Colin of Free PC Security has graced me with a Community Blogger Award which means a lot to me. I am a firm believer in the value of blogging for community building. This award celebrates people who reach out and makes the blogger community a better one.
It also underlines the importance of a blogs readership community, one of the most rewarding parts about blogging. It’s the people that come back to comment, adding to the conversation, making you feel like someone is listening and interested.
The social networking aspect of blogging has always been there, long before the more recent phenomena of such applications as MyBlogLog. Certainly, external communities bring people with similar interests together but on a larger scale and their emphasis is on ‘networking’ rather than ‘social’. You can build closer, more personal communities, from them but this takes time and effort and the larger they get the more impersonal they become.
You are then more inclined to join micro communities (eg one based around your city, or topic area). Nothing wrong with this of course but diversity tends to be lost. We end up classifying ourselves, identifying with certain aspects of our life rather our whole person.
This happens in real life too of course; more so in large cities. We get together with work mates or those in clubs and organisations we join. Cities can be lonely places.
My blogging friends are diverse. They are ones that have tended to come about more naturally, from people who have visited my blog and those who’s blogs I have been interested enough in to leave comments. From there I have met others, blogging friends of blogging friends. They come from all over the world, their blog topics vary considerably but I feel some sort of affinity to them for one reason or another. In ‘real’ life my closest friends are those who I went to school with. They were made before we had categorized ourselves by what we do for a living, what our hobbies are etc. They are a diverse lot, spread all over the world now, with vastly different experiences, different careers, different interests.
There is talk of blogging dying, being replaced by applications like twitter. Maybe this is true to an extent but I don’t think blogging, because of its social and community building value, will be replaced by less personal applications. Twitter may inform me where someone is going for lunch or what they are doing today but it does not tell me who they are, only how they have defined themselves in life. This is often because of necessity rather than need. I believe blogging does satisfy our needs, creating communities of like minded people. (There are always exceptions to the rule of course – I think Facebook may be one of them. I think I have just led myself along the path to another post with that thought.)
I got a little carried away in thoughts with this post but back to the award itself. I have decided to pass this on to bloggers whose main purpose is to create a community.
Captain Lifecruiser whose lively community members, the team cruisers and swab team, get together to share and enjoy cyber travel. The Captain really gets into the spirit of things with her current blog template dedicated to things spooky. Lifecruisers Halloween runs from 23-31 October, with a spooktacular Halloween Party the 31th!
I will add more when I have had time to think about it in relation to the criteria I set for myself! Perhaps you could help me out here. Do you always pass awards on to your contacts/readers or are there times when you will give them to those who do not really know you although you admire their blogs?
“It’s the people that come back to comment, adding to the conversation, making you feel like someone is listening and interested.”
I so agree. And it’s also those people who go out of their way to help you… you know… when you have a problem with the technology or something else and you put out the question and someone shares their knowledge and helps you out.
It’s neighbourly. And the goodwill it creates is enormous.
A very interesting and readable post Sue and I as i say: ‘Blogging connecting people’. Never have I learned so much about others (all over the world!) cultures and traditions since I start sharing my own and some have become real good friends whom I’ve met too.
I feel FaceBook gives me more or less the same as Twitter, but on FB you can learn more about them too.
I try my best to pass awards to others. It’s a problem to decide to whom though and sometimes I get so many, so its hard to keep track of them all. I think I will make a separate ‘Nomino’ page on my blog, to collect them all.
Looking forward to your next entry
Congratulations Sue and well deserved…..
I’m on facebook…only to throw a few cows and sheep occasionally…and twitter …well every now and then I will update….so many things to do and so little time….catch 22 !!!!
Hi Sue,
Great post
I don’t think that Twitter like applications will replace blogging as such as people enjoy the community spirit and getting to know each other.
As for passing on awards, I try and pick a few that I visit often and have got to know and also a couple that are fairly new to blogging which gives them a little boost, and it works wonders. Everyone has their own way of handing out awards, and mine is to try and pick some that may have visited my blogs once or twice, as well as regular readers. It’s never an easy choice though as thre are many superb bloggers and emerging bloggers too.
Have a great day and weekend ahead.
Congrats on your award Sue!
I don’t know all that much of twitter myself, but I can’t foresee an application replacing blogging.
I’m much like Colin in methods I use to pass forward awards as well.
Thanks for your answers here – proof of a blogging community in action helping each other out. I know facebook is used as a networking tool but I tend to enjoy it for communicating with people I already know and being generally silly. I have never found any appeal in Twitter.
I like the idea of giving awards to newish bloggers too Colin – to make them feel welcome and as motivation.
Congratulations Sue and well deserved…..
I’m on facebook…only to throw a few cows and sheep occasionally…and twitter …well every now and then I will update….so many things to do and so little time….catch 22 !!!!
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“It’s the people that come back to comment”
Because I’m a statistics freak and watch my stats counter (I know, there’s no hope for me, sorry) I notice that I have some very regular readers who never, ever leave a comment. I do wonder why they don’t, even just a short message to say they’ve been. I always try to comment anywhere I’ve been, but perhaps I’m just overly talkative.
Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon….
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I came across your site while searching on MSN and have now added you to my rss reader. I Just though i should say “keep up the good work” and pass on congratulations on a job well done ! I am really looking forward to seeing more from you in the future.
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Very well thought out and informative. I’m sure many others enjoy reading this too, but are just a little scared to post – anyway – thanks again!
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Hi, thanks for the post, I agree with most of it and some of it people might see as ‘controversial’.
I look forward to reading more of your postings soon, Thankyou.
I so agree. And it’s also those people who go out of their way to help you…
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Nice post…Twitter like applications will replace blogging as such as people enjoy the community spirit and getting to know each other…
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I’m on facebook…only to throw a few cows and sheep occasionally…and twitter …well every now and then I will update..
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