How to Win Friends (and Influence Ponies?) · 7:19pm Dec 19th, 2012
I'm blogging! I do this a lot. This is my 101st post, in fact.
I look at this blog as a place to throw ideas. Sometimes people read them, sometime they. . . well, they still might read them, I don't know, but they don't say anything. Except for iloveportalz0r, who always says something. Anyway then my ideas are out there, and I can refer to them later if I need to. And just the act of making them readable makes me organize them and try to explain them, which can help me understand what I'm really thinking.
Blogging is also fun in a social way. A lot of the time I'll toss up a blog post just to see who's around and bored and maybe wants to have a discussion. Or I want to celebrate some kind of awesomeness with other people who will find it awesome, or show people something I thought was funny or crazy. I've also met some of my best friends on here by reccing their fics on my blog.
So anyway, blogging is useful, fun, and lets me get to know people I wouldn't otherwise have much interaction with.
And now, blogging is even cooler.
Okay, in all the changes to the site, you might not have noticed this. If you hover over a user name in a comment or a watch list, it now gives you a little stat box. That box tells you how many stories the person has written, how many they've faved, how many followers they have. . . and how many blog posts they made. This last part is awesome, because it means that you can find interesting people to follow who never even wrote a story. Or you can be an interesting person to follow without writing a story.
If I see someone write a funny or intelligent comment, I can see if they've been blogging without even leaving the page. If they have, I can click on that, and thanks to another cool new feature I can see their most recent post and titles along the side that show me older blog posts they made. If those seem funny or interesting or cool in any way, you'd better bet I'll be watching them.
A cool blog post doesn't have to be long, and it doesn't have to be a lot of paragraphs. I go for essays, as does Bad Horse. But Church and Twifight Sparkill both go for a more casual, stream of conscious style in their blogs. Some people like to do a specific thing with their blog, for example Church declares the Best Pony for each episode after it airs, or DPV111 recs a fic every week. You could post art of a favorite pairing, or talk about movies or TV shows or books that aren't about ponies.
At first, if you don't have followers you can't expect a lot of views (oh yeah, you can see view numbers on blog posts now! At the bottom of the post.) But if you're saying something interesting, and leaving interesting comments in other blogs, people will find you. It's just like publishing a story, that way. Your first one might get you two followers, but if you keep at it more people will notice you!
This brings me to my last point here- some writers like to pretend that having lots of followers and only a few people they follow makes them seem special. This is silly, and I'm declaring an end to this silliness. Now, obviously writers are probably going to have more followers, because believe it or not this is a site for fanfic, and some people only come here to find stories about ponies. But following people is how you make friends with them, and since it's always good to have more friends, it makes sense to follow anyone who seems likely to interact with you in an interesting way. Like making blog posts you might read.
So, my points are:
You guys should write blogs.
Writing blogs doesn't have to be hard.
You guys should follow more people who write blogs.
I'm going to follow more people who write blogs. (I added two yesterday.)
No one wins by being too elite to make friends.
I feel the same way about blogging. I have no idea who has read my blog unless they leave a comment. Well I am always willing to listen to your ideas. While on the subject of blogging, did you see my blog about the surprise for my followers? That includes you.
lol, you should follow me so you can read my blogs!
(just kidding)
Seriously though, on the topic of blogs, mine are just my current thoughts, whenever I have something to share.
I do like to follow D's blogs, because a lot of his posts contain good info for me.
And at time, I find stuff that just makes me laugh or otherwise feel good.
I actually have a two-in-one book of Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living". Good books, those.
...Anywho, blogs (including yours) are awesome. I've written only one I can be proud of, and that was a study of an author's work. Your blogs are, in my opinion, enlightening (the ones I've read, at least).
I don't have much more to say except congratulations on 101 blogs, and here's to continuing writing good stories and blogging about things!
I follow 144 people for various reasons
I honestly started following you partly because of the fact that you do semi-regular blogs that are pretty friendly and humble. That, and the appledash. Guess that was a reason too.
Hey, I say stuff. But yeah iloveportalz0r even comments on most of my things. He's everywhere. He also got a threat to be banned for it.
But you I followed because of Gathering Rosebuds. If I had a third favorites module on my user page - which I don't since I think it's superfluous - that story would be on it.
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You know, iloveportalz0r seemed. . . vaguely trollish to me. Not in a bad way, but it was sometimes annoying to get a notification and find a single emoticon for a comment. But then on my post about showing and telling he linked me to a blog post he made where he typed up an essay on writing from a book he had read. It was really interesting, so I started following him. He's a weird guy, and still a little trollish, but he's pretty damn smart when he wants to be.
I like friends, and I like reading blogposts, but I don't think I could ever write in my blog. Anytime I try to write anything I end up over-analyzing it until I decide it'd just be better not to post anything at all.
Huh, I haven't even noticed those new blog features. The more you know. That's actually pretty nifty.
Of course, just because of this, everyone is going to post a ton of blogs with things like "Today I had noodles" or "I like poodles" (or labradoodles) in order to raise their blog count. And it'll be all your fault for influencing people. You blogger.
Anyway, it's actually a good point about blogging for your own good, seeing how it forces one to actually formulate and put words to something that sounds vaguely sensible in your head. And heck, if others find some entertainment and interest in reading those thoughts as well, then all the better.
I just read a post that said mostly the same thing just 5 minutes ago.
Frighteningly, my blog here is my sixth; I have one under this name at a dot-org, two others in specialized niches, a backup/emergency blog, and what I consider my Main Blog, which has been running for over a decade and now has about 20,000 posts. Fortunately for me, there is almost no readership overlap.
I'm not really one for blogging. most of the writing I make that might be considered even halfway readable is just snippets usually in response to some story so I don't write stories either but I tend to comment a lot with little joke alternate scenes.
If I favourite a story, I'll follow the writer too. That way I get more blog updates to read while they get one more follower. Both parties win! Having only 13 followers, I can be a bit discouraged by the response, or rather lack thereof, to my posts, so I don't put out as many as I would like to save myself from feeling like I'm talking to a brick wall. But I love to respond to people through comments, and when anyone replies or comments anew, I get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside and I respond to every one.
I don't really get why anyone would follow next to no people to seem elite, personally that puts me off a little. If they're following plenty of people I tend to see them in a more active role in the community, and I'm therefore more likely to pay attention to them...
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I'm kind of like that, only less trollish and more just random. And yeah, he is kind of trollish, which makes him my type of person. I kind of seek out those kinds of people. I find them funny. Which is why I'm always hainging with Epicdonus and Regidar. Trolls are fun.
I did not notice those features!
My blogs are just super random and I'm pretty sure no one reads them
You know what, I'll make a new one right now.
>Except for iloveportalz0r, who always says something
Not always. Recently, I have been skipping blog posts when I have too many notifications at the same time.
You have to have something to say to write blogs...
This is kinda nice to hear. I don't blog much because I end up rambling on about junk (mainly myself) and then think - who on earth is gonna want to read this? I suppose it doesn't matter - I'd do it to vent whatever random thoughts I may be having about ponies (or otherwise), and if people get a chuckle out of it, well then bonus points. I admit, the people who have like a bajillion followers and who follow, like, three others always intimidated me a bit. At that start I thought of them as like the Donald Trumps of the online pony universe, but we're all just people who like ponies plunking away at keys in the end, aren't we?
Aaaand that's why I don't write blogs. I wax all philosophical in the goofiest way possible. I think it comes with writing too many essays - you try and jazz things up for the professors and end up believing half of your own waffle.
Anywho, nice post. We're all here to make friends after all, and blogging's a good way to do that.
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And just when I was gunna say
"At least 101 brah"
YOU BROKE MY HART!!!
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I love reading blogs. I feel the same way about blogging. I'm finally going to start getting really into this site. I've read a few fics, joined some groups and been a little active but now i'm really starting to get into it. Blogs can be very interesting to read.