groups

I understand what you are saying, probably all of us that have blogged know the feeling. You don't know if you are being read or not. Years ago, the first blogs had no comments boxes (some still don't), they had no counters, and they had no track-backs, rss feeds or any other fancy features.

The idea of blogging was not for input, feedback or comments. It was solely a place to leave your "droppings", whatever those might be. They were better than a static webpage because they were dynamically driven meaning easily updated and they operated in reverse cronological order. A blog is more a personal sharing that requires no input, counter or feedback to spur the writer on. That is not why you blog in the first place.

Today's bloggers have come to expect more. We think if we put something up there "it should be read" by someone. And we want to know who and how many someones. We want to get booms, comments, feedback, atta-boys.

But honestly, that mentality is for a group setting. A post and reply environment, not a blog environment in the true sense of blogging.

I think that is why so many bloggers get disilluosioned and give up. They don't get as much personal satisfaction from talking to the wind as they should. Blogging is talking to an imaginary friend or audience. If you can't get satisfaction from just writing it without anyone ever reading it, it's easy to throw up your hands and give up. The best thing is to put it in a group if participation is the key for you.

We all like to know someone is really reading, but then again, is that the real goal of writing a blog?

I think this is where idiosyncratic issues come into play. When I am on a group list, and I have something to say, I usually have a lot of *something to say. I write a lot. And so the complaint has been made that I write too much to read in a post. Especially by those that receive digests.

So I think that the purpose of blogging is simply different for each person. I dont think of what I say as Droppings. I think that now {at least for me} we have descended into a National community that is made up of Bedroom communities where there are no town centers. Now that I have kids and I stay at home. The computer for me, is a way to still connect with society in a meaningful way. The blog is a way to show myself and others that I still have something important to contribute despite being a SAHM.

Blogging is a way for me to keep my writing skills sharp for that time when I do go back to school and finally get my degree, write my book{s} or whatever.

I believe that the comment section is great way to connect. To talk to people who might move in social circles {online, academically or in general} so far removed from my own, that under any other circumstances, I might not get the opportunity to connect with them in this personal fashion. I might not otherwise get the opportunity to participate in this intimate act of communication.

Attaboys are good. Booms are nice. But its the discussion that makes my day. When people share their own stories. Their own links to related material, or ask interesting questions, that to me, are truly inspiring and it lets me know I have connected. If all I wanted as Attaboys, I think I would find something else to do, or perhaps my blogs would be about less controversial or charged subjects.

Check out the commentary on Warran Adler's Blog to see what I mean. Another extended version of the comment is when one blogger draws inspiration on a subject discussed by fellow bloggers. IrishRose posted on about accidental nudity on the net. I responded by talking about accidental exposure at work. Sometimes blog entries done by others have these ideas that are catchy, you might particpate in some kind of nostalgic memory that is worthy of a post--in this case a funny story. It may be THE subject of the blog or a tangent in the entry itself. Or it could be something that emerges from the comment-discussion after the fact. These are great places to be inspired about new entries of your own.

It may have been originally, that Blogs werent for discussions like e-mail groups were. I can see now, that has changed, in that all these new features including comments, backtracks, blogrolls, etc., have changed that. Its highly interactive now. And most of the time, thats a good thing.

I have been writing Christian encouragement articles for a long time -- since long before anyone ever heard of blogging. They get posted at my web site. Every once in a while I hear from someone in an e-mail about how much one of those articles meant to them. The one who takes the time to e-mail gives me the idea that there are probably a lot more people who are being helped in some way, too, but they just don't take time to say so. Your blogs are probably impacting a lot more folks than you have any idea of. I always figured there were probably 100 who didn't write for every one that did.

I can understand your feelings. I just got a PM from a new blogger. I read her post yesterday and made an encouraging comment. She PM'd me to say how thrilled she was to know someone read it. I promised her that that thrill doesn't go away. I read lots of posts but I don't always comment for the following reasons: 1) I can't find anything nice to say, or 2) I really don't want to be associated with the subject matter i.e. a rant on homosexuality, political crap, and any sort of bashing, for that matter. If I don't agree entirely with the content but, I am impressed with substance and structure, I will comment on that. I like to make encouraging comments that will stimulate more posts. I would not critique a particular blog entry unless specifically asked to by the author. And then, the comments would probably be via PM.

I am not saying encouragements are not good. I am saying I don't like to see newbies get discouraged if they don't recieve a lot of the feedback. If they want feedback and discussion, it would even be a good thing for them to include that in their message.

Like others have pointed out, you may get a hundred reads and only one comment. That doesn't mean that your blog is not good or has no value or no one is reading it.

When there is a lot of discussion on a blog, it is then a "discussion" and not a blog. LOL

For new bloggers, I think that is one of the reasons they don't stick with it. They get discouraged because they don't know / understand the nature of blogging or for reading anything on the net. We read. We may not comment. But we read. They think if there are not a lot of feedback, discussions, chatter (what some call extraneous noise) in the comments section that their blog is not being read.

I think that is another reason we have such trouble with the Boom/Bust feature here. Some people don't understand that even if your blog is not on the top of the list, those readers of blogs keep digging thru the pages or bookmark their favorites to return to them again and again. They see a blog with a bunch of booms, they want to bust it because they think that will help their own or their friends.

Blog readers, read lots of blogs.

There is one other point that is unique to blogging over a social networking site. The bots will find a blog with the keywords so that draws more readers to it from outside of Eons. Hard core blog readers want to hear what others have to say on a given subject. You may never know they have read it or were drawn to it simply by the key words you used.

I hope I didn't offend you, OP by my comments. I am a reader of blogs. I hate to be following a really good blogger, and they get discouraged and stop blogging. I read more than I blog actually. I just fiddle with blogging because the reading of them is more fun to me. LOL

You cant offend me by being honest about your feelings, experiences, and opinions. I respect that more than someone just telling me what I want to hear. I dont agree with you, but I respect what you are saying.

I think also that my approach is my activist side coming out. Silence means compliance in the political world of activism. And when that phrase is used {when it has been used by me or in front of me} it was usually not in a good way. That people were being silent because they agreed with whatever I or someone else had deemed a piece of bad legislation or what have {for whatever reason}. It was usually a commentary on the nature of non-participation in the world.

Once again I revisit the negative side of the bedroom community. Where no one talks to each other. They expect the govt to run itself, and they go to work, get paid come home, and disappear. It leaves the same few people in their local or regional community, doing all the work of looking out for them, informing them, doing the research, attending open meetings, etc.,

When there are no comments on a blog. Even if they aren't overtly political in nature, it feels a lot like that. A lot like that lone voice in the peanut gallery. The world seems smaller. Once again, its not about attaboys. Its about participation. Its about messages in a bottle, its about reconnecting with the world.

Whatever it is, that other people use their blogs for, whatever the purists intended blogs for, that last is my intent when blogging.

So yea, if I think no one is reading, when the comments are open, I will eventually get frustrated and pull up chocks and look for more fertile pastures. Otherwise its like talking to yourself in an echoe chamber. I can do that alone and use my computer as a glorified word processor, in an electronic diary. If I wanted that kind of isolation, I would have never bothered being so visible.

To me, everything is a discussion. Even no verbal queues count towards a discussion

If there is no comment to be made on a blog one has just read, a simple signing of one's name would be the considerate thing to do. This allows the blogger and other readers to see the site has at least been visited. Meems

LOL Well that's exactly what a discussion "board" is for!

When blogs become more like discussion boards, there won't be a need for groups, forums or discussion boards. They can all become blogs.

I can understand your need for participation. I just think it is not correct to equate participation ONLY when evaluating a good blog. It's a good "discussion". Discussions are good but so is good jounaling and there is a difference and they both have value to a reader. They also have value to a writer.

emom, it would really be nice if there was a feature to log the traffic. You would not even need to know who visited, but just that you had visits. Right?

Some visitors to your blog are guests. Unless they are Eons members, they cannot post comments. I read a lot without ever signing in. It's easier for me since I am on and off during the day to read like that. Visitors that find you via a search for a topic don't have comment access either.

I feel like I am not making myself Clear. I dont agree that a blog with comments are the same as a discussion board or a discussion list. Most discussions on previous blogs dealt with small comments that lead to other blog posts on other sites, where basically a position is offered, and then someone counters either with an opposing position or an alternative or supporting position-whatever it can be--its a discussion between blogs and bloggers usually. But there is more space to express yourself in-depth than there is on a message board.

I can write a whole paper on anything. A whole big essay. I am not limited by the number of characters I am allowed in a box somewhere on a screen. Or by the member of a list with the lowest reading comprehension level, or the shortest attention span. On my blog, I dont have to dumb it down. I dont have to reduce everything to the civilian equivalent of online sound bites.

And To me Time4Fun, its like you are saying, because one existed already, that the other is pointless and gratuitous. Does it matter if one preceeded the other? Does that mean that blogs with numerous comments are copy cats to discussion boards and are therefore inauthentic?

People come to a blog because something on that blog drew them there for good or ill. Its like putting a piece of art in a gallery. You know you did something right, if you enticed people to stop and take a look.

But you have really done something good, if you inspire them to discuss it, to ponder it or even to draw upon it for their own creative spark.

And its truly spectacular when that relationship turns into something reciprocal. Where they are sparking your interest as much as you initially sparked theirs.

The Blog is your personal space. Its your virtual space, you write what you want. No one has to visit. But also, No one has to unsubscribe to stop receiving your material. There doesnt have to be a certain amount of activity to keep the blog active, the way one has to maintain an e-mail group such as yahoo. You can post or not, for any reason. You can post what you want, when you want, and its all yours. Its not just you and 20 to 400 other known and anonymous users all vying to be heard over various and sundry. The blog is 98 percent yours.

On a discussion group, its a democratic process to some degree. You have to be more cautious about what you post in those groups. Material that might be considered flame bait {too imflammatory} on a discussion list is just fine for blogging fodder. If people dont like what you write, they dont have to come back. If they flame you, or troll, you can block them directly from the blog, whereas in a group, many are dependent upon moderators whose services and motives can be questionable at times.

You have more freedom to write more in one sitting. You can do installments, post artwork, photographs, etc., and because its your blog, there is a continuity that is missing from discussion lists and message boards. Where your posts could be mixed up and/or attributed to someone else.

and you can build a blog roll, link up to other interesting sites, just because you like them or the authors, or because the subjects they write about are related to yours. And through those blog rolls, the blogosphere builds their verson of Webrings, where interested parties can leap from one blog to another seeing all manner of connections and material that might hold more of a motif than just friendship or even agreement. This is especially true about blogs that deal with political and idealogical subjects like feminism, politics, civil rights issues of any kind.

Anyhow I have been online longer than 4 weeks. I have been a member of various message boards over the years, and yahoo groups, and the like. Blogging is so much more personal than that. You have more control over your blog, and the direction your material goes, whereas in a group, you are to some degree at the mercy of that group.

The blog has replaced the website to some degree, because now you dont have to be a code monkey to have a cool site. Now anyone can get in there and have a say. It can feel a lot like "There goes the neighborhood." Some have railed against the banal inaccuracies of the internet, that has become a tool of the people, rather than a museum or tribute only to an intellectual elite.

I know that if blogging didnt exist as it does now, I wouldnt have a site. I suck at code. As in there are people who drool in cups and wear football helmets to eat, who could do more with HTML than I ever could.

And now that blogs are so interactive. The commentary is not reduced to signing in on a guest book-page removed from the post that drew one's interest to begin with. It can almost be like a kind of chatroom if you have highspeed internet and are on simultaneously with other users.