Blogs - Tamsin from the Telegraph would love to know your thoughts on them

i blog, but it's a specific 'craft' blog, and all of the blogs i read are also craft blogs, i have about 200 on my bloglines list which i check weekly.

i use it as part of my business as a freelance designer, it is a way of networking, getting feedback on my designs, and a marketing tool, a free/simple way of having my own web address and it is also fun to do.

previously, i worked in a busy in-house design studio so am used to having other people available to ask an opinion. i find working from home lonely sometimes, blogging helps alleviate that.

blogs do get a lot of bad press, but how's this for doing some good. dd has poor eyesight and a squint, we have just finished 9 months of patching to exercise her weak eye, and i posted a tutorial on my blog with instructions for how to make a felt eye patch. lots of readers have found this useful and one american lady is even taking the instructions to a village in cuba to teach the communities there how to make them for their own children who have squints.

the one thing i don't like on blogs is the ones who put music on them that automatically plays, grrrrr!

blogging also enabled me to be a technical advisor to cod when she was setting up her blog

I don't really like blogs. I read cod's blog if she links to it for something 'cos it's funny, but that's the only one. Have peeked at other blogs on this site briefly but couldn't be bothered to read them. I prefer the interaction of mumsnet to just reading one person's thoughts.

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I read a few blogs most days. I read my DH's work one (even though because he's in IT, some of it is completely over my head) because it's another way of keeping up with what he's up to atm (is that really sad?). I read a couple of ones that I've come across and strike a bit of a chord, often because they're by people who have children the same ages or so as mine, one that's written by my friends who run a local bookshop, and I read Cod's blog, because it makes me laugh. I also read Go Fug Yourself because it's very funny.

Like many others, I find bad spelling and textspeak really annoying (obviously Cod's blog is bad typing not spelling).

I don't have a blog.

Like Miaou, I tend to read Arts and Crafts blogs, am not keen on reading drivel about someone picking their nose.
I read them because I like to gawp at other peoples makes and gasp at how clever they are.
Type- well arts and crafts
Switch offs- hmmm can't say I've come across many A&Cs blogs that I can't read.
What do I get out of writing my blog, well my mum keeps up with it and I find it quite fun to do, but will admit that I tend to post and then forget about it.

I only read craft blogs. It's a bit like a complex web - you go to a blog, you see a link to another blog you hadn't seen before, and voila! A whole new world of possibilities.
Why do you read them? To get ideas, inspiration, and to cheer me up generally!
Which type of blogs do you return to again and again, and why? Craft ones - knitting, sewing, felting etc, and a few others simply because they are funny.
Is there anything that you find a real switch-off on a blog? - lots of typos (spelling I can forgive to an extent , typos are just lazy), long long diatribes/whinges, too much text in one post, typing too small or difficult to read. Life is too short for all that.
What do you get out of writing a blog? Feedback on my projects, which is important to me - everyone loves a pat on the back! Plus, as I give a lot of my "makes" away, it's lovely to have a visual reminder of what I have created.

oops
sorry, it was the VAC that was farting, not the LVAD.
right must stop hijacking and go and do some work....

oh that VAC pump was a nasty noise making machine. i kept saying 'its not me' everytime it started sucking and farting.

I had forgotten how funny your writing was too Misdee - pmsl @ heart being rejected meaning it being flung out in a moody strop, or the antisocial LVAD making farting noises!

I had forgotten how funny your writing was too Misdee - pmsl @ heart being rejected meaning it being flung out in a moody strop, or the antisocial LVAD making farting noises!

lol the new pink peter was on this lot of entries

Misdee, your blog also served the purpose that people on Mumsnet (like me!) who had followed your story but did not know you well enough to be in email contact, could go there and see how you were all doing and look at pictures of Peter when he became pink

i was writing my blog for purely selfish reasons lol. no, i wrote it as a way of release *(typos and swearing all included) and hoping maybe some people would find it useful. i did end up making contact with some LVAD patients and families from all over the world via the blog and yu tube video. Have also contacted other transplant patients as well.

havent updated it recently though as am saving big news for a couple more weeks.

its waitingforthecall.blogspot.com

I have 253 feeds on my bloglines subscription (a feed reader). I read blogs because I like to read other people's point of view, interesting and pertinent things to my job and life, to keep myself informed of comment as well as news, webcomics such as xkcd & OOTS and of course an element of nosiness! I've blogged in one format or another for 7 years now, partially as a forum to try out my html/css/javascript skills, also to be participating in a community, and lastly to keep updating various friends and relations without sending mass e-mails.
I get bored of blogs who never update/update too frequently(more than once a day), talk about minutia rather than interesting events, badly written or obviously biased. I prefer intelligent consideration to ill-informed rants, even if I agree with the poster's point of view.

'amazing', not 'amasing' (having just moaned about bad spelling in long posts....)

am happy to talk more if you're interested Tamsin.

-Why do you read them?

-To keep in touch with family and friends and to have the kind of adult conversation I don't get because I hardly ever see friends without children present. My brothers both blog and I like to comment on their posts - they do the same for me.
My old PhD supervisor does a blog for the Times and it serves the same purpose for me. I love the democratic nature of this - she blogs for a national newspaper, my family and I blog in a totally amateur way with readers in single figures, but the function is the same.
I also read a few work-related blogs to keep abreast in my field.

-Which type do I return to again and again?

Ones I have a special connection with through work or friends. There are lots of great blogs out there which I discover, read through the whole archive, then forget about.

-What do I find a switch-off on a blog?

Bad spelling and grammar, especially if the posts are very long.
Self-importance.
People that purport to discuss something but just quote people out of context, insult them and then don't allow any negative comments.

-What do I get out of writing a blog?

I have been blogging for a few months at Yorkshire food which is, um, a blog about Yorkshire food. I do it because:

1. it's a chance to talk about what I want to without boring my long-suffering husband
2. I have something I want to say (usually 'try this meat producer, they're amazing!') and I feel like no-one else is saying it so I need to
3. it's really thrilling when people comment
4. since getting a sitemeter I am addicted to seeing how many people are on it and where in the world they are - the idea that people in Australia are reading what I write is amasing.
5. again, so family and friends can read it and see (vaguely) what I'm up to, but because it's on a particular subject it's not as navel-gazing as a diary (not that there is anything wrong with very personal blogs if that's what feels right to you).

I think the bottom line here for me is that it's all about community. I'm not so interested in the big blogs with 10000s of readers, more in ones where the same people comment over and over again and you can get to know them a bit.

Read them for entertainment and to see what friends are up to

Don't write one

Oh, to answer the actual questions:

Why do I read them? For entertainment, to get glimpses into other people's lives, to become part of a community and to learn new things.

Which type of blogs do you return to again and again, and why? Ones which are well written. For special interest blogs, I return to the ones which are knowledgeable and have something to teach me. For personal blogs, I return to those I feel I have a connection with - either through dialogue between our blogs, or because they make me laugh, or have similar life experiences.

Is there anything that you find a real switch-off on a blog? Bad spelling, bad grammar, inability to use punctuation and capital letters.

What do you get out of writing a blog? It started out as a support (dh was working away a lot at the time). It's turned into good writing practice - as I have to write it regularly. It's also turned into a great community and I've met several people through it.

I read loads of blogs - some with a specific niche (like photography blogs) some personal ones. I keep track of them all using an RSS reader so I don't have to visit sites that haven't been updated and also keep track of some news sites and cartoon feeds with it too.

I write a blog and it's a mix of links I found interesting, personal stuff, comments on the news, etc.

Now where it's really at though is podcasts (audio and video posts). (Blogs are soooo yesterday DAHLING! ) I subscribe to about 20 of those - ranging from tech news, to broadcast fiction, to ones that are simply recorded radio shows put out on the web.

Not really much of a surprise I hardly watch TV anymore

If there were lots of ex boyfriends who were writing I might read them out of morbid curiosity (but mostly just to check that they weren't having a vastly more exciting time than me!)
I can't see the point really - if you read them you'll either think:
a. Blimey your life's seriously great, so why/how do you have the time to write a blog? or
b. Blimey your life's (or you are!) really boring - perhaps if you stopped trying to write a blog you might actually get one (a life that is!)

....in fact much the same as me - if I stopped posting on here I might actually get my ironing done. There's living on the edge for you.

I have a list of blogs on my favourites, and check them most days. Always a couple of political ones, to get background on the news, then several eco ones, which I read for green lifestyle suggestions.

There are several newspaper blogs in my list, as the quality is so good. I dont tend to read personal ones, as I got bored with them quickly.

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