Since 6 a.m. yesterday morning (meaning Saturday morning) the 2009 Blogathon has been taking place. This morning when I got up (fabulously late – 11 a.m.) I immediately hopped online and surfed through ALL 160 blogs that were participating, and picked a couple dozen to follow all day long. As of now the Blogathon website claims there are 153 blogs that are actively continuing with the blogathon (which runs another ~5 hours). I think that number should actually be significantly less simply because while I was surfing through all 160 earlier I saw more than 7 inactive blogs. But I’m not in charge or a monitor, so that’s a fight for someone else.
No, my problem with some of the Blogathoners this year is that some of them aren’t interacting with their readers. At all. It’s like we don’t exist. Of the two dozen blogs that I’ve been following, only SIX of them have responded in any way to ANY comments that have been left on their blogs during the past 18 hours. And from what I see of the ones I’m following, only 3-4 are actively checking out the OTHER blogathon participants’ blogs and interacting with the people who are there to interact with and commiserate with as the hours go by.
When I participated in Blogathon (which has been a few times), I would spend my 28 minutes waiting for the next post by going to other blogs, commenting on those blogs, and RESPONDING TO COMMENTS ON MY BLOG. That’s the absolute BEST WAY to get anything out of Blogathon! Sure, you raise money for charity, which is AWESOME, but the sense of community that comes from Blogathon is such an amazing benefit, and virtually NONE of the ‘thoners I’ve been following all day have been doing that. And so they are missing out on one of the best things that can come out of doing Blogathons: making friends, finding new wonderful blogs to read and getting new readers themselves.
It’s more than a little frustrating for me, the reader, as well. Why bother posting encouragement to let them know I’m reading their posts when they don’t reply with appreciation to any comments I make on their posts? I don’t think I’m being selfish since I’m commenting in order to create or continue a conversation to help them stay awake.
It’s 1:34 a.m. – I’m going to do one more run-through of the blogs that I’ve been following and then I’m going to bed. And I guarantee I’ll only get one email and one return comment from my diligence. And it’s THOSE two blogs of which I’ll become a regular reader after the Blogathon ends. I’ll let you know if I’m wrong – and I hope I am.
You are right. And I am sorry. I have been meaning to get over here since your first comment to my blog. I feel badly that I waited until now.
I do appreciate all the comments you have left me along the way. It means alot. Thank you for your support all day long. I wish I had done better towards you.
Thank you for opening my eyes.
Tara, my intent isn’t to make anyone feel guilty – and I hope you don’t think I singled you out (you actually aren’t one of the ones I was thinking of). It was just frustrating that most of the blogs I was reading completely ignored ALL commenters – you were not guilty of that. You did periodically reply to comments.
Well, I certainly appreciated your comments on my blog during blogathon, and my plan all the while was to come back later and talk to the people who had left me comments. I just couldn’t do it while blogathon was going on – I’m amazed that you were able to do it! I spent the 28 minutes between blog posts thinking about what to write and then writing it. 🙂 I didn’t have any time to visit other people.
Apologies for any offense! I really did appreciate your attention!