Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Sometimes Blogging Is Bullshit

That's right.

Here's why:

Know what is bullshit?

_

SNUBBING/DELETING PERFECTLY RATIONAL, SWEAR-FREE COMMENTS.

I got my first snub today by someone who was encouraging Bloggers to post about their own site, provide links and check other people out.

So I did.

I checked a shit ton of the sites out and commented on many.

I came back later to see my comment and description was deleted altogether, with no message or reason. I didn't curse, I joked, I left a link to my site. I was a bit late to post, but felt the deletion of my comment was ignorant.

[Edit: The Blogger contacted me to let me know that my comment was deleted in error. Just wanted to let you all know that, in this case, my pissiness was not warranted.]

No this wasn't it, I just wanted a pretty Blogger "Delete Comment" image.


I have only deleted two comments in my life:

One comment was left when someone left me a comment about their sex life under my "It Gets Better" posting (totally inappropriate), and the other comment was about my family going away on vacation (I didn't want the general public to know my house was going to be empty).

The rest of it? It has ALL stayed up. Unless something is blatantly, flaming/unnecessarily cruel/offensive, it should stay up.

Isn't that the whole point of this gig?

I am not important enough to draw major criticisms or huge page hits. I value the people who come to my page, and read, and bother to comment.


Know what else is bullshit? CAPTCHAS.


'Ere i tipp for ya. Get rid of this stupid fucking thing unless you are spammed frequently and/or really need it for some reason.

Unless you are getting spammed to high heaven, if you have a smaller blog, why bother with these irritating (and surprisingly difficult-for-me-no-word-of-a-lie-I-need-glasses-for-this-shit) "validation" methods? Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess, herself doesn't even use word captchas. I don't think Allie Brosh of Hyperbole And A Half does either. I know "Your Aunt Becky" (aka Becky Sherrick Harks) over at Mommy Wants Vodka doesn't either.

That creature from The Never Ending Story? Or Princess Bride or something? Fuck. My brain hurts. p.s. Jennifer- I love you still.


Know what else is bullshit?  THE I-FOLLOW-YOU-SO-I-EXPECT-YOU-TO-FOLLOW-ME-BACK CROWD. 

We all have different interests. All Bloggers LOVE followers generally, to know we have an audience that cares to listen to what we have to say and/or laugh along with us.

But a humour blogger may have no interest in someone else's photo blog.

A mommy blog may be horribly offended at my language and content. AND THAT IS OKAY.

We are different. So the reciprocal, unread, follow-me and I'll follow-you, even if I am disinterested in your blog thing is bullshit. That's all I have to say.

Know what else is bullshit? COMMENTING ON MY BLOG AND NOT READING MY GODDAMN POST.

Yeah, I understand a lot of us have a ton of blogs we keep up with, partially due to the above bullshit factor. There are also LOTS of great blogs out there and you want to spread yourself around and keep in touch.

Then there are the folks who merely see a few key phrases in the post and make a generic comment, or ask the same question in the comments for the 5th time.

If you are commenting, at least here, kindly have the decency to READ MY POST before you leave your linkback to your own blog.

If I put an emotional video tribute up with no text, and I can see who has viewed the video, don't comment on the post without watching the video. Page views and video views correlate early on. If you are not interested in the content and are merely skimming to promote yourself, then go elsewhere.

I would rather have fewer, genuine followers than those who are just in it for the bullshit. I am sure some of you will unfollow me after this.

I am tired of trying to generate real traffic and maintain dialogue with all of the bullshit sandwiched in between. There are some really great Bloggers and blogs out there. Respect their content, respect their time.

I know this place thrives on self-whoring, and I learned to leave my linkback on other people's blogs after so many folks were doing it here - but I READ THE POSTS that I comment on.

*Gets off her high horse*


Anyway, that's all for today. And I don't even have PMS, go figure.


___________________




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27 comments:

  1. Yee Hah! Way to be honest!

    I love it. BS is BS, and this is no BS.

    I'm gonna keep following you; in fact, I am even more loyal.

    PS I have been trying to get a photo of my Clint Eastwood.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Luckily puppies follow you just cause they love you. Little Miss ___ (insert new or old name here) doesn't give a rat's ass who comments or follows you...she just loves you for you....high horse or no. I think you're pretty cool too, although I've only met you recently. I've enjoyed your blogs and am glad I found you ;D

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  3. @Rick - Awesome, thanks man. I have a feeling not everyone will be in agreement. Or, at least, there will be very few comments.

    @Angie - How true it is. Do you agree or disagree with the body of the post? Feel the same way at all? I'm glad that you found me, too, and that I eventually figured the FB thing out to find you! I need to who each of your doggies are in the photos, now.

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  4. Word up sista! Stay on that high horse. It suits you :)

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  5. Well, I haven't put any links to my blog, because I've been terribly remiss in posting anything. And most of it is just me whining about not feeling good ;P Although I did make up a story about squirrels in the neighborhood once that I think is funny, but I don't know that anyone else would think so. I think you're right about most of it though, I don't comment unless I feel I actually have something to say, because....who wants to slog through my inane comment to find the ones where the real conversation is going on? Ummm....maybe that's just me though. heh. Here is a link to some Fiona puppy stuff... http://grimalkinmao.livejournal.com/42373.html
    and the squirrel story
    http://grimalkinmao.livejournal.com/2532.html
    and right now I am attempting to do the "Thing a Day" creative crap, so here is what I did today
    http://grimalkinmao.posterous.com/02-01-2011-day-one

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  6. Yay! Horses! (That's what this post was about, right?) I'm kidding...I'm kidding...I read your post. I don't get the deleted comment thing.

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  7. Totally hate captchas too. Amusing in the beginning but, we should all ban together to rid blog world of them
    When I started, I followed people hoping they would follow me and I would follow my followers. Now I am happy to follow if you ask me too but if you don't capture my attention or I have nothing to say I will probably not leave a comment.
    As far as deleting comments, only anon ones that I consider spam, the ones that tell me that I am wonderful I always keep lol

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  8. i hear ya! and you rock girl so i will not unfollow (UF)...'sides i just stop commenting as opposed to UF...

    capthcas are the f*king devil...

    i have never had to undelete a comment. i prolly never will. igonring the flamers is what i learned from my days at sport forums..

    i did have one recently that was very insulting and was not anon but had no link to the name they left they. i thought about replying but then why? then the fucker wins..

    i love your blog!

    Bruce
    Bruce Johnson JADIP
    Evil Twin
    stupid stuff I see and hear
    The Dreamodeling Guy
    dreamodeling!
    The Guy Book
    The Guy Book

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  9. cats and rhinos are my faves too, stephc! i'm so glad we both have awesome blogs about animals. plz make sure to follow me and have all your friends follow me, k thx bai

    http://justanotherwastedday.blogspot.com







    j/k. except for the link. that's real. GO. NOW. <3

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  10. I totally agree with you, although I have never seen the animal captcha, that is a wierd one. I hate the word ones, andI really hate when it doesn't send you back own to do it and you exit the page thinking you lefta great comment, and nothing... I also follow way more people than follow me, and I don't follow everyone that follows me either. oh well. I love you blog and will never unfollow!

    amberlashell.com

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  11. I never thought about the captchas. Now that you mention it, they are somewhat annoying. So, I've removed mine. My blog is small and will probably stay that way since I bring up things that aren't to everyone's taste (works for me!). Besides, if spammers discover me, I can always reinstate the captchas.

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  12. I do not do the "Capcha" thing. I do the comment approval thing. I like to read the comments as they are being approved and respond accordingly. What really chaps my hide is when people have both the "Capcha" and the comment approval on their blog. That really pisses me off.

    And I deleted a couple of idiotic comments from some douchbage who was telling how much American women suck versus foreign women.

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  13. i had to add captcha and comment approval bc my ex-husband's dodo friend started leaving rude comments. i knew the effort it took to make it through round #1 of word verification would max out his brain capabilities and that would be the end of my rude-comment problem.

    ps: you HAVE to send me linkage to the site that deleted your comment. do a private email thing if you have to. juice like this will keep me up all night in anticipation.

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  14. Steph: I might be one of the few people here that doesn't have his own blog. I read your blog because I like what you write, that you are a real person, and that you say what you feel. Don't get bothered by what other people do. Just keep being you!

    ..Tom

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  15. I decided long ago that I would never become famous from blogging, or garner thousands of followers. I'm happy just to have the handle that I have, because they truly care about what I write, and take the time to leave thoughtful, or downright hysterical comments. In fact, over time the comment exchange has become my favorite part.

    The point is, it's your blog. Do whatever the hell you want with it, and if people don't like it, so what? It's a big internet, and I'm sure they can find another place to hang out.

    Which brings to to a personal pet peeve. Blogging platforms that don't allow you to comment on other comments! I HATE that, because sometimes I really want to make a remark about another comment, and get an exchange going between commenter, and the author.

    Sorry, I'm digressing. So just let me say that I love horses too (Yay @Brutalism!), and please read my blog.

    ;-)

    (I'm also pro-emoticon)

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  16. @Tom G- i subscribe to comments and they show up in my g-mail, so i can open the gmail and hit a link that sends me right back to the comment section!

    does that help?

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  17. I hate the "follow me and I'll follow you back people... but I'm kind of one of them. I'll get irritated if I comment on someones blog over and over again, and they just ignore it.

    I'm terrible with keeping up with blogs, though, so I try not to sweat it.

    Captchas are BS

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  18. this post was so right on! word verification is just weird. i do like to moderate my comments, tho, just because i don't always get to check in daily, and i don't want some crazy "anonymous" comment hanging out on the blog for days. lol

    as to your deleted comment... what the what? i agree with you there, too. there's no need to delete someone's comment (or in my case, not approve it) unless it's offensive, and even then i guess it would depend on your audience? idk about that. nuttiness!

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  19. I remember how I once had a comment erased. That kinda stunk. :-P

    And I still remember the time when FB called me a jackass. I'm not going to forget that easily.

    -Barb the French Bean

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  20. Stay on that soapbox sister! Ranting feels good and you are just saying what plenty of people already think. ...Captchas suck and I removed them from my comments section although I do approve all comments prior to them being posted. ...The anonymous comments from the jackasses that get their nickers in a twist over one of my posts (that they took completely out of context) totally chaps my ass. ...As for following someone because they follow you, maybe earlier on I did but mostly I follow a blog because I enjoy reading what they have to say - which is why I read your blog!

    http://rantersbox.blogspot.com/

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  21. As much as I also hate the captcha thingamabob, I'm debating doing it just because I've gotten about 4 spammy comments in the last week.. and I don't even have a that large of a following. Blargh whatever. I can always just delete spammy things later and save everyone the trouble ;)

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  22. The only time I'll delete a comment is if its offensive to one or all of my readers. I've dealt with enough offensive ppl in my life that I'm practically immune, so they can try to offend me all they want.

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  23. Okay, Missy. I removed the word verification thing just because you asked so nicely. If I start getting spammed like I've noticed someone else getting recently, then you have to do my approvals from then on. M'kay? You realize you were still on that high horse in the picture, right? Gotta love you, girl!

    http://talkativetaurus.blogspot.com/

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  24. Back again. I was curious to see what others would say, and it seems that everyone totally gets what you're saying, Stephanie.

    I turned off the captcha on your suggestion, and I have vowed never to turn moderation on. I despise it. Anyone can say anything they want, and they can hide their identity too—it's a point of honor.

    HOWEVERWere someone to abuse or threaten another commenter, and by that I mean get truly vicious, I certainly would not only delete their comment, I would say why in another comment; i.e., "You are a psychotic bastard with no home in the world. Go slink off elsewhere, troll". (They can abuse me all they want.)

    There was one forum I used to adore. It was a Greek and Latin self-help forum, but it was DESTROYED when they turned moderation on. It became impossible to have a conversation with new people, so they killed new users.

    So I would say, if you do moderate comments, you had better be ready to monitor your blog with extreme frequency, or you will lose commenters in herds. It is easy enough to just delete spam once a day though.

    My 2 centavos. Sorry for the long comment, but there were a lot of thoughts expressed here, and I care about this.

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  25. I was going to joke around and lead with saying how much I didn't read the post before commenting. Yeah...didn't work for me either.

    I use WP with SpamFree and Akismet. No one knows they've already been pre-scanned and found worthy by the time they comment. Wont help most people on blogger and blogspot, but cant hurt in stating because some WP user might come along and find out they can completely remove spambot problems.

    Deleting comments is deleting content. The more one writes and the more attitude one has on their posts the more one draws critics. These critics make you famous.

    -Tony

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  26. Brutalism is funny... Anyway, agreed on the blogging bs. Well said, Sister!

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  27. LMAO! Totally following your blog now, because you made me giggle...

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I get far too excited when new comments come in here...