No Sense of Community
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@drmike
In addition to our blogs themselves, the wordpress tags page, tag surfer, next blog button, best blog site and leaving comments on other blogs I would like to mention 2 other ways to locate people with similar interests.(1) I have noticed that in our forum profiles we have the option of revealing our occupations and interests, which are not necessarily what we blog about, although they could overlap. Correct me if I’m wrong but I assume anyone who clicks on my username in the forum would see this:
Occupation
artist – pottery, environmentalist, political activist
Interests
rural living, spirituality, aerobics, dancing, lucid dreaming, comedy, meditation(2) IMO one of the things that distinguishes wordpress.com blogs from others is the “ABOUT” page, which gives us an opportunity to share information about ourselves, our interests and our intentions for our blogs.
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Dr. Mike — Yes, I think it might have been. The trouble is that because it depends on sort of cross-referencing many, many tags for many, many posts it tends to give somewhat random results. A tighter list of categories which are blog- specific rather than post-specific (as tags are) and which are consciously chosen by a wordpress user might get you a better sense of who might be in a “community” you want to know more about.
And TT — Yes, I think the about page is terribly useful, once you find a blog.
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Thanks for this helpful discussion!
I basically would like to say “DITTO” to everything bloglily wrote – she expressed my views much better than I could!
And to timethief, I think you’re right about the “About” pages. It is a unique and useful feature, and mine has already changed a few times (and will probably change again until I get this all fleshed-out!).
My original post was definitely more of a “help me” than a “this stinks,” so I really do appreciate the good feedback.
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@paperdietbooks
You’re welcome. Please don’t overlook the fact that you have a forum profile too that you can edit. The information you enter on occupation and interests will also help others find you. Happy blogging! :) -
For me there is no sense of community here concerning the subject matter about which I blog. However. there are helping hands on technical and communications issues; and there are occasions when I too can feel useful.
I feel that the ‘top’ blogs or posts dont have anything over the parade at the bottom of my dashboard. It is this bottom lot that has widened my sense of community.
Also at the bottom are the dregs: tonight for a bit of excitementI did a bit of sky watching: it was a splog shower.
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I think this is one of the best blogging communities currently out there. Probably the best.
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Someone had said something about meeting different people here, not like-minded. And that’s what I agree with. To know how different people think, not necessarily with different interests, but people who are from different countries and different cultures. And again, not necessarily in a let’s-be-friends kind of way, but hey, what do you think of this idea? Or that world event?
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I didn’t really choose a blog server or host for a sense of community….I don’t really look for community within WordPress. I don’t mean that to sound snobbish, but when I first started reading blogs (I think from links on a couple of forums I participated in), I found a few I really liked, and by clicking on some links in their blogrolls I found others I really liked. I would read their posts and comment on them. When I started my blog I already had a sense of community with those folks, so I wasn’t really looking for it here. It was built up even further through participating in weekly memes like “Thursday Thirteen,” “Wordless Wednesday,” “Friday’s Feast,” etc. You participate in those and eventually get to know folks from that kind of thing. So — those are some ways to get to know other bloggers and find some that you like to keep up with.
I guess if I had started a blog without knowing of many others I might be looking for a sense of community here.
I do feel a sense of community within these forums, though. There is always someone willing to help within a short time of posting a question.
I agree with bloglily that tighter tags would be more helpful. I rarely click on the tags link because the few times I have, it has been way too broad.
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I like the ‘icon’, so that you can associate a person with a viewpoint. There again, that’s probably because I’m a visual learner, and hello [translation = hi] by the way, as this is my first posting, [translation = or should that be ‘reply.’] Can it be a ‘reply’ if no-one’s asked me a question?
This blogging malarkey can damage your brain cells, [translation = as well as your ability to communicate only by the written word]
Cheers
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I’m wondering if there’s going to be a 2007 WordCamp. I know I have to budget for it. Hopefully we can get the month that it is planned for is it is pencilled in anytime this coming year.
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I must admit when I first moved over to Word press I didnt come here for the comunity spirit, if I am to be realy honest i didnt even know this place had a forum untill about 3 month after my first post. I too have had blogs with other sites and If anything the constant “Friends requests ” are anoying for me, Im no snob but when I check out their blogs I see one or two posts and reems and reems of friends, Sorry but I think that is what Myspace.com is for.
I like and agree with Timetheif said when he said
“Indeed wordpress isn’t a community of hormonally challenged youth hitting on each other. It’s certainly not the kind of chatty little entertain me because I’m bored housewife type of community. It’s also not a let’s exchange the names of our cats kind of community. And it’s not a community of head cases dialoguing only in geek speak about internet related and technological issues”. I think this is why i like WordPress.com over any other Blog host. -
noscere: timethief is a she… ;) but we’ve all made that mistake before, even yours truly.
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Erm right ok uhm sorry Timethief. balls again Noscere manages to dig a nice big hole and dive right in……..
Thanks Sulz -
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I’m a refugee from blogster, where a chat feature and a sidebar featuring the avatars of recent visitors to our sites helped build a sense of community.
Here I was lucky enough to be attracted to litlove’s Tales from the Reading Room very early. A lively forum for the exchange of ideas on literature and life occurs there almost every day, connecting and re-connecting me to people I’ve come to know and admire . . . and by extension, linking me to sites they’ve blogrolled.
It may take time and/or luck, paperdietbooks, but if you’ve subscribed to the right tags, your surfer should put you in touch with like-minded bloggers who come here looking for like-minded bloggers like you.
Good luck and welcome!
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