The Self-Referential Art Of The Blog (Part Some Of Many)
When I first started blogging, and indeed for some while previously, there were a handful of blogs that I read religiously. Every day I'd stop by and on days when the bloggers in question hadn't updated I was always ever so slightly disappointed. Since I started this thing, I've broadened my blog reading, often because I've discovered people who link here, or by backtracking comments. It seems to be true, for me at least, that the more you blog, the more you receive blog. A few other people I've discussed this with have had similar experiences. But along the way, some of the sites that I used to regard as essential parts of my daily routine have ceased to be so, for which I feel a little guilty. I mean, I still stop by every now and then, but generally more then than now. A couple have gone quiet, Tin Man a while ago, ChrisR more recently, but the others are still there, just not so much in my mind anymore, and inevitably others have become more prominent to me. Is this other people's experience too?
October 31st, 2002 - 23:58
Absolutely. Different sites go through different phases and in a slightly different rhythm my own tastes change. There are very few former regular reads that I’ve totally abandoned, but there are some that I only look at every week or two now.
Having said that, there are a few that I stopped reading so much that I now notice myself drawn to more regularly. I’m fickle like that
For me, it’s as much a pragmatic case of lack of spare time as anything else. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to get to everything that I’d like to read, so I tend to focus on the sites that I’ve been reading for longest and try to drop by the others once or twice a week.
November 1st, 2002 - 00:09
It’s the way it goes I think. Virtually, as in real life. If you kept all the friends you had at nursery, at primary school, neighbours, junior school, senior .. etc .. how would you have time/energy for the people you meet when you start working? How about the second job? Online? Etc. Things move on. That’s the way I’ve come to see it. Sometimes it’s harder than others, obviously. That’s life.
November 1st, 2002 - 08:05
Actually, Owen, I think you’ve helped me pinpoint why it seems so striking to me. It’s because things have changed so relatively quickly, yet because of the nature of blogging, one gets to feel that one knows the blogger quite well. It’s a bit like runing through the friends from nursery, primary school, etc in about two years.
November 2nd, 2002 - 12:33
The difficulty is that, though, the friends from school or whatever you lose because you drift apart, slowly, so that they’re barely, and then not, on the Christmas card list. And there’s no hurt feelings.
If I delink a blog, I’m really conscious that that person might be hurt. Indeed, one person declared he was giving up blogging, so I delinked him, and then he said that I had delinked him because we had disagreed on bombing Iraq. I explained and he offered a most gracious apology.
November 2nd, 2002 - 17:12
I read, I link, I write… there’s no favouritism. Sometimes there will be a new blog to read, generally not. The first blogs I read aren’t so important to me now but they are still in my mind. Like nostalgia.
November 3rd, 2002 - 11:19
speaking of linking, one day i really *will* get my bookmarks on line… no really i will… i’ve only been saying since the day i started my site…
i think you just go through phases of site reading… i went through a phase up until 6 months ago where i never kept bookmarks, mainly because they were a pain to maintain.