Blogging

Not long ago, someone mentioned to me that - while I allow comments on my blog posts - it doesn't seem like I actively encourage comments... and that I rarely respond to comments.  This individual then commented that he thought the whole idea of having a blog was to encourage comments, and then engage in a dialog.

With all due respect, I disagree.

One of the great things about blogs is their flexibility.  Originally, blogs were largely online journals, or diaries.. or logs.. which is where the word came from  (web log).  But today, people are using blogs for all sorts of things.  They can be made private - invitation only, or they can be public and widely promoted.  The private blogs are typically being used as  in-cloud storage, for things that the poster is not accessing often, yet wants to have available.

But it is the wide variety of uses for public blogs that I find amazing.  Just off the top of my head...
-blogs that essentially do nothing more than gather and provide links to other blogs on a specific topic, -blogs that provide news/information/education on a specific topic
-personal journals, or diaries, sharing details of the blogger's life
-a slight variation of the journal/dairy, where the blogger shares details of a vacation, or details about a major event  (for example a wedding, or a birth)
-blogs intended to promote various businesses, or books, or products

And then there's the sort of blog I do... it's what I call a soap-box blog, although it's a soft-soap-box.  While I generally avoid hot-button issues like politics and religion, I post about things that have annoyed me, or interested me, or intrigued me... things that have caught my attention, and I post about things on which I have an opinion.  Why do I do it?  Partly, because I can.  There are a number of blogging platforms available, most of which are free.  It's extremely easy, and frankly - I like seeing the number of visits that show up in my stats.  But I mostly blog, because this allows me to express my opinion without worrying about getting into an argument.   After all, if you don't like what I wrote, that's ok.  You don't have to finish reading it and  if you really don't like it, you don't have to come back.  Heck, I'll never know... my stats show numbers, but they don't show names.  If you want, you can post a comment --  and I allow all comments that are not spam -- but I don't respond to 99% of the comments.  I assume your comment is intended to stand on its own; if you want to engage in a discussion, you can email me, or call me.

Not all soap-box-bloggers would agree with me... and you don't have to look hard to find blogs where every post ends with some variation of 'What do you think?'  There's nothing wrong with this,  I follow some blogs that do this, and on occasion I'll comment.  Frequently, the blogger will respond - if nothing else, they'll respond with something like 'Thank you for your comment."   And that's ok, too.  As I said, one of the great things about blogs is their tremendous flexibility.  As my grandmother used to say.. Do What You Want.

By the way, I do find it annoying that Blogger means the blogging platform, and blogger means 'one who blogs'.  I don't know if that was intentional on Blogger's part or not, but I find it annoying.  Not annoying enough to write a post about, and not annoying enough for me to leave Blogger and use another platform, but annoying nonetheless.

So ---  what do I do when I'm mildly annoyed?  Why - I have another cup of tea, of course.