Rambling Into the Void

Áine on May 29th, 2004 filed in Essays

There are more than a few million blogs, and very few of their bloggers will ever get the attention of book, newspaper, or magazine editors and publishers, no matter how well they write. Let’s face it, many (if not most) talented writers are not getting published in magazines or literary journals, and pitching a book to a market that seems already overly closed to new talent is a long shot, at best. So, just how do we writers & bloggers break into the print market, or is that even a blip on the radar screen? That’s where the money is, or at least, where we think it is. The vast majority of us are not making a living doing this, even if the ad game is almost working.

I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since I could pick up a pencil and scrawl something on paper. The fact that I’m not yet a published writer (in the sense of traditional print publishing) has been on my mind lately, but it’s not something I worry over or even think about regularly. From time to time, however, the thought creeps up to the surface and casts it’s critical panoramic view my way. I usually give that thought a good hard smack and watch it slink back into the sewers from which it came. *smirk*

I am, after all, self-publishing via the internet (this blog, among other things) and thus fulfilling my stereotypic role as the long-suffering, though financially-strapped, writer. All I need now is to turn into an alcoholic, get my pithy commentary widely quoted, and my Hemmingway-esque life of fame and fortune can’t be far behind, right? Shyeah, right… but I digress.

One of the tasks of the blogger is not so much to aim for print publishing, but to invite a peculiar kind of online social interaction — a casual encounter between writer and reader that makes it relatively easy for strangers to talk to each other — and this is only enabled when bloggers enable commenting (or trackback) to allow that interaction to occur. Seldom do writers in print get that same kind of interaction, although one could argue that rather than intelligent interaction and conversation, blogs tend to encourage the aggregation of stupidity (present company — both readers and this writer — excepted, of course). In the case of comment spamming, I tend to agree with that statement. I’m rather sick of the drug pushers hawking prescription drugs and other stupid things on my blog (and in my email), while I’m not free to legally smoke a joint in the privacy of my own home. Imagine what print media would be like if anyone could insert anything into the content without so much as a “by your leave” from the writer or editors. It is because of this that many bloggers have disabled commenting and trackback from their blogs (and I’ve installed MTBlacklist here), but I think they lose something worthwhile in closing comments. As a reader, I’m much more likely to make a comment on someone’s blog entry rather than clicking an email link. As a writer, I have to admit to a certain feeling of happiness and satisfaction when someone comments on something I’ve written. For me, it means, “hey, there really are people Out There reading what I’m writing.”

The truth of the matter is, however, that more people read these words than ever make a comment… and I’m not really sure why. It can’t possibly be that everything I’m writing, you’re sitting there nodding your head in agreement with (unless you’re one of my clones, in which case you’re -expected- to chime in with “ME TOO!” *grins*). I say this because I know that sometimes the things I write are somewhat different from the usual fare found on blogs (not that my writing is any better or any worse than anyone else’s). Does it take a certain personality trait to enable a person to click and write what they think on a stranger’s blog? Are people just shy or is there something inherently scary about committing your thoughts to words on the screen?

This isn’t an A-lister’s blog, you know… and I’m not a part of anyone’s “inner circle” of blogospheric friends… and your reputation (whatever it may be) has no bearing on how I’ll respond… no matter what you may write here. Except for you spammers, of course. So feel free to comment.

Especially you editors out there. *chuckles*

Technorati Tags: Essays

13 Responses to “Rambling Into the Void”

Afonso Says:
May 29th, 2004 at 10:49 pm
Judging from my experience, I would say that the lack of comments in your blog in not directly linked to the quality of texts. Personally I think you should be grateful. I had a blog in the brazilian blogoshere that was commented a lot 50% of time by blog spammers trying to promote their own blogs, and the other 50% were friends and usual readers. And most of the comments were from readers that didn’t care to read the post to the end. Obviously my sarcastic posts often caused great misunderstandings because of that.
The portuguese blogosphere used to be in the middle, but it depends of the kind of blogs. The most reads blog can get a comment or two while less visited ones have 20 or more.
Blogs located in their own domain get less exposed as well, me thinks. At least that was one of the reasons I got one. I like to be read and commented of course, but mostly by people that do a google search in subjects that interest me, or by friends.
There’s other think to be taken into account. Like it happens with TV shows, newspapers, magazines, etc, the quality can’t be measured by how popular something is. I know a brazilian blog about diets with low quaility texts, stolen graphics, and lots of copied material. It sometimes gets more than 20 comments from histeric fat ladies trying to loose weight. Then I see high quality blogs, with interesting texts who get 1 or 2 comments in “happy” days.
It would be cynical to say I give a damn about it, but if I wanted to be commented I would get a free blog from Blogger Brazil, talk about a lot of “fashion” things, smile a lot, socialize a lot and at the end of the day my comment box would be full of ” Afonso you’re so sweet, your blog is so sweet…ahhh”.

So what’s the conclusion? Good texts usually take some time to read. Others need you to have an opinion about what you read. And most times they also take some time to comment. So it’s easier to write a LOL when watching a cartoon, or reading a political correct joke…and life is so short, and pleasure is always around the corner, why waste time with long, boring texts…zzzzz

sorry…comment to long. zzzzz
Aine Says:
May 29th, 2004 at 11:49 pm
Hmm… I don’t think I’m searching for or desirous of popularity. But as a writer, it’s nice to know that your writing -is- being read. When the comments are few or far-between, I sometimes begin to wonder if I’m just talking to myself… and, although there is nothing wrong with talking to myself, I like to talk to others.
Afonso Says:
May 30th, 2004 at 12:42 am
Hmm…didn’t mean you were into popularity. Even if that was the case, not up to me to judge.
Just meant that some blogs don’t have many comments for endless reasons.
Maybe they’re shy? RSS feeds readers shouldn’t also feel very prone to comment as well. Sometimes I even wonder if the feeds are read or end up being deleted. Your e-mail policy is also a bit frightening don’t you think? Just my opinion.
Maybe you should open a poll and ask what readers think.
Aine Says:
May 30th, 2004 at 1:05 am
My email policy is such that it is because of past experiences with people who thought it was okay to attack me in private and then gloat about it publicly, hiding behind their claims of email privacy. I don’t intend to change my email policy, so that’s not up to a poll to decide. Commenting, on the other hand, is all done in public, on both sides of the discussion, making it less likely that anyone can hide or claim that they never said something since everyone can plainly see what is being said.

As the spam problem has exploded over the past two years, I also find myself moving further and further away from using email as a means of communicating with people. Filters, such that they are, are not that effective, and online services offering to filter your email before it gets passed to you (usually pay services if you have more than one account - which I do) are a pain in the ass to have to deal with. Even instant messenger programs are dealing with their fair share of spam these days. The signal to noise ratio is increasingly more noise than signal.

Commenting on blogs, however, seems to offer an alternative that I like… but I also find that on certain blogs, I’m a little shy to offer my opinion, usually because of the real or imagined reputation of the blogger in question. Silly, I know.
Geek Says:
May 30th, 2004 at 1:11 am
I agree, desiring reaction is not a matter of wanting popularity, but a part of our existences, or at least most of us, is in knowing that when we speak, there is someone listening, that we aren’t just speaking to an empty room(or blog). I like comments, and will never turn them off, even if I had to delete dozens of comment spams a day. As for RSS readers commenting, I came here from reading this in BlogLines, as it tells me when there is a new blog post, saving me a lot of time. There will always be asses, online and offline, but reaction to thoughts is critical.
Afonso Says:
May 30th, 2004 at 1:25 am
I didn’t know about you being attacked by email. Well, proctect yourself is good, but if you see a beatiful house and a card in the door that says: Beware, dangerous dog, you think twice right? Maybe I am being naive. EE seemed a great tool to overcome the spam problems on blogs and give a sense of community to blog readers, but I think it would just desencourage people from registering and commenting. The world today is not the best place to communicate. Many are afraid to say what they think in public, and me personally I also feel scary for thinking that in 5 or 10 years a comment is still readible.
What you mean by authors reputation? Well the most read portuguese blog is written by an euro-deputy and I would definitely feel shy to comment…but that blog it’s a curious thing. All comments are by email and then some of them are posted. Politic…A reputation to keep…LOL…
Afonso Says:
May 30th, 2004 at 1:32 am
teen girls

and yes, me too use bloglines, I am refering to those people that pull the feeds, and we never know if they have read a line of what is written. Read, but really read.

Well, Aine, you asked about comments, guess you can’t say there’s not enough communication in this post now…
Aine Says:
May 30th, 2004 at 1:47 am
True. More than I expected, and I’m smiling over here.
Afonso Says:
May 30th, 2004 at 1:59 am
Add to that that it’s Saturday night (Sunday morning here), and that it’s a recent post, and you will probably end up with 20 comments or so.
Ohh, there’s also usually a trick. When there’s at least one comment people tend to be curious, read, answer, it’s all about who takes the first step…
Aine Says:
May 30th, 2004 at 2:58 am
True. Also, the persistence of posts and comments for long periods of time in the search engines, while it may have it’s drawbacks if the interaction is negative or unpleasant, has a positive side as well… persistence means the writing can be found months or even years later, leading to even more conversation. I think that’s a good thing.
Arvind Says:
May 30th, 2004 at 7:12 am
Yep agree with you on this post lol how did you put it “ME TOO!” *grins*

Anyways yep its nice when someone comments on your entry but the problem currently with MT3, no blacklist and jay is working but over the past week I musta;ve had over a hundred spam which although easy to delete and don’t show up on the blog get annoying esp when thunderbird and trillian go crazy reporting/downloading the emails during the flood O.o
Arvind Says:
May 30th, 2004 at 11:38 am
*cough am I the only sensible teen around
Invenio Says:
September 30th, 2004 at 2:16 pm
Being new to the blog scene I have to agree with you. I know many people are starting to read my blog through my promotional efforts, but the only people that comment are other people with blogs. Those without blogs do not comment. I guess just a few of us see the value in writing, and if you don’t write a blog yourself why would you comment on someone elses blog?
I also don’t mind people promoting their blogs on my site as long as they have some interesting and healthy comment to put down as well. And I do agree that we all have a need for connection. Why else write publicly if not to connect? So in my humble opinion, if there is value to be found in it, we should be promoting each others site. I know it’s my reason and rhyme.