Angry Robot (The Waiting Club.. fingers crossed)

knight_tour · Feb 9, 2011

Anne Lyle said:
Yup! I would recommend wordpress.com ...

Interesting since I know a bunch of bloggers, including myself, who won't follow anyone on wordpress. Blogger offers a far more user-friendly experience in my opinion, with its Followers and Blogroll Add-ins. I tried following a few blogs in wordpress for awhile but gave up in disgust.

BTW, we have a whole list of fantasy/sci-fi blogs by our forum posters pinned at the top of this forum.

Anne Lyle · Feb 9, 2011

knight_tour said:
Interesting since I know a bunch of bloggers, including myself, who won't follow anyone on wordpress. Blogger offers a far more user-friendly experience in my opinion, with its Friends and Blogroll Add-ins. I tried following a few blogs in wordpress for awhile but gave up in disgust.

That's just...bizarre. Sorry, but I can't find words to express how bizarre I find that. There are bad blogs on any software, and some blogging software makes it easier to screw up than others but...

Wordpress has a gazillion plugins. If folks don't use the good ones, that's not the fault of the software.

knight_tour · Feb 9, 2011

Anne Lyle said:
That's just...bizarre. Sorry, but I can't find words to express how bizarre I find that. There are bad blogs on any software, and some blogging software makes it easier to screw up than others but...

Wordpress has a gazillion plugins. If folks don't use the good ones, that's not the fault of the software.

Perhaps they do have these add-ins, but I have never seen them on any of the blogs I tried to follow, while in Blogger everyone has them.

Update: out of curiosity I went to the post on fantasy/sci-fi blogs that is pinned at the top of this forum and visited every one of the wordpress blogs. Not one of them had a followers add-in on their blog.

Polenth · Feb 9, 2011

Izz said:
My dislike of it is mostly irrational. A logical argument for it is doomed to failure. DOOMED. Or possibly domed. I'd really like to see something domed to failure for a change.

Just think of it as a blog with really short posts. You can even call it your mini blog (mog?) if it makes you feel better. Or you could visualise it as a fluffy kitten, because it's hard to have an irrational dislike for a kitten.

Izz · Feb 9, 2011

Polenth said:
Just think of it as a blog with really short posts. You can even call it your mini blog (mog?) if it makes you feel better. Or you could visualise it as a fluffy kitten, because it's hard to have an irrational dislike for a kitten.

Word play and kittens? Damn you and your combining two of my weaknesses into one irresistible package.

Mr Flibble · Feb 9, 2011

knight_tour said:
Update: out of curiosity I went to the post on fantasy/sci-fi blogs that is pinned at the top of this forum and visited every one of the wordpress blogs. Not one of them had a followers add-in on their blog.

Hmm a lot of the blogs I follow (on RSS feed) are wordpress. But maybe I should get round to adding on that other blog follow plugin

Dunnit, but not sure I like it. Who cares who else is reading/following as long as you can get the feed?

knight_tour · Feb 9, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
Dunnit, but not sure I like it. Who cares who else is reading/following as long as you can get the feed?

That assumes that everyone uses feeds. I don't, and a lot of others don't. The Followers add-in allows us to automatically see each new posting by a person, just like feeds do, yet there are additional benefits that feeds alone don't give you.

Polenth · Feb 9, 2011

knight_tour said:
That assumes that everyone uses feeds. I don't, and a lot of others don't. The Followers add-in allows us to automatically see each new posting by a person, just like feeds do, yet there are additional benefits that feeds alone don't give you.

If you're using Blogger's follow system, you can add any blog with a feed. It's more awkward as you have to add it from the dashboard, but it is possible. I follow a number of Wordpress blogs that way.

However, it's not in the best interests of a blog owner to make it hard to subscribe to a blog or to only offer one way to do so. People can subscribe to mine via following, the RSS feed, email or a syndicated livejournal feed. If you don't offer someone's preferred method, they often simply won't subscribe.

Filigree · Feb 9, 2011

I'm resigned that I'm eventually going to have to start a writing blog, to reach agents and publishers like Angry Robot. I've given myself the tentative deadline of 'the week I get accepted by an agent.' Because starting it sooner just puts me in the category of Another Unknown And Unpublished Epic Fantasy Writer, Oh Yay.

Am I serious about writing? Hell, yes. If I'm still going after 22 years, I'm at least a masochist about it. And I'm not scared of the effort of blogging.
I just revived an art blog from 2009 that I'd neglected, and I'm generating some top content, though in an extremely-limited niche.

My problem with the writing blog is that I'll need to keep it very limited: no chatty blurbs about my daily life, my work outside of writing, no pics of me, my family, friends, pets, or locales (certainly not without scrubbing the metadata!) This is a career necessity for me and my SO. I'm still debating about publishing my fiction work under a pen-name, to add another filter. So all I can talk about is the writing itself, and I've found in the past that excessive journaling drained off steam from the actual work.

I know I have to do this, and I certainly understand publishers and agents wanting writers with a solid platform. I just don't want to start until I have a good reason.

Filigree

Anne Lyle · Feb 9, 2011

Filigree said:
My problem with the writing blog is that I'll need to keep it very limited: no chatty blurbs about my daily life, my work outside of writing, no pics of me, my family, friends, pets, or locales (certainly not without scrubbing the metadata!) This is a career necessity for me and my SO. I'm still debating about publishing my fiction work under a pen-name, to add another filter. So all I can talk about is the writing itself, and I've found in the past that excessive journaling drained off steam from the actual work.

Not true - I don't talk about my writing at all* on my main blog, but neither do I post personal stuff about my family, pets or day job - it's just not relevant, IMHO. Instead I talk about things that interest me that are related to my writing: other books in my genre, thoughts about fantasy (I did one on trilogies, and one on the topic of torture in fantasy noir!). Just yesterday I posted about a favourite swashbuckling movie that was a big influence on my writing.

Thing is, you need to have a plan and brainstorm a list of possible topics. And be firm with yourself. Otherwise it's easy to backslide...

My aim is to demonstrate (to myself as well as prospective agents) that I'm not just writing in a vacuum - and it gives me an additional reason to stay on top of developments in my genre and think more critically about my own approach.

* Well, if a topic is relevant to my own writing, I'll say why and how - but my posts aren't about the writing process. I have a separate blog/journal for that.

Izz · Feb 9, 2011

I've been playing around with one of my blogs tonight (a wordpress blog, though hosted elsewhere), and discovered a members plugin that looks like it works pretty similar to the followers plugin of blogger (it uses google friends connect like the blogger addin).

Anne Lyle · Feb 10, 2011

Thanks for that tip, Izz - what's it called? Wordpress has so many plugins, sometimes it takes forever to find a really good one for a given task! My blog is hosted on my own web account, so I can install whatever I like and tweak it to my heart's content

Izz · Feb 10, 2011

Lemme go check...

It's called 'Google Friend Connect Integration.' It comes with a whole host of widgets, which i'm still sifting through. You need the 'GFC Members' widget on your sidebar for people to join, though.

Anne Lyle · Feb 10, 2011

Cool, thanks!

Mr Flibble · Feb 10, 2011

knight_tour said:
That assumes that everyone uses feeds. I don't, and a lot of others don't. The Followers add-in allows us to automatically see each new posting by a person, just like feeds do, yet there are additional benefits that feeds alone don't give you.

Okay, assume I have a tech level of 0 (you'd be pretty close)...if you don't get a feed, how are you following/get the posts to read? I've followed a blogspot or two (heck I contribute to two!), but it never tells me when there's a new post - I have to remember to go and look. Which is..I don't remember unless I keep the tab open, so it seems fairly useless. All it does is tell me who else follows, which isn't really helpful? Am I missing something? And what additional benefits? Cos that's quite vague.

It's called 'Google Friend Connect Integration.' It comes with a whole host of widgets, which i'm still sifting through. You need the 'GFC Members' widget on your sidebar for people to join, though.

Hmm, at a loss as to how to install that. *googles* I don't have an independent site with wp installed, so I do not have a plugin directory. *googles more* ????? *tries googling more*

knight_tour · Feb 10, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
Okay, assume I have a tech level of 0 (you'd be pretty close)...if you don't get a feed, how are you following/get the posts to read? I've followed a blogspot or two (heck I contribute to two!), but it never tells me when there's a new post - I have to remember to go and look. Which is..I don't remember unless I keep the tab open, so it seems fairly useless. All it does is tell me who else follows, which isn't really helpful? Am I missing something? And what additional benefits? Cos that's quite vague.

Many bloggers put the Blog Roll add-in on their blog, and this is where you can see each of the blogs that you have added yourself to as a 'follower'. The blogs will always be listed in order by whichever post is newest. I keep a tab open to my blog throughout the day and just click refresh every now and then to see all of the newest posts.

Other benefits are that the Followers add-in is used in a communal fashion amongst the blogging community. When I visit a new blog but there is no Followers add-in, I rarely ever bother to revisit it again. If it has a Followers add-in then if I like what I see I can just add myself to it with one click. Bloggers should make things as easy as possible for their potential readers. If you visited each blog on my blog roll I think you would notice that all of them have these features (Followers and Blog Rolls) in common. Any blog that doesn't use at least a Followers add-in is undermining itself. BTW, from the other person's description above, it sounds like adding the Followers gadget is much simpler in Blogger than in wordpress.

Another benefit is that you get an easy and quick general idea of how your blog is growing in popularity. You start with no followers and you can see at a glance how many you are gaining over time.

Mr Flibble · Feb 10, 2011

So, I have to go to my blog to see other blogs that I am following and check to see if they have new posts. Correct?

This is an advantage over a feed? I mean I can see that it works slightly differently, but not that much. You go to your blog to check rather than your e-mail. It's no different, really. And not so much it's a deal breaker tbh. Besides which, I can read my e-mail at work, but not use a browser.

Any blog that doesn't use at least a Followers add-in is undermining itself.

To you maybe, or to people who use that exclusively. I think content would probably be at the top of my list as to whether I visit/follow, but there you go.

Bloggers should make things as easy as possible for their potential readers

Absolutely. Which is why I follow using feeds

I appreciate it may be different for you, but it's not exactly hard to follow a wordpress blog is it?

So these benefits you mentioned? What are they?

knight_tour · Feb 10, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
So, I have to go to my blog to see other blogs that I am following and check to see if they have new posts. Correct?

This is an advantage over a feed? I mean I can see that it works slightly differently, but not that much. You go to your blog to check rather than your e-mail. It's no different, really. And not so much it's a deal breaker tbh. Besides which, I can read my e-mail at work, but not use a browser.

To you maybe, or to people who use that exclusively. I think content would probably be at the top of my list as to whether I visit/follow, but there you go.

Absolutely. Which is why I follow using feeds I appreciate it may be different for you, but it's not exactly hard to follow a wordpress blog is it?

So these benefits you mentioned? What are they?

I mentioned them. You don't consider them benefits and prefer that people like me don't follow your blog. That's fine. BTW, I absolutely dislike mixing my blog reading into my email account. I have those for very different reasons.

Mr Flibble · Feb 10, 2011

Fair enough

But say I don't have a blogger account - how do I follow a blog with the follow thing and get notified when it's updated? That is - how do readers of my books who do not have a blog of their own get my updates?

knight_tour · Feb 10, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
Fair enough

But say I don't have a blogger account - how do I follow a blog with the follow thing and get notified when it's updated? That is - how do readers of my books who do not have a blog of their own get my updates?

That's why there are all the different methods. I am not saying that any one is better than the other. I am saying that a blog that doesn't offer all of the basic methods is harming itself. I offer RSS feeds on my blog even though I don't use them. I don't follow wordpress blogs only because I never see any of them with the Followers gadget, and that is my preferred method of following blogs. Non-bloggers would obviously prefer the RSS feed. Also, there must be some means of adding the Followers add-in on other types of sites, as I have seen them on blogs that were not Blogger.

Mr Flibble · Feb 10, 2011

Well it's harming for readers liek you yes. I wouldn't say that means it's harming overall, tbh. There's a heck of a lot of wordpress blogs out there, big ones, that have no follow thingy.

knight_tour · Feb 10, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
Well it's harming for readers liek you yes. I wouldn't say that means it's harming overall, tbh. There's a heck of a lot of wordpress blogs out there, big ones, that have no follow thingy.

I understand, but I bet they would have a lot more followers if they did have the Followers add-in.

Mr Flibble · Feb 10, 2011

Some more, for sure. A lot? I think it's hard to quantify, don't you?

knight_tour · Feb 10, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
Some more, for sure. A lot? I think it's hard to quantify, don't you?

Sure, if you want exact numbers, but I have met many bloggers who do not use RSS feeds and instead use blog rolls and followers add-ins.

Mr Flibble · Feb 10, 2011

knight_tour said:
Sure, if you want exact numbers, but I have met many bloggers who do not use RSS feeds and instead use blog rolls and followers add-ins.

Then they lose the followers like me who only use RSS then, don't they? What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts.

Angry Robot (The Waiting Club.. fingers crossed)

Fantasy Tourist

Fantastic historian

Fantasy Tourist

Mushroom

Doing the Space Operatic

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Fantasy Tourist

Mushroom

Mildly Disturbing

Fantastic historian

Doing the Space Operatic

Fantastic historian

Doing the Space Operatic

Fantastic historian

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Fantasy Tourist

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Fantasy Tourist

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Fantasy Tourist

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Fantasy Tourist

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Fantasy Tourist

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble