I found a sad post, but then I remembered happy

| Saturday, September 19, 2009
To start off, I have a story to tell.
There I was reading Spinks Saturday links post and I happened to see a link about someone thinking we have too much theorycraft. Sign me up! So I clicked the link. Hello, Oakstout.
Reading reading, and I stumble upon Cuppy and this: "explained how she disdained from reading any blogs that divulged a truck load of theroy crafting." Sounds like my kind of person, except the context then ruined it, but then made it better again.
So I went to Cuppy's post and did some reading and saw one of those things where people say something while replacing words with links. I guess that's pretty standard. Clicking revealed: Tobold, Tobold, and Dragonchasers. Never heard of that one, but apparently it ended last month because of blogging negativity.

I don't tell very good stories in the morning, but I wanted people to know where this post came from.

So, quitting because of all the negativity. Well that's not fun. I have to be honest, I might live in a bubble of niceness. I don't read many 'controversial' blogs. They tend to be written by terrible people who should shut up. The closest is maybe Tobold's and he's not a terrible person, nor should he shut up. Besides, he's started moderating comments. Also when I notice that a post had gotten to 50 comments and it was posted two hours ago I don't even bother to read them. Sometimes I skim to look for stupid comments to get angry at their existence, but I don't bother to reply since it would just get lost. Then I go back to my regularly scheduled blog reading.

So yes, my bubble. How did I make it? It's semi-randomly constructed. I see a link on the PPI and I click it. I read a handful of posts and if it looks interesting, I follow it. Or other blogs. I find blogs that are followed by bloggers I follow. They seem to form a sort of semi-permeable bubble which unless I go after what I know to be terrible links (sometimes my fellow bloggers confuse me with their choices) I tend to end up back where I started. Or I find blogs that don't suit me. Either way, I end up with a slowly expanding sphere of blogs to read.

They are a strange set of blogs in that they seem to be written and read by decent people. By decent people I mean the ones who you can imagine working an honest job, grumbling about taxes but still paying them, going on a trip now and then, and if your bag breaks in the middle of the sidewalk they might help you pick up some of the mess. They don't gossip or sling mud. It's like a little pocket of sane, intelligent, kindness in the sea of filth we call the internet.

I like knowing these people. They write interesting posts. Sometimes I comment. Sometimes I cannot comment because I'd hate to taint their beautiful post with crude responses. Sometimes I cannot comment because I'm too busy writing my own post that they inspired. It forms a sort of conversation. A strange one where people can give little speeches and the other person politely listens before responding with their own speeches.

To everyone in my bubble, thank you. You're part of what makes me enjoy blogging so much. You give me ideas and you respond to my ideas and make me feel as if I'm doing something other than shouting on a street corner.

Oh, and Spinks, you spelled my name wrong. But thanks for the link love!

5 comments:

LarĂ­sa said...

I know exactly what you mean! It makes me sad to read about those bloggers who for some reason have ended up outside of the bubble. I'm happy on the inside of it. There are no trolls knocking on the door, just the cozy fire and the friends hanging around. It's a little miracle I guess.

Anonymous said...

Oops, sorry about the spelling. Fixed it now!

Tobold said...

Why would you think my blog is "controversial"?

I certainly *do* have a problem with being a multi-MMO blog, so whenever I say "Oh look, this feature of game A is nice!", I automatically get some negative comments from the fans of game B, who loudly proclaim that everybody playing game A is an idiot, and so on.

I also manage quite a lot of trying to present a balanced point of view, and then getting negative comments from BOTH extreme positions. So, quitting because of negativity, well, I've come quite close to that this year, and only comment moderation turned me around.

Klepsacovic said...

@Larisa: The trolls are not friends? *sadface*

@spinksville: But spelling it write ruins all the fun.

@Tobold: Probably because of a poor choice of words on my part. I suppose what I meant was that some blogs are cesspools of filth and worthlessness. Some people seem to try to do that to your blog with comments, but you do not let them, while other blogs just go right along with.

I suspect the media has taught me to think that "controversy" means "idiots are screaming incoherently about this otherwise reasonable idea."

Anonymous said...

The bubble is good.. as long as it's on a friendly pally.

I'm trying to keep up with you... but every day I slip and forget to read, 3 more posts appear in my feedreader...

word verification: banter

You have such relevant word verifications

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