Wednesday 2 January 2013

Where has everyone gone?

I didn't have the good fortune to be invited to any exciting New Year's parties this year. So I spent it alone. I also was out of my favorite beer, Innis and Gunn, so I also spent my New Year's sober. And I spent it in front of the dull glow of my computer screen.

And I was perfectly fine with that.

Though a good beer to accompany you never hurts.

I decided to go and revisit all the commenters who left comments on my blog last New Years. It's was a bit of a humbling experience. So many bloggers gone, disappeared, or forever on hiatus. It's hard to believe that at one point, I was getting almost 100 comments per post, now I struggle to hit 30.

But it's not the quantity of the comments that matter, but the quality. It's really true because I find that bloggers who do take the time to actually read what you've wrote and write something meaningful back tend to have better blogs to read as well. Most of the dead blogs left generic and lazy comments.

So thank you for everyone who still stops by to say hi. It's nice to know I have a small core group of readers out there.


But another reason why I wasn't too disappointed was because I spent the entire time in front of the computer working on various projects. I was the kind of guy who would go "That's a really neat thing to do, I should go do it" and then never get around to doing anything.

I still sort of am like that, but I'm working on changing that. This blog is an example of a project that I would consider a success. If anything else becomes successful, you'll hear of it. Some are a bit ambitious, some people would consider them frivolous or a waste of time, but I think these are things worth looking into.

Meanwhile my parents think I'm just playing games.

Thanks for having so much faith in your son.

Seriously, the only computer game I'm touching until my computer gets upgraded is Starcraft. Which I hate by the way, I hate this game. Like I've said before, I can control my emotions fairly well, but nothing, NOTHING, makes me as mad as this game. I have an abusive relationship with Starcraft and I admit it.

In the meantime, it's back to work. More research, more typing, more thinking and planning. I have less than a week left before classes resume so I want to see how many of these things I can successfully get off the ground before then.

Hopefully they don't go something like this:


34 comments:

  1. Hey, hope you're doing better. I wouldn't worry about comments going up and down...it comes and goes. We love ya ;)

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  2. Don't quite know where all the bloggers went. Guess they realized making money with google ads isn't as easy as it sounds.

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  3. Good luck! Let's hope they don't end up like that poor bird!x

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  4. Is it sad that I actually placed my hand on the high five cutout?

    I spent NYE alone too, as I have for the past few years. Everyone goes on about how you have to go out and get drunk and have fun ... I prefer to stay in alone and get drunk!

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  5. I high five your Internet blogger picture! :)

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  6. High five! My new year was spent similarly to yours, I just sat at home, and that's the way I prefer it.
    I know what you mean about bloggers disappearing, when I started my blog I had a few regular commenters who have just disappeared.

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  7. Spending your new years by yourself isn't so bad. That's how I usually spend it. Hell one new years I was dungeon crawling on WoW and it ended up being one of the best new years ever. Remember that if you have fun wasting time, then it's not wasted time. You should do the frivolous, as well as the meaningful. It's sad to see how many blogs die but like you said, a majority of them were really, well, not that great. Generic and spammy.

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  8. Yeah, the reading and commenting thing can be a challenge, huh? Hard to keep up. But I'm glad you're here, Dwei! Happy New Year!

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  9. Yep, there are a lot of dead blogs out there. Around this time last year I was getting a good 30-40 comments per post. Now I'm lucky to get 15. Of course I don't have the time to go comment on other blogs like I used to so maybe that's why. I'm just not into playing the comment game. I comment on what I can, when I can. If people come to my blog just hoping to get a comment in return they are barking up the wrong tree!

    I haven't done anything exciting for New year's in a long time. It's over-rated. Plus I'm getting too old for that kind of nonsense. I have responsibilities now. Can't exactly provide for my kids if I'm in jail!

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  10. Oh dear, the dead dove of peace made me laugh but guiltily! Reminded me of those poor doves who were incinerated when they lit the Olympic Flame that one time. Yikes.

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  11. Yeah, I notice a lot of bloggers left blogging this year too. My comments dropped quite a bit too, but like you I didn't let it bother me.

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  12. I think a lot of us are guilty at lazy comments. Some days it's easy to follow others and then other days you got a gigantic roll that seems to never end. I was so busy during the holidays that I felt bad when I did very few posts and even fewer comments.

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  13. Ahaha, that dead dove!

    Well, any New Year's which you don't regret is a good one, right? Too bad about the beer. You should've invested in a nice whiskey though.
    And yeah, Bloggers come and Bloggers go, but some Blogonauts are forever to stay. <3

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  14. So agree, you can tell who actually reads and who just goes "nice post" many have died off, I was looking a few months ago and it seems not a lot can keep up with it more than a few months.

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  15. Hopefully you get better soon buddy, sorry to hear that you've been sick recently. I'm sorry to hear that your new year's eve wasn't amazing but there's nothing wrong with spending it alone. I miss several bloggers who have gone such as Hasidic Plumber, so many good people have left and it's a real shame. At least we're both here at the same time as well.

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  16. it's true, Damien, I've been three years in the blogosphere and during that time tones of bloggers have vanished and disappeared even the ones you were closer with, and there are always those generic ones which open a blog for Google Adds and when they see that only the highest visited blogs earn some money, they leave.
    Sorry that you've spent the New Year's Eve alone. I also didn't go anywhere.

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  17. 1 I love your draws!!
    2 You are cute:)
    3 I love beer!
    4 I stopping by yesterday and said Happy New Year!
    (you are not alone DWei)
    xx

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  18. I did nothing on new years. And it was marvelous. I think it's super overrated.

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  19. bummer, there were some great parties
    at least you managed to get to some "end of the world" parties right?

    and I know what you're saying about the bloggers too man, nobody stops by anymore, I'm going crazy trying to find new followers.

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  20. Good luck man. Just put your mind to it. As far as the dead bloggers go.. I'm pretty happy they died. I might get a mere 3 comments on some posts, but some of the most successful music blogs struggle to get any. Quality really is what matters.

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  21. lol at your hate for Starcraft. I'm hopeless at those stretegy games.
    Happy New Year!

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  22. Oh, where have all the bloggers gone . . .

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  23. My New Year's Eve was pretty dull, too, but I enjoyed mine as well. Happy New Year and a high five from Indiana!

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  24. I am sure your projects won't fall flat on their faces! (Poor little guy.)

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  25. Im still hear for you bro. I can't wait to read all your posts about finally finishing school, getting married, having kids, getting a colonoscopy

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  26. Wow this is a great post. I just lived reading it. It contains so much information. I really enjoyed reading your article and i absolutely loved it….Thank you for posting it and keep up the good work. May God bless you
    Yüz Germe

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  27. Getting lots of comments on all my posts used to matter to me, but now not so much because as you say a lot of the comments I used to get were just people coming on my blog so I'd go on theirs. "Hey nice post!". What's the point in that?

    Happy New Year!!

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  28. i drank enough that it would be considered for drinking for you too. im kinda jealous of how u spent your awesome new years

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  29. I totally see your point about how the dead blogs all have had generic/lazy comments posted by the blogger. I used to be one of them! Time for a fresh start for me with better content in my new blog.

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  30. nice post
    i do not play star craft

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  31. Happy new year! i stayed in on nye too.

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  32. I'm reading this and your comment count shows 30 so I might be the 31st but I know there's still more on hold from moderation :)

    I don't comment on any blog post if I didn't read the content. I'm not the "nice post" person ha ha. Since I added you in my blog roll I regularly read your blog but sometimes I can't comment when I'm reading from my mobile - kinda difficult to do that.

    I honestly love your content so cheers to that and for 2013! And oh! I just gave you a high five ;)

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  33. Meh, after 5 years of blogging, I realized that fickle bloggers are the only constant.

    I didn't mean for that to sound so cynical...

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