August 18, 2010

• Xangablogging: Why and How I Blog: Repost

  This entry was first posted on November 7th of 2009. In the last two months, I’ve gained 42 new subscribers and friends. I thought it might be fitting to post an edited version of this post again for those who are ”new around here”. I am thankful for all the new readers, and I am delighted and thrilled to meet new people and to visit new blogs. If I haven’t visited any of these 42 new folks yet, give me some time, and I should get around to your site sooner or later. 8/18/10 6:45 a.m. pdt MFN/ppf 

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  WhenWordsCollide: What you’ll find here.

  I always find it interesting when I read that some Xangalebrity has left Xanga to create their own website. I created my Xanga blog five years after I created my website, www.allthingsmike.com, as a portal to said site. (Click the Allthingsmike header at the top of my blog and you’re taken directly to my main website.) I’ve often written, I blog here for the comments. My website was a “blog” long before anyone had ever written the timestamping software which makes blogging possible. I would meticulously date the updates on each of my pages, so readers would be able to know where they “left off” when they last visited. When blogspot came online, I immediately signed on, and created individual blogs for each of the sections of my website. Since blogspot didn’t have comments, I had no idea whether people were reading me or not.

  I was introduced to Xanga in May of 2004, which had comments, and immediately consolidated all my blogs into this one, WhenWordsCollide, using one of the blogspot blogtitles. It refers of course, to my rambling style of writing, which includes parentheticals, “hash marks”, tangenital thinking, and free association. Back in 2004, my blog had pretty much the same sections it has now. It looked the same, with a cloudscape background, dreamcatchers on my profile pics, and long glossy entries with large graphics and photos, all self created instead of copy/pasted. The major sections correspond to sections of allthingsmike. As I compiled entries, I catalogued them in an index, which is still to the left in my sidebar. When tags became available, I used the tags feature to identify my sections. They are:

  PhotoPosts: My photography series, tied into my Webshots Gallery where I usually take the reader on a “trip around town” with me, describing the scenery as you witness it along with me. I’m currently listed as #8 of about 15,000 users posting California photos on Webshots.

  ElectricPoetry Posts: Themed poetry posts, usually with at least one new piece, and including a “Behind the Poetry” discussion of the hows and whys of the poetry presented.

  The Universal Blog: Inspired by the “Philosophy” section on my original website, and usually a spiritual or philosophical entry I have posted or which I will later post on The Universal Blog, a standalone site on blogspot.

  MikeVideo: Presentations of my latest videos. I create not only “Mike’s Video Blogs”, high quality 10 minute “travelblogues” or Hewell Houser type documentaries, but also artistic music videos and photo slideshows, and rather ambitious animations, produced under the MikeVideo banner, which has been around for over 20 years.

  Serialized Novels and Reminiscences: I’ve been writing my autobiography online since I started blogging, and series such as “The Frat House”, “My Sexual History”, “Childhood in Los Angeles” and “My Life with Pat” detail the chapters of my life.

  Groups and Blogrings: I write for particpatory blogrings such as Socrates Cafe and Featured Grownups, and I used to run a particpatory blogring called The Internet Island. Some of my best and most popular blog entries have been written for blogrings. 

  News and Notes: Inspired by the newspaper columns I used to write for the high school paper, which I edited, these are mainly where I write about my “personal life”.

  Upcoming, new, and planned series include the comic “Xanxiety” and the political/current issue column “The Voice of Reason: Baldmike Explains It All.”

  I post on average once every three days, and I will notify my readers of my many “hiatuses” which can last for months at a time. Even when that happens, however, I usually make an attempt to post something at least once a week.

  My first visit to your blog.

  “Dear Fellow Xangan, Thank you for dropping by my blog, leaving a comment, befriending me, and most of all for subscribing…” I should probably just copy/paste that line, which I must have written over a thousand times in the past six or so years, with a few modifications. I’ll usually visit you first because you left a comment on my blog. Although I subscribe to about 77 blogs (also listed in the sidebar) , a lot of them are not active anymore.I don’t subscribe to too many blogs anymore. I almost always leave comments from the comments I receive. I seem to “know” enough Xangans that this keeps me busy enough, and if each comment generates a return visit, we can carom back and forth forever. If you leave a comment, I should, if not immediately, at least pay you a visit within a week or so.

  When I visit, this is what I do. First I look for your given name, so I have something by which to address you. Most bloggers’ usernames, including mine, aren’t our”real” ones. So I will go to your profile and back entries to figure out who you are. I want to be introduced to “the person behind the blog.” I will usually read several entries, and becuase I can’t make the time to viist each and every time one of my correspondents posts as they write them, I usually read most of the five entries on the front page when I visit, or if you’re one of my “regulars”, I’ll go back to the last entry where I ‘left off” and continue from there, like reading a book or a magazine.

    I live for comments, and people always seem to remember the comments I leave on blogs, which are unlike any other comments in the Xangasphere. My comments are like letters, and are sometimes short blogposts riffing on what you’ve written or presented. I am always deliciously satisfied when people sort of “mimic” my commenting style when they comment on my own blog.

  My comments might be longer than your post. I read and catalog several entries, and I write my comment/letters on Notepad as I’m reading. Sometimes, depending on the time of the day, or my mood, or the mood of the piece or pieces to which I’m responding, I might be serious, or playful. I might be sarcastic, or funny, or sentimental. I will discuss things on my mind and in my past which comment on your post. I might post an “answer poem” from my vast archives. But I will always read every word you write, and I will write you a letter. You don’t even have to respond. But if you do, then we will eventually become correspondents, and alot of my correspondents have been with me for five or six years.

  Friending and Subscribing.

  Don’t feel bad. I probably won’t ask to be your friend. I might spend an hour with you, but then I’m off to another blog, and might forget you altogether if you don’t pay me a return visit. If you do, then it’s up to you to either befriend me or subscribe, if you have not already done so. I’m a content provider. I won’t read your blog daily. I simply cannot make the time. I work sometimes up to 50 hours a week, and sometimes I don’t feel like sitting in front of a computer on weekends. When I do, I will probably be constructing my own entries, which take hours to create, since I make the graphics myself and write all the content. So if you like my blog, and leave comments, I will always respond. If you don’t visit or comment after our initial correspondence, then I probably won’t visit again, and I’ll forget all about you.

  If you befriend me, however and don’t visit, I will make an attempt to visit you a few times, and leave long comment/letters. If I don’t feel you are reciprocating in our “friendship”, I might simply delete it. I never used the “universal inbox” until recently, and I just don’t want to see your posts and recommends show up if you’re not visiting my blog. As I’ve mentioned, I usually return comments, like I’m answering letters. (And it doesn’t matter if you write me a letter or say “nice blog”. I’ll treat each Xangan equally. I love you all.) This is why I rarely befriend anyone. I know you wanted to befriend me, so you should want to visit me every once and a while. If you don’t and I didn’t use the inbox, then I would forget you. If I see you recommending and posting all the time, and we’re not really friends, then you’re history. Sorry if this sounds harsh. My ‘real’ friends are all longtime bloggers who might not update that often, and sometimes I might miss their posts. I read LOTS of blogs. If I remember a blogger who hasn’t dropped by in a while, I’ll make an attempt to find you, and I’ll try to “reconnect”. I sometimes ingratiate myself attempting to do this. When I ran a Poetry Group on Yahoo, I used to brag that I never had anyone leave the group. I don’t like to burn bridges in real life either.

  Comments.

  I love to receive them. More than anything else, I crave feedback for the content I provide. I make an effort to write the best comments on Xanga. I’ve been told this many times, so I don’t feel as if I’m bragging. For a time, I felt as if I would go to my grave “known” as the guy who wrote the best comments, when what I really want to be “known” for is my poetry, videos, photography, and artistic soul. So if you befriend me, please drop by from time to time, and leave comments. They don’t have to be long. If you leave me a comment, it will be returned. And hey, I’m human, and I do sometimes overlook a comment. You can always come back and let me know I didn’t return your visit. When the internet was just email and cursory websites, I used to say I returned all my email. I like being a “man of letters” on the internet, and treat comments as correspondence.

  For those who don’t comment.

  Some of my readers read only from subscription lists, and I will probably not visit them because they don’t visit me. Most of these people don’t really care about the socializing aspect of blogging. Some of them have told me so in private messages. I am not one to belittle or complain about those who read my blog and don’t socialize. I don’t consider them “trolls” or “stalkers”.  I’m glad they’re reading my words and admiring my work. They are just as important as the people who visit and comment regualrly.

  Mass Messages

  When I only had a website and an email list, I sent updates to my email list on what was happening on my site. I will sometimes send sporadic updates using Xanga messages. And I usually will not begin them with “I know you hate to read mass messages…” I am sending the messages to those on my lists who might not have visited in a while and might be interested in knowing that I’m active, or have posted a new video, or some other benchmark event. I try to limit these messages to one a month.

  Gratefulness and Community

  I love my Xanga blog. I’m a lifetime member of the community here. I’ve been ‘featured” a number of times, and thanks to a few select buddies of mine, I frequently find my entries at least in the middle of the Most Rec’d page. I thank everyone who has made it possible for this to happen and for me to continue coming back, after my frequent hiatuses, to keep loving the community aspect of Xanga. I know so many longtime Xangans who still offer remarkable work, even if they don’t post as much as they used to. I always seem to keep getting new friends and subscibers, and sometimes I do make the effort to search out new bloggers on my own. I do frequently follow the recommendations of my buddies on Xanga when they recommend or mention a noted blogger I don’t yet know. So a note of thanks to all those who have stuck with me through the past six years, and to those who just discovered WhenWordsCollide. Mine is not an easy blog to read. It’s called WhenWordsCollide for a reason. Hopefully, however, each of those words means something. I want to remain optimistic and hopeful with each passing day. I do answer all my messages too, eventually. I may not be a Xangalebrity, but more than one blogger has called me a Xangalegend, and I’m content and thankful for that!

  EDIT 08/19/10 1:30p.m.pdt: I’m giving this entry one last updated timestamping. I was hoping for more of the new subscribers/friends to see it and comment. Perhaps I’ll just add a link to this somewhere on the main page. I’ve been busy cataloging new entries to post, and have one planned for this evening. I’m back up to about three entries a week, which was pretty much my average since 2006 before going on extended hiatus early this year.

  • 10:02 am
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