Where?

Posted on by Brian Scott

I have realised that there’s a little more intimacy in blogging. Unlike mainstream social media, where there are millions of people who can potentially appear on your pages, blogging is far more selective, in fact it can be difficult to connect with people of a like mind, I think.

I (kind of) stopped Facebook, Instagram etc. quite some time ago, I could not cope with all the algorithmic dross that is forced on everyone, I never like IG anyway so, I am now on Mastodon, PeerTube and here. Quieter, more selective and slower paced. For those still using mainstream, there’s a whole other, quieter world out there called the Fediverse where there are NO algorithms, no corporate strategies or money making drivers and it is is a much nicer experience. But, each to their own.

However, I digress, for a change 🙂

Where?

Where do bloggers go when they disappear off our radar? What happened to them? I’m fairly new to all this but already a couple of those I chose to follow have slipped off the radar.

Sidetrack ….. I still find WordPress a little baffling sometimes, like now, I want to find the list of those I follow but have no idea where that is.

In Barb’s World, The Mack Walks, Phoebe … I can’t remember her site title but, they have dropped off the radar and I get so intrigued by that. We all have real lives so anything can get in the way. I know Phoebe was unwell so, I hope she recovered ok?

This is what I meant by blogging is more intimate. There’s almost a relationship with some sites / people; a conversation that just fades or never really starts.

Am I talking about connecting? I think it is possible to connect on t’internet, like minds and so on.

Anyway, that’s it really 🙂 I just felt like (saying) typing that 🙂

Stay safe and well all

24 thoughts on “Where?”

  2. I agree with you about the more intimate connection. I really enjoy both the blogs themselves, writing mine and reading other people’s, and the comments, replies to comments, etc. The whole environment feels a much more thoughtful and deep communication than mainstream social media with its ‘ego-flash of the moment’ approach buried in algorithm-driven commercialisation.
    On that note, I must get onto my next post.

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      1. Most IT feel like that because they are.

        I retired recently from 45 years building user-facing IT systems (more recently web-based) and have seen a steady drift from trained analysts and developers working with knowledgable senior business users to build a solution in-house, to the current model of “senior designers”(usually polytech trained and under 30) working for the contracted vendor organisation talking to the client company’s senior managers (the “important” people) then building half a solution with a focus on the pretty screens every older person hates, before they run out of money and convince the senior manager the system is finished. All the users hate it but managers tell each other what great success it is.

        When I retired we had 6 projects all following that path and I was told I was difficult because I kept warning about the missing user functionality and functionality for exception conditions.

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      2. I am so with you there 👌 I saw my role as a trainer to be the bridge between IT and users, Inc. Managers but of course, they didn’t need to know how it worked, they’d never actually use it 🤯🤬

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      1. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Jetpack is really for the phone, WordPress and the Reader are better suited for desktop use, and Gravatar is simply there for your profile image, your avatar across sites.

        Three tools, three different purposes.

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  4. Consider using an RSS feed reader for your subscriptions. This tool allows you to subscribe, and keep all your subscriptions out of email, but still archived. Almost every blog, including all WordPress blogs have RSS feeds. The owners / authors do not even know this application is part of their service by default. I use the free newsreader version of Feedly … https://feedly.com/

    On another front I had my first “bear attack” of the spring last night at 2:33 am (captured on trailcam). Yogi took down 3 of my 4 birdfeeders. He is a young harmless, just hungry, male black bear who just woke up from his winter hibernation. Momma bear with this year’s brood of cubs has not shown up yet … any day now!

    Rich

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  5. Consider using an RSS feed reader for your subscriptions. This tool allows you to subscribe, and keep all your subscriptions out of email, but still archived. Almost every blog, including all WordPress blogs have RSS feeds. The owners / authors do not even know this application is part of their service by default. I use the free newsreader version of Feedly … https://feedly.com/

    On another front I had my first “bear attack” of the spring last night at 2:33 am (captured on trailcam). Yogi took down 3 of my 4 birdfeeders. He is a young harmless, just hungry, male black bear who just woke up from his winter hibernation. Momma bear with this year’s brood of cubs has not shown up yet … any day now!

    Rich

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  6. Consider using an RSS feed reader for your subscriptions. This tool allows you to subscribe, and keep all your subscriptions out of email, but still archived. Almost every blog, including all WordPress blogs have RSS feeds. The owners / authors do not even know this application is part of their service by default. I use the free newsreader version of Feedly … https://feedly.com/

    On another front I had my first “bear attack” of the spring last night at 2:33 am (captured on trailcam). Yogi took down 3 of my 4 birdfeeders. He is a young harmless, just hungry, male black bear who just woke up from his winter hibernation. Momma bear with this year’s brood of cubs has not shown up yet … any day now!

    Rich

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  7. I share your sentiment about this. I choose to share more here in my blogs than I do on IG and Facebook yet those platforms contain pictures of what I ate for dinner some days so go figure lol. I can track people down easily via social media but here like you said is the challenge.

    I too have lost track of daily blog friends and wonder about them quite often. You are not alone in this regard. I’ve even tried emailing with no success.

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    1. I only have FB for my ex Navy colleagues, I did create a page for my photos but cannot handle all the random crap they throw at me daily so, I rarely use it 🙂
      Here’s hoping our lost connections are all safe and well

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      1. That is exactly how I feel about FB.

        I also got WhatsApp because a Toastmasters club I am in set up a group so that people had one tool for last minute warning that they were running late or missing the meeting, because the person running the meeting changes every week. Within a few months we were up to 30 messages a day of social chit-chat so i turned notifications off and only use it when my wife, who is also in the club, tells me there is something I need to read. I wish AI could be as good as her at filtering my notifications.

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  8. I stopped using Facebook more than a decade ago and never missed it. I’m still on Instagram, and Flickr but, Flickr never had a blogging vibe so I found WP. I use WP the most.

    If you go to your home page and then scroll down and get to your dashboard you should see a black tool bar across the top of the page with Reader, Comments, ?, and bell. Click on the Reader and it will open a box on the left side of the page with all your followers. The main body of that page if you refresh it has all the latest posts from those you follow. I also have Jetpack installed, but really have no idea what it does.

    WP can be frustrating at times. Sometimes people I follow get unfollowed or stop showing up in my feed, and the comments…for a very long time I’ve had issues with being able to write comments on people’s blog posts. I use the page I told you about above to read my daily feed and make comments on blogs that WP won’t let me do from the email I open to read a post, and to find those who no longer show up in email for some crazy unknown reason.
    I hope you get all sorted and find your followers and those you’re following.

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    1. Hi Deborah, I see your Flickr stream now and again but, for some reason I’ve kind of fallen out of love with Flickr 😦 I contacted them once about a more bloggy feel option, no reply.
      Bizarrely I spent many years teaching software to people and here i am kind of struggling with it, I think it’s laziness, stop and really look, figure it all out 🙂

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  9. Likewise Brian, I stopped using all those other social Media platforms as they are time wasting and consuming. Blogging is as you say more specifically addressing areas of direct interest and sharing it with others who are also. rather than random spraying out info about ourselves. Yes I also think connecting about things of like interest is instructive and encouraging.

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    1. Agreed, it is a real shame that FB got commercial, and worse, Mastodon is an entirely different place and I thoroughly enjoy it but ….. more are joining and the feeling is changing, we shall see 🙂

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      2. It’s a bit strange to mainstream media users, when you join, nothing happens!!!! You have to go find what / who you like and start from there, once you’re settled it is so much nicer

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Thank you for dropping by, I'd really like to hear any comments my tale may have raised in your mind during your visit.