Blogger going down was a huge bugger. i mean, posts were lost for a few days, weeks devoted to certain authors were temporarily shut down, and the book blogging community had their collective panties in a twist. while i understand the frustration, i wasn't experiencing it. for some reason, i wasn't nearly as bothered as others. my blog was interrupted, but i tried to remember that Blogger is a free service, and there isn't a whole lot of constructive complaining i can do. i also didn't lose anything major, so i'm sure that helped ease the outage for me. still, i trust the ubernerds at Google to get their shiz together as fast as possible. considering i've been using their free service for over 3 years and this is the only situation of prolonged down-time i can remember, i think that's pretty solid.
but the down time DID get me thinking about things in the blog world that do bug me. i repeat, these actions bother me greatly - not the people behind the actions. so if you do these things, i'm not hating on you. in fact, you should feel free to defend your actions if you want to! i'd love to hear your insight.
- blogging bugger #1 - page teaser posts. i've read about 3 of these in my entire lifetime, and skipped the rest. i don't get what the draw to a random quote from a random page is supposed to be. honestly, it screams 'filler post' to my ears, and i'm not interested. i just skip past when those come up in my Google reader and check out actual posts with actual content. you're better off giving your thoughts on the book up to that point, or forgoing a post altogether, in my opinion.
- blogging bugger #2 - posts that are purely summary. if i wanted a summary, i'd check Amazon or Goodreads. i'm reading what you have to say because i want to hear what YOU have to SAY. seriously, give me some insight or some thoughts or just some "this made me feel _____". lately i've seen more and more posts that just summarize with no reflection at all as to how the reviewer felt/thought/experienced the book. you are unique, and so is your reading experience.
- blogging bugger #3 - the infamous 'sorry i'm not posting' post. okay, if you're going to be gone for awhile and you leave a "i'll be gone for awhile" post, that's fine. in fact, i respect that. but if you're posting to say "sorry for lack of posting lately!" or "i don't know when i'll post again!" - what are you doing? i mean, you're not giving us any information that we don't already have. we are aware that you haven't been posting. saying that you haven't been posting - in a blog post - is stating the obvious. (i think talking about lack of posting on twitter is different, and a reasonable place to chat about lack of posting, fyi.) just post again when you can, the internet will always be here waiting for you with open arms. unless Blogger goes down again. ;)
what about you? what are your blogging buggers?
stay tuned for next monday when i write about blog posts/ideas that i adore! there is some sugar to go with this vinegar, i promise.
I don't read the teasers either. I don't necessarily think that they're a filler, but they just don't hold my attention. I'm indifferent to them I guess. I don't care if people do that meme, but for some reason it does nothing for me. I'm sure that there are people out there that do like it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't like the summaries either. It's ok to give a bit of summary to illustrate a point or something, but I'd prefer a short opinion to a summary with very little opinion. I don't like spoilers, so I like to know as little as possible about the plot before I read it.
I don't really hate when people do these things, but I guess I do skip over those posts.
Jennifer of Little Shelf
You seriously nailed my 3 major blogging pet peeves...the posts where I just keep on scrolling by looking for content.
ReplyDeleteHaha...Yes on the summerizing! I try to not to even mention what happens in the story in my review unless it has to do with how I felt or using it as an example. I've read people's reviews that are 4 paragraphs summary and 1 paragraph saying that they either did or didn't like the book...WHAT?! Doesn't make sense...
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I didn't mind Blogger being down either. I don't have any sort of organisation as to when certain posts must go up. I just decide what I want to do, without feeling obligated to get a post up every day. I'm a student, so things happen that limit the amount of time available for me to write a book review. (Though I have to admit that I was a little bugged, because Blogger ate up a review that I had some difficulty writing and it hasn't come back yet. But then I realised that the worst thing that could happen would be that I would have to write it again. So it's not that big of a deal.)
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly on your 1st blogger bugger. I don't think I have ever read a teaser tuesday post (except for the first few I ever saw), mainly because of the fact that two sentences on a random page aren't going to make me want to read the book.
One of my personal blogger buggers is blogs that participate in too many memes. I like the idea of some memes, but I don't think it is necessary for a blogger to participate in a meme for every day of the week. If someone really wants to do them all, then maybe they could alternate them each week. It gets tiring after some time, seeing Cover Monday, Teaser Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, etc etc., week after week after week. To be clear, it's not the people who do it that bug me, it is the fact that they feel like they need to do it every day. I would honestly prefer reading three meaningful review posts a week, that just seeing seven meme posts.
I don't mean to sound bitchy, so sorry if I do!
And sorry for rambling too! :)
Looking forward to next Monday's post!
They all annoy me too! Especially the teasers. And extra especially when they come from ARCs - you're not allowed to quote ARCs without the final copy! *facepalm*
ReplyDeleteAlso, I get annoyed by milestone giveaways. Giving a book away at 100, 200, 500, 1000 followers giveaways just make it look like you're bribing more followers.
Jennifer & Pepsi - yeah, perhaps I'm a bit too bitter about it, but I consistently skip over them in my reader.
ReplyDeleteJas - I sometimes get sucked into the summary trap, and then I re-read it and rewrite it with more of my thoughts and less of "and then this happened and then this happened and then...". I'm with you! :)
Phanee - Ugh that sucks. I know that happened to some peeps, but for now it looks like all of my drafts are ready to go still. That would certainly have bothered me if something I wrote just vanished. :( I agree with you regarding the overuse of memes. 2-3 TOPS if you're using original content, in my opinion. You're not bitchy or rambling! :)
Skye - I am the worst about quoting arcs in my reviews...I should get better about that. Milestone giveaways don't bother me as much, unless it's a "i'll give away this great book with 20 more followers!" type deal. Anything that goads people into following you is not something I'm a fan of.
Thanks for all the great thoughts, ladies! ^_^
I, too share some of these blogger buggers with you. I was annoyed when Blogger went down last week - but you said it right, this is the first time something this major has happened with them & it IS a free service people! Nothing is 100% effective all of the time. I got annoyed with people who were quick to jump ship & switch to word press, or what have you. I took it as a sign to step away from the blogging world & do other things. Which is something I need to do more of from time to time.
ReplyDeleteAs for your list of 3 things -- I don't understand the teaser posts either. I usually skip them myself. It's fun to revisit a quote from a book you enjoyed though. As for the summarizing reviews.. I tend to explain a bit of the book before I give my thoughts. I feel it helps the reader understand better why I felt a certain way. But I'm an explainer - thats just me! Ha! Can you tell? lol And finally, props to you for calling out those "I'm sorry I'm not posting posts" - they annoy me too!!!!! Well if you had time to write THAT post, then really.. you DO have time to post. They should say, "I don't have any content to post about it right now so this is all you get to read" :-)
Looking forward to next week's!