can come about.
reply below....!
DeleteI sit and watch as they skip and squeee, wondering whether my comment will be read let alone answered. Interesting views Janice :)
ReplyDeleteI've just worked out how to put the reply thingy on my comments at last. The Skippety Squeees would find it hard to answer all 104 of their comments wouldn't they?xx
indeed they would, but one would hope they would acknowledge the odd one here and there.....;)
DeleteI don't actually think you are guilty of it at all Hannah. You have always seemed to blog about what you are interested in, bothered by and enthused about. All great reasons to blog, and great to read too. We are all closet rubber-neckers and love the insights into people's lives. Or is that just me?!
ReplyDeleteI can see how it happens too - 'having' to comment, or to reply to comments probably overwhelms the blogger who gets more and more popular. Personally, I think as long as you take the trouble to comment occasionally on other blogs, and reply to a variety of comments on your own blog now and then, the 'balance' is held in the right place - making and sustaining contacts with people. If you get bigger than that, then it's a shame because you surely cannot sustain the 'real-ness' of your blog, nor it's purpose.
It's wonderful that I get so many comments on my blog, but it honestly would be impossible to reply to them all. I do however comment often on the non-blogger's comments and always on the blogs of those who have them. And I'm not all that closet about the rubber necking ... I love reading about other folks lives and the stuff that matters to them (I've happily arrived here via Quince Tree Sue).
DeleteI do wonder if I'm guilty of the charity mugging E describes, in that I ask people to consider making a donation to p/hop if they download one of my free knitting patterns, but I like to think I'm using my blogs widish reach to make a difference, however small. For good or ill that's a part of why I blog. Although mostly, as I said, it's because I'm nosey and I love to connect with people.
I agree - it would be ridiculous to feel under pressure to reply to every comment you receive. But it does serves you right for being popular. Haaaaa haaaaaaaaaa!
DeleteSeriously - it's about making and holding on to some, not all, connections and if you get too 'big' to do that, then the point of 'blogging' is lost, and you are moving into the realms of being a business, a 'site'. There are only a few blogs which I have encountered which seem to have drifted that way, and it is the irritation with those which fuelled my rant driven post.