The Vent and Rant Thread

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Seriously, it's mind-boggling to me. Is it too naive of me to think that people should be curious about the world? The advent of the Net seems to have made people more self-centered, not less.

Obviously the net makes people self-centered. Everybody wants everybody else to come to their website/blog/vlog or whatever. If everybody would only watch and look around on the internet, there wouldn't be any websites to go to.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Obviously the net makes people self-centered. Everybody wants everybody else to come to their website/blog/vlog or whatever. If everybody would only watch and look around on the internet, there wouldn't be any websites to go to.

WHY?

WHY do people think that their musings have ANY interest to anyone else? This is the part that boggles me. I maintain our business website, because I have to. I blog, very very randomly, (like, 2x annum) because I'm forced to (otherwise, Google penalizes our organic page rank, for the BUSINESS.)

I could not care less about blogging, and more importantly, I don't think I have one goddamn interesting thing to say, to random strangers. Why on earth does anyone else think that?

I literally do not get it. Who is so silly to think that their untrained, mostly untalented ramblings have any value at all? The Bloggharea that affects the Net is half of what's ruined it.

Hitch

[issybird]

My new swimming goggles came. I've had a lot of eye issues in the past year and my old eye-socket style goggles were irritating my eye, so I decided to give the face mask style a try.

Look, I know I have a big head and I have thick hair as well. I have a hard time buying hats. But my head isn't freakishly large; people don't stare at me when I walk down the street. And these are for adult men and women and there must be men out there with bigger heads. So why, why, even if I put the strap on the last possible notch on each side, are they too tight? Couldn't the company have built a little more slack into these for those of us with larger noggins?

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I could not care less about blogging, and more importantly, I don't think I have one goddamn interesting thing to say, to random strangers. Why on earth does anyone else think that?

Hitch

I think what you have to say is interesting, Hitch.

[Rumpelteazer]

The good news is that I'm home. The bad news is that I had to do another factory reset of my Sonos to get it to connect with my home network again. Also, it definitely doesn't like my tablet for setting it up. Once it's set up there's no problem with getting my tablet connected to it.

So now I have to set everything up again; my podcast, favourite radio channels and alarms.

Next year I won't bring my Sonos along with me, hopefully by then I have a Google Home and I'm keeping my fingers crossed it'll be easier to switch networks with it.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by wodin

I think what you have to say is interesting, Hitch.

Wodin:

You are too kind, my sweet. But that's because we're all here, in a thread, in which many of us have a commonality of interests. Plus, it's a discussion--not a soliloquy. (Not counting those times I get ranty.) :-)

But a blog? About what? About how my 18lb Maine Coon steals my pillow and sleeps atop my head? About how I watch the Harris Antelope Ground Squirrels, running around my office/home when the clients drive me nuts?

Man, that ain't blog-worthy. The Blog is the granddaddy of self-publishing...and for that alone, has a lot to answer for.

Hitch

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

(Nitpick... "Facebook and autocorrect are making people dumber..." )

Ouch.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Hitch

WHY?

...

I literally do not get it. Who is so silly to think that their untrained, mostly untalented ramblings have any value at all? The Bloggharea that affects the Net is half of what's ruined it.

Oh, yes; there's a lot of crap on the internet.

There are two kinds of blog/vlogs however: the informative ones, and the 'give me attention' ones.

The former are, for example:

- The Digital Reader by our own Nate (Do I have that correct?)
- Blogs where people post progress on piano playing (what pieces they practiced, why, what went well, what went wrong)
- Blogs where people post reviews, cook receipts, and so on

These people make those blogs because they've got stuff to say that might be useful to someone. I don't mind if people earn something through advertisemtns or maybe even affiliate links, because I get useful information out of those blogs. Still, I mostly don't follow them, but find them through Google when I'm looking for something and read a part of it.

The attention grabbing ones are people who think they're worth it to be followed even though they don't say anything useful (they're not), or vlogs on YouTube where people do stupid/unnecessary/dangerous/hilarious-that's-not-hilarious crap just for the views and advertisement income.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Ouch.

What was that you said?

:-)

We've all done it, too. Every single one of us. Ah, life at the speed of texting! (Typing, in my case. I have many fewer excuses than you cellphone folks!)

Hitch

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by issybird

My new swimming goggles came. I've had a lot of eye issues in the past year and my old eye-socket style goggles were irritating my eye, so I decided to give the face mask style a try.

Look, I know I have a big head and I have thick hair as well. I have a hard time buying hats. But my head isn't freakishly large; people don't stare at me when I walk down the street. And these are for adult men and women and there must be men out there with bigger heads. So why, why, even if I put the strap on the last possible notch on each side, are they too tight? Couldn't the company have built a little more slack into these for those of us with larger noggins?

They are, but you know, production of a lot of non-electronic stuff is moving to Indonesia. Maybe these are Indonesian googles, and thus they're the perfect size for adults there. The internet says that the average height of an Indonesian male is a smidge below 5 feet...

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Oh, yes; there's a lot of crap on the internet.

There are two kinds of blog/vlogs however: the informative ones, and the 'give me attention' ones.

The former are, for example:

- The Digital Reader by our own Nate (Do I have that correct?)
- Blogs where people post progress on piano playing (what pieces they practiced, why, what went well, what went wrong)
- Blogs where people post reviews, cook receipts, and so on

Yes, but the type of blogs you are discussing actually have value. They are people who are sharing information that other people ACTUALLY WANT or need. They possess (I'm still contemplating the piano thing, but...) information or facts or data, or they have specialized knowledge, and share that. FINE. I have zip, zein, zilch, nada issue with that.

These people make those blogs because they've got stuff to say that might be useful to someone. I don't mind if people earn something through advertisemtns or maybe even affiliate links, because I get useful information out of those blogs. Still, I mostly don't follow them, but find them through Google when I'm looking for something and read a part of it.

We agree.

The attention grabbing ones are people who think they're worth it to be followed even though they don't say anything useful (they're not), or vlogs on YouTube where people do stupid/unnecessary/dangerous/hilarious-that's-not-hilarious crap just for the views and advertisement income.

BUT, that's the thing. These are the vast bulk of the effluvia flooding the Net. When I first looked at blogging, in something like 2007-8, at the time, Google's data (from Blogger) was that THEN, 8 million people a day were starting blogs. Eight Million Blogs, A DAY?

Seriously, do any of you even know 8 friends, whose blogs you'd read? Never mind 80, 800, 8,000 or 8 million? I don't. I mean, sure, I have professional acquaintances, whose posts on this or that I'll read, but...8 freaking million. A day.

I'd love to know Google's figures on abandoned blogs. I'll betcha it's mind-blowing. Hell, I wish I had a quarter or even a dime, or maybe a PENNY, for every abandoned blog. And then another quarter for every worthless one.

Not to mention, the ratio of people who don't blog, to blogs. As in the pro rata population of non-bloggers, to blogs. I'll bet that is an interesting figure.

H

[Katsunami]

I think most blogs get abandoned within the year. It's a lot of work to keep one up. I know. Been there. Done that. Adminned some photography forums and one of them had a blog I maintained and posted on. Did it for 10 years, and when I stopped doing the admin stuff they fell into disrepair, and when I stopped blogging a year later, it went dead.

Most people start something, but abandon it quite quickly, and in the end, it's always the same people who keep shit going. Ever been in a sports club that does tournaments that need organizing? I was. Even though the club had around 80 members, it always were the same 6-10 people who did organization, setting up the hall, and, in the end, take everything down again. Those 70 others always had 'something to do' in those particular weekends. Always. (Even though all tournaments are known AT LEAST 8 months or so beforehand.)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I think most blogs get abandoned within the year. It's a lot of work to keep one up. I know. Been there. Done that. Adminned some photography forums and one of them had a blog I maintained and posted on. Did it for 10 years, and when I stopped doing the admin stuff they fell into disrepair, and when I stopped blogging a year later, it went dead.

Most people start something, but abandon it quite quickly, and in the end, it's always the same people who keep shit going. Ever been in a sports club that does tournaments that need organizing? I was. Even though the club had around 80 members, it always were the same 6-10 people who did organization, setting up the hall, and, in the end, take everything down again. Those 70 others always had 'something to do' in those particular weekends. Always. (Even though all tournaments are known AT LEAST 8 months or so beforehand.)

Oh, yes. BTDT. I've been in HOA (Homeowner's Associations) and in horse breed societies, full of allegedly willing volunteers. (not). And yes, it's always the same few people--I think it runs 2-5%--that get everything done. Everybody's always willing to do the fun things; nobody ever wants to do the actual WORK.

{shrug}. Why should they be any different than the rest of the world, I guess?

Hitch

[Katsunami]

Your estimate or 2-5% seems to be correct. Most forums I've been on have an active user base of around 3%. Don't know about mobileread. Maybe I should look into the top posters stats if they're available.

[Hemmi]

I've never come across a blog that I care to read on a regular basis. Nor would I ever have one. No one cares what I'm thinking about anything anyway.