Say

On occasion when I am in the drudges of my own fox holes in the war on life, I forget that there are many people out there with bigger problems. I would love to say these short bursts of actualization come from reading the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times or even CNN; but the reality of the situation is, I most often realize this being a blogger stalker. I would say that I am a blogger reader, or even engager, but that wouldn't be necessarily true. This is when I decided there were a few rules of blogging I have learned along the way.

Rule 1. Bloggers love comments. My first indication of this should have been all of the posts that people write on their walls. "I love comments," "Leave as many as your heart desires," "You leave comment, I love you long time." But being the emotional dead head I am, I didn't get it until I was totally called down on it after a friend chided that I apparently only leave a comment when I have the opportunity to win something. Touche.

Rule 2. Bloggers view blogs as more of a phone conversation than an online journal. Sure it's a record of life's events, both big and small, but journals don't usually come with a comment feature, and a journal isn't usually checked daily to see if its answered any of the questions you asked it.

Rule 3. Bloggers seek validation. I am of the belief that secretly, most people still feel like the 14 year old freshman on the first day of school looking for a crew to hang with. This is the function of the "Follow this blog" section found on most blogs I write, I mean, stalk. Truth be told, I actually get angry when I see that someone has 161 follows and I have one. Sure I get that I have a polarizing personality, but jeez, one follower that's family. Frankly, it makes me feel like a loser. So I removed the feature. I don't need to be reminded of the fact every day when I am checking to see if anyone has left a comment, or to see how many people have visited my blog to date.

Rule 4. Bloggers that reveal their soul get more comments. Which makes me think if I didn't glaze over my life events the way most glaze their Thanksgiving turkey, I might receive a few comments now and again. Dully noted. Can't commit, but noted.

Rule 5. Bloggers are actually people. Something I often forget. I process the information like I am reading People or E! online. So I hereby promise not to mentally grammar check or fix the flow of your writing anymore. I will remember that you are my friends (or used to be) and that you are writing about your very important lives. I promise that when you blog about the brownies you made for Family Home Evening, I will comment that they look delicious and that I wish you would bring some over. After all, brownies comfort me when people don't comment on how funny all my posts are.

**Editor's note: I tried to remove the "follow me" feature, but my 14 year old self wouldn't allow it. She is still dying to be popular.