I’ve been so blah and rant-y lately, but every time I open my mouth and post a rant-filled anything, I feel like I attract a lot of unwanted attention. “You don’t like it? Then don’t ___.” You don’t like my opinion? Get over yourself and off your high horse. I think a lot of times people are just mad that person x doesn’t feel the same, no matter who that person is.
Anyways, 2013 brought in a totally different of bloggers that started brewing in 2012. I figured I’d update my previous pet peeve post that I wrote this year on the same topic.
Warning: You shouldn’t read this if you are
a cry babyeasily offended, in debate club, always have to be right, argumentative and/or one of the culprits mentioned below. This post is bound to bring in some hard feelings, but sometimes making people mad brightens my day. This is a rant. I’ll probably regret this later, but I also may not. I won’t regret it because I spoke my mind; I’ll probably regret it because it’s so harsh. However, it’s how I truly feel. You may also think I’m talking about you, but instead of assuming, you should just ask me. Too many people always assume shit, and that causes many more problems than asking and receiving a straight forward answer does.Stop reading and get off my blog if you use the plus sign (“+”) for “and”.
The use of Facebook/Google+ comments instead of a non-social network comments. I will not comment your blog anymore if you switch to Facebook comments. Or the G+ comments. That’s three blogs now. It’s NOT “community”-building, it’s being obnoxious. Anytime you require the use of a social network to use your website, you’re deterring away what you could be receiving. Stop being lazy and use non-social network comments. It’s hurtful in the long run, especially if that site goes down for maintenance or something. With that said, even using Facebook for your mailing list is ridiculously inconvenient.
“Build a community on your blog!” I understand that nowadays it’s all about making connections for most bloggers, but as a personal blogger, is it really all that necessary? If you’ve been following my blog long enough to know that I can’t stand fakeness at all, then you’ll understand my peeve about this. Like, why have a community on your blog? If you want a community, set up a damn forum and link people there. That way, you don’t have to act all happy-go-lucky in the comments section and be on your best behavior and look your best and ACT ALL FAKE. Bloggers I came across last year are like this. They don’t even come back to my blog anymore or return my emails asking them how they are. It’s like they’re so into their alter egos that they think they have this huge fan base. It all feels so fake.
Professional photos for your online presence. Instead of feeling as though I’m talking to someone just like me, I feel like I’m being forced to compare myself to Barbie. Unfortunately for you, I always played with Teresa, her best friend. I’d much rather see your crappy mirror photo with your bedhead than you all dressed up and smiling in a meadow.
“Use photos on every post.” “Make them take up the width.” If people require pictures with what they read, they need to go back to kindergarten class and/or reading magazines. I put pictures over the summer to fill space, but I’m done with that now because I hate doing things just to fill space.
“You should make your username the same as your blog name.” I feel like this year it’s been ALL about branding yourself. I, unfortunately, actually started to believe it slightly. It’s just annoying. What happened to the genuine blogging and commenting? What happened to not expecting anything in return? Now it’s all about being sleazy and advertising yourself about and making a name for yourself and getting more popular, and it’s just all so FAKE FAKE FAKE. UGH.
“Monday + Tuesday”. Anyone who has ever taken a math class in their lives should always read the PLUS SIGN as PLUS. EVEN THE SIGN ITSELF HAS THE NAME “PLUS”. Why do you not use the ampersand? That looks like “&”. It means “and”. “+” means “plus”. If you don’t want to use “&” because it looks tacky, WHY THE FUCK use the “+”?! It makes you look really dumb okay. You only use “+” when you are ADDING something to the aforementioned, not when you want to include it. That’s why, if you have 5 apples and 5 bananas making them “5 apples + 5 bananas” would be combining them and making them “10 fruits”, NOT “5 apples and 5 bananas” anymore. You ADD something to another thing to make it something else. If you don’t read it as “plus”, GTFO my blog.
“Where did you get your layout?” “Can you make me one?” “You designed this well! How did you do [insert feature here]?” First off, if you don’t see the credit at the footer, it was probably custom made. “Custom made” means I ordered it. “I ordered it” means I paid someone to do it. I mostly don’t want you to know who designed it [if I custom ordered it] because it was made for me, not you. I like uniqueness. In 2009, this guy from the UK completely ripped all of my designs because I “inspired” him. He’d go and make design after design that was a crappy replica of mine. Another girl ended up doing the same to a blue and white flower layout I made because I “inspired” her. If you like it, okay. However, don’t go and take something that was made for me. Uniquity is important to me. If I inspire you enough to make you want to be like me, at least respect me enough to not copy me.
I’m nearing 1000 words, so I think it’s about time to stop. Harsh, yes. Speaking of harsh, WHAT is it with people who think it’s “6Birds?” IT’S NOT CAPITALIZED. It’s lowercase. I’ve gotten past the spacing between the “6” and “Birds”, and now it’s the capitalizing. “6birds”. Even after I tell people time after time AFTER TIME, in email, it’s always, “What? What do you mean? No, I removed the space. It’s written how you said. ‘Birds’ is lowercase. That’s right, right?”
Ugh, people.
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Comments on this post
Adri
Stopping by, saying hello to everyone who came by my blog long long time ago. 🙂 My birthday was actually the day you posted this entry and I thought it was hilarious and at times thought-provoking. For instance, the first item you mentioned (the one about the social networking). Most bloggers I know of have been switching away from self-hosted blogs and turn to Tumblr instead, and this is where readers will be required to have a Tumblr or a Discus account in order to comment on that person’s entry. I have to admit that I just stopped following those people (even though I have a Tumblr account myself) and move on instead LOL.
And speaking of Facebook/G+ comments, I do the other way around. I do my blogging on my own blog in which a link will automatically be posted on my Facebook. I lure those people to my blog instead LOL.
I’ve built (forum) communities before, but not blog communities. The ones I made were hobby communities anyway, such as fanfic writing, anime/manga, videogames, etc. I don’t find myself important enough to make my own blog community anyway. 😉
One thing I have learned from my job search networking group: NEVER mix up your professional self with your personal self on the internet. I actually had someone from the networking group who had little to no knowledge of personal blogging “critiquing” my portfolio for being “too personal” (my portfolio consists of my digital painting/manipulation, web designing, graphic designing =T) and my personal blog for having a “personal photo” and that I should put my professional photo in there. I explained to her that I built that portfolio to showcase my work in hopes of getting in to the digital designing field and that my personal blog is simply my personal blog and has nothing to do with professionalism. People nowadays… =T
As for photos on every blog entry, I’m actually too lazy to edit/post up photos on my blog alone unless if I was talking about a web/digital project (and I do that in my portfolio). I do all my photo-posting on my Instagram and on my LINE mobile account synced on my Facebook and Twitter LOL. XDDD
Username to where? Forums? Username to your WordPress dashboard? I used “adriatastic” for my old Livejournal because “adrimarie” and anything related to my real name is already taken. That’s about it. LOL.
LOL I see a lot of (anime/manga) fanfic writers titling their fanfics with the “+” in between, especially when it came to pairings. They actually read it as “and” rather than “plus.” =T
I make my own layouts using frameworks (ie. Artisteer, Bootstrap, Headway, Genesis, etc.)… does that mean that someone made it for me and I just happened to tweak it? On the other hand, no one’s ever asked me those types of questions, probably because my layouts probably suck or something to their standards LOL.
Great rant. Thanks for sharing and take care LOL. 🙂
Liv
I haven’t seen many blogs that are so stuck up to use Facebook comments because they think everybody has a Facebook and wants to use it to comment on something that everybody will see. Many blogs use Disqus now which I think might be annoying for people who do not have Disqus accounts because it doesn’t allow them to leave their URLs.
I really don’t understand the people who do guest posts in order to build that community. Or blogs that require you to log in to comment.
I see a lot of people put unrelated photos in their blog posts, which is weird. Thumbnails are okay, but some people put some random photo at the start of their post for no reason.
I sort of believe in username branding, but a blog is not an account so why must you make it the same as your username? Can people not notice that you link to your blog on your accounts or you put links to your accounts on your blog?
I suppose you should add a new definition to the word rocket science: remember a six-character word like 6birds, no spaces no capitals.
Maria
I can totally relate to most of your peeves. I don’t see the need to integrate google+ and facebook and twitter and god knows what else into my commenting system, that just overcomplicates things in my estimation and I can understand that some people (including me) like to keep some things private, you know. :-/
And people insisting that you ought to use your username for your website is just downright rude. I think people should be as creative as they want with their domain names. Even if they want to use an entire phrase, they should just go right ahead and do it, you know? Whatever feels good for the person running the website.
As for the photos thing, I’m of a slightly differing opinion. I don’t like posts that are completely made up of images myself, but I usually tend to add at least one or two pictures that kinda go with the theme of my post because I think it looks nice. The main reason they take up the entire width of my theme is because that, too, looks nicest with the rest of the design (in my opinion anyway, hah). I’m a little compulsive when it comes to unison in image width on my own websites, and I know that’s a little silly. 😉
CountryDew
Great rant! I refuse to put the FB, G+ BS on my blog, and when I am forced to (I think google will eventually do that), I will probably stop blogging, or find another platform.
Alysa
I totally agree with most of these!!
It’s weird that people keep feeling the need to correct you on YOUR blog name? like what? that doesn’t even make sense :/
Sofie
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I completely agree with you on everything, especially the use of social network commenting systems. That, without a doubt, keeps me from commenting, and it really sucks sometimes when you have read a great post and really feel like you have something to say, but out of principle I refuse. It’s too much work, and also I am not really interested in getting my full name out for everyone to see (with the Facebook comments), and I don’t think I am the only one.