Where Have All The Bloggers Gone?  

Posted by Heidi in


In spite of the fact that my hits did go back up to fairly normal yesterday (after a long weekend of hiding in a dark corner and biting my nails), I have spent some time reflecting on where in tarnation all the bloggers went Saturday and Sunday. Even though I am sorely tempted to take it personally and feel convinced that huge numbers of people developed a sudden and violent hatred of me, I know that I wasn’t being entirely rational (especially since a number of you reported the same downward trend on your own blogs and can I just say, “Phew”?)

I have listed some of my ideas below, however, if there are any of you who want to ‘fess up in the comment section as to where you were and what you were doing this weekend, that would be so fun and, as a bonus, might prevent a nervous breakdown on my end. Then again, perhaps not, depending on the form your comment takes. (Maybe I should rethink the comment thing.) So, were you . . .

1. Christmas shopping? After all, the election is over and people are either thinking that things are going to get better so they might as well spend—or they are thinking that this is the last decent Christmas we are going to see in many a long year. Either way, it could be that the pocket books are starting to creak open (inducing an unprecedented explosion in the moth population, but that’s clearly beside the point).

2. Fleeing your internet connection? It has to be done, once in while. I’m guessing. I don’t really know. Not from any kind of personal experience or anything. (Does it hurt?)

3. Hunting moose? I have no idea if this is moose season but I’m willing to bet my Canadian readers do. You know--know if it’s moose season or know of some other season they know is just ripe for, you know, shooting guns, eh? (This in no way reflects the actual speech patterns of actual Canadian bloggers I know, at least, not that I know of.)

4. Giving your mouse finger a rest? This is a legitimate reason to take a break since that finger is connected to arm muscles that can sting and cause agonizing pain all the way up the shoulder and into the neck area. (I should know! Woe is me. I also get thumb fatigue from trolling through the online TV guide. I think there are something like 1000 channels on our new DirectTV network and The Spouse hasn’t mustered up the energy required to rid us of the myriad shopping network channels, the superfluous religion channels--there can be only one--and the dozens of pay per view channels which we will never use. Netflix anyone?)

5. Nursing a deep and abiding sudden violent hatred of me and my constant shout outs about my book and other Neanderthal natterings?
BTW, in the comment section, you can just give a number. No need to spend any time explaining yourself, especially if you are listing # 5. Unless you really want to. In which case, I really want to hear. We all want to hear. According to one of my recent commentors, reading the witty comments you all leave is at least half the fun of reading my blog. (I think I’ll just go cry quietly in the corner some more 'cause it's already wet and so no harm done. For which I am very grateful.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at Tuesday, November 11, 2008 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

21 wise, witty and wonderful comments

You need to add a #6 for none of the above because I was none of the above. Personally, I hardly ever look at blogs on the weekend and I never post on the weekend, except for the occasional late Sunday night. I always feel way too busy on weekends and I would probably get a judgmental stare from my husband anyway!

November 11, 2008 at 11:28 AM

I was flitting around L A, remember? Going to Wicked.... I'll get to that later, once I get my mac all working all pretty and stuff!

November 11, 2008 at 11:46 AM

I was staring at your blog all weekend waiting for new posts.
I don't have a life.

November 11, 2008 at 12:23 PM

Gorgeous Autumnal Decorating!

November 11, 2008 at 12:32 PM

6. Westminster Kennel Club

November 11, 2008 at 1:32 PM

Alyson, I believe that is #2, (but no judgemental stares from this blog--just "mental" ones)Hillary, can't wait to hear about Wicked! Mary--now I know you're a liar on top of a killer (it's an inside joke. Or not. You can read all about it on some other post)Sabrina, thank you! Rott--you got a bark (of laughter) outta me!

November 11, 2008 at 3:13 PM

Sorry, I misread #2. Yes, I am #2. I'm always pretty much disconnected every weekend.

November 11, 2008 at 3:22 PM

Hey, it's a mystery. I felt it too.

Maybe everyone's just all blogged out.

I hope I get blogged out soon. ;)

November 11, 2008 at 3:35 PM

I am not going anywhere. We will be the last people left on the blogging planet and have to live underground and eat our food storage and hook our computers up to generators, but we will survive!

November 11, 2008 at 4:21 PM

Alyson, I do tend to spend less time online on the weekend, too--the spouse has something to do with it at my house, too--Crash, aren't you burning the candle at both ends? Kaz! Yay Kazzy! We will hunker down together . . .

November 11, 2008 at 6:49 PM

My apologies for ignoring one of my blog friends. I can call you my friend, can't I? I comment on your blog, you comment on mine. That's friendship right there, am I right?

Alas, I was gone most of the weekend. I work- trying to feed my overextended lifestyle. My job keeps me at a computer for 8 - 10 hours in one pop, so when I get home and have a moment to sit I truly love nothing better than to check out my fav blogs, but my eyes go cross-eyes, my ears start to ring and my hands go limp (especially my mouse finger). I am here now, loving your post and wishing to be as witty as you are!

November 11, 2008 at 8:53 PM

Ah, Youngblood, how sweet! Though I can't help but think I should know your name . . .

November 11, 2008 at 10:02 PM

Wait. How did you know I was moose hunting?

November 12, 2008 at 7:56 AM

May I perchance offer a somewhat less paranoid explanation?

Feeds, baybee...the peeps wanna be fed.

RSS Feed Readers are becomming a lot more popular and they allow folks to read your content without actually visiting your site. I know that a number of my readers use 'em, based on the referrer URLs I see when they do decide to come over and visit (usually to comment or just read the witty banter of others). But there's no telling how often they don't visit, choosing instead to just read from a distance.

And while at first this might seem like a bummer, and that people don't like you anymore, it really is just the opposite; it's really saying that they consider you so important that they don't want to ever miss a post, even when thay don't really have this time to surf to your site.

At least that's what I'm trying to convince myself of lately...

...I..I just couldn't bear it if it wasn't twue...

;)

November 12, 2008 at 8:28 AM

My excuse is #2. And yes, it does hurt. But nothing a little (or big) handful of M&Ms can't cure.

November 12, 2008 at 8:58 AM

AJ--now that I have stopped snorting milk out of my nose (I really should know better than to eat at the computer) I just have to ask--don't you have to offer the RSS feed service somewhere in your blog for people to pick it up? Or are they tres clever and can figure out how to get what I can't figure out how to offer? I know that people read me on google reader or bloglines because those referrals show up on sitemeter, but maybe only if they comment. It is possible that a google reader reader doesn't show up on my hits if they don't comment. Something to think about . . . Becky, I agree, m&m's cure everything (but body fat--though I remain hopeful and even pair my M&Ms with popcorn, the tres buttery kind) and justrandi--welcome! Does moose hunting hurt as much as shedding the internet addiction for a, er, um, shoot out?

November 12, 2008 at 9:49 AM

The logger you blog, the more apathetic you become about such things. To the point that you, yes you, will likely start taking the weekends off as well.

NaNoWriMo is stealing a lot of bloggers away as well. And then the NaBloPoMo'ers are blogging daily, which is burning people out. Plus the holidays are approaching.

Weekends are usually dead any time of the year though. Very normal for some reason.

November 12, 2008 at 10:18 AM

Yep, Kim, I do feel the apathy sinking in. I don't feel nearly as frantic things as I did a few months ago. It's just sad that I ever got frantic at all. . .

November 12, 2008 at 10:41 AM

Heidi-ho-neighbor...
(heh...I've always wanted to say that to someone named Heidi)

No, actually it's GOOGLE (a.k.a. Blogger) who's tres smart. Y'see there's an .xml feed automatically generated each and every time you publish a blog post. RSS readers read this file, along with any images that are embedded within your post, but the feed and the actual blog site are two separate things.

The feeds are located on the same server as your blog (yours are located here) but when they're read, the info is simply downloaded to your reader, be it Google, Bloglines, whatever. The user doesn't need to visit your blog because your blog actually visits him or her.

RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication.' When you click on an RSS icon, all you're doing is downloading a file to your RSS reader that tells it where the feed is stored on the host server so that it can be fed or syndicated to the remote computer.

If you use Google Reader, any 'followed' blogs listed in your Blogger Dashboard are automatically loaded into the reader. You see the blog text and embedded photos appear in the reader without the need to physically surf the site.

If you do see referrers in Sitemeter coming from online RSS readers, that means that they did physically go and pay you a visit, but you would otherwise not have been able to tell that they had previously read your blog via the reader.

And as I said, especially with the advent of the Reader built into the Blogger Dashboard as well as other brands of blog interfaces, more and more people are using this method to keep up with what's going on.

Hope that 'splains it.

*whew* my fangers are tired!

November 12, 2008 at 8:21 PM

It's funny that you wrote "giving your mouse finger a rest." For the last four days I have been in major pain in my shoulder and even neck. And I have done nothing strenuous except blogging. Oh yeah, and have a birthday and get older!

November 13, 2008 at 7:56 AM

AJ--ack! Just found this comment. I'm not used to people actually commenting on posts that are over 24 hours old. I think I know what you are saying. Maybe. Sorta. What's ironic is that RSS stands, in part, for simple. It has never seemed simple to me (to determine what mine is, for example). Erin--yes, one day it will become a true diagnosis. Blogger Fatigue Syndrome or something like that .

November 14, 2008 at 12:26 PM

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