Does anyone else find blogs boring?

[yello]

That's my tabloid style headline!

Not ALL blogs obviously... but many many many blogs. I've attempted to read a number of them recently and, dear lord, I get bored after a couple of sentences. 'I did this', 'I did that'.... tedium beyond belief. Who gives a ****!

Blogs give bloggers the misguided opinion that others are interested in what they do. In general, they are not. Not unless they can convey it in an interesting fashion at any rate. Worse still are the aspiring writers. Save me from them. If people want to write, then please use words that you know, are comfortable with and can feel. Please don't reach for the thesaurus. Your writing will read like a badly fitting shirt, and one of a fashion that doesn't suit you. Like that clichéd dancing uncle; you might be having fun but it's just wrong.

And, yes, I'm a grumpy git. I don't get facebook either.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Depends on who it is, generally if its nothing more than a 'dear world, this is why you must listen to me today' type of message I'm not interested. But if its genuinely updating me on something I am interested in, I'll read.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I think the only blog entry I've ever read was one of zimzum's on this forum - actually it was entertaining and well written. I got the impression that most are like those round-robin letters you see at Christmas time, stuffed to brim with ego and how well young Tarquin and Jocasta are doing - pass the sick-bag.

 

[benb]

Well, you soon get a feel for the interesting ones - usually a specific topic like media, science, cycling, films &c.
I really don't see the point of having a blog that is basically "I had breakfast then I had a sh1t"

 

[thnurg]

Yes, they're mostly mind-bogglingly tedious. IT ones are probably the worst. Linux ones are probably the worst IT ones.

Boo.
The whole point of IT blogs, and especially Linux Blogs is not that you want people to hang onto your every word, but want to offer up solutions to problems that people can find via a web search.
I'm a Linux sysadmin and have a blog but it's rare that I'll put anything up because I don't want to bore people with the details of my day. Only if I manage to solve a particularly annoying problem will I post the solution.

 

[MissTillyFlop]

Shhhh, i'll only blog about this.

0001111010101010000111

 

[trustysteed]

'Does anyone else find blogs boring?'

Only if i read them...

 

[Shaun]

I think there's a quality issue with a lot of blogs mainly because everyone can have one, and because a lot of people don't understand what a blog should be used for.

It's akin to a book publisher printing everything that's submitted. No filtering. No proof readnig. No rewites or changes.

Some people are good at conveying their message in writing, others not so; and some people (mistakenly IMHO) think that others want to know the finest detail of the minutiae of their lives - feel that the "Facebook" experience works just as well in long blog articles - well, it just doesn't.

Different media require a different approach and cater to a different audience; FB = simple, general, social snippets and gossip; TW = Soundbites, quick shout-outs about things happening NOW, simple thoughts for people to consider; Forums = many-to-many conversations that go deeper than FB and TW and allow a community to be built around specific subjects and interests; Blogs = one-to-many subjective accounts or thoughts that need to be well written to capture and hold people's interest.

Blogging like you're talking to a Facebook audience just isn't going to work for blog readers.

Blog writing is a skill I don't poses. So I don't blog. (I shall have to remember to redact this post if I ever start a blog!).

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[accountantpete]

I just read my first Linux Blog ( or WeHateLinux Blog to be exact) - didn't understand a word which apparently makes me a Luser

 

[Fnaar]

I look at a couple of music ones now and then, plus one related to my work that I read daily, the Guardian cycling blog occasionally, and sometimes one or two links off here to touring blogs etc that are interesting.

 

[GTTTM]

I really don't see the point of having a blog that is basically "I had breakfast then I had a sh1t"

That's what facebook and twitter are for

On the subject in had, I have a blog on here, it's a bit shoot really, never had a blog before, but here at least I can witter on about my cycling progress (or lack thereof), and my wild dreams of a family cycling tour and know that anyone that does, unfortunately for them, stumble across it will have some idea what I'm wittering on about.

I'm not a writer, I'm never going to pretend to be one. But at least writing it on the blog on here I can pretend that someone else is interested

 

[trustysteed]

"I had breakfast then I had a sh1t"

they should write a 'bog' on 'shitter'...

 

[mickle]

Bugger.

 

[GTTTM]

Bugger.

no thanks - not really my thing

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Blogs have all kinds of purposes. One thing for someone who finds any particular blog boring to consider is that maybe it isn't written for you. Just because something is available online, it does not mean that it is trying to appeal to any more than a select group of people.

I have three. They are all very different. One is my work blog. It's where I write few notes on things that are happening in the area in which I write and research. People who work in my field read it, students read it, journalists read it, and occasionally even policy-makers and activists read it. Or at least they do when I am updating it regularly!

The second is my training blog. It is basically a training diary and notebook entirely for me, but it's online because you never know who might find it useful if, like me, they decide to start doing triathlon from scratch. But it's not written with anyone else in mind. Although, during the time I was training for a large charity tri, I did let a few more people know about it because it would help them appreciate what the event was all about.

Finally, my wife and I have a family blog. As my wife and I are from the opposite sides of the world, and we now live in a completely different country, so it is difficult to keep in touch with everyone in our families and all our friends all the time. So this is where we post pictures of what we are up to and mainly these days, how our little boy is growing up. Several of my wife's other friends who are living in various places around the world do the same. You can't google it, you have to know the address. And it's not like a round-robin letter because it doesn't arrive at your house assuming you care, you have to chose to read it.