Edition 26: In the two weeks since I posted 13 Reasons I Won’t Read Your Blog, I have trimmed the number of blogs in my feed reader to just under 500 by applying the 13 rules I came up with. Further pruning could be done by checking for dead feeds, but unless someone can suggest an automated tool that I can drop an OPML file into and let it check, I have better things to do than check them one by one.
However, the whole process has gotten me thinking about what it takes for me to add a feed, especially in light of how many I already read and how many I just pruned.
So, as a result, I give you thirteen reasons I will read your blog:
- You make me laugh: Never underestimate the power of humor. There is far far too little of it in blogland, so every bit of good humor I can find is worthwhile. Reposting jokes found elsewhere is not sufficient however.
- You Do Something Unique: I have enough art criticism and ‘happenings’ blogs to choke a horse, but not near enough blogs from actual working artists blogging about their work. Philosophers and Scientists posting original work on their blogs also count here; craft blogs do NOT fall into this category, unless you happen to be one of the few crafters leading the lemmings…
- You Live Somewhere Interesting: Which could be anywhere really, but most bloggers, from what they write, live in a bubble inside the internet. Pay attention to your surroundings. I document the mundanity of my life through photographs, and have a whole other blog about the part of London I live in. Make an effort to ground your blog in the reality beyond your children and pets.
- You Post Only When You Have Something To Say: Nestled in amongst the hundreds of other blogs I read, days, weeks, months can go by between posts from you and I won’t care. I probably won’t even notice. Post boring, meaningless crap and I will notice, and delete you. So have something to say – it doesn’t matter how long it takes. Oh, and never post apologizing for not posting. That’s grounds for immediate ejection.
- You Write For Yourself: I don’t mean that all of your posts are self-absorbed navel-gazing. There is a difference between your writing having an audience and writing for an audience. Write because you have no other choice, because the words, the thoughts, have to get out, never because you think your audience expects you too. See number four, above.
- You Have An Interesting Hobby: Like extreme ironing or something – anything but another damned “craft” blog full of cookie cutter knitted goods or dime-a-dozen scrapbook layouts full of vaguely creepy photo collections of your husband.
- You Are An Accomplished Writer: Not just a published author, though I do enjoy the blogs of many of my favorite fiction writers. If it is obvious that you care deeply about the words you are using; that you have labored over them, edited and revised them, I am far more likely to be interested in what you have to say.
- You Are Not Selling Something: Somewhere along the line the idea of proving your expertise in a field through writing about it on a blog became perverted by a bunch of talentless hacks into a never-ending cascade of the sort of self-promotional vomitus I expect to see in the telephone directory in smallish towns. Shut the hell up about your book, seminar or class and convince me you are capable of something other than promoting your books, seminars and classes.
- You Are A Maverick: You have a unique view of the world. You would expect this to be far more widespread than it actually is – bloggers seem to be much more similiar than many would like to think.
- You Are A Travel Punk, Backpacker Or Otherwise On A (Semi-) Permanent Vacation: It’s a big weird world out there, and I want to here more about it from people who are out to see as much of it as they can.
- You Go Beyond The Obvious: You think things through, you connect ideas across disciplines, you think in terms of fusion, not seperation.
- You Don’t Embarass Your Children Premptively: What all you mommy-bloggers don’t realize is that when your kids get to be 12 years old and all their friends stumble across your blog, they are going to use all the ‘cute’ things you wrote about to torment your little precious into depression and suicide.
- You Are A Complete Nutter: Conspiracy Theorists, Cryptozoologists, Secret Agents and Alien Abductees welcome here! Since moving from the States, I miss Coast To Coast AM, and only you can save me from the tyranny of neurochemical balance.
I try to be a good blogger and be unique, funny etc. But sometimes i can’t be arsed and post a bit of meaningless crap!
I do like the list though.
Toodle Pip.
Good post..I am only funny and interesting to few, so I wont expect you to visit..But you have great points..I will be back to read yours
Re. #13, I used to consider myself quite the kookologist. I maintained a page with links to all my favorite net.kooks (I took it down because I wasn’t able to keep it updated). Maybe I’ll go through all those old links, see which ones are still live, and do a post on my current blog.
Reading 500 feeds is an excellent reason to go through a weeding out process. I probably don’t fit into of your ‘will read’ categories. But, hey, that’s what makes the world interesting – we are all different.
Thanks for the interesting and thought provoking read
Considering I’m so new to blogging, I probably won’t make your “will read” list, but you are more than welcome to stop on by and check out my site. Think of it as further research supporting your “will not read” reasons.
Good list of reasons you would read my blog. Unique, interesting….do you think I should continue reading your blog? Time will tell.
It’s all in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it?
To each their own, right?
You’re a “Political Science Major Pre-Law Single Mother of Three” living in Charleston, SC (one of my favorite cities anywhere, btw)? I think that counts as interesting!
I had a very similar thing – a page of truly bizarre things I had found online, but maintaining it as a links page was too much trouble eventually. It became the genesis of my “Diversions category…
500 is the TRIMMED number, I began with more than 800. Yes, that is correct, I have no life at all, none.
Hmmm, I think I have to add black backgrounds to my no-no list. Sorry. I didn’t realize anyone did that anymore…
It’s crisp and clean looking. White space is so…..blank.
I read an interesting article in the National Post this morning about how blogs have reached critical mass. There are tons of people out in the blogosphere who have decided to stop blogging because it is too much work. Wondering of the 500 blogs that you’ve placed in your feed burner, how many of them will be around at the end of 2007? And more importantly, does that even matter?
I don’t think I’ll make your list of blogs to read either. I assume you are making these rules because you already spend lots of your life reading the other 500 blogs out there? Do you have another hobby? I enjoy reading and cross-stitching. One opens the mind and the other blots out the chaos of the kids. I’ll visit again to see how funny this blog does get. I enjoyed Neil’s Talking Penis blog and a Whiskey drinker blog if you are looking for funny. Have a swell Monday in jolly ole England. Maureen
For some weird reason people have been putting dark text on white backgrounds since the beginning of printing. I wonder why that is…oh yes, readability.
Actually, working through my feeds takes me about two hours on a heavy day – not many people write something worth reading every day.
As to other things I do, come back on Thursday as I believe that will be the topic for my next Thursday Thirteen.
Nutter here!
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Did you realize that your list this week of what you do read had a lot of what you don’t mixed in as well?
I’ll be back to read the other things you do, but first must see if I pick up clues from your photographs.
Welcome!
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.
– Walt Whitman