In an attempt to make their publication relevant, the Sun has chained some of their reporters to their keyboards and made them enter the brave new world of blogging. I have had a love-hate relationship with many of these blogs, and only a few of them have made my aggregator.
On a lark a few weeks ago, I decided to add the blog of the Sun’s Restaurant Critic, Elizabeth Large: Dining@Large. It was an occasional good read, but the author insisted on using a trick to clearly increase pageviews for her blog. The use of the “More” tag when composing various posts, forcing me to click through to read the rest of her content.
In a post where Large decided to discuss the benefits of her blog, “What you missed,” she ran down some interesting stats for her blog thus far and jokingly implored her readers to bookmark her blog and visit frequently. I decided to leave the following comment on this post:
Actually, you have caught on to the way blogs are supposed to work: encourage and engage conversation among authors and commenters. Kudos to you for being an old media type and embracing this medium.
The bigger problem, Ms. Large, is that I don’t need to bookmark your blog if I have an aggregator to get the blog’s feed. A bit technical, of course, but it sure beats hitting refresh on the main page of the blog. It does make your surfing a bit more concentrated, though, and can potentially lead to information overload for the uninitiated.
Finally, would it be too much to ask for full text feeds for your blog. Nothing is more annoying and disappointing for me having to click through to finish reading a blog entry. If it continues, I will do what I have done with other blogs: remove it from my aggregator and pay it scant attention. So, do me a favor, and do full text feeds and don’t do the whole “continue reading” link. I know it is a stupid MovableType trick that needs to stop.
Large responded inline to my comment–another annoying trend she exhibits on her blog–with the following response:
The problem is that not every entry is of interest to everyone, so I want you to be able to scroll through quickly to get to the ones that do interest you. When my entry is short, I do keep all of it on the main page.
I left a response to that comment that was never posted for one reason or another. In that comment, I lambasted Large for essentially relying on a hack to encourage pageviews. I stated that the need to conserve space for people consuming blogs in aggregators was unnecessary, and the argument that browsers needed to be able to skim down a page seemed especially foolish considering it takes but an extra click or two of the scroll-wheel of my mouse.
Following this exchange, I removed this blog from my aggregator. I refuse to waste my time reading a blog whose author maintains some befuddling notion that a few extra clicks of the mouse are taxing on folks who browse her blog. It was useless to convince someone that folks will scan the headlines of various post and pay attention to those posts that interest them by commenting on them.
Dining@Large: FAIL
#1 by Notorious R.O.B. on February 28th, 2008
One of my favorite fail pics:
http://www.myconfinedspace.com/watermark.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2006/06/fail-motivational.jpg
#2 by Notorious R.O.B. on February 28th, 2008
One of my favorite fail pics:
http://www.myconfinedspace.com/watermark.php?sr...
#3 by David Raynes on February 28th, 2008
For the record, non-full feeds are hardly a “MovableType trick.” In both MT 3.x and MT 4.x, the default atom feed templates are absolutely full (including both the entry body and extended body text).
#4 by David Raynes on February 28th, 2008
For the record, non-full feeds are hardly a “MovableType trick.” In both MT 3.x and MT 4.x, the default atom feed templates are absolutely full (including both the entry body and extended body text).
#5 by JJT on February 28th, 2008
R.O.B.: I might add the daily/weekly FAIL to my blog. I just need to get some good photos of fail.
David: The trick I refer to was the use of the More tag. I regret my error in the comment, but it is there for posterity. My greater issue is with her incredibly rookie response. She wants to “save” a few mouseclicks. Ugh, is it really that hard to scroll a couple of more ticks with ones scrollwheel?
#6 by JJT on February 28th, 2008
R.O.B.: I might add the daily/weekly FAIL to my blog. I just need to get some good photos of fail.
David: The trick I refer to was the use of the More tag. I regret my error in the comment, but it is there for posterity. My greater issue is with her incredibly rookie response. She wants to “save” a few mouseclicks. Ugh, is it really that hard to scroll a couple of more ticks with ones scrollwheel?
#7 by Paul on February 29th, 2008
I have to disagree. I think Mrs. Large has done a pretty good job blogging. I enjoy her blog. Her posting replying inline with the comment is bothersome but unless you thread comments it is one solution to responding to a specific comment rather than just adding another comment to the list.
And I don’t necessarily blame her for the ‘trick’ to increase page views. She’s a the mercy of the Sun’s tech people and powers that be that control the blogging interface and RSS feeds.
#8 by Paul on February 29th, 2008
I have to disagree. I think Mrs. Large has done a pretty good job blogging. I enjoy her blog. Her posting replying inline with the comment is bothersome but unless you thread comments it is one solution to responding to a specific comment rather than just adding another comment to the list.
And I don’t necessarily blame her for the ‘trick’ to increase page views. She’s a the mercy of the Sun’s tech people and powers that be that control the blogging interface and RSS feeds.
#9 by epiph on March 1st, 2008
While I basically agree with you that having to click to read the rest of an entry is annoying, I don’t get why the author commenting on comments is annoying. Didn’t you just do it above? Mrs. Large’s method of doing it within the comment seems a clearer and more direct method than yours, in fact. In fact, this aspect of her blog is one of my favorite parts of it.
That all being said, for me, it’s all about the blog’s content for me, not how it’s set up. I’ve never used an aggregator (tried it once, didn’t quite get it). Dining @ Large is one of the best blogs in Baltimore because of its content, even if she is a bit annoying sometimes with her formatting.
#10 by epiph on March 1st, 2008
While I basically agree with you that having to click to read the rest of an entry is annoying, I don’t get why the author commenting on comments is annoying. Didn’t you just do it above? Mrs. Large’s method of doing it within the comment seems a clearer and more direct method than yours, in fact. In fact, this aspect of her blog is one of my favorite parts of it.
That all being said, for me, it’s all about the blog’s content for me, not how it’s set up. I’ve never used an aggregator (tried it once, didn’t quite get it). Dining @ Large is one of the best blogs in Baltimore because of its content, even if she is a bit annoying sometimes with her formatting.
#11 by JJT on March 2nd, 2008
Paul: Then explain to me why other Sun bloggers do not make use of that contrivance. Roch Kubatko, Jay Hancock, and Sam Sessa do not make use of this crutch. To explain her use of this crutch as a way to make it “easier for readers” is just plan BS. If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I am looking to unload.
epiph: Ahh, the Obama Lover strikes!
I have no issue with replying to comments at all, as I have professed many times before on this very forum my like for this kind of exchange. I just do not care for replying to a comment inline to the comment itself. Large seems to think of comments as email as opposed to the comment thread. I suppose it is something to expect from someone who has recently began blogging or discovered USENET or other similar forums, but it still does not change my opinion of it. Why not make use of threaded/nested comments, then, if that is an easier format?
#12 by JJT on March 2nd, 2008
Paul: Then explain to me why other Sun bloggers do not make use of that contrivance. Roch Kubatko, Jay Hancock, and Sam Sessa do not make use of this crutch. To explain her use of this crutch as a way to make it “easier for readers” is just plan BS. If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I am looking to unload.
epiph: Ahh, the Obama Lover strikes!
I have no issue with replying to comments at all, as I have professed many times before on this very forum my like for this kind of exchange. I just do not care for replying to a comment inline to the comment itself. Large seems to think of comments as email as opposed to the comment thread. I suppose it is something to expect from someone who has recently began blogging or discovered USENET or other similar forums, but it still does not change my opinion of it. Why not make use of threaded/nested comments, then, if that is an easier format?