The Scrolls

Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category

On Facebook and Friends

A while ago, I made a practice of deleting a person a day from my Facebook account. I have a lot of “Friends” there but how many of them are really my friends? Facebook is great because you can look up anyone, everyone that you’ve ever met but that’s sort of its downfall. With MySpace, my friends list was full of bands and people I didn’t know but, hey, at least I could pretend I was using the site because I wanted to get to know them. I make no such claims with Facebook. My Facebook friends list is full of people to whom I never speak, with whom I will never have a conversation again.

Perhaps it started because I simply wanted to have no pending friend requests. Maybe I felt guilty when I didn’t add people but now my friends list is full of people who were my friend eight years ago but one or both of us have changed so much — or stayed so exactly the same — that we could never have a friendship now, if we hadn’t already been friends. And that’s the better of the non-friend Facebook friends. I’ve got a ton of people who went to the same school as me but with whom I never had a single conversation who have tried to add me. I have people who have tried to add me who I’ve felt nothing but disgust for. I have people of whom I have absolutely no recollection.

Sure, people change and, yes, friendships can arise from surprising sources but Facebook isn’t one of those. I don’t talk to these people because of Facebook. It hasn’t facilitated much in the way of connections. It hasn’t rekindled a single friendship that I can think of. In fact, Facebook only connects me to people with whom I’d already be connecting outside of Facebook. It only keeps me up to date with people I’d remember even if there were no Facebook.

So when I say that a friendship a decade ago is not enough to keep you on my friends list. I’m not lying. It’s not. But it’s not unkind, either. We’re not meant to keep in contact with every person we ever met. Trying to do so will only weigh us down, perhaps more-so for those of us with anxiety. The value of our connections is that they are fleeting. They all cannot possibly last forever and, if we’re smart, that motivates us to make the best of that time and to be grateful for it.

NaBloPoMo

November is national blog posting month/national novel writing month. I didn’t sign up for either. Can you imagine me writing a novel? But, for whatever reason, I have been writing and blogging a whole lot more anyway. So even though I’m not participating, I’ve been trying to blog every day on all my blogs. Technically, I’ve been successful even though it’s a cheating sort of successful.

It’s interesting, though. Normally, I try to post every three days on each of my blogs. I throw in extra posts, like paid posts on Reviews by Cole, in between. I don’t really count them as entries, I guess. I do this because, as a blog reader, I become inundated pretty quickly. I find is so difficult to follow blogs that update every day, let along several times per day.

But the search engines? Those are an entirely different story. You see, websites that update several times per day really do rank higher. It’s especially noticeably with Alexa. When I’m posting like a madwoman, my rank increases (drops?) like whoa. But that’s crazy. I mean, who really has so much to say that they can put out two or three quality blog posts per day? Chances are, if you’re that person, I have to wade through a lot of crap in order to find something I find interesting. Sorry.

So here’s just one post for the day. Thank you very mucy.

Ranty Thursday (Working on a new name)

Yesterday I posted a picture of a pony. It was facetious in several ways.

First, when I asked for suggestions of what sort of pictures I should put on this blog, Damita suggested ponies. I actually ignored her suggestion for some cat pictures. Sorry! Forgive me?

Second, I was irritated at a trend I’ve noticed lately regarding Wordless Wednesday posts. Here’s a hint: they aren’t wordless. This meme is simple. If you participate, you post one or more photos and nothing else, save for maybe a link to your Flickr or what-have-you. It’s about expressing yourself or simply showing something beautiful without words. I’m a wordy bitchy but I appreciate the sentiment, you know?

So how dense must a person be to post a “Wordless Wednesday” post and fill it with words. If the pictures don’t do all the explaining, then save them for another post and skip the meme. Someone I follow on Twitter keeps posting for this meme but doing it completely wrong and, in my opinion, cheapening it.

I usually don’t participate because I’m not a photographer. I don’t have a great camera or take amazing pictures, even if you all love Phantom. But that’s kind of the point. My photos are almost all of cats and I know people don’t want to see that all the time. I also don’t want to use others’ photos, even though I think that’s permissible. I’m not sure who started Wordless Wednesday so I can’t say.

But even if I only participated in it and used others’ photos, I’d still be participating in a way that is in line with the purpose. If your Wordless Wednesday has a word count, you’re doing it wrong.

Wordless Wednesday: This is a Pony

WTF Facebook

Lately, I’ve noticed some new behavior from Facebook. Specifically, when I go to post a link as my status or onto a group, it’s not generating the description and title for the specific link but is only showing the URL and description for the domain. When I post links to this site, it doesn’t even show my blog title, just the URL. When I post a URL to a single post on Reviews by Cole, it shows the domain URL — rather than the post itself — and the description I’ve entered into my SEO plugin. But it works just fine with another blog.

Originally, I thought I may have different settings for each blog on my SEO plugin so I’ve updated them to be identical but only the review blog differed anyway. This blog should still show up normally. And, in fact, when I look at the website properties in Firefox, the titles and descriptions are accurate. Facebook also isn’t bringing up all the thumbnails that it should for the review blog. So whatever system Facebook is using is either having trouble finding this information or ignoring it all together and, if that’s the case, why?

I’ve posted links before that worked normally so I don’t understand the change. Boo.

When a blog is not a blog

There are two definite types of blogs that I read. There’s the “Real people” blogs. Chances are, if you’re here and especially if we comment back and forth, you’re a “real people.” Congratulations. You tend to blog about your real life like I do mine here. No ulterior movies there. We both probably value commenting back and forth as a way to reach new visitors and you probably know a little bit about me.

Then there’s the.. other blogs. Those other blogs are like my other blog, actually. The focus is more business like. The goal is more specific. It’s all reviews and giveaways and coupons. There’s a lot of mommy blogs that I spend time on because mommies and me seem to like to save money. My review blog is sort of a fish out of water because I have no children. Granted, I think I started it before the mommy blog explosion but I’m often overlooked because my lack of parenthood. I chug along anyway.

And I’ve noticed that a blog is not a blog and things are done quite differently in those two different worlds. Real people try to respond to every single comment with thoughtful comments of their own. Real people use comments to form friendships. It’s not the easiest way but it’s the way things were done.

This doesn’t happen on the other blogs. Partly because comments are frequently a form of giveaway entry so there’s no freakin’ way a blog own can visitor hundreds of blogs and return all those comments and, because those comments aren’t heartfelt to begin with, who would want to? There’s a whole sense of anonymity and almost disconnectedness. It’s much easier to get lost in the crowd as both a commentor and blogger and it seems more difficult to foster relationships and friendships apart from working/business ones.

It’s interesting, too, that some of my readers on Reviews by Cole aren’t bloggers. It makes sense. Reviews appeal to consumers in general, not just those who have their own blog. So there may not be a blog to comment on in the first place. When you look at the giveaway participants, many have flowed over from sweepstakes communities and the same logic applies.

It makes sense, follows its own sort of logic but it sure would be nice if a blog were a blog and the same rules applied always.

Things I Like and Others I Don’t

I am enjoying the new WordPress dashboard. It’s sleeker, prettier. It seems to load faster and the updated admin bar is much more useful.

I am not enjoying the heat. It’s not even that hot here but my room is the warmest in the house. I wake up sweating and, if I want to do anything more than sit on the couch (and even just to do that, really) I have to turn on the air conditioning. We have a single “window” unit built into the wall. Unfortunately, the roommate doesn’t ever get hot so she’s always turning it off, not understanding the concept is not just to cool you off when you’re in a room but to reduce the overall temperature over time.

I enjoyed a very busy Thursday through Saturday with friends and family and now I’m enjoying having time to myself. As I’ve caught up with most of the television shows that I watch and there aren’t any new movies for me to procure, I have more time for putzing online, entering giveaways, reading and playing games on my devices. It’s much more relaxed.

I seriously dislike stupid article rewrite requests. Lately, I feel as though people who have never used the Internet or a computer before are editing my tech beta articles. If we have to assume that the reader has a basic grasp of the subject, I would think we can assume the same of the editors but, nope. I am constantly explaining things that they should know before they even accept an article to review. It seems like they expect it to be easy but they’re wasting my time and theirs.

I am super excited over my recent giveaways at Reviews by Cole. My giveaway for the Medium Next Door was moderately successful, compared to previous giveaways but my Bath and Body Works giveaway hasn’t even been up a day and I have almost three dozen entries. It’s fantastic. I recently won a giveaway myself so that’s also exciting.

I’m frustrated at Goliath for constantly scratching at carpet next to my bedroom door. I don’t know why he does it but I do know that sprays don’t help. I have covered the area with paper and duct tape — duct tape — but he still tries to get at it. It’s stupidly frustrating and I hate being angry with him. Perhaps it’s time to try Soft Paws again..

And to end this on a positive note, I’ve had very good luck shopping for new clothes and finding clothes that fit. I feel pretty confident in that area and with my weight loss, even though I haven’t been pursuing it that actively. It’s reassuring either way.