I’d say that most of us blog/tweet/facebook etc to connect with people. Isn’t it strange though when those worlds overlap with Real Life?
Part One.
Scene: After Tee Morris “Anti Social Media – what not to do” session. A woman approaches.
HER: Hi Kris.
ME: Hello….
HER: I’m Penny.
ME: Penny…?
HER: Penny from the blog.
ME: [slowly]: Penny…from the blog…
HER: Diligent room?
ME [mentally kicking myself]: Oh Penny! Hi Penny! It’s nice to meet you.
Further grovelling from me and gracious behaviour from Penny.
Part two.
Scene: I am reading through comments on some of the posts here at the Room of Infiinte Diligence. It occurs to me that Penny probably has a Twitter account (since she says she does.) I do a bit of link-to-link sleuthing and it turns out that I have Penny’s personal blog bookmarked. Cue great hilarity (because I thought I didn’t know her and then it turns out I did! Okay, maybe you had to be there.)
Penny and I are now connected by blog, Twitter and Facebook. We’re obviously keen participants on our small corners of the web. Not everyone has as much to say as much as we do. According to Jakob Nielsen’s article “Participation Inequality: encouraging more users to contribute” participation can be summed up thus…
“In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little and 1% of users account for almost all the action”
The results for blogs is even more skewed
“With blogs the rule is more like 95-5- 0.1.”
The article goes on to say that it’s just the way things are, that you can’t change it but it’s good to be aware of the bias especially in certain circumstances.
If you are one of the lurkers then please consider participating. It can be quite daunting when you first start so all I’m asking for is a comment, a simple “Kia ora”. If you want to go further let us know what you’d like to read about.
I think of blogs as being a lot like newspaper columns – there are the columnists who are must-reads, there are the occasional-reads and then there are the ‘avoid at all costs’ columns.
Like most people I seldom write a letter to the editor in response to a particular column (although I have done so, and at times I do draft responses in my head).
Blogs are much the same. But the fact that most people are lurkers doesn’t mean that the thoughts and ideas in the blog are not having an impact.
I guess the difference between blogs and newspaper columns is that you don’t have an editor telling you to stop writing because no one is reading your column. The thing is, if we were all writing blogs few of us would have time to read, plus we would be even more swamped for choice. If everyone was a diva there’d be no audience!
So in light of that – keep it up, love the Room of Infinite Diligence title, and love the fact that it is a librarian-collaboration thing.
Yes, I was about to say the same thing. Really enjoying the variety of posts on the blog – and the future looks promising as between you you shouldn’t run out of ideas like some bloggers do.
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LOL! It was funny for me too 😉
The going from online to IRL scenario is interesting from a behavioural point of view too.
Vye writes: “Blogs are much the same. But the fact that most people are lurkers doesn’t mean that the thoughts and ideas in the blog are not having an impact.”
This is nice to know. Although as a blog writer I do feel encouraged when there are comments on a post. Even if it’s just to say “ditto” or “no way! that’s not how it is here”. It’s not always easy to come up with a post that is half-way decent. 😉
My wanting to write here was moving from lurker to participant 🙂 Besides no one could ever here the fabulous witty and insightful comments I always composed in my head 😆
Kia ora! I am a reader of this blog as well as many others. I used to have my own blog, but it was mostly to converse with my family and friends back in the States. I have a personal Twitter account, and also tweet for Upper Hutt Public Library. I am on Facebook, Flickr, Goodreads, etc.
I will try to comment more! I am finding this blog very interesting to read. Keep up the good work!
As a matter of interest are the 1% of active contributors on Twitter, Flickr, Blogs etc naturally gregarious outgoing people or those much happier communicating in cyber space because it is easier for the shy.
Oh I find online communication much easier than IRL.. I am naturally a shy person. 😉 “On the internets, nobody knows you’re a dog” and all that.
I am naturally shy both RT and VT… 🙂
There are such types as introverted communicators I believe – and here we are.
Obviously there are reasons that people comment/do not comment and thank you for the insights above. I know how hard it is to hit the ‘submit comment’. Even now I type and delete many more times than I post. (Like here. This is my 5th attempt!) My invitation was to let you know that on this post it’s okay to just say ‘hi’ and get started.
At the Tee Morris sessions yesterday in Wellington I had these brief snippets of conversation.
“Your dannevirkelibrarian, I like your blog” and “It’s different, people actually giving opinions” 🙂
I was a happy camper… 🙂
Tee said this which I completely agree with – Participate or Perish!
A pet peeve of mine is the huge bias against people who don’t comment or otherwise “post” online. Since I’ve been involved in online communities, something like 15 years, I’ve seen calls for more “participation” by having more people “contribute”. Reading is participating!
It can just as equally have positive impact on the both the author and the reader as someone that writes down a response in a comment. Lots of authors don’t pay attention to how many page views they get, but lots due. Obviously if you get more readers, that is going to give you positive feedback, particularly if it is on a growing or consistent basis.
Just because someone doesn’t add a ego-stroking comment to a blog post doesn’t mean that person isn’t talking about it either online or off. It may be near impossible to measure offline responses, but they certainly happen all the time. What about the deep thinker that turns over and over an idea in their head and ends up creating “the next big thing” as a response to something in a blog they read? Isn’t that more valuable to society the most frequent “Nice post, I liked it.” comments that abound on the ‘Net? What about the person that reads the blog and tells a bunch of friends about while having coffee?
I could go on for an even longer rant, but I’ll keep it down to this. Give some thought before you are seduced by the notion that those that say things online are somehow better than those that don’t. It smells to me of elitism dressed up in the mythology of geekdom.
“Give some thought before you are seduced by the notion that those that say things online are somehow better than those that don’t. It smells to me of elitism dressed up in the mythology of geekdom.”
I don’t think any of us here would think that, and I don’t think what any of us have written is intended to be taken that way. Reading and assimilating knowledge and acting on it are core activities, so why would you try and actively discourage it by presenting yourself in an anti reader way? 🙂
Speaking for myself, any comments I have made are from an awareness that empty social media sites quickly become uninteresting, and where people express strongly felt opinions that are not commented on, the site even though it may have a strong continuing publishing history, soon becomes an empty echo chamber.
From my point of view I want this place to be part of an active conversation, where I can be challenged. However be that as it may, if people just want to read and mull and then discuss at the coffee table, more power to them… And I would take that as a success 🙂
I’m reacting more to the common bias put forth by the term “lurker” and other aspects of internet culture that raise “contributors” above readers in value.
However, I do find the “Tee said this which I completely agree with – Participate or Perish!” meme troubling.
My rant probably came out as directed at this blog and its commenters. I didn’t intend it that way. I was sharing my frequent experience of a bias that often goes unchallenged and warning against it.
“However, I do find the “Tee said this which I completely agree with – Participate or Perish!” meme troubling.”
I can see how it may be taken negatively. I wouldn’t want anyone to read that and think I meant that they personally had to participate or else, more that if you involve yourself in a site such as this, and then don’t actively participate your site will perish. 🙂
“I’m reacting more to the common bias put forth by the term “lurker” and other aspects of internet culture that raise “contributors” above readers in value.”
Thats certainly not a bias I would want to display, but then in my years of lurking, I have never really encountered it, which is probably why I didn’t consider that as an interpretation of comments made. 🙂
Hi Walter. Great points and thank you for taking the time to write them.
When I wrote the post I wasn’t fishing for compliments, I was looking to make this a welcoming space for someone who might not be confident about posting a comment to start. Reading back it doesn’t come across that way unfortunately. It wasn’t about elitism, rather inclusiveness.
One of my concerns is that life in certain professions will be increasingly online and that if you don’t participate then you could be shut out. My library is on the web in various places precisely to provide our communities with a familiar place to start.
I take your point about some comments only adding a +1 to the comments section and no extra value. I think you have to start somewhere and adding a ‘hi’ to this post could be it.
My main point boils down to “there are different ways of participating, beware of overvaluing the most easily measured or obvious” I guess.
I meant this to add to the observations in the conversation. It wasn’t a criticism of your post or the other comments per se, simply (or perhaps awkwardly) adding a point for future readers to consider.
I didn’t get the feeling that you were fishing for compliments or anything like that, only that it may be hard to determine the value of a particular type of participation vs another. I tried to use the most common type of comment in a comparison to something deeper that might occur completely offline as an illustration of that. I probably failed.
I also wouldn’t presume that you are an elitist. My little rant was obliquely aimed at a phenomenon that annoys me in digital culture at large. There is a self-congratulatory nature to many of the digirati and a “cool kids” feel (there is some irony in this).
I apologize for rambling and ranting. I probably channeled some negative energy from a very bad week into my original comment.
Good on you for trying to get the ball rolling for those hesitant to comment. I agree that a lot of professionals will need to adapt to new forms of communication to keep up with the times.
Here’s to inclusivity and a rich variety of participation!