Lurk Away, My Friends!
So I was browsing some new sites and, at several different blogs, I come across this:
Apparently it is national delurking week and, if you visit a blog, you must de-lurk and leave a comment, or else.
Geez. No wonder no one’s been visiting me lately. The people must be scared to venture outside of their own blog!
What killed me was a comment I read at one of the sites, that went something like: “Yeah, totally! I hate it when people lurk. What a nasty habit.”
WTF? I like it when people read me. Since when did it become a nasty habit? Of course, if anyone does think it’s a nasty habit, they should by all means let me know, so I don’t lurk at their site ever again. You know, being nice and all.
As much as I love comments, I absolutely do not require my readers to leave one each time they stumble into this site. If I have managed to produce a thought-provoking post – good for me, in that case people will most likely say something. That is, if they have something interesting to say at the moment. Which is, I have to tell you, not always the case with me. I do most of my blog reading before I get my morning dosage of caffeine. The only comment I can produce in this state would be “Yeah, totally”.
I guess what peeved me off about it is that, to me, blogging is primarily about content. I realize that we cannot be Pulitzer-winning writers every day; it's the intentional dumbing-down of the blogosphere that makes me angry. Do you ever have one of these days when you hit one blog after another after another, and it’s all about what people have eaten for breakfast and the content of their babies’ diapers as of today? And then you finally throw your hands up in the air and wonder aloud: “Why am I still blogging? Why am I doing this to my time??” and your children, ever the supportive ones, agree with you: “We’ve been telling you, Mom, blogging is for losers!” (This does not happen when I stick to my regular reads, I hasten to add!)
I think the blogosphere has the potential to become a massive creative medium, or a place to exchange information. Or else it can become a place where people come to meaninglessly yak at each other. In my humble opinion, we already have plenty of opportunities for meaningless yakking in real life. For those of us who work in the office, it’s that area round the water cooler or coffee machine. For stay-at-home moms, it’s the playground (been there, done that). Do we really need to yak on the Internet too? Furthermore, do we need to require of others that they yak?
I guess that is what kills me about the National De-Lurking Week – it’s this militant demand that everybody yak. Well, I am not about to support that on my blog. Feel free to express yourself any way you want, my scarce reader. If you want to leave a comment – please do. If you don’t want to – that’s fine, too. If you want to leave five in a row – sure, it’s a free country! If you want to say to me: “Yeah, totally!” – I’m cool with that. Say what you want, or don’t say anything at all. I am not going to stand here with a baseball bat, coaxing comments out of everyone who visits.
Take that, National De-Lurking Week!
*rude hand gesture*
Apparently it is national delurking week and, if you visit a blog, you must de-lurk and leave a comment, or else.
Geez. No wonder no one’s been visiting me lately. The people must be scared to venture outside of their own blog!
What killed me was a comment I read at one of the sites, that went something like: “Yeah, totally! I hate it when people lurk. What a nasty habit.”
WTF? I like it when people read me. Since when did it become a nasty habit? Of course, if anyone does think it’s a nasty habit, they should by all means let me know, so I don’t lurk at their site ever again. You know, being nice and all.
As much as I love comments, I absolutely do not require my readers to leave one each time they stumble into this site. If I have managed to produce a thought-provoking post – good for me, in that case people will most likely say something. That is, if they have something interesting to say at the moment. Which is, I have to tell you, not always the case with me. I do most of my blog reading before I get my morning dosage of caffeine. The only comment I can produce in this state would be “Yeah, totally”.
I guess what peeved me off about it is that, to me, blogging is primarily about content. I realize that we cannot be Pulitzer-winning writers every day; it's the intentional dumbing-down of the blogosphere that makes me angry. Do you ever have one of these days when you hit one blog after another after another, and it’s all about what people have eaten for breakfast and the content of their babies’ diapers as of today? And then you finally throw your hands up in the air and wonder aloud: “Why am I still blogging? Why am I doing this to my time??” and your children, ever the supportive ones, agree with you: “We’ve been telling you, Mom, blogging is for losers!” (This does not happen when I stick to my regular reads, I hasten to add!)
I think the blogosphere has the potential to become a massive creative medium, or a place to exchange information. Or else it can become a place where people come to meaninglessly yak at each other. In my humble opinion, we already have plenty of opportunities for meaningless yakking in real life. For those of us who work in the office, it’s that area round the water cooler or coffee machine. For stay-at-home moms, it’s the playground (been there, done that). Do we really need to yak on the Internet too? Furthermore, do we need to require of others that they yak?
I guess that is what kills me about the National De-Lurking Week – it’s this militant demand that everybody yak. Well, I am not about to support that on my blog. Feel free to express yourself any way you want, my scarce reader. If you want to leave a comment – please do. If you don’t want to – that’s fine, too. If you want to leave five in a row – sure, it’s a free country! If you want to say to me: “Yeah, totally!” – I’m cool with that. Say what you want, or don’t say anything at all. I am not going to stand here with a baseball bat, coaxing comments out of everyone who visits.
Take that, National De-Lurking Week!
*rude hand gesture*
