Blue Witch asked a very interesting question about blogging in general last Friday – “Why do fewer people comment on serious issues any more?”.
This got me thinking. When I first started blogging, way back when Little’un wasn’t much more than a meaningful glance on a Friday night, my intention was to blog about all kinds of issues… parenting, my life in general, sport and current affairs or anything else that tickled my author bone. Is that happening? Erm, nope… lots of pictures of Little’un looking cute and that’s pretty much it. What amazes me is that an average of 30 people a day still bother to drop by, although I’m sure the majority of those are accidental visitors.
So what happened?
I often see/hear/read of an issue and think, “Ooooh I could write something really interesting and insightful about that!”. Then I don’t. I’m too tired at the end of the day/out and about enjoying family (real) life/too busy at work/entertaining Little’un (very much a preferred pastime)/doing dull houseworky stuff. No time for thinking about issues that mean something to me, never mind actually writing about them.
Commenting on other peoples’ blogs is something else I generally don’t do any more. I have my work cut out just keeping up with reading the blogs I’m interested in. You should feel honoured if I comment on your blog, it is a favour rarely bestowed (funnily enough I found the time to tell Pewari that I hate her recently for putting a link on her blog to an highly addictive little online game, the last thing I need ;) )
So there you have it. A post that I have had to put some thought into. I’ll be back in six months or so with another one… in the meantime, sit back, relax and enjoy the gratuitous “haven’t I got a beautiful daughter” posts.
*looks innocent*
I don’t write serious posts very often any more because I’ve been burned too many times. I don’t *want* to get into blazing rows on the internet. And now too many people “know” who I am, so I have to be careful what I rant about in case the offending party happens to read. Also, I’ve realised that it’s much easier than expected to trace me, so overly personal details are also now taboo.
The M*d*l*n* McC*nn post was pretty much the last straw and I’m rapidly losing interest in blogging entirely – only keeping up with it as a way of keeping in contact with friends.
Shame really.
Thank you for finding time to post a serious post
As you’ve found Facebook, I can’t imagine there will be too many more, ever
Pew – don’t lose interest
I like your friends and family blog 
Having been stung myself I am incredibly careful what I write about these days and I keep personal stuff that might incriminate me down to a minimum.
BW – I am having trouble with Facebook, I don’t seem to know too many people that are on there and I am too shy to make friends
“I don’t write serious posts very often any more because I’ve been burned too many times. I don’t *want* to get into blazing rows on the internet.”
Right, so you give your opinions on the World Wide Web and then feel agrieved when someone else offers theirs?
Maybe there should be a ‘read only’ version of the Internet…….!
Not trying to pick a fight are you Kroy
Defending Pewari – an innocent post that she wrote on a current issue got completely out of hand… it would put me off saying what I think tbh.
Kroy: no problem with regulars getting into heated discussions, but when people google in, flame me to buggery, then disappear with no intention of interracting with my site ever again… yes I get a bit pissed off.
The key term I was trying to highlight though was “World Wide Web”. Effectively, it’s a free-for-all for everyone to add their penneth. Or centeth, pfenigeth, centimeth…….!
So what did you think was going to happen?! It’s too tempting for benefit scroungers to splash-out on a cheap pc so they can type antagonistic 5hite!
At least by writing: “I don’t write serious posts very often any more”, it shows you have learned from your unfortunate experiences!
Anyway, you missed a golden opportunity earlier to point out that if I didn’t have one of those ’show-off’ fancy water-proof keyboards, I wouldn’t have missed the 2nd ‘G’ out of aggrieved, thus avoiding the impression of being someone who can’t spell and, therefore, possibly a benefit scrounger……!!
Hmm… I’ve been on the internet in some form of another since 1992, including some very robust sites. Robustness I have no problems with.
Basic netiquette is a lost art form I know, but there’s a HUGE difference between having a blazing row on an internet forum (but not getting narked if the person who pays the bandwidth pulls your thread), engaging in a good debate on someone else’s site – i.e. sticking around for a two-way conversation or writing your own informed blog post linking to the original and quite another doing a hit and run on someone else’s home site leaving a load of bile and then never returning except maybe to lurk and gloat… the former examples are heated dialogue, the latter is virtual graffiti.
That’s not the same think as wanting a write-only medium.
The odd nutter commenting is also fine, and water off a ducks back… wait until you get 50 or so bombarding you in one go, drowning out any regulars’ comments and generating thousands of hits from other random nutters sites within the space of 24hrs maybe you’ll change your mind…
(sorry tigerfeet… taking over your comments somewhat
)
Not a problem, it is a reasoned debate, and quite nutter free