A Blog about Blogging
Apparently this is my 400th post.
I seem to have blogged about almost everything including 'Incest and Morris Dancing' ....but I don't seem to have blogged about blogging.So here are some crucial questions about blogging
1: Why do we blog? Do we all want to be Charlie Brooker or Lucy Mangan?2: How on earth do people manage to blog and work for a living?
3: Do you suffer from Blogger depression? You can download this pamphlet to help.
4: How do some brilliant bloggers manage to be witty and entertaining without pictures.
5: Do commenters ever return to read the replies? Statcounter can't tell me as it's always full of Brazilians looking for photos of their footballing hero who plays for Man City - the one with the wag who eats pies.
6: Has the new sophistication of Google Reader taken the spontaneity out of blogging? And why is blogger.com taking so long to load these days.
Is it just me?
7: Will Twittering kill Blogging?
Answers please to -
a.k.a.KAZ
Labels: mid blog crisis?
posted by KAZ at 2:23 pm
60 Comments:
400th post? Well done, you're officially a seasoned blogger.
We blog because we're all middle class Guardian readers and we've got too much time on our hands and we need personal validation.
Or is that just me that fits that stereotype?
3 'that' words in one sentence.
Is this a record?
1. Because somebody might listen.
2. They have rubbish, worthless jobs. Like me.
5. I do. If I remember. (Don't bother making a witty reply to this one though, I'll probably forget this time.)
6. I got bored with google reader very quickly. I haven't looked at it in months - I dread to think how many unread entries it contains now. (Although most of them I will actually have read, the old-fashioned way.)
7. I wish something would kill Twittering.
Congratulations on your 400th post!
Call me when you catch up to my 1,362 posts.
Anyway, I've read the Blog Depression pamphlet and it suggests we "suck cock for higher Google rank."
Can anyone confirm that this works?
p.s. You know I love coming here!
1. I started blogging at Art School and never properly managed to break the habit. No matter how hard I tried.
2. I don't know. I'd rather blog, personally.
3. Occasionally.
4. I like the pictures!
5. I do.
6. Having enough problems with my pc as it is, don't need any more rubbish on it.
7. Haven't joined twitter, probably not going to bother, I'm on Facebook and that's bad enough.
PS. Congrats on your 400th post.
*runs off to get a bottle of red to celebrate*
I do most of my blogging at work. don't tell anyone and yes we do read the replies.
Congratulations on your 400th!
I dont get Twitter.Its like expecting Shakespeare to create on Post-It Notes!
Istvanski:
'Middle class Guardian readers and we've got too much time on our hands and we need personal validation' ..me too I'm afraid.
But there are other blogs that don't fit the stereotype - you just don't see them round here much.
Can't think why Boris doesn't visit any more.
Istvanski:
Not bad for a 9 word sentence.
Rol:
I feel a bit threatend by the twitterers - even though I don't fancy it myself.
There you are - that wasn't witty was it?
MJ:
OK OK - but at my age you can't do it every day!
Cock a Google goo to you too.
Roses:
Glad you like pictures - writing's hard work. After all I'm only a poor scientist.
Facebook scares me - blasts from the past?
No thanks.
Roses:
I'm on the white tonight.
*Cheers*.
Kerri:
So you blog and earn money at the same time.
I'm impressed.
Feel free to join me and Roses for a glass or two of vino.
Tony:
Ha Ha - what a wonderful analogy.
I don't think I could do Twitter - What if no one twittered back?
1. My interest in blogging is all of wonderful people world-wide I have met and would have otherwise never known.
3. I have blog anxiety.
5. I tick the e-mail follow-up box so that I don't have to check back to see a response.
Congrats on the 400th!
I blog because I am an introverted show off who likes people to hear my opinion but am too scared to say it out loud. Blogging works for me.
Twitter will never kill blogging. Bloggers are by nature verbose and Twitter barely allows you enough characters to say hello.
Congrats on the 400th post - 'tis an achievement!
congratulations on 400! i'l come back and answer the questions. i'm working.
xoxoxo
400 and always entertaining. That's pretty good going, Kaz.
OK...
1. I blog because I enjoy writing and reading and I enjoy making and receiving comments. I don't want to be Charlie Brooker because though he's witty he does waffle on and he has to watch a load of crap telly.
2. I blog and twitter in my lunch hour and before and after work.
3. I suffer from work related depression. Blogging is a welcome relief.
4. Does Jeremy Clarkson need pictures?
5. Always.
6. Like Jeremy Clarkson, Google Reader is a tool. A useful one though. It saves you time.
7. A few bloggers I know have given up recently and I think it has a lot to do with evil Twitter and its time consuming ways or maybe a thought that the old gang are going their separate ways. But then maybe us twitterers (OK, me) don't make mountains out of molehills as much as we used to so we don't bore people so much. I really enjoy doing both and it makes me sad when a blogger I like stops.
I guess I'm a bit hooked on blogging for several reasons. I read that booklet thingy and it had some interesting points and was quite amusing - main thing is do it for yourself and if others like it great and if not who cares.
Twittering seems abtly named - a bit like these people I see glued to their mobiles and talking all the way on the bus or walking down the street. Can't be doing with it mesen.
Is it really only your 400th post? Seems like more!
400 Posts? Well done Kaz. Always entertaining and always appropriate visual content for us types with short .... what was I saying again?
I think the Google links roll has replaced Google reader and does tend to make you focus on a niche circle more - I will make an effort to be more serendipitious. I won't be clicking the "next blog" link as I'm still having counselling from the last time.
Twitter is alright for some but I don't understand the appeal.
And don't underestimate the power of blogging .... just look what my post the other day has achieved already. Now we just need to get Chris Evans removed from Radio Two....YES WE CAN!
Onward and upward!
xl:
1: Exactly - I couldn't agree more.
I've 'met' people from the extreme north of Canada and Tony, Gerald and Tom from just down the road.
2: Download the pamphlet - ignore that filthy MJ.
5: Must look into that - sounds excellent.
Thanks.
Steve:
Introvert?
Me too - I was a big show off as a teacher, but not in real life.
Savannah:
Thanks darling.
Please don't work too hard - You'll make me feel guilty.
Geoff:
(blushes) Thanks
I was looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this one - and as usual you didn't disappoint.
I would really like to encourage you with your writing.
Although you are an excellent twitterer - you were born to blog and I dread the day you might give up on us.
Gerald:
I think we all get a bit of blog anxiety don't we?
I liked the bit about not wasting 'perfectly good urls'.
'Seems like more' - if I didn't know you were a good chap I'd come over to Hyde and give you a slap.
Rog:
(Blushes again)
You will always be at the centre of my niche circle dearest. Serendipitiousnessness is not for me as I don't know what it means.
Total respect for demoting Ms Whiley - watch out Ginge - Be very afraid.
You can have replies emailed to you now - I sometimes click the email follow up box, it's very handy. I found this out when I clicked it one day by accident. Sneaky eh?!
Sx
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
400? I did 500 the other day and didn't feel the need to boast about.
WTF do we bother? LOL.
Scarlet:
Right - I shall come over and tick your box right NOW.
Garfer:
500 what?
Press ups? Metres? Hail Marys, Spam fritters?
WTF indeed - unless it's so I can come over to your place and get a little ray of sunshine.
Now that thought did make me LOL.
400. Even God, and we all know what an anal bastard he is, only felt the need to have 10 commandments.
See, told you it was handy!
Sx
your 400s are more amusing and pertinent than most columns in The G or The O. . .
(or perhaps I need to change my newspapers of choice!)(just kidding)
for me, blogging is a little like having* a series of conversations with people
you know - over the garden fence while you're hanging out the laundry, or out the front in the street while you're polishing your front step
(*or listening in on someone else's)(not that I do that, you understand)
sorry, can't remember what the question was now
blogito ergo sum
I blog therefore I am.
I didn't know that anybody read blog posts without pictures...seriously some people don't have pictures???
Commenters do return to read the replies..that's what makes this better that Twitter...which I tried for about half a year and just gave up..just never "got it".
Twitter is great for linking other sites but it's Achilles Heel is the fact that only one person in 6 billion can be consistently witty or interesting in 140 characters or less...
maybe that's a little generous.
You are a great blogger don't you ever forget it, here's to 400 more
:)
XX OO
Congrats
1. I started to blog in order to feel less lonely. Erm.
2. How on earth do people manage to work for a living and not lose their mind?
3. I have the regular kind. Pamphlets don't have side effects.
4. Where do you get your lovely pics? I have pic envy here.
5. I always check replies. It's the closest thing to having a natter.
6. I visit my favourite blogs. The Reader-thing is just more passivity.
7. I don't know if Twitter will kill blogging but I feel no desire to do it.
Happy 400 Kazaroonie.
Congrats on reaching 400 :)
Vicus:
Only 10?
Looks like God was on Twitter.
Scarlet:
Thanks. I am not a natural ticker of boxes.
Another reason to blog - bloggers teaching you how to blog.
(er - not quite right that)
View:
'a series of conversations with people' - yes - so you never get bored like you might if you had to keep up the conversation for a whole afternoon.
But I can't remember the last time I polished a front step.
Donn:
Interesting that you gave up I thought I didn't get it cos I hadn't tried it - a bit like Marmite or Guinness.
Thanks.
Arabella:
1: Possibly me too - I started blogging very soon after I stopped work.
2: Still trying to get mine back (but the nightmares persist)
3: Sympathies
4: Mostly Google images and sometimes a scan.
5: Glad xl and Scarlet told me about ticking the box.
6: Good attitude. I'm a bit too hooked on reader.
7: I still feel I'm missing something over on Twitter.
Planet City:
Thanks - You have an excellent blog.
1. I'm trying to make you laugh.
2. No idea.
3. No.
4. It's a gift I have.
5. Every day.
6. What's Google Reader?
7. No.
Congratulations on your 400 - I've just posted my 1,550th.
1: Keep trying
2: Keep thinking
3: Oh
4: Modest too?
5: At your age - remarkable.
6: Not for the likes of you.
7: Are you sure?
Show off.
I like your blog Kaz I hope you don't stop :)
I don't do the reader thing, I click of Rog's site because he has all the good blogs down the side and I can see who has posted something new from there, thanks Rog.
I always try to go back and read the replies, and I'm always disappointed when people don't reply.
I used to blog at work!
Twitter - lord no. I bet people who twitter wear crocs.
Were you talking about ROBINIHO or ELANO?
I have plumber who has so far taken the whole frigging week to replace the shower (and still not finished!). He has a scouse accent and I wondered if it was the MU rug in the kitchen that was slowing him down but he told me just now he's an Everton supporter, what a relief, he's just slow then, phew.
tick what little box?? I didn't see a little box . . .
oh yes that little box - I'm used to bigger boxes than that doncha know - let's see if it works then.
Ziggi:
Thanks and Ditto to you :)
'People who twitter wear crocs..'
Looks like Geoff's secret is out.
An Evertonian - slow?? OK I suppose they all come from Liverpool.
Thank goodness the players come from Africa, Spain, Australia and Wigan
Ziggi:
I don't think I've quite got the hang of it yet. Let me know if it tells you about this.
I'm so busy blogging I don't know how I ever had the time to work!
Yes you can use your bus-pass to get to Broadbottom (or use the train) - not sure if the scarecrows are still up now as I read in the Advertiser that four had been stolen and others vandalised.
Aah, yes, the "why do we blog?" post.
No idea, no idea, probably (now that I know it exists), absolutely no idea, I do, no idea, no.
NB: Don't come over to LDNP today Kaz (frog alert).
AND congratulations on the 400.
iddn't the Proclaimers have a song for those as you...
I would blog 400 posts,
Then I would blog 400 more,
Just to be the gal who blogged 400 times and never once became a bore.
Or Big Country....
Four hundred posts,
And every word to make one smile,
Four hundred posts,
This blog's on fire (fire, fire)
'... Brazilians looking for photos of their footballing hero...'
You're lucky. All I get is Moldovans looking for bukkake.
I feel guilty when I comment on someone's blog before I've responded to all the comments on my own blog.
Like I'm doing right now, for instance.
Congratulations on the 400th post thing. Unfortunately, I can't answer the questions because they'd require me to think, which isn't something I'm very good at. Besides, I'm only a part time blogger these days, so I shouldn't think I'm qualified to say anything about the matter ...
Geoff told me about Google Reader so I've been using that to keep track of when you lot update.
The only problem is that I'm following too many blogs so it takes up a lot of time reading all the updates. Sheesh.
I also tick the box so I can read the comments in my email inbox instead of returning to read the comments.
This works out well for me if I'm at work and can't click on your blogs but CAN read my email so that I feel like I'm having a dirty little secret going on while I'm "working".
And could someone please tell me what that Google Reader "SHARED ITEMS" feature is all about?
A blogger whom I barely know is "sharing" items with me and another blogger who hasn't commented on my blog in over a year appears to be "sharing" with me too.
What is the purpose of it? Do any of you use this feature?
I think I'm sharing with you MJ... but I don't know what we're sharing. Possibly Mr Beastie's underpants?
Weirdly, I sometimes feel guilty replying on my own blog before visiting others. It's a minefield out there...
Sx
Gerald:
Me too.
And I have only one blog.
NiC:
Yes but have you any idea - now that you know what it is of course?
I shall take a diazepam and come over later :)
NiC:
Brillant!
I shall now be singing the Proclaimers song in my head all night - it gets you like that - even with the old boring words.
dh:
I get Moldovans but had to google bukkake. Didn't realise I was so innocent.
And what were you saying about it - eh?
mj:
I hope you've commented on my comment before commenting here.
I'm coming over to check.
Betty:
When I was a beginner you inspired me.
Don't stop.
MJ:
"working"??
I knew that you worked - but always assumed it was from home.
For obvious NSFW reasons.
MJ:
I'm upset now cos no one wants to share me.
Perhaps it's as well because research tells me you have to make 'public pages' and there follows 5 pages of explanation.
Scarlet:
Sorry to intrude on all this 'sharing' - but where on earth is Mr Beastie?
I don't think Mr Beastie has recovered from the atomic wedgie!
I had a look at the sharing thing - it seemed a bit complicated.
Sx
Scarlet:
He put in an appearance in Canada today.
Sharing is too complicated for me.
I've finally got the ticking of the box. You have to do it before you post the comment.
(blushes)
I blog because I'm a rampant pseudo intellectual with too much time on my hands. And virtual people are more interesting than real ones. I dread writer's block, feel a pang of absence if I don't blog and wonder why my friends at work think I'm mad.
Congrats on 400. Long may you run.
Hello and Happy 400th! Blogging, twittering, schmakbook I do them all but twittering has definately affected my blogging output lately and I really must do something about it. In saying that - I've been really busy so 140 characters and the ability to put up links within that has been quite appealing. Which reminds me I haven't checked my munterspace since March, in fact I don't think I can remember my password. Ooops.
well done on 400!
I started one of my blogs to try and externalise a load of work-related anger (failed miserably). I just drifted into the other one and found out that the world is full of people who can sing the theme tune to 'Champion the Wonder Horse.'
Madame:
That's the thing about virtual people - they're all out there waiting, you can pick the ones you like and ignore them if they get boring .... which I'm sure you'll never be.
Hi Rockmother or can I call you RoMo?
I'm still thinking about having a Twitter, the news that you can do links sounds good.
Mind you I'm still thinking about munterspace and the other one too.
What I need is a brand new social networking site - so I can be the first.
Kevin:
Sorry it failed.
I once blogged about a recurrent nightmare ..and I haven't had it since.
I can sing every word along with Frankie Laine.
Congratulations on your 400th post.
1 I blog because, after all this time, the day doesn't seem quite complete without it.
2 I don't work very hard for my living.
3 I was depressed when I started blogging, and blogging cured me. Well, it helped.
4 There are some brilliant writers out there. I don't try to compete. It might depress me.
5 I tick the little box. It's not unknown for me to return and reply to the reply.
6 Now we have feedreaders I keep track of an awful lot of blogs. More than I would admit to.
7 It's had an effect, certainly. But for myself, I'd rather blog than twitter.
I have just read all these comments, lost the plot and now I think I need a lie down.
Z:
Depressed?
You surprise me - you always seem so positive - especially when Dave's having a bad day.
I nearly gave up once when I realised how many fab writers are blogging. But then I read something at Witchy's re not everyone can be the best painter writer etc. so it's a good thing that we keep going or there'd be only a few left.
Perhaps Shakespeare or Martin Amis??
Twitter makes me nervous they all sound so confident.
Kerrie - you just appeared there in the middle of my uncharacteristically long response to Z.
A lie down?
No way - you just had a week off didn't you?
I don't suffer from depression as such, but I was very low for some years while looking after my mother and it took over three years after her death to recover. I never blogged on occasions when I was feeling down, by choice.
I like the fact that I can socialize with everyone without actually having them in my home.
There are no canapes to prepare, no red wine stains to remove, etc.
Mind you, the Houseboys would take care of that anyway but you know what I mean.
And unlike actual house guests, they don't wear out their welcome. You can just click the "x" box on your blog and go do whatever you want to do 'til you want to see them again.
Z:
I can't blog when I'm fed up.
And my comments usually say 'Great post' or something inane like that.
MJ:
You said it babe.
But (like socializ(s)ing in real life) it's so much better after a few drinks.
Happy 400
***does dance***
I cant believe people blog without pictures , but there again I am highly suspicious of people who can read without moving their lips....they are obviously just pretending
**harumph**
I am too shallow for depression :-)
Beast:
Glad you found a moment to pop over.
Enid Blyton always had pictures. I got used to them.
Don't analyse it, you'll spoil the mystery. And where are these brazilian footballers anyway?
Nora:
OK - fair dos.
My da doo ron ron post. Most of them are a bit chubby - but they have good feet.
And every posting a pearl - congratulations Kaz!
Must admit I suffered some blog depression while I was unemployed (though I was also genuinely busy trying to find another job and with Tribunal stuff) and am finding it just as hard to keep up now I have a job!
Personally I always prefer postings with pictures and you find some corkers!
She-blogger - sublime! The piccies don't get any better than that!
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