Week of September 18, 2011:
Bike: Wednesday
Rest: Probably a good idea…
As usual, I caught a cold while I was in Michigan, but strangely enough, it didn’t bother me too much until yesterday. I caught it early in the week but other than a slightly sore throat, I felt fine. I suspect, though, that Tuesday’s long day of travel set the scene for the cold to move in and try to take me down. So yesterday and today I’ve been taking it a bit easy, and I’m grateful that I have tomorrow off from work. I will use that time to kick my cold’s butt! Also, for the first time since January, I’m getting a haircut! I need one desperately, but of course, my hair looks much better today because it knows it’s in trouble. I’m not falling for your tricks, hair! You are getting sheared into shape, no matter how good you look today!
I’m bummed to be sick right now, because the weather has been pretty nice in Texas this week, and I’d like to be outside enjoying it. Instead, I’m spending too much time on Get Off My Internets (which I love—thank you, Chrissy!) and vowing to return to a nice healthy routine ASAP. But Michigan, oh man. What a great week. I’m so happy I went and so blessed with great family and friends. It was hard to return to Texas, not just because of the traveling itself, but because in the fall, the Midwest is where I want to be. I’ll take Texas in the winter and spring and Michigan in the summer and fall. Maybe I’ll be a migrating bird when I grow up.
Happy Friday, everyone!
PS That baby up there didn’t give me a cold, but his sister probably did. It wasn’t really her fault. And it’s a small price to pay for love.
I have to admit that, while I enjoy snark, I find the levels of animosity that GOMI and some of the regular commenters there spout about certain bloggers to go beyond the pale.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get to feeling better soon! And I hope you share a photo of your new 'do!
I agree with you about GOMI, though I do enjoy the site quite a bit. There is a lot of honesty in the comments forum, and I find it very refreshing. I actually had no idea there was so much comment-deleting among certain blogs! That was an interesting discovery.
ReplyDeleteThe honesty comes at a price, which is that people can be downright awful and cruel. And I do have moments when I feel bad for a certain blogger or I disagree with what is being said. I try to make my comments thoughtful and honest because I enjoy (some of) the dialogue on GOMI.
An example of something that got slammed? Kendi's 30x30, which I'm sure you know about. I thought the idea was cool, and Kendi inspired a lot of people to take a more thoughtful view of their closet and shopping habits. But not everybody likes 30x30, and GOMI is a place where people are encouraged to voice those negative opinions.
I'm thinking about writing a blog post about GOMI because I think it's an interesting way for blog readers to have their say in an open, anything-goes forum. What do you think?
PS And yes, the hair! Will do :-)
I'm not a huge fan of Jessica Quirk's style and have never been a regular reader of What I Wore even when I was a style blogger with about 15 x the readership I have now. I do remember when she had her comments section closed down entirely for a while a couple of years ago. While I don't personally agree with deleting comments or having a comments policy the way she did/does, I think it's important to remember that bloggers are real people with feelings. Being a professional blogger invites criticism and the argument of many there seems to be that bloggers just need to grow tougher skins, which is no doubt true. But I think GOMI takes it a bit too far and the anonymity aids in that. How would you feel if after you got your haircut, lots of people posted on a forum talking about how hideous your hair was, the way they have recently with Sally McGraw?
ReplyDeleteLike I said, I like snark, but I think that GOMI is indicative of a general lack of civility in disagreement that can also be found in politics and elsewhere.
I think you and I may see GOMI through different eyes: I see things from my food-blogging perspective, and I think you see things through your fashion-blogging perspective. With a number of food bloggers who are professional bloggers, there seems to be a lack of professionalism that leads to some bad behaviors, such as comment-deleting, ignoring comments that ask specific questions of the blogger, or not replying thoughtfully to the comment. This makes readers feel unappreciated. There is also a lot of concern about eating disorders among food bloggers, which I think is a very serious issue. It's a lot more important to me than a bad haircut.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I think people are very hard on the fashion bloggers. So much of style blogging is just a question of taste, and taste is subjective. I have commented on GOMI that one blogger (whose style I love) is receiving so many freebies that it's hard for me, buying clothes with my own money, to relate to her as much. To me, that's a valid point about style blogs: to what extent can we relate to the authors of these blogs? And to be honest, this is an issue with food blogs too. I don't work at home, and my cooking life has to fit into my working scientist life.
I spent some time reading the Already Pretty thread, and it made me sad. I think her haircut is cute! I'm not a regular reader of her blog, though, so my perspective is limited. To me, most of those comments were matters of taste, not issues of substance.
Finally, I will say that I'm not ashamed of the comments I've made on GOMI. I've tried to be thoughtful in my criticisms, and I would welcome a dialogue with the bloggers whose work or choices I've criticized. My GOMI profile isn't really anonymous, either, because it links to my food blog, which in turn provides a way of contacting me directly.
Chiming in here! I don't really read the main page of GOMI (although I do like some of the Quirk snark, I must admit) but I find the Healthy Living Blogger forum fascinating! As Rose mentions, there is a ton of unprofessional behavior among some of the "big" HLB bloggers, which they never seem to be called out on. I often feel like their fans leave fawning comments on everything just for the off chance they'll get a linked by a popular blogger, and it's annoying - especially when someone has a dissenting opinion and they are chased out of the comments section with pitchforks and torches! I think of the GOMI forums as a place to where readers can keep it real, poke fun at some of the ridiculous things that bloggers do, and gossip a little about the people we all read.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I do agree that some of the commenters go way too far. I prefer snarking that focuses on what the blogger has put out there - the writing style, the terrible grammatical mistakes, the cliche and unoriginal writing (especially for bloggers who get paid to blog!). When the forums veer into personal attacks, body-hating, etc, I stop reading and move on. I like to keep even my snark professional. :)
You both bring up good points, however, and I'm glad to discuss GOMI and Internet snarking in general with smart and thoughtful ladies! Cheers to you both. :)
Chrissy, your comment is so thoughtful and eloquent! "Pitchforks and torches"--YES! The HLB blogs' comment sections are ridiculous. It seems really obvious to me that a lot of people are blogging now in the hope of making money off their blog. I don't have a problem with that in the abstract, but I feel like it's so much harder now to sift through the garbage to find the gems that you'll actually want to read. In my mind, making money off of a blog ought to be a much lower priority than creating a blog that's worth writing and worth reading.
ReplyDeleteI think a huge problem now with the HLB blogs is their popularity. When you have thousands of readers, you can't possibly read all their blogs or form meaningful relationships with them--it's just too many people. In the abstract, I think it's so nice to have readers who leave nice comments. On smaller blogs, you do form little communities, so it's more like chatting with your girlfriends at a coffeeshop. If I had something critical to say to either of you, I'd probably e-mail you to discuss it privately rather than leaving a public comment. But with the big blogs, I think it's harder to be heard--too many fawning comments and negative or critical comments get deleted. As far as e-mail goes, I can say that I have e-mailed Kath, and she does respond to e-mails quite rapidly, so props to her for that. But despite reading her blog off and on for several years, do I have a friendship with her like I do with both of you? No, I don't think so. And that's why, at this point in my life, I'm more interested in smaller, friendlier blogs that nurture communities of readers. The HLBs are just too big and too oriented around money for my taste.
PS I have a hard time being concise when talking about the HLB blogs because I'm kinda conflicted about them--I like and loathe them in equal measure. The issues are complex! (Or are they i$$ue$?) I wish I could be as eloquent as either of you in my comments :-)
ReplyDeleteI like and loathe them, too. I will say that I very rarely comment on the big HLB blogs, even the ones I read every day. I don't consider myself friends with those women, because I am quite certain they have never read my blog, ever, nor do they care about my dog or my finances or my running (unless, of course, it's profitable for them to care!). I much prefer to spend my time reading and commenting on smaller blogs, written by people I admire and respect. :)
ReplyDelete