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Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Thank You Bloggers



I love blogs.

I cruise blogs.

I’m a blogaholic.

I hit NEXT BLOG frequently.

I will race to the computer hourly to check and see what’s going on.

I was previously addicted to email and Googling anything that came into my mind, but now I’ve added blog-trawling so I’m just about doing nothing during the day that isn’t blog related. In fact, I’m just about doing nothing period.

But, I figure I’ll burn out and cool down and get a balance in my life and right now I enjoy reading everyone’s words so much I can’t help being addicted.

This post is in no way criticizing bloggers , the act of blogging, or bloggers who act.

I just want to comment on my observation of two rather unique occurrences in the blog world that I’ve come across.

One is the split personality blogger who uses a blog name and then an anonymous name and proceeds to have long conversations with him/herself. I’ve even found a blogger who writes under a blog name, writes under anonymous and then writes under another anonymous but has given this identity a name. (Might I add that this is not easy to do and I admire said blogger’s ability to take on three distinct personalities and not be obvious about this chicanery.)

As a student of language, diction, sentence formation, syntax, speech patterns etc. I can spot the multi-personality blogger after a while. I start by thinking nothing of anonymous posts until it becomes obvious that the blog-owner is using these alter-egos as a Greek chorus and/or support for his or her statements. Sometimes the alter-ego poster is used as an agitator to drum up blog excitement. Clever!

I may lurk and even smirk but I don’t blurt out, hey you are writing all these comments by yourself. And, who knows I could be wrong in this observation.

My other observation is there are blogs that seem like they are computer generated.

(A certain celebrity who once had an afternoon talk show is an example.)

There doesn’t appear to be a real blogger who blogs back at you – just a post and then a comment section where other people talk. It’s as if the blog is hosted by a very busy owner who has no time to relate to his/her commenters but is kind enough to offer a space for blog-blabbing. It’s like going to a party and the host opens the door but then disappears for the night.

The latter blogs confuse me. Why blog at all if you have no intentions of communicating with your readers? Those blogs remind me of television. It seems like they exist to be seen and nothing else. (I do talk back to my TV though…)

My favorite blogs are the ones that appear to be written by real people with real thoughts, problems, and emotions. I like the silly blogs, the sad blogs, the political blogs, satricial blogs and the recipe blogs. I like finding new blogs by hitting NEXT BLOG but I love my old regulars I try to visit daily.

So I want to take a minute out of my lazy day and your busy day to say thanks to all of you for making life so interesting, for touching my heart, for making me laugh outloud and for making me think.

Much appreciated.

Blog on!

22 Comments:

Blogger Susie said...

Is this called "meta-blogging," this blogging about blogging? I've seen that term used. Seemed very intellectual and impressive. I am fascinated and addicted as well. Now, I'm trying to understand the multiple personality blogger you've described. Is this person attempting to fool others into thinking he/she has "friends," fans, commenters? Or is this person psychotic? Or is this person very lonely and oblivious to his/her readers? Just trying to get my mind around that one. Like I said, fascinating. Sometimes when I have hit "next blog" from my site, I have wanted to move out of my blog neighborhood. No way I want to be next-door to some of those dudes. But the "next blog" changes every day, if not more frequently, so I guess I won't relocate. Very interesting, MB...

7:59 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

I don't know if it's "meta-blogging" as I'm a newbie blogger but I make up for newness by my passion and hours logged on the computer, just ask my disgruntled husband! (He doesn't work for the post office so we're all safe.)

The multiple personality blogger, in my opinion, runs the gamut from insecure, megalomaniacal, nefarious, innocuous, lonely, self-important, scared...hey just name something and I'll bet that would fit too.

I know I have spent lots of time blogging in the past few months, and I was interested to see if anyone else had come across the multiple personality blogger as in example one, or the no personality blogger as in example two.

Just saying...to quote someone I like heaps.

Pee Ess - I do think the common bond among all bloggers is the desire to connect to other people. I like that.

9:26 PM  
Blogger Susie said...

Yea, still up blog surfing. The "connection" thing is my justification for spending so much time. I blog instead of watch TV. I figure that HAS to be a better use of time, because at least blogging involves interaction with other humans, not just passively being talked at. I mean, if you do it "correctly," like we do;)

11:45 PM  
Blogger Andrea said...

I've been blog-surfing a bit today, and have mostly run into some weird ones...like blogs that are supposed to be ads? What's up with that? I guess it's a free way to advertise, but these don't really look very appealing (like, um, http://funeralflowers.blogspot.com)

1:09 AM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

I also think you learn about other cultures through blogging. Sometimes I hit upon a teen blog and I feel I'm learning more about their world.

But the funereal flowers blog - yuck - that's a beauty Andrea. Let's all order our flowers from "silly" the name of the poster. Something doesn't jive on that blog.

6:26 AM  
Blogger Andrea said...

The other thing I've found while blog-surfing is an unreal proportion of Asian blogs. Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Malaysian, Philippines, or even Asians here in the US. Does the blogosphere somehow know my husband is Chinese? I don't think my last name is attached to my blog anywhere. I have the word "sinophile" in my profile. Other than that, I can't figure it out.

10:01 AM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

I've happened upon a disproportionate amount of Singapore and Maylasian blogs too -and I just randomly hit NEXT BLOG.

I also noticed that many people speak English even if it isn't their mother tongue. I wish I knew more languages...

12:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I havent really cruised blogs. I click sites from sites I go to, and now there are several I go to often. There is a thread of community through the blogs. The connection between people, the realization that you're not alone and other people have/do have the same type of feelings. That realization has given me so much.

lawbrat

1:20 PM  
Blogger Irina Tsukerman said...

MB, your observations about bloggers are very interesting. I've encountered the "no-personality" bloggers; sometimes they are simply too busy to answer individual comments, other times they write specifically to provide topics of conversations for others, and prefer to stand back and watch the flow of the conversations. They may feel that if they insert themselves, they'll ruin the flow. I have not encountered the multiple-personality blogger, and I find it astonishing. The first few months I was blogging I was hardly getting any comments at all, and I didn't have the stats counter yet, but at no point did the thought of commenting to myself has even occurred to me!

1:25 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

lawbrat - you're right...there's a community feeling among the bloggers that is comforting. And to know we all face struggles can make our own problems seem more managable sometimes.

Irina, When I first blogged, I had no comments so I commented to myself giving myself full credit because I used my blogger name and not anonymous.

I told myself I had written a great post one day...I think LB found it and laughed like crazy.

The multiple identity bloggers are out there...ways to spot them:

Time stamp of posts
Idiocyncratic writing clues like using elipses like I do or CAPS to make a point or when the words don't seem real like the Jonbenet ransom letter. Or the same misspelled words by the blogger, and anonymous. Anonymous's timing of always being around to comment...there's some for you to think about.

I'm a born skiptracer, researcher, detective-type forensics fool.

1:59 PM  
Blogger sparklestone said...

I like the idea that there are little blogging families...people who don't know each other at all except through postings and comments.

Little, global, mutant families.

Soon, I won't be able to hit "next blog" at all because I will have so many family members to check in on.

4:06 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

Why sparklestone..how nice for you to stop by.
"Little, global, mutant families." hilarious!

I love that description!

You gotta do next blog at least once a day -- it's like opening a surprise package.

4:40 PM  
Blogger sparklestone said...

OK. I took your advice and hit next blog from your very own page. And I was expecting one of those blogs that is in English but I still can't understand it because all of a sudden I am old and lame and out of sync and I figured it would be one of those that doesn't have a next blog button so I would have to go backwards to go forwards...

...but no. Way cool on the very first try.

6:52 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

Sparky - you hit the jackpot...fun place to visit..thanks for sharing..now isn't that fun? Next Blog is way cool itself. It's like opening a peanut butter jar and finding caviar.

Change your name to smartypants - (also goes well with Underpants)links(!) italics(!) in comments? I didn't know my comments could be so sophisticated.

7:41 PM  
Blogger Miss Kate said...

Hi Miss Mary! Thanks for commenting on my champagne -- you should stop by for a glass sometime. As for the caipirinhas, Sparkletender is the man with the plan. I tend to stick to the single-ingredient bevvies, but I'm always ready when my loving spouse decides to mix us up something dangerous.

As for "Next Blog..." I wish I had time for that, but I just don't. However, I'm delighted that you're out trawling so that we can meet up somehow. I've enjoyed the reading so far and look forward to more.

Salud!

9:36 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

Welcome Miss Kate!

You are a good sport and I like your style.

I'll do the blog-trawling for you Miss Kate and if anything I find is marvelous I'll post it on Tchotchkes.

Have you ever had Bouvet Brut champagne? Inexpensive but made with grapes a few feet from the real "champagne" region of France -I give it 5 stars for small bubbles, lots of bubbles, dry but not so dry it loses its lovely grape taste.

Tell Sparky he can make a fine caipirinha with tangerines. One tangerine is enough..less sugar of course, but the same process you make the real ones with. They are the latest in Brazil.

A votre sante madame!

7:47 AM  
Blogger The Green Panda said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

1:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've never even thought there was such a thing as multiple personality blogging but now I'll be on the lookout for it.
It reminds me of--remember back when everybody's webpage had a visible graphical counter? There were always people who'd set their counter to start at 1000, so you'd go to a brand new webpage that opened up yesterday and it would have 1001 hits on it. Sorry pal, but you aren't fooling anybody!

Asfor absentee blogging, I think it's okay as long as the comments section is already very lively. It's really not too terribly hard to keep up with comments; I don't know about other software but Blogger can be set to *email* you every time you get commented on.

1:54 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

CB - there definitely is the multiple personality blogger - I keep one in my sight kind of like a sociological experiment of blog users...I got the real proof the other day so I know longer doubt that this blogger is alternately agreeing with his/her self or challenging his/her self.


Oh, the counter fiddlers...I know they exist. All advertising has an element of deception but gee - don't make it that easy to spot!

I don't mind the missing blogger, but I also don't care that much what they write about either...I guess I lose that "global, mutant family feeling" that sparklestone was talking about.

3:44 PM  
Blogger The Egel Nest said...

When my wife heard me say "blog" the first time...she thought I said "glog"

To this day she still says, "How is your "glog" going?

Gloggity Glog :)

Bradley
The Egel Nest

3:03 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

Bradley - your wife's comment is adorable. I like her word glog...I also like glug (swedish drink that can make you go blind if you don't set it on fire as it uses grain alcohol or some such crazy thing.

4:43 PM  
Blogger Trish said...

What a relief to find that I've been a "next blog" and people are saying nice things! Thanks :)

~Trish

7:23 AM  

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