29 September 2009

Have I missed something?

As I look through my last few posts, I've noticed a dip in the comments. Actually I'm surprised that my bloviating attracts any readers, and that's fine. But on further review of a lot of the blogsites I normally visit, I see that most of them have fewer comments. Anyone else pick up on this?

A curious thing, I think. To what does anyone attribute this? I've got a few theories-what's your guess?

-Different communication methods? A lot of you at least experimented with Twitter, but I'm not all that interested in it. My thoughts are much too expansive to be crammed into 140 characters! No, wait-'Cruising as before. Ship functional in all respects' is only around 45 characters.

-No big events? I know the 'Burger used to have some big battles back when President Bush was back in office. Now that President Obama is there, all is right with the world. Anyway, even the 'Burger doesn't have the epic verbal wars it used to. I don't know that I miss them, especially if I got dragged into one-but it did make for some long threads. Also, since Birmo isn't quite ready to release After America, there hasn't been a lot of the pre-release hype yet, which may make for some longer posts and comments there. Perhaps right now, there's just no big event or series of events that is causing a massive uproar.

-Losing our home? Most of you regulars here are, like me, Journalspace refugees. Did losing a lot of our original blogs take a bit of the starch out of doing this? I rather miss JS-it had some nice features-and a lot of my 'travelogue' posts. *%$#*!  But it's a bit like rebuilding a house-it works the same, but it doesn't-quite-have the feel of home.

-Outbreaks of real life? I suspect that's also a lot of it. Events catch up with all of us. I know it did for me this spring and summer. People that used to post or comment regularly have moved on to jobs that require more time, or have had life situations change as well-not always for the best, or for the worst. I would hope for all of you that your situations are taking you to greater things! Cyberrelationships can be fickle and transitory things as well. You meet people and move on.

-'Leaders' in blogging circles? It seems like every group of blogs or discussion forums has a few 'key' people-the 'cool kids', if you will-and if one or more of them pull out of a group, the unit falls apart or drifts. Is there a bit of that going on here?

I dunno. To me it's a bit of an interesting psychological study.

Your thoughts? I have to go look at pictures of Spitfires now for a little project, and fire up the Print Artist to do a bulletin (I knew that bloody carnival would make me more work!).

yankeedog out.

14 comments:

  1. It's definitely Twitter. The regulars that usually comment around here are now all on Twitter, and there's been a definite drop in comments all around the board.

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  2. If that is the case, then it might be time for my world famous impersonation of an old soldier. Hard to Twitter (essentially, chat) with people in the opposite hemisphere-they're asleep when I'm up and vice versa. And I'd feel a bit like I was crashing a party, at any rate.

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  3. It's not me YDog, honest.

    I think Twitter is involved but I'm loathe to implicate it completely as Twitter doesn't and can't replace blogging. You can't get across much worthwhile in 140 chars. The back-and-forth conversations, yeah, but not the mini-essays and opinion pieces that blogging affords.

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  4. That said, get your backside on Twitter and have a look. Nat the Spy just got on board. As I say, I don't see them as mutually exclusive - Jenbot and I plug new blogs on our Twitfeed, as does Moko and others. Timeframe thing works surprisingly well in terms of overlap.

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  5. I think it all plays a part.

    For me it is time, I just don't seem to have any these days.

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  6. Doc-I expect there's something to the instant communications aspect. Again, it wouldn't work well for talking with some of you lot-there's only a couple of hours' window where it's practical. Even I need sleep!

    140 character limit feels too much like the old 'familygrams' the Navy used to shoot out to the subs at sea using ELF technology. Amazing, the military was 'twittering' in the 1980s!

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  7. Naut-Yeah, well, I hear ya there. I could use a few more hours in the day myself!

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  8. I've noticed it as well, and I think you've covered the likely culprits. Though I suspect twitter is leading the pack.

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  9. Part of it is Twitter, but it's not that I prefer it it's just that I don't have alot to write about.

    I'm just enjoying the company of the people on Twitter as we sit and argue, or yap, or shoot the breeze or share some of what's going on in ours lives via a link or an image upload.

    But that doesn't mean I don't still lurk around reading everyone's yarns.

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  10. Bangar-Thinkin' you're right.

    Moko-Nothin' wrong with that! I guess there's a limit to how instantly I want to be reached, though.

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  11. I am sure I posted an entry on this earlier but it seems to have vanished.

    I too have thought less being responded too. It certainly doesn't have the feel of a community that journalspace did at its hight.

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  12. I'm sure the 'company' thing on Twitter would be great. But I just don't have the time to put into it - let alone the reliable 'Net connection and/or bandwidth.

    Never mind.

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  13. Barnesy-Had comment moderation on by mistake-doing some remodeling here.

    Yes, definitely not the same feel as JS.

    Flint-Yeah, you've enough to do without piddling around with Twitter, I'd guess.

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