Just Anecdotes

Over the past months, I've come to notice that you, o loyal readers of my blog, seem to visit only to read the short (under 3 paragraphs) funny stories in my life. Moreover, you seem to prefer the kinds that are at my expense.

True?

I'm not sure if it's maybe the longer or more serious entries still have you interested, but not leaving feedback ... or if you just see how long it is, and get frightened by it. ("If I had a nickel for every time ...")

So let me know what's up, and what your blog reading patterns are like. I won't promise to cater to it, but at least it will be considered.

4 comments:

Rose said...

I read them all Benben...(EXCEPT the nerdy techy ones, THOSE go right over my head, hehe). I just don't always comment...

S said...

I read almost every day, but I don't always feel like I have anything to contribute.

I've been observing/studying the commenting thing for over 5 years now. Nothing serious, no clipboard and white lab coat or anything, just little "aha"s here and there. I've been changing my style of writing to keep drama queens and other crappy people away.

In my experience, shorter, fluffier entries tend to leave it more open for commentary because they tend not to be as well written.

Sometimes, the most well thought out entries get no comments because they're _too_ well thought out, too complete and too airtight. It's off-putting to you as the author who poured your heart and soul into it, but no one can really say anything because you've covered it all way too well =)

Covering your ground works well for research papers, but doesn't always work well for blog entries or anything that invites conversation.

Longer, more involved entries will only be read by people who a) have the attention span, which is rare and b) stand to gain something by reading the whole thing (ie. they're interested in the subject matter).

I also notice that the more you participate and comment in other peoples' blogs, the more they will comment in your entries. They somehow feel obligated to return the favour, so to speak =)

It really depends on what your goal is for your blog. Are you writing it for yourself or for the audience?

Ben said...

I used to really vary my entries: long, short, deep, shallow, funny, pensive, sad. And usually on Fridays, I try to have something interesting to post (ie. not just a link to something else I found on the wuh-wuh-wuh). Most of the time, I'm writing for me; but a lot of it is so that my friends from afar can read up on what's going on. In most cases, you probably need to read regularly to get that picture -- one little entry won't give you a good understanding of where I am in life (or in my head).

As for reading your blogs ...

I have this little folder in my Firefox bookmark bar, called "Blogs". I click on it, and then click on "Open All in Tabs", and whoosh, all your blogs come up. Every work morning, with my mouse in my right hand and my left hovering over the CTRL-W, I flip through all the blogs and CTRL-W you if you haven't got something new. This kills most of you off, and I go back and read the rest, morning drink in hand. Don't like getting killed off so early? Then blog. :-)

Anonymous said...

I read, and love all of them.

Sometimes I don't feel like I have much to contribute, so I stay silent....but I'm always reading.....