Comments on: Voice and Direction (or Why this Blog Sucks) http://www.pathawi.net/b-log/?p=19 Pensaments of an Anthropological Patzer Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:42:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: NotSoMuch http://www.pathawi.net/b-log/?p=19&cpage=1#comment-96 NotSoMuch Tue, 06 Dec 2005 14:31:01 +0000 http://www.pathawi.net/b-log/2005/05/30/voice-and-direction/#comment-96 I think you could be coming at this wrong. First and FOREMOST: this blog doesn't suck. Part of what is interesting about it is that it has variety; it is not all one topic and adhering rigidly to that. It would be more interesting with more of "you" in it, if you find your voice more, if you have courage to show more of your emotions, humour, etc. But it's already interesting. That would just make it more interesting. Which brings me to: Second (and I am not even sure this is a big truth): it is likely true whether you want it to be or not that --- your audience finds you. It would be a mistake to try to write to attract an audience. You probably won't do it any more if you do than if you don't write that way. It would be just as much a mistake to attract an audience (even a bit of an audience) and then try to write to that audience to keep them or grow them into a bigger audience. That is not what got them here in the 1st place and it is not what is going to keep them. Consider how I got here: someone met you somewhere else. They got to see a little of that "real you" side of you with the humour and the full range of emotions and then took a leap off a cliff by coming here to read your blog (I presume you invited them but maybe they googled you, who knows). Then that person decided to stay. They did that because of what was here. To paraphrase Caesar: They came. They read. They liked. .... they stayed. .... but then ... that person took it one step further by inviting me (and others you probably did not want to attract as your audience ... and here I am referring to Penny) .... (joking) ... Maybe you invited 50 people and like 10 actually ever came here once. Maybe that reader who invited me invited 10 people and only 2 of us ever actually came here once. But we did come. And that's how we came to be here. BUT the key thing is: once here we decided to stay (as in come back regularly) Why is that? Interesting question. Because of what we found waiting when we arrived. You wrote a lot of words into what seemed to be a vacuum back in April, May, June, etc. Now here in November, December, it is revealed that you were NOT writing into a vacuum, you were writing into a time capsule. We opened it later and found little interesting shiny trinkets here and there and we liked the way they glitter in the sunlight we have today. ... all this rambling goes to say 2 things: your blog doesn't suck; don't stop writing your blog ... don't do that because other people like it. (You do have an audience: me and your Dad someone who sounds like an ex-Vice Principal ... and Penny, who seems to have some strange attraction to Vice Principals who sound authoritarian ... and what that says about where she used to go to High School, I cannot begin to guess.) I think you could be coming at this wrong. First and FOREMOST:
this blog doesn’t suck.
Part of what is interesting about it is that it has variety; it is not all one topic and adhering rigidly to that.
It would be more interesting with more of “you” in it, if you find your voice more, if you have courage to show more of your emotions, humour, etc.
But it’s already interesting. That would just make it more interesting.
Which brings me to:
Second (and I am not even sure this is a big truth): it is likely true whether you want it to be or not that — your audience finds you.
It would be a mistake to try to write to attract an audience. You probably won’t do it any more if you do than if you don’t write that way.
It would be just as much a mistake to attract an audience (even a bit of an audience) and then try to write to that audience to keep them or grow them into a bigger audience. That is not what got them here in the 1st place and it is not what is going to keep them.
Consider how I got here: someone met you somewhere else. They got to see a little of that “real you” side of you with the humour and the full range of emotions and then took a leap off a cliff by coming here to read your blog (I presume you invited them but maybe they googled you, who knows).
Then that person decided to stay. They did that because of what was here. To paraphrase Caesar: They came. They read. They liked.
…. they stayed.
…. but then … that person took it one step further by inviting me (and others you probably did not want to attract as your audience … and here I am referring to Penny) …. (joking) … Maybe you invited 50 people and like 10 actually ever came here once. Maybe that reader who invited me invited 10 people and only 2 of us ever actually came here once. But we did come. And that’s how we came to be here. BUT the key thing is: once here we decided to stay (as in come back regularly)
Why is that?
Interesting question. Because of what we found waiting when we arrived.
You wrote a lot of words into what seemed to be a vacuum back in April, May, June, etc. Now here in November, December, it is revealed that you were NOT writing into a vacuum, you were writing into a time capsule.
We opened it later and found little interesting shiny trinkets here and there and we liked the way they glitter in the sunlight we have today.
… all this rambling goes to say 2 things: your blog doesn’t suck; don’t stop writing your blog … don’t do that because other people like it. (You do have an audience: me and your Dad someone who sounds like an ex-Vice Principal … and Penny, who seems to have some strange attraction to Vice Principals who sound authoritarian … and what that says about where she used to go to High School, I cannot begin to guess.)

]]> By: FieldNotes: Occasional Musings on Anthropological Topics http://www.pathawi.net/b-log/?p=19&cpage=1#comment-9 FieldNotes: Occasional Musings on Anthropological Topics Thu, 02 Jun 2005 00:07:12 +0000 http://www.pathawi.net/b-log/2005/05/30/voice-and-direction/#comment-9 <strong>Audience and Blogging</strong> As I try and find my blogging voice, I realize that I struggle with the idea of audience. Much of my research methodology and orientation in anthropology is drawn from the Ethnography of Speaking and because of that I think I am (over) analyzing blogg... Audience and Blogging

As I try and find my blogging voice, I realize that I struggle with the idea of audience. Much of my research methodology and orientation in anthropology is drawn from the Ethnography of Speaking and because of that I think I am (over) analyzing blogg…

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