Saturday, March 10, 2007

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A BLOG?


So, you've got all these blog links in your sidebar, or in your Bloglines feeds.


What makes you like these blogs?

People with the same interests? (That's a big one... considering the size of the Tri-Blog Alliance including its official and unofficial members.)

Do you like training details? Race reports?

A variety of topics, including sketches of personal lives, current-news commentaries, heated discussions, humor? (I vote big for humor but can't seem to get the hang of producing it myself.)

Short posts? Long and detailed? Photos?

When you visit a blog, what keeps you coming back?

10 comments:

Wayne said...

Ellie, thanks for the work on Bostongroups. Also, your blog is awesome!

Please have a great weekend!

Linda said...

I like YOUR kind of blog. A little of everything and it IS humorous!

Flo said...

For me, it's a little of all those things. I've dropped reading some blogs that only post one type of thing. There are days when I'm interested in reading long, detailed posts and days when I want to just breeze through them. I love hearing snippets of other peoples lives, we can get so wrapped up in our own junk and forget there's a whole big world of experience out there. I tend to avoid deep philosopical discussion type posts. I veiw blogs as an escape from my life so I don't want to hear about the war, or poverty or such. I do post on these things once in a while only because they are clogging up my head and I need to do a data dump :) And humor, I love humor though I'm not that good at it either :(

UltraMamaC said...

The closer I get to diving into triathlon, the more I like to read about other folks doing the same things. I especially like to read folks reminiscing about when they just started out. I recently had to go through and cut out a bunch of pure diet/weight loss because I couldn't relate to weight loss for cosmetic reasons, or to unhealthy approaches to losing weight.

Do you like training details? Race reports? yes, but more than the dry details I like the "flavor" of the race.

I don't like current events so much except as they directly relate to people's lives. If I want deep I'll go somewhere else.

Short posts? Long and detailed? Photos?
Yes. Yes. and Yes.

When you visit a blog, what keeps you coming back? Feeling like I'm starting to know someone, or like I'd like to meet them for real.

Anne said...

Such a good question, Ellie.

I guess the blogs I stick with offer variety (physical, spiritual, geographical, etc.) and context in the case of subject-specific blogs. I like to know how bloggers' days, weeks and years shape the runner/triathlete/cyclists/swimmer/Piltes instructor that you are. I don't quite get the ones that merely list each workout stats week in and week out.

Thanks for getting us thinking about it, especially given how much time I seem to devote to reading blogs now.

Vickie said...

I like people who are REAL like you!

Vickie said...

I should also point out that I like the blog people who actually respond by reading my blog! I can't tell you the number of times I have commented on someone's blog because I felt a connection, only to be "snubbed" so to speak and never hear from them. I don't read them after a while because I figure they only deal with their small circle of certain people who make them feel important.

Fe-lady said...

I read how I post...pretty short and sweet- forget the workout details. And photos, plenty of photos and real life stuff...I guess sometimes you would call that "drama"-! :-)

TriGirl 40 said...

OK - I am a little late on responding on this one - but I agree with folks who say that their favorite blogs give a glimpse of the author - through short/long, training/personal thoughts - just like yours.

Downhillnut said...

All of the above, I guess. People being real keep me coming back. People having fun, achieving their goals, telling us what it's like in their world.

I really like it when folks talk about things specific to their geographic location and how it affects their daily lives. Maps are good, but I get very bored with graphs, charts, calorie counts, etc.

Humour ALWAYS brings me back. and folks who have so much fun that I wish I was there - those I go back to as well.