Blogger, commenter or plain old reader – which are you
February 28th, 2009 4 Comments
Something Ann Gentle said on the Communications from DMN podcast made me think about they way I use blogs and forums. This is especially relevant right now as I’ve got variations of the same question sitting on three forums.
What she said (about 24 minutes into the show), while discussing Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s book Groundswell, was:
There’s this ladder of involvement in social media. Some people like to write blog entries. Some people only like to comment on blog entries. Some people like to review products. Some people just like to read other people’s reviews and act on that review.
I’m an occasional blogger. Sometimes I’ll post every day, other times months will go by and I don’t post at all (usually when I’m up to my eyeballs at work). In some ways I admire the committed bloggers who write lengthy and well thought out posts every day without fail – and sometimes more than one a day. But I do often wonder why they’re spending so much time and thought on this rather than on their paid employment, or their family.
I’m also an occasional blog reader. I use Feedblitz to mail me posts from lots of blogs, but a lot of the time I just read the summaries and never the whole blog post, or I just delete the email without reading anything. My reason for not reading more blog posts is that I know that if I didn’t ration myself quite strictly I could easily spend several hours a day doing nothing else but reading blogs.
What I’m not is a commenter. I rarely ever comment on blog posts and as for forums, I can’t remember ever answering a question on a forum. And this makes me feel bad for two reasons:
- I love it when people email me, or add a comment to my blog, with a point about something I’ve said in a post, or on a podcast. However, I rarely ever contact the writers/hosts of the blogs/podcasts I enjoy reading/listening to regularly. So they never know I’m out here, one of an invisible audience, enjoying their work. I really should do something about that!
- I don’t use forums except as a last resort – at which times they often prove invaluable. I have some questions out in forums at the moment as part of my search for the right online help architecture/method for our new applications. And I remember back in 2002 when I was doing some pretty hairy stuff with RoboHelp, I got a lot of help on the Help forums from people like Rick Stone, Rob Chandler and Char James-Tanny. But I’ve never felt any inclination to become an MVP of anything myself and watch the forums on the lookout for people to help.
Am I just a bad, self-centred person?
Well, no, I don’t think so. For me it’s all about a balance of guilt. I hate spending much time at work doing anything that’s not what I’m being paid to do. I pretty much feel like my company has bought my time from nine to five (with an hour off for lunch) and therefore they own my labour during those hours and if I’m writing a blog post or helping someone on a forum I’m essentially cheating my employers. So I make every effort not to be drawn into this kind of thing, and if it does happen I make sure I work extra hours at the end of the day to make up for it. I think this is the generations-old Calvinistic influence showing through.
And when I’m not in work I feel guilty if I spend too much time blogging or preparing podcasts, because I have a wife and kids who deserve some of my time and attention. So once I’ve done some blogging and some podcasting, that just doesn’t leave much time for anything else that would take me away from my family.
Or maybe I’m over-complicating things. Maybe, as Ann Gentle suggests, it simply that there are some people who mainly just blog, some people who mainly comment and some people who never blog or comment.
About six years ago we got a new manager at work and he had trouble with all the names and acronyms we use. He asked me to put together a Web page of terms and explanations for our intranet. But - without doing any consumer research - I thought I’d go one better and, using a vast amount of home brewed Perl and Javascript, I construct a Glossary site that was essentially a Web front end for a little database. Anyone in the company could add new glossary terms and definitions or edit existing ones. I spent quite a bit of time on it (my own personal time because the guilt thing prevented me from effectively charging the company for my work on this), and the end product was pretty damned good and did things like emailing specified addresses every time a change was made (because I was a little bit worried that a loginless system would tempt someone to go in there are write scurrilous definitions). However, in six years, although I know people (mainly new-starts) refer to it, no one but me ever adds or changes anything. It’s exactly like me and Wikipedia. On average I probably use Wikipedia a few times a week and have done for years. But I’ve never ever edited or added a single thing. I’m not proud of this, I’ve just never felt any desire or obligation to do so.
Communications from DMN:
Talking shop with Anne Gentle
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- Get blog posts emailed to you – August 2008
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:22 pm (#)
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March 8th, 2009 at 2:05 am (#)
Alistair,
When you sent this post on Twitter I read it right then and have been thinking about it off and on for a few days. I usually refrain from commenting on blogs during work hours because, as you say, it's my employer's time. This may explain why professional-focused blogs (that is, with themes relating to our day jobs) don't receive a ton of comments. In contrast, posts on my wife's blog (http://whataboutmomblog.com) receive a ton of comments from readers. Partly it's the mommy blogger culture, but also, one doesn't feel any guilt commenting on a blog post while at home (except if you're ignoring your kids while doing it).
The problem with blogging and work is that, if your blog has a work-related focus, with a partial purpose of professional development, it's not entirely disconnected with work. I view my blog as a means of professional development, to some extent. I don't sit there writing posts instead of documentation, but I will check email if I receive a comment notification, and if it's urgent-sounding, I may respond to a comment. Or I may use part of my lunch hour to blog, or will make a quick edit if I suddenly notice something wrong in a blog post. But for the most part, I try to leave my blog alone at work.
Many writers participate on listservs such as techwr-l, HATT, or others, and the purpose is about the same.
At home, my wife and I have sort of developed a co-hobby of blogging. She and I like to do this together, and it's fun. If every time I sat down to write a blog post she snapped at me, I wouldn't blog so much. But I also see value in the time she spends online as well. It's an activity we mutually support.
Thanks again for the thought-provoking post. Also, thanks for listing me on your tech writer blogs page.
March 8th, 2009 at 2:06 am (#)
[...] Blogger, commenter or plain old reader – which are you. Tom Johnson | March 7, 2009 | permalink Tags: blogs, comments [...]
March 8th, 2009 at 10:38 am (#)
Tom
Thanks for commenting. Sounds like blogging fits right into your personal life really well. That's great. For me I usually feel like I have to try and restrict my blogging and commenting (I'm trying to do more of this now) to times when there's nothing else happening here at home, so I feel I can dip into my online life without impinging on my real life.
Mind you, right now Patricia and I are sitting side by side on the sofa - me using my work laptop to write this - she with our old Dell laptop, reading her email and listening to an Ingrid Michaelson song ("Breakable") I sent her. It's a very 21st century scene!