In no particular order, for no particular reason.
1. Advertising on blogs, part 1
Yeah, I know, some people actually do like making money off of their blog...I get that. But honestly, something inside of me says that earning money to blog is like getting paid to moon someone.
2. Advertising on blogs, part 2
While I get annoyed with advertisements on blogs in general, seeing "contra" advertisements on blogs REALLY annoys me. What do I mean by a "contra" ad? Well it's when, say, Peter the Progressive has his blog going and low and behold, and advertisement for someone like Phil Davison appears. It's just not right.
3. Posting for comments
I know bloggers who write postings specifically to be controversial and generate comments. As if somehow their tenure in Purgatory will be reduced if they can only get 'X' number of comments on some silly posting that probably doesn't really reflect their feelings anyway. By the way, if you don't get the reference to "Purgatory" don't worry...it just means that you probably didn't grow up in NEPA.
4. Referencing stats, page views, etc.
Now I do have a page counter on my blog, but it's more for amusement (my own) than anything serious. What's more, I have never...not once, ever...referenced page views, page counts, or any blog stats for that matter on any NCFE posting. This seems to be the Geek equivalent of "my car/house/spouse/job is nicer than yours". In reality, unless you are getting serious Samolians to blog, then really no one gives a crap how many page views you get.
5. Blog categories
As if blogging were this art form that needed to be categorized like music genre. As I've noted many times, this is the Internet. People spend hours watching 12 year old boys swallow cinnamon on-line. Is this really so important as to warrant analysis and classification?
For the record, this video, all 23 seconds of it, received 16,575 hits as of 05.23.2012/4:17pm. Anyone want to argue about the real relevance of page views (sans compensation)?
6. Professional blog critics
My blogroll (damn, I sound too "hip" saying that...) has blogs on a variety of different topics, from politics to fashion to religion. If it is on my blogroll then I actually read the content myself. While I don't necessarily agree with everything I read in these blogs, I respect the authors for having the guts to put what they think out there in the public domain. People who needlessly flame (there I go again using "hip" terminology...) and criticize other bloggers are morons. Note that I can disagree with content that someone creates, but you will by and large not find me being critical of another blog author. Kind of like "hate the sin, love the sinner". I do make exceptions for things like Holocaust deniers and flaming racist swine.
7. Blogs about blogging
Trust me, there is nothing that I've seen in blogs that convinces me that this sort of thing requires extensive skill to pull off. Creativity? Maybe. Opinions? Definitely. A certain need for attention? Quite possibly. Extensive training? Absolutely not. Want to blog? Find a host, buy a URL from Google if you want and start writing. There you go...I just created a blogging class.
8. Wordy blogs
If it takes me more than, say, 5 minutes to read a posting, then I pretty much give up on the content. Note that I am 48, not 18, so I actually do possess something of an attention span (despite my own comments to the contrary). It's just that the nature of the Internet is such that points need to be made quickly, else I will end up getting bored and watching more videos of 12 year old boys swallowing cinnamon.
9. Blog cards
I have business cards, but I will never have blog cards. Could I afford to get blog cards made? Sure. I just don't want to. It gets back to the whole nature of blogging I guess: I want this to be a kind of grass-rootsy endeavor, not something that looks like what business people do at the beginning of a meeting in Japan...
...and my pet, all time, most annoying peeve?
10. Referencing without credit
Nothing cheeses me off more than when someone uses or references something I wrote without giving me credit. While shocking for me to even consider the fact that anyone would actually want to use my stuff, this has actually happened to me a few times over the years. This is, however, just one of those laws of the Internet that should never be broken. Seriously, even if you think something I wrote is full-o-crap, at least have the common decency to attribute the crap to me. It's my crap damn-it!
2 comments:
The question of what the purpose of blogging/activism/writing/sharing ideas (if there is any or should be any) has been an interesting one for me recently. Other questions present themselves such as: What good is a message if it doesn't reach a good amount of people? If content can be altered slightly to reach more people, should content be 'compromised?' Considering that much of what might rightly be considered 'garbage' gets a tremendous amount of views while good content doesn't, should one writing try to reach to more people? ...or should one not care about views at all and just write 'for themselves' and be content with a very small audience? It's rough, really.
So...some thoughts on your list:
1,2) The extra money that one can get from something one would do for free could be nice.
3)Posting to be intentionally controversial or otherwise posting stuff like straight-up character attacks with no real regard for educational purposes really annoys me.
4) As above, a good deal of content that might be really bad gets lots of views. The trick, then, is good content with good views :)
5) I use categories so people can see thoughts on specific topics or otherwise narrow a search. I someone wants to, referring to my blog, find posts regarding COLTS, epistemology, or issues of church/state separation, they can easily do that.
6) Flaming is silly. Attack ideas, not the person.
7) Again, there's lots of what could be considered bad content out there...and even people who really don't know what they're doing regarding the technology side. These sites can be helpful to some.
8) Some might be looking for a deeper analysis of a certain topic.
9) I have my blog on my business card because it's likely what I'm known most for and like to share my writing.
10) Big no-no in my book. Just hyperlink! Easy!
Justin,
Thanks for the comment. A few thoughts on your thoughts.
1 & 2. Maybe I'm just in a position where I don't think of it from an economic perspective.
3. Glad we agree.
4. I suppose this is the "sweet spot".
5. You misunderstand the item in question. This isn't about posting labels (which I use as well), but rather about people who categorize blogs (such as a "lifestyle" blog).
6. Amen (no offense).
7. The phrase "Lord of the Flies" comes to mind.
8. If I am going to invest more than 5 minutes on anything it has to be substantive, timely, factual, engaging...in other words, all the things that most blogs are not. Hence my 5 minute rule.
9. I still think they are silly.
10. Yupp.
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