Crunchy ‘Nanas

There is intriguing stuff going on right now at Defective Yeti. The post itself isn’t where the action’s happening, though. It’s the string of comments the post has provoked. I wouldn’t have bothered to look at them (there’s oh so many things I should be doing right now), except there were 58 comments. I figured to pass could mean missing out on something. And that would be unfortunate.

It seems one of Defective Yeti’s blog posts was printed in a book, that book is being used in a college English class, and many students have visited the post (or a repost of the original post) and are commenting. It is a bit heated. It seems fraught with misunderstandings, snap judgments and hurt feelings. With humor thrown in, apparently in all the wrong places. (But, I laughed.) It’s a little bit “us and them”. But, it made me think about blogging, blog commenting and how these things seem to work.

It’s interesting to see that many people began referring to the students as kids, seemingly based on the fact that they are students (not always true) and the lack of proper grammar, originality, insight, and wit in their comments (I know plenty of adults who lack proper grammar, originality, insight, and wit): Hi, we had to read this book for school, now I have a blog, come visit it. To some, this could give the impression they are immature, shallow, straight from the MySpace, baby. Sparky, 27, Planet Earth, wants to be your friend: hi, how’s your ass 2day? Hmmm, um, my ass is great. Boot-i-licious, in fact, if I do say so myself. Thanks for asking. Click, DENY! Your CV hits the recycling bin before you can even dream the word “interview” and the chance to prove you’ve got what it takes. (And can do it better than CrAzY 4U, 29, Anytown U.S.A. , who sadly, despite the 1980s Madonna reference, did not make the coveted top 8; however, did make it to the ranks of “you have 11,478 friends” because she used the words “free”, “smelly cheese” and “72% cocoa” in her friend request.)

At first, that is what I saw too. But I kept reading the comments because I was amused and intrigued by what was happening. And then as I read more comments, I started to consider it from another angle, an angle I know all too well. The angle to which every new blogger can relate. The fresh, eager, puppy dog-eyed hope that today your blog will get more than the two hits from your mother and your best friend. (Wave. Hi Mom! Not that you don’t count or anything…) That you have readers and they like what you provide. You will start to believe in yourself, to feel that what you write amuses people, touches people, makes people think. If you could just get people to your blog they would see how entertaining, touching, thought-provoking you can be. And then the readers would come back. And they’d comment. And then you too would become enmeshed in the blogosphere, the crazy ba-jillion-way street of continuous, rapid-fire communication. Facts, opinions, knowledge, random oddities, information, junk, input, output, up, down, action, reaction. Community. Of sorts.

Unfortunately, certain straight-forwardness looks like spam. And we all hate spam. Spam, spam, spam, spam…The trick, it seems to me,* is to know how to ask someone to come visit your blog without asking. To give a reason, not just a web address. A spark of promise, not just a phone number. One commenter suggested that if the critics were to actually visit the blogs, we might find something worth reading. I see this every time I visit Technorati: “71 million blogs, some of them have to be good.” True. The chances are pretty high some of them are good. But who has time to slog through all 71 million to find the two that would make daily life worth living? Not me. There’s so much out there, I’ve come quickly to depend on hints in posts or comments to determine what I keep in the Reader and what I chuck back out to cyberspace.

If one were to write a deeply moving, emotionally gripping post about the death of his pet ant Tommy, who had been with him through the thick and thin of it all (and he was serious and I knew it), a comment stating, “ur 2 hot. c u l8er” probably wouldn’t find me clicking over to C U l8er’s blog. Even if C U l8er threw in the apostrophe, signaling that he recognized there’s a difference between “your” and “you’re”. No, not even if I saw it was placed correctly. Okay, well maybe if I saw it was placed correctly.

But, if C U l8er’s comment showed he had read the post and it piqued my interest (oh my god, I once knew a guy who had a pet ant named Tommy too, he used to keep it in his pocket while headstanding on the hi-wire of Leapin’ Larry’s Leptoceratops three ring circus), it may garner a hit or two. Perhaps even a regular reader if it continued to amuse me.

The thing is Sparky, 27, Planet Earth could actually be a really great person. You scoff, but who knows? Someone must love him and want to be his friend. (Maybe only his mom, but she’s someone.) But, I’ll never know. Same with blog traffic. It all seems to be in the approach. Say something relevant, humorous, deep, witty, or simply odd (intriguing odd, but not scary odd– good luck navigating that!) and you’re in. And then deliver! Give the people what they want! And keep ‘em coming back for more. Oh, the flair! (I wish I had it…)

*This is all from observation, by the way. My actual experience is mighty limited. Two days ago, I was overjoyed to see my blog had 26 hits. Even though I suspect Crunchy husband got clicky with his mouse to make me feel more loved. I’m not a big commenter. So there you go.

This entry was posted on Friday, 4th May 2007 at  13:52 and is filed under Random foliage. You can follow responses to this entry using the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.