A new phenomenon...blog guilt
I've already complained about the shameless people that start a blog and then never come back (boo! hiss!). But there are a number of conscientious bloggers out there who really want to be consistent, but for whatever reason (lack of post inspiration or lots of other things going on at work or outside work), don't post for a while. I can understand this feeling since I've had it too. It's hard to be witty and/or interesting every day and it's hard to always find the time to do it. And sometimes, it just feels like nobody is listening (anyone else's google rank go down when they introduced that new name search function?).
The inter sting thing isn't the guilt itself, but what it makes people do. The manifestation of this guilt is the “I'll be back” <read like you are Ah-nuld> post. There are a couple varieties:
I am important and I know you love me. Let's see how much you love me when I leave. (referring to self in 3rd person). Hmm,, Scobleizer...man or super-hero?**If you find another one of these, please link to it in comments...I think it's funny**
Just too dang busy (Lenn's last 3 posts are about how busy he is...Lenn, can we hire some folks to help you? Seriously!)
I suck at making time. It's OK, you make great software...it's hard to make time too. If you figure out how to make time, let us know! A 26 hour day would work great for me. Especially around review/fiscal year end!
Do you still like me? Anyone? (We all have those days don't we? These are the days when I check my referrers and I call my mom)
I'm just sick (a little too boring..I could have described the sickness a little more if that would be better)
So I am not the only one confused by this. I just find it funny that bloggers feel the need to let you know that they are too busy to blog...like the lack of new posts wasn't a clue (I know! I know, I did it too!) ; ) I'm waiting for people to post similar entries explaining that they haven't blogged because they don't have anything interesting to say (or I am too busy to sit in my office staring into space trying to come up with something interesting to say). I think we all see blogging as a community building process and you don't want to lose any ground by causing people to think you've disappeared (“before you delete my from your aggregator, let me just tell you that I will be right back any second now!). Just about every blog you see has one of these.
Help me out here...have you seen any other interesting varities?
All joking aside...I'm vowing to never again post an “I'll be back” blog entry. That doesn't mean I'll post every day. Just that you'll have to guess what I'm doing when I haven't been blogging!
Comments
- Anonymous
July 21, 2004
At http://blogs.msdn.com, this entry title looked a bit funny:
A new phenomenon...blog quilt.
I kept reading the post trying to figure out what all of this had to do with quilting, and how I could start my own blog quilt! - Anonymous
July 21, 2004
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
July 21, 2004
Will's Blog » Blog Guilt? - Anonymous
July 21, 2004
Another variety:
http://www.thepoorman.net/archives/002993.html
I quote: "Because I wanna".
But anyway, you do realize that you've just gone to the next level, right? I mean now you're posting about how you're not going to post an "I'll be back" entry. You could have just skipped this whole mess altogether.
But I guess I'm worse for commenting on it. = ) - Anonymous
July 21, 2004
This is where having a group blog pays off (there's 8 of us who post on ours) - taking a break is less conspicuous.
There are always other blog tactics too, like posting amusing memes, funny referer hits, and blogging about blogging (or lack of)... ;) - Anonymous
July 21, 2004
WWdN does some occassional BLOG guilt.
As well as Neil Gaiman's... (althought mostly he's just prolific)
http://www.wilwheaton.net
http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp - Anonymous
July 22, 2004
Bryce and Paul-you got me..what can I say? It was a slow day as far as blog inspiration but this was a valid topic, right? It's not like i have the luxury of posting code ; )
?- I wish I knew who I was talking to here...don't be a stranger, or anonymous. You make some good points and I do get what you are trying to say. I'm not sure I agree with blog=conversation. I've seen that on some blogs but it's not the intent of some blogs and I'm not sure it's really a 2 way thing when a bazillion people look at your page (OK, maybe not a bazillion) and a very small fraction post comments.I aspire to be a more conversational blogger, but sometimes it feels more like giving a presentation to a bunch of wonderful but faceless people. I don't know, I guess I just think people want posts that are actually about something versus telling them you are not blogging that day. Not a major annoyance...in fact I'm a little amused. - Anonymous
July 22, 2004
Thanks for the insightful post Heather, you just gave me something to blog about for the day. :P - Anonymous
July 22, 2004
Another reason for not blogging is: My post just got flamed in comments and I need a few days to recover my ego. - Anonymous
July 22, 2004
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
July 22, 2004
Congrats on 100 blog entries Heather! - Anonymous
July 22, 2004
Hillarious!
Here's an entry from a Microsoftie's blog who works at Microsoft, India, about the same thing.
http://weblogs.asp.net/ssivakumar/archive/2004/07/07/175105.aspx - Anonymous
July 27, 2004
Abhijit's Eclectic Blog - Anonymous
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