Nessa is doing a meme on nettiquette. I’m going to do a little combination thing with both Nessa’s meme and TT. I took my socks thing down, and will put it up again next week. Sorry.
1. I have little tolerance for really confusing sites. Those “magazine” style ones particularly send me for loops. There are even a couple of bloggers I like whom I never visit anymore because their sites became so convoluted that even multiple visits left me scratching my head.
2. One of the things that used to bug me has become my own habit. Specifically, people who post more than two posts a day. When I went to visit, if I couldn’t find what I was after, especially in favor of some advertising type thing, I’d gnash my teeth. Now I do this photo post every day, and something off my menu, and maybe a third one, like on Friday, and it’s gotten out of hand. As soon as I hit day 365, the photo thing will be a thing of the past.
3. I’ve seen a lot of bloggers come and go in the three years I’ve been blogging. Mostly, they drift away from blogging entirely. It’s painful to see them go. I’m hoping some day some of them will come back.
4. I used to respond to very comment made on my posts. Then I noticed that a lot of people never responded to my response, and that a lot of people will make comments that make it clear they didn’t read anyone else’s comment. It dawned on me that most people don’t read the comments at all, only the post. Now I only respond if there is a question and/or if I’m moved in some way by the comment. I assume those who left generic comments will not bother to come back to see if I responded. I feel much freer and happier now.
5. I have done a lot of really stupid things as a blogger, usually involving my contests. For instance, I once turned a postal service Priority Shipping box inside out so I could send off a prize at a lower rate. The post office accepted it just fine, but then tried to get the difference in price from my recipient, who refused it, so I had to ship it again at full price. To my amazement, my worst mistakes actually resulted in some of my best friendships. Just goes to prove human nature is actually more positive than negative.
6. Sometimes bloggers are too nice. You know, if I write something that stinks and post it here, you all are welcome to let me have it. I’m not a shrinking violet.
7. It drives me nuts when someone clearly wants me to come visit their blog, but won’t leave a clear and clean link in the signature part of the comment form. I depend heavily on those links to get me over to visit the blogs of those who comment. I give top priority to the blogs of commenters and always visit anyone who leave a comment as soon as I can. Unless they mess up the link thing.l
8. On a related note, I’m getting a little tired of people who put in a link to a specific post a couple of months back, and that’s what they are still using. It takes me a minute or two to figure out that they really have posted something new. Not that I mind the specific link, but the not updating it gets me.
9. There are certain people who don’t post enough for my taste. When they are only ever around once a week, or worse, once a month, I find myself hovering, wishing I had something new to comment on.
10. I love having conversations on people’s blogs. I love it when they leave responses to my comments. The best way is to leave the responses somewhere on my blog so I’ll see it. It doesn’t have to relate to my post at all. I don’t mind. If someone leaves a response on their own, then comments somewhere on mine, I will go to theirs and hunt around until I find the response. I consider this fun. If they leave a response, but don’t comment on mine, I will probably forget I made the comment and never see it. I leave a LOT of comments every day.
11. I am probably entirely too resistant to new memes. I’ve been invited to participate about a dozen times now and have only followed through once or twice. Basically, I’ll do it if I can find a way to fit it into the menu, but most of the time – like Ruby Tuesday – I couldn’t figure out how. It took me two months to come to grips with Fiction Friday 55 before I joined at all. Once I do join, I tend to be too devoted.
12. I love it when people give me glimpses into their personal lives, but it can go too far. There was one blogger I stopped visiting because she all but handed out her home address. I just knew something awful was going to happen to her, and didn’t want to be there to see it. I don’t know if anything happened to her, but lately her blog has been a lot less personal.
13. I’ve seen blogs implode for all kinds of reasons. One that I really enjoyed ditched it when her ex used her blog to stalk her. One squicked herself out because she couldn’t always be up beat. One became hopelessly technical. About a ton seemed to think I owed them my attention without their earning it. Their blogs became ghost towns. I find it very, very sad.
I guess I’m back to the old system since Mr. Linky doesn’t like me today. You put your link in the Mr. Linky and sometime in the next week or two I copy them out and turn them into permalinks from this post to your blog.
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