This is a meme for which I was tagged by Sidney almost two months ago. I am a really bad tagged-friend to respond to it so late. This meme revolves around 6 weird things about you. Following are 6 of the smallest or most general or visible weird things that others consider weird about me. If you wish, you can also read my introductory post which describes what memes are.
The same way many people share other people’s personal and private information in public, I am noticing an increasing trend online where bloggers and others will share other’s private information, entrusted only to them, in one form or another. I am also noticing that some people keep repeating the “I want to share your personal life details” behavior even when advised against it.
With everyone wanting to blog these days, it can be hard to find something practical and concrete to apply to a blog right away in order to improve things. Daniel from Daily Blog Tips runs a nice ship called, surprise surprise, Daily Blog Tips, also known as DBT. DBT aims to help bloggers by telling them about a blog-related tip on an almost daily basis.
I like blogging, so it is interesting to see Daniel try to offer daily tips to bloggers to try their hand at different aspects of blogging. Here are 3 reasons why I think Daily Blog Tips sucks this year. Why? Because these 3 reasons are the very reasons Daily Blog Tips is and can be a very important part of the blogosphere, and the reasons I think people should be more like Daniel than like an A-lister who only wants to manipulate readers.
Today I have a fun question that probably applies to every blogger and every blog reader and commentor. Do you like responding to each and every blog comment?
There are two main ways you can respond to blog comments. One could be as a blogger, and the other could be as a blog reader.
[This post was originally supposed to go online yesterday, but it didn't. I am not sure why; I apologize for the 3 hour-delay.]
The same way people assume things about you and other people in the offline world, many people assume things about you and others in the online world. On the internet, there can be many chances of misunderstanding things. While one of the best things to do online is to question things before assuming something, many people simply prefer assuming and stereotyping things instead of finding out the reality.
Following is a list of 5 normal things that I notice people assuming about others online on a regular basis.
This is a fun question that can apply to your personally, as it depends on both your online and offline life. Do you feel obligated to blog regularly?
You may post daily, week, or on some other fixed schedule on your blog. You may also blog around a form of a regular schedule that revolves around things other than a specific time frame itself; you may base your posting schedule around offline events, your online and offline time schedule, etc. As shown below, there could be a few reasons why you may feel obligated to post on your blog on any kind of a regular schedule.
“He’s just trying to impress me“, she said to me. I agreed with her; the guy in question was visiting from another country and was indeed trying to impress her at this party. However, me and my friend knew that this guy was just impressing her in order to appear as a good person. She told me she knew he was already in a relationship, and so was she, and she knew he wanted nothing from her. Even then, my friend thought about the reasons this guy would want to impress her.
She started questioning the possibility that he could be impressing her in order to appreciate her. That reminded me of my post last month in which I hinted at the question of whether or not impressing someone is the same as appreciating someone.
It seems that in many cases, one can effectively try to impress someone in order not to benefit themselves, but to appreciate the other person. This in turn automatically results in both parties benefiting, hopefully.
This should be a fun question to think about, specially if you sometimes wonder whether you are a true friend or a true business person. Do you treat the people you know online, friends and others, the same way you treat friends and others in the offline world?
I talked about the possibility of treating online friends like offline friends earlier this year, and SP and Vera offered excellent views and opinions regarding the topic, like how it can be hard to find out if a person is a true friend online, or how online friends have something in common with you. Among some other variations, you could be treating online people the same, better or a bit worse or less than the way you treat your offline friends.
I have been asking more and more of my friends lately about their blogs, and whether or not they are on networks like Facebook, MySpace or Mixi. Most people are on some kind of a network, while many people prefer “not wasting any time” on such online trends.
“Stop by my work and say hi” has changed to “Visit my blog and comment” for many people. The number of comments you leave for someone seems to signify the level of friendship for many people, the way the number of phone calls or text message to a friend may signify your level of commitment to that friend during chaotic times or during disagreements. “I’m sorry I shouted at you” has been replaced, for many, by “I’m sorry I posted something that disagreed with you.”
Are we making blogs part of our relationships, like friendships and others, even though in the offline world we usually do not make things, other than ourselves, part of friendships? I think everyone is approaching this question uniquely, while arriving at one of the many results, like yes, no, maybe, and it depends. How about you?
This is just a thought about things already happening. It is funny how at the moment, communicating via blog posts and blog comments seems to be the most primitive form of communication for many people. What do I mean?
If you meet someone on your blog and would like to talk more and become closer friends, you would probably e-mail each other more, or talk via instant messengers, voice chat with each other online, see each other through webcams online, text each other, call each other or meet in person. It seems as if everything else is one step higher than communicating solely via a blog post and a blog comment, for most people and as of now. You do not see most people talking on the phone first and then, in order to get closer, talking only through blog comments.
What do you think? Does that make blog posts and comments more or less important than other forms of communication?
With more and more people talking about new topics that draw blog traffic, there are fewer bloggers people who talk about random, strange things in an interesting manner. I consider The Reasoner to be both a personal and a non-personal site, though since almost every post here has some unique touch to it because of what I write, it can probably be said that this blog is a 100% personal blog. That is why I usually feel the need to talk about something random in this world, in this universe, something that people usually do not talk about, yet they should.
Of course, one of the reasons I do not go about posting completely random things every day is because of the output: what would such a random post about a very unique random topic provide in return, non-monetary and non-traffic for me, and something specific and unique to you as the reader?
As of today, following is a list of 5 things that most bloggers, if not all, usually do not talk about. The reason for such a trend is because many people focus on bringing in traffic and on what advertisors are looking for, and now how the blogger him/herself can take any topic and provide some useful output to the reader. This is also one of the reasons most of the bloggers today are not writers but only marketers and sales people, but they portray themselves as being bloggers and writers.
“Move!” she screamed, as I turned around in the direction of a voice that seemed desperate, yet firm. I looked up, and noticed a woman sitting right across me, looking at me with fierce, wide open eyes. I was on the cell phone in an extremely important call, and had moved to this exact spot because everywhere else people were playing loud music.
I was at the FedEx Kinko’s, ready to fax something when an important phone call interrupted my task. I was almost finished, but the phone call was more important than the fax in question. I walked outside and occupied a spot. I had now infringed on somebody’s territory.
The angry face, harsh glance, and red eyes told me this lady was very mad. I hesitated. Surely she wasn’t talking to me. I looked behind me to see if she was talking to someone else. My fears were confirmed. This lady was talking to me.
“Are you there?” The voice on the phone said.
“Yes.” I hesitantly replied, not quite sure how to respond to this oncoming threat.
The woman noticed me staring in her direction, so she reaffirmed her threat, “Yeah you. MOVE! This is MY AREA!”
The threatening woman (aka, screaming lady) seemed ready to force me from my position if need be.
As I looked at the lady who threatened me, I noticed a homeless woman nearby; one of her arms was prosthetic, with a robotic-looking piece with claws ready to strike at any moment. I couldn’t really tell if “she” was a he or a she, but for purposes of clarity, I will assume that she is indeed a she. “She” luckily didn’t threaten me, as I would have moved in a second for fear of being struck down by robotic limbs. The other lady, however, would not stop her threats.
There was loud music on both sides of the street, so the spot I was sitting at was the only spot I had the least interference — until now. For some reason, I had picked the one spot (an area, at a bus stop) where this woman (whoever she was) felt threatened because some guy was talking on his cell phone on a call that could not wait.
Fearing that I was being too loud, I talked a little quieter (yes it is possible, for those that know me). However, the volume of my voice didn’t calm the woman down. She made it clear that I should move. I moved to the side and stood up, but she was still not happy. She wanted me to walk far away. I couldn’t. The music was too loud and the phone call was too important to have been interrupted by loud gangsta music, or this mad lady.
“This person has signed off and cannot receive your messages.” Have you ever gotten a similar message on any instant messenger? You may be talking to someone and they may bid farewell quickly and just log off. You do not need to feel bad; many people have various reasons for hiding from you, and probably others, online. People may even just go offline on instant messengers because they have to focus on other things online, like blogging or checking e-mails.
You yourself may be hiding from people on instant messengers for various reasons. You may even e-mail people every hour, but keep away from chatting live with people. Whatever the reason, you may be doing it on an almost daily basis. Finding out some various reasons for some action may allow one to find out how that action is affecting us and others around us in the online world.
]. However, if my good friend is not online, DBT e-mails are so interesting, I will usually put off my eating and read the latest DBT posts and any related comments. By the time I get done with DBT posts and comments, I forget about eating. Not good. Really not good. DBT should start writing boring posts on a daily basis, so that I can get bored easily and resume eating my food.