Friday 24 August 2007

Who are these people…?

Nope this isn’t a “Dr Who” episode so non-fans of the eponymous “Dr” do not scatter around like a bunch of rascals on fire. This is about “them”. Who is “them” you may ask? All in good time, a bit of backstory first…


Boring flashback coming up... you have been warned, LOL! By the way this pic was the game cover of one of my favourite videogames ever: "Flashback" for the Megadrive a.k.a. Genesis. Just a tidbit of useless trivia right there my dear, dear readers ha,ha,ha.


When I kickstarted this blog and as I was considering what ways are out there to discover readers and take them out of their respective “blogging caves”, so they could read and comment on my posts, I tried a couple of initial approaches. To name a couple: I registered in a couple of relevant forums posting some cheesy PR comments and I advertised the blog via a couple of real life friends and relatives around my age (let’s face it “Aunt X” wouldn’t be too interested in saying to her friends “Oh my, have I told you the latest gossip, my nephew DP has a blog, such a sweet, sweet boy…”, hmm… come to think of it… this just sounds creepy as hell, lol). Those couple of approaches yielded like zero or miniscule results, so after a bit of thinking I realised that what I was doing wrong was, that I was unintentionally treating people like “mindless blogging drones” and not like unique and interesting individuals. People are not anonymous members of a uniform “flock of fools”, they are unique and that is how it should be. So, I started visiting blogs one by one and when I commented on them I did it because what they wrote genuinely made me have a reaction to it. So, little by little, some people started reacting in return and I couldn’t be happier about that.


Oh man, I 've got some people that actually read and comment on this blog! Oh, I am so happy, let's throw a party and celebrate my ubercoolness! A party "the DP way" of course :)


Which brings me to today and the reason I am writing this short passage of a blog entry. One of the places I registered was something called "BlogCatalog" or something like that. I signed in there, wrote a catchy intro text on what my blog is about and then I never returned to the place, LOL. Yep, I guess I have a small attention span ha,ha,ha. Anyway, for the past 10 days or so I have been receiving e-mail alerts from the site that “this guy” or “that gal” have added me to their “friends” or to their “neighbourhood” or have founded some cheesy heresy of sorts under my name or whatever really. Now, I don’t want to ditch people and maybe some of the people actually liked what they saw when they visited my blog once or whatever, so if that is the case I guess they got good taste or some sense of humour(hey, I never said I am modest, lol). But the thing is, they have a strange way of showing it… I mean, you visit (if you have visited at all…) a guy’s blog, you say to yourself “another potential reader” and all of a sudden he is your “friend”? What utter crap is that? Has the concept of “friend” fallen so low? All these people maintain blogs, so obviously they are masters of some sort of coherent written form of communication. Why don’t they use it then, lol! I don’t care about extensive comments in my blog or having 100 readers instead of 10, if that comes at the expense of not relating to the parts of themselves that they wish to share on-line. I am interested about the people behind the avatars and the nicks, I want to see people as the interesting and unique individuals that they are and not just mechanically browse other people’s blogs and randomly post comments on them just for the sake of it. Some people seem to be desperate for attention and apparently want to brag that they got “100+ readers” compared to the “2-3 readers” that comment in other blogs. Honestly, I don’t see the point behind this madness (and I am mad enough as it is so I should know better, ha,ha,ha).

When reading the comments that readers leave on my posts, I sometimes notice a comment in the lines of “Hi! Cool blog you got here! Visit mine at…. Yadda yadda….” and I am just annoyed. This has been generated by a spamming engine of sorts by someone that treats people like statistics and that royally sucks in my book. If this is communicating for communication’s sake then I don’t want to be a part of it(not unless I am handsomely compensated financially or given a medal of honour for my hardcore attitude towards blogging, and yes that was a joke so keep the golden mastercards in your wallet holsters everyone,LOL).



The Great Unknown Blogger... Some people claim they have seen him/her and lived to share the tale, some people say it is an urban legend and doesnt really exist, other individuals say it must be a cool person deep inside trying to come out, while others couldnt care less unless he shows up and says "hi". Take your pick on what I believe... it is all good:)



So, to sum things up then. I don’t ditch people doing what they do, randomly browsing people’s blogs via any means available(like BlogLog and so many other out there) to do it faster and more efficiently, throwing their respective “blog-fishing” nets to catch many readers. It is cool that people want more people to read them and I am ok with that. Besides I haven’t killed off my account there either and keep it there as a promotion relic of sorts, so it would be hypocritical of me to ditch the concept as a whole. But when you start treating people like numbers and you can’t tell your Calistas from your Xanadus, your Zhus from your TCRAs and so on, so forth then the whole concept of a “personal blog” becomes a bit of a mockery of itself. So, to the people out there that add me as a “friend”, as a “neighbour”, that take a screenshot of my blog, enlarge it and put it in their home walls worshipping my awesomeness day and night (ok, now I am entering the Realm of Science Fiction just by thinking about this, LOL), I have to say one thing and one thing only:


Drop by and say “hi” as a comment or in the chatbox! I don’t care if you visit once in a month or regularly, I just want to see that in this day and time when we are more alone than ever, you are real, fleshed out people and personalities and not just little pics with funny nicks underneath (look who is talking ha,ha,ha,ha). If some of you read this and react, even negatively, it means you are reading and trust me, any reaction is better than no reaction at all…”.


If people are offended by what I just wrote it is their problem but look behind the words and think, maybe, just maybe, this blogging lunatic called Deadpoolite has a bit of a point…

You know, I just realized this post was not the best PR choice I could make ha,ha,ha,ha. Then why did I have such tremendous fun writing it I wonder …! Oh well, time to carve my blogging tombstone and write an “appropriately wacky” obituary (let’s face it only DP would use the words “appropriately” , “wacky” and “obituary” in the same sentence, LOL!!!!).


Oh, you've read this far and actually liked it. You are too kind, dont make me blush...LOL!



P.S. Each one of the blogs I have put in my links list has not been put there lightly. All of those people have something interesting and fun to say, a rare breed of individuals indeed and I am glad I have found them.


Till next time, take care all!

8 comments:

Calista*Was*Here said...

I agree!

Things in this (blog)world happen fast. This is reality by itself. I like to think that my friends care, because I care, too.

There is time for everything; let's make the best of time we share!
:)

Deadpoolite said...

I dont really have a problem with it but I am done with returning a visit to someone's log simply because he put me to his "friends'" list. I am past that point as a blogger/

I expect people to comment, say something cool and catch my attention or make me curious about their blogs. 99% of the times when this happens I am sold on their blogs as well. This is the approach I am using when I visit other people's blogs as well.

As I said I dont care about communicating for communication's sake, I want to find people that really have something to say and a unique way of saying it.

So basically, yeah I agree with you Calista, lol! (yep, I am a bit of a motormouth sometimes,lol)

Take care!

Shan said...

Ahhh, I feel priviledged hahaha!

Personally, I love attention but like you, I don't go out there finding people to add to my blog roll for the sake of comments. People on my roll I find interesting.

For example, you and your all wise advice that never fail to put a smile on my face.

Somehow, you have an uncanny ability to put through your thoughts in the most twisted way possible and I just love that hahaha!

But don't worry hunny, Shan is here to stay :P (note" hunny haha)

Say, I really like your images, do you do them? They are quite well done...

Best wishes and welcome back again!

Shan.

Anonymous said...

BlogCatalog is kind of a weird place... most of the time it's people being there for the sake of being there. But there is the odd time when you see someone with similar interests and a really well written blog that you'd just like to keep tabs on.

Though there are times when I'm friended by somebody with a blog about, like, business and finance, and I'm like "Why did you even bother?"

Paper Fan Club said...

Rock on! I say we create a superhero to avenge the annoying tagging crimes perpetrated by the Unknown Blogger! It's not a nice feeling to be used for someone else's gain, especially when so much effort goes into blogging.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I have the same thing going on with Myblogcatalog ! A bunch of people keep on adding me as their friends and nope, I don't know them !

:D

I was like you. I was surprised at first when actual people commented on my blog, and started to get to know me. And worse - they actually stayed around ! :D

Some people take blogging way too seriously.... networking like crazy , they own 10 000 blogs with a blogroll long like the Iliad (cultural reference !) but they don't actually write anything.

Oh, I hope you don't consider that as spam but...

Just to let you know I've just tagged you with a cultural meme I came up with with afternoon. I'd love to read yours ! You're my only Greek, so I'm desperate for your cultural insights ;)

Have a look at it on my blog, the latest post ;)

joen05 said...

great stuff DP! I think that building a strong community is the best way to get yourself out there. I'm only concerned with what happens when you get to the point where there are so many to keep up with!

I try to visit everyone on my link list at least once every couple of days, depending on the amount of time I have.. and it can be tough!

Keep it up man!

Deadpoolite said...

@Shan

It is part of my charm and you love it, oh you know you do:)

As for the pics, I dont do the art, it is all google pics (yep, I am lazy like that) dude but I do have an eye for the "unique" shall we say, lol!

@Henry Evil

It is all good , I just hope people dont expect me to visit their blogs just because they have added me to their 'neighbourhood' or some cheesy place like that. It is just funny that is what it is:)

@paper fan club

Truth be told, I could care less:) They may tag my blog as much as they like, I'll just booby trap theirs in exchange and be done with it:)

@zhu

I am not surprised it is just useless spam in my e-mail alerts really. The only reason I dont block it out is because if any of those people are going to show any signs of life (intelligent or not) and comment/say 'hi' in my blog:: Let's call it my little pet project or pseudoscientific experiment of sorts:)

@joen05

Truth be told, I am having a hard time as it is maintaining two blogs and visiting greek and foreign blogs. It is becoming too time consuming so I guess progressively I'll be becoming more picky about my visits. And no that doesnt mean that my next comment in your blog will be around 2010 , so dont tie your knickers in a knot just yet:)

Thanks for the input guys and gals, talk to ya soon!