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SURecently, I broke the 100 feeds I’m keeping up with on my blog, I go to bed at night and have 50 stories to read in the morning. It’s quite intense. A lot of people deserve to be on my feedreader list, they’re either friends, blog buddies. informative blogs, or just fun to read.
However, there are a few blogs that don’t quite meet my high standard, and I have very definite reasons for subscribing to them. They’re not good reasons. They are very very bad reasons. These three reasons make me feel dirty, and I feel if I confess them, it will be one step back on the road to recovery.
1. I fancy the author
I am a blogger, but I’m also a man. If I fancy the author, I will probably subscribe to it.
Usually, the same thing happens between me and cute bloggers that I have nothing in common with and me and cute girls I have nothing in common with: I get angry at having nothing in common, depressed as the girl will be forever out of reach and end up an emotionally weaker state than before. I will overcompensate, pretend I like them, and then get all tetchy and worked up. “Why don’t they return my comments?” I often ponder, until I delete their feed from my RSS, usually after eating a whole tub of ice cream, and downing half a bottle of Jack Daniels.
I really should stop this.
Incidentally, with Han, this wasn’t the case. In fact, the little cheeky minx taught me all about the wonders of RSS.
2. You Have a Low Top Commenters Count
This is evil. I proudly display my top commenters quite high, so at least people can click on them. Not so with a lot of blogs, but usually they count as a linkback from the home page. As such, I have been known to subscribe and leave rather a lot of comments to leave me in the UEFA cup places of their list (around third or fourth), so that it counts as a linkback. Of course, sometimes this is successful, other times it’s not. Usually if I like the blog, I keep commenting, and end up more successful, and end up getting a shit load of linkbacks anyway.
3. I think your blog is rubbish
I LOVE reading shit blogs. It’s a strange thing. Shit blogs are where blogging began, and shit blogs will be where blogging ends. I’m not talking about regurgitated crap from probloggers with changed affiliate links. Oh no. That’s just far to dry. I’m talking about people who pour their hearts and souls (but not their grasp on the English language) into these information detritus. The fantastic “Who’s doing who?”, “I hate school” and “band reviews”. Often I have a piqued interest in them, and I have to subscribe because the text is usually so incomprehensible that the RSS is the best option. I forgive these miserable designs as, quite frankly though, the “shit” category on my Google Reader is fully of literary genius.
With the exception of point two though, I rarely comment on these blogs (point 1 I’m usually too shy and with point 3 I don’t know what to say), and therefore the chances are that – as you are reading this, I came across your blog for all the right reasons, so congratulations! I think you’re blog is not rubbish, and…errr…I don’t think you’re cute.
Right, as I dig myself out of a hole with my female readers, I feel that I can’t be the only blogger who reads blogs they morally shouldn’t. So, confess your blogging sins in the comment box below!
Rhys Wynne, the author of this blog, is a 20 something web designer from Colwyn Bay.
I’m definitely guilty of the first two! Something about a handsome face combined with the ability to spell makes me hot. As for the second one, I figure I am doing a good deed along the way, so it’s not so bad… My own sins include subscribing to a couple of blogs that have so many readers that I am guaranteed traffic if I comment.
On a daily basis at about 4pm i replenish my drink and read your blog.. i feel dirty, i should have something better to do (mostly work) but no im here like the whore that you want me to be.
And i know you fancy me… it doesn’t cause problems any more
I do regularly read a whopping 3 blogs…. sometimes 4! it’s hard to keep up with travelling and my own being so lame.
my favourite has to be the livid one i found through celestes blog roll. that bloke is funny as!
I secretly check Perez HIlton several times daily, not because he’s hot but because he’s so bitchy, especially to Tom Cruise. He’s not in my RSS though because he updates like 30 times a day and each post has 400 comments. My reader would explode.
To be honest Rhys, I have no fucking idea why I read your blog. We have interests in two completely different types of football, live on other sides of the world, and I’m not a huge blog reader.
I guess the whole name thing, and the fact that we are both geeks and drink copious amounts of beer when we can is the connection.
The other blogs I used to read have now stopped, but I still read a few geek blogs – especially TAUW
.
As for my own blog… well lately I’ve just been too lazy and have found better options of either getting drunk or getting laid… hmmm.
lol If I failed at teaching you bathroom etiquette I’ll die happily knowing I showed you the wonders of RSS.
I have 205 subscriptions and I have no idea why I read most of them…I dont think I have any morally wrong subscriptions. I have modblog to satisfy my piercing urges!
oh and I have a whole category devoted to cat macros and cute things!!
I have this horrible tendency to read blogs written by people I cannot stand. I’ll start reading them thinking hey they seem cool and then as the weeks of self-obsessed posts turn into months of the same then I begin to dislike them yet I still always come back and read..no idea why but I have to do it.
I never comment on them though, usually because I wouldn’t have anything nice to say and thats the best time to say nothing at all.
Bugger, I think I fit into 3, I just did a “I hate school post”. I blame Satan.
I don’t know why I’ve subscribed to some and not to others. Han, Nikki (paperlake), Nellie (harlequingirl) and Ryan are the only ones I subscribe to. Yet for some reason I visit your site more than theirs. Maybe it’s just because you update more. Yeah, that makes sense.
Doh, hope I don’t fit into the “shit blog” category.
I think you bring up a good point with Top Commentators. I display mine pretty high (especially considering I dropped to 1 sidebar), but I noticed many blogs display them in the footer or somewhere fairly out of sight.
Dare I speculate as to why you added me to your RSS reader?
My guilty pleasure is what I call “train-wreck” blogs: Blogs written by young mothers that have little sense in terms of personal safety and online responsibility in regards to both themselves and their children.
They post every morsel of their child’s waking hours in a multitude of digital media. NOTHING is too sacred or personal to share. They include where they live, their child’s nicknames, their child’s height, weight, age, identify able features, the places they attend and on what days, where they and their husband works and in what job position, the make and model of their car(s) including photos that feature the licence plate, where they are moving to and a fully-featured floorplan complete with the location of all doors and windows (ideal for a burglar)… The list goes on.
And, I’ve made NONE of this up. ALL of the above was published publicly by popular (or not-so popular as the case may be) mummy blogger(s) that I read. And then, they wondered why they’re being stalked and receiving threats!!
The mind boggles, but it’s like an accident you just can’t turn away from, you know the end is gonna be grisly but you just can’t help yourself…
I am a bad person.
I’m online strictly for the chicks. So far no luck. I wonder what I’m doing wrong?
I’m glad I caught this post in the “swing of things”. Things got really entertaining really fast. Keep up the … work. (#):)
Does that mean that as I’m websiteless that I’m taking up a place of some unscrouplious blogger who could try and get high up on your comment stats for google purposes?
Maybe I should auction off the website address I’ll use in my comment listing. Anyone wanting that link, I’ll take offers from £2 upwards (enough to buy a beer)
I wonder if you’re subscribed to my feed…
I’ve never seen this “top commenters” thing before. So the point of it is that it makes you look more popular and interesting by giving yu a higher comment count, but actually it’s just a means for people to direct traffic to their own blogs?
Sounds like my “comment of the day” feature, only more briliantly crafted.
Here I was feeling good about all of the people that loved me so much they subscribed to my feed. Now I don’t know what to think ;-P
Number three is interesting, and would explain everything!! :p
Hmmm… well, I ceased being cute long about the time I hit 40 – so that’s not it.
I’m not sure what the top-commenter’s thing means… do you visit people who don’t comment much or who don’t get many comments?
Perhaps I have a shit blog? It must seem like a lot of drivel to someone your age… but guess what? It’s kind of like a window to your future. Or a future. Whatever that means…
Ahhhh.
So that’s who my 1 subscriber is!
So you either fancy me or you think my blog is shit. Hmmm. I’m not sure which one I prefer.
[...] reveals three less than wholesome reasons why he subscribes to your blog. So, which is it Rhys… do you fancy me or is my blog [...]
Perhaps I will visit a blog via Mybloglog or somewhere else that uses avatars if you have a groovy avatar…to include a cute lady…,but unless the content is there, I probably won’t stay…
great post thanks to David of Pureblogging for mentioning it.
Hmmm, well, I hope mine isn’t one of the three…although I suppose 1 would be somewhat flattering…I guess?
Though I hope my readers actually dig what I’ve got to say, too
I don’t want to know which category I fall into :S