Recently there was a "mass delurking" day in the sex blog world, a day when those who regularly read but never comment were supposed to leave a comment, letting the author(s) know they existed. It's a great idea . . . I know how many visits I get a day (100 or so, typically) and I know how many comments I get (one or two a week); it would be nice for more readers to make their existence known.
I didn't know about this particular delurking day and if I had I'd have made a "please delurk" post, but frankly, I wouldn't have expected much; I've asked people to delurk before and the response has been, shall we say, underwhleming in the extreme.
That got Me to thinking about My own lurking. We all (or just about all) read a lot more blogs than we comment upon. But I've found in My case, and I suspect the experience of others might be similar, since I started using a feed reader, I lurk even more and comment even less.
For those not totally familiar, a feed reader "pushes" new posts from each blog (or site) you subscribe to, so that you see the post in your feed reader screen (Google Reader, in My case), as opposed to having to visit (and remember to visit) every blog on My link list.
It's very convenient -- one never "leaves home," as it were, and automatically stays current with all the blogs one wants to.
But it has its drawbacks.
One, I think it encourages lurking. There is no way to comment upon the pushed post without navigating to the post in its original environment,. It's just an extra step and extra steps always limit use, at least to some degree.
Two, one can not see the comments left by others, only the original post. To see them means, again, going to the original post. See above.
Three, one doesn't see the layout of the original page. I enjoy seeing who has changed layouts and how often/why. There are many blogs on My link list for which I've read every post made the last three months but for which I have not landed on the actual site once since setting up the feed.
Three-A, not seeing the layout means not seeing the link list either. Some of My best finds were from the link lists of blogs I link to. As blogs appear and disappear, I miss that source of new inspirations.
So, the reader environment is convenient in the extreme, but limited and sterile.
The other differing aspect of using a reader is that I am not recording any "visits" to the linked-to blogs and thus not being shown in their counters for visits, page reads, etc. I assume that there are some stats being kept somewhere regarding how many "reads" there are via the feed, but it's not the same. By using the reader I have ceased to be part of that constantly-aggregating number at the bottom of the screen. And something about that I don't like.
So, if your blog is on My link list . . . I am reading, actually more faithfully than I was prior to setting up the feed reader (Piper -- set up a feed! yours is the only blog on My list I can't find a feed for!) . . . and I'll make a more concerted effort to jump over and comment more, and/or just to poke around and see what's new, graphically and link-list wise.
4 comments:
Lenora, I didn't know about the delurking day, either; that is, I didn't realize it was a wide-scale thing. SOmebody that I do read regularly did ask for a de-lurk message, so I accommodated her at the time, but that was it.
I, too, use a reader - I've been using Google Reader for several months now to read blogs, and since most blogs have a Post feed, it's easy to subscribe. What many people don't realize, however, is that most blogs also have a Comment feed. I generally subscribe to both when I add a blog.
Yes, I do think that it encourages lurking, but I also know that it's helpful for those of us who read a lot of blogs each day. I subscribe to at least three dozen, although not each one updates daily. Clicking all of those links, loading pages, etc., each day would be far more time consuming.
Yes . . . it's almost impossible NOT to use a reader if you're trying to keep track of more than a few blogs.
I can't go back to not using one, but something IS lost as well as gained.
--L.
Lenora-
I still don't use a feeder. For the dozen or so blog I read, it's not that hard for me to just go down my blog's link list. Most don't even post daily.
For just the reasons you mention, I don't use a feed reader. I enjoy being in direct contact with the blogs I read.
-saratoga
Hey, Lenora
First, thanks for the Sigourney Weaver post. I loved your take. I subscribe to a hybred version of the cross-examiner's rule: Never ask a question you don't want the answer to.
I just thought the answer...interesting. The photo you posted does show what an exotic beauty she is.
As for the feeder, I've been meaning to set one up. I just have to get off my lazy ass.
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