19 July 2015

Commenters

As I said recently, this blog is ten years old. Out of curiosity, I have just been looking back at the people who would leave comments back in 2005. Almost the first was Alkelda the Gleeful - also known as Farida Dowler. She lives in Seattle and is a children's storyteller. We read each other's blogs regularly for a few years until Farida became a little tired of blogging and departed the blogosphere. If I wasn't so shy I would have looked her up in Seattle last year. Through blogging I learnt a lot about her, her husband and her little daughter. She was a great advertisement for American womanhood and she read my posts with thoughtful interest.

Another escapee from the blogopsphere was Brad the Gorilla. Also based in Seattle, he cleverly sustained the alter ego of a gorilla. He ate bananas and swung his arms as he mooched around the streets of Seattle. He had a wicked sense of humour and blogging with him became a kind of intellectual  jousting tournament which I very much enjoyed. It is a shame that Brad moved on or simply ran out of blogging steam.

Zandrea, Occidentally, Simon Langer and Andrea Sousa Tavares all left comments on this blog by the end of July 2005 but they disappeared long ago. One blogger who stuck around was By George. She was into art and online gaming and she had a problem with food in that she couldn't get enough of it but she was another nice American woman and we kept in blogging touch for many months until she also got fed up with the medium. I still wonder what happened to her.

By December 2005, Friday's Web was on board The Yorkshire Pudding bandwagon. She wasn't wealthy. She lived in the backwoods of North Carolina with her husband and kids and she wrote some fascinating posts. At times I feared that she was tiptoeing on the boundary between sanity and craziness for she was tormented by dreams of the better life she would never lead. It was just beyond her reach. We were close in the way we exchanged comments for maybe four years but she vanished back into the blogosphere's ether. Just like By George - I wonder what happened to Friday's Web. There were drugs and drink and tattoos and bills. It can't have been easy for her.
Friday's Web in January 2006
Five years ago, in July 2010, I wrote thirteen blogposts - some of them were connected with my brother's death. Looking at the commenters, I note that some familiar people were now on board. Lovely Kate from The Bay of Plenty in New Zealand - "The Last Visible Dog" and the equally lovely Helen from Brisbane - "Helsie's Happenings" and handsome Yorkshireman Brian ("Tannu Tuva") and equally handsome Georgian fellow Bob Brague whose name "Rhymes With Plague", Elizabeth from North Yorkshire and Jenny from Wrexham, Wales, Daphne Franks from Leeds and Michael from Sydney Australia., Libby from the English Midlands and Jan Blawat frm Sloughhouse, California.

Nowadays I interlink a  lot with Adrian from "Adrian's Images" and Meike from "From My Mental Library", John Gray from "Going Gently" and Graham from "Eagleton Notes". There's also Carol from "A Small Life", Lee from "Kitchen Connection", Red in "Hiawatha House" Canada and sometimes Tom Gowans from "A Hippo on the Lawn" in Angola. And how could I forget my blogging sister Mama Thyme in Colorado ("Peace Thyme Garden and Weather Station") or Hilly in the woods of Washington State ("Hilltop Homesteader")?

In ten years the players on my blogging field or stage have all changed. Comings and goings. Some people stick around for ages and others move on very quickly. Sometimes bloggers just get fed up with each other. Isn't that a bit like life itself? Nothing last forever. Everything changes.

31 comments:

  1. I don't comment often but I read every post you write

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    1. Thank you MaC. You are right to point out that readers of blogs may not be commenters too.

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  2. And lots of readers like Mad about Craft.
    You are right ~ we do get fed up with each other ~ but then we are not married and don't have to go through a messy divorce.

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    1. Well that's true Carol. The divorce settlements would be as complicated as they would be numerous if that process applied to blogging.

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  3. Like you, and every other long-time blogger I expect, I have commenters who come and go but many have been around a while. My blog was started off for family and friends and its lease of life in a wider Blogland was a bit of a surprise to me: a pleasant surprise. I certainly have one blogger acquaintance who simply stopped one day completely unexpectedly and I've never discovered what happened. I wonder frequently. Well I have every intention of blogging and commenting for a while yet YP. There's lots of interesting 'discussions' to have yet.

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    1. It is odd, almost disturbing when a fairly prolific blogger and respondent suddenly ceases. It is funny how blogging leads us this way and that. I look forward to reading your future posts and your thoughtful future comments Graham. Thank you for tolerating me.

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  4. Ive been thinking about the same subject recently YP....EBB and flow.....ebb and flow......i think most blogs have around 5-10 real followers then a few others will visit from time to time......
    I miss some that have dissapeared into the either...........
    And the ones that may have died but because it is generally a solitary activity

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    1. You are right John. It is kind of solitary and yet we are touching other souls around the world. Your blog proves this more than most. As you say - ebb and flow, the comings and the goings.

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  5. I read every post you write but only comment occasionally. I love your blog and have been following you for a while now. :)

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    1. I appreciate your support and interest Jennifer. Thank you for coming here.

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  6. There is no "like" button on a blog, where a reader can just tap in without writing anything, and the author can go back later and see who visited. I'm sure there are more than 5-10 real followers for both your blog and 50 Shades of John Gray.

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    1. I never set out to reap followers Jan. I just write what I feel like writing. The way that other people have arrived at my blogging door is quite magical and somehow enriching.

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  7. I like it when people comment on my own blog. And I hope I give pleasure in some small way to those who read my posts.

    I always leave a comment on the blogs I read, even if only a brief one at times. It's akin to a calling card left if the home owner wasn't home when visited upon.

    I think it's good that the writer of such blogs know what they've written has been read and appreciated.

    There are times we don't always agree with everything the other has written ...but that doesn't mean blogging friendships have to fall apart. It's all part of the rich tapestry of life as the saying says.

    I don't always agree with everything my 'real-life" friends do or say...and vice versa...but we remain friends; similar applies in the blogging world in which I choose to play a part.

    I learn so much from the blogs of others...from those from all parts of the world that I'll never get to see personally...and for that...I'm thankful. :)

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    1. Your thoughts about comments and blog visiting are in alignment with my own thoughts Lee. Thanks for putting it all so well.

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  8. Reflection from time to time is valuable. One hates to lose followers but they have their own options. For my blog, I think some people just get bored!

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    1. Yes Red. I think some get bored with my often wordy blog too - all those boring country walks and sounding off about stuff like cookery shows - it's enough to send anybody to sleep!

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  9. I have been exposed to so much in your posts...Rapa Nui...St. Stephen's School in Bangkok...sunsets on the island of Crete...the villages of Yorkshire...the centuries-old churches of Yorkshire...the stone walls of Yorkshire...the pubs of Yorkshire...the list goes on and on and on.

    Thank you so much for exposing yourself.

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    1. It is have been my pleasure to expose myself to you Bob! And I haven't been arrested for it! Thanks for your virtual friendship through recent years.

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  10. It's always interesting to go back a few years and have a look at how our own blogs have changed over time. Mine started out completely different from what it has become, but nothing was planned, it just happened like that.
    Some people are not as consistent in their habits as others (less kind people would say "not as boring"). When I find an activity that suits me, such as blogging (both writing my own and reading and commenting on others), I stick to it for a long time, and I have no reason to give up anytime soon. But some are more volatile and continually take up new hobbies or interests, dropping older ones in favour of novelty.
    It is rare for me not to leave a comment. There are only two reasons for that: Either because I really have nothing to say on a subject (such as football or car racing) or because I'm afraid to cause offence. I'm not afraid of having a diffeent opinion, but I think sometimes it is better not to say anything at all and just quietly move on.

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    1. Yes Meike, I know what you mean about not saying anything rather than shooting from the hip with a remark that might cause offence. And thanks for articulating the point about consistency versus volatility.

      ....Now I think I will start crafting a blogpost on car racing just for you!

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  11. I am afraid I'm lost for a comment.

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    1. That's hard to believe! Best get back to your video editing sir!

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  12. My blogging has gradually ground to a halt over the lat year. Not sure why, but I do regularly read your blog still, YP, although I don't always comment as I think you have quite enough of an admiring female coterie. ;)

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    1. It;s not a coterie Jenny - it's a harem and you are always welcome to come back to keep the other girls in order - rather like schoolteaching!

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  13. This is so true. All the bloggers who left comments on my blog back when I started in 2006 have since departed for other pursuits. (Maybe this says more about my blog than them!) But I've had quite a few people hang on for years, and I've even met up with some of my blog pals IRL, and now we're all connected on Facebook etc.

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    1. I think that Facebook is one of the enemies of blogging, like idleness or simply having a rich and busy life that leaves no time for blogging. . By the way, when I was growing up there were two brothers in my village school. One was Michael Reed and the other was Steve Reed! It is quite disconcerting.

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  14. If I did not continue to blog and only wanted to read what you wrote, well then you might get so mad at me that you would refuse to take me with you on your walks around Yorkshire! Don't think I could stand that. Although, at least once a week I tell myself that I am going to quit blogging because I have absolutely nothing to say that is of interest to anyone but myself and maybe my puppy!

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    1. Please don't quit blogging Mama. You have many things to blog about... like how you met Big Bear, the births of your children, singing with guitar, insects of the Colorado mountains, recipes, George Dubya Bush etc. etc.

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  15. Yes, isn't it interesting when you look back and see how your blogging pals have changed/ stayed the same over the years ?

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    1. Time is a funny thing. It moves along and before you know it, things are not the same.

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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