Blogging Styles

There are a lot of blogs out in the internet world. Some are good and allow you to peek into the lives of others. Some are what I call 'depend' blogs - yanno the ones where one has to get your depends out before attempting to read them because you will pee your pants from laughing so hard. Others take freedom of speech to the nth degree and show us the worst in human nature. And others show us the best of another and give us hope that the world isn't all crappy all the time. Still others blog and give us information about specific subjects.

The ones that I have a problem with are those who blog for intentional purposes: they do ANYTHING to generate traffic to their site. They are so far out there with their blog subjects, it is hard to figure out what is truth and what is fiction. I liken them to the scandal newspapers and magazines and rags: anything for a headline even if it doesn't have an ounce of truth in it. I am sure you all know of blogs who do this. I tend to avoid them. But I go against the grain on this thought: I feel they should be held accountable for what they state in their blogs, much in the same way as other media.

Now we get to how one handles the responses on their blog. In my opinion, there are 3 types of responses:
1. Good
2. Bad
3. Spam

It's easy to know what to do with #1 and #3. #2 is a hot issue. Blogspot has features to allow the blog owner to monitor their comments by either making the responder type in a verification code before their response to show up, or take it one step further by typing in the verification code and not allowing a comment to show up until the blog owner approves the comment.

Now remember the styles above. If you want a clean blog and focused only on what you are saying, then you do not want negative comments in any way. But in reality, who wants to read a goody-two-shoes blog? Is life such a bed of roses for you that you can't see anything else? If so, then good for you. My life doesn't happen to be like that.

If you invite other's opinions or comments, then you have to allow comments that do not happen to agree with yours. But just because you get a negative comment, does this mean you delete them?

Think of it this way: there was a blog I read all the time. It was one of those 'get the depends before reading' blog. I loved it. Soon it became boring. Why? The blogger was so far into herself that she didn't allow any negative comments at all in any way, shape, or form. Unless the response praised her up one way and another, it didn't get posted. She became a 'praise' whore to me. Her blog, although it remained funny, no longer held the appeal. I looked at it the other day again. It was still the same thing over and over. It was no longer a depends blog.

That brings up the thought that why would one want a negative comment? Well, maybe that responder has a different opinion than yours - maybe that responder has another way of thinking that might alter your opinion. What a wonderful way to learn about others.

Even friends don't always agree with friends. I welcome all comments at my blog. (Note: if it is spam: make sure it is a good site!)