Please don’t!
Maybe I should take a different tack first. Instead I will try to combine them.
If anyone reading this blog uses any means to output the items they add to del.icio.us as blog posts I would be interested in hearing your reasons for doing so. Now, if you have a blog that serves this purpose primarily then feel free to answer, although I already have a sense of some answers why one would do this.
My question is more to people who send this info to their “regular” blogs. I don’t know if this practice is taking off, or if I am just reading more people lately who do it. I do know that several people that I have read for a while have begun doing this.
Let me also admit that I have on a very rare occasion marked one of these posts as “Keep New” in Bloglines.
I am not claiming that one shouldn’t make their del.icio.us postings public. But there are ways to do so and are, I believe, so by default. If you think that you are providing a service to others—and you may well be—then you could always find another way to remind people that they can use the tools available within del.icio.us to watch your every move.
Now honestly, this has been bugging me for a while. I certainly do not mean to pick on Karen, and I had been intending to write this post days ago, but … do I a link to the Weather Channel blog or an Onion article?
OK, I know I’m about to lose half my readers, but I really do not find the Onion even slightly entertaining. I know it’s something all the “cool kids” are supposed to read and be able to discuss, sort of the hipster equivalent of knowing what happened last night on whatever the current hot reality TV show is. I don’t know why or how but, clearly, their vision of humor is somehow skewed from mine. Psst. And I honestly do not think many folks really get it either, but one must keep up appearances.
Anyway, my point—if anyone is still reading—is that regardless of what you are adding there is a 99.999% chance I could care less.
“So what is the problem,” you ask? “You’re using an aggregator, just ignore my post.”
Well, ignore may well become the operative word. The issue is that, despite what some think, dealing with all of this stuff does take real physical and cognitive labor. The physical labor is not generally the kind that makes you sweat, but it is the kind that may very well lead to overuse injuries.
I am a cataloger. I work at the computer all day. And if any of you are the slightest bit familiar with our systems you know what a nightmare of usability that they are. And then there are the design choices committees of librarians make about how to set up the search options in an OPAC and the various entries to it that compound the problem for someone who needs to do anything besides a keyword search.
On the cognitive front, just like you, I have more than enough to slog through and I try to subscribe to information sources from people whom I truly want to read. This is not to say that I am guaranteed to want to read every word that you write. Certainly not. But if I have kept your feed around then a conscious decision has been made that I find what you post of value, at least generally.
Adding your del.icio.us stuff to your general blog is a guarantee that—for me—you have just significantly impacted that decision in a negative manner.
If you rarely add stuff to del.icio.us then I probably will barely notice. But if you add stuff almost as frequently as you post….
Maybe this is just me. I don’t know. And you probably shouldn’t care if I read your blog or not. But I ask that you give a few minutes consideration to what your blog serves as for you, and then consider whether adding your del.icio.us content to it serves that purpose. If it is congruent, fine.
But I’m wondering whether it truly is. And while I advocate doing what you want with your own blog, always, I also realize that generally part of the point is to have folks read it. So, be sure to consider whether this additional content also serves as a useful and appreciated bit of content for them.
In my case, the answer is almost 100% No.
20 responses so far ↓
1 Laura // Aug 22, 2007 at 6:11 pm
I don’t feel as strongly as you do, but on the whole, yeah, I’m not crazy about del.icio.us links being pushed as a main part of blog content–although the people who do this with just an occasional link with some notes I don’t mind so much (especially if the notes are funny–of course, caveat blogger, I do find the Onion funny).
What really struck me in your post is this comment:
And then there are the design choices committees of librarians make about how to set up the search options in an OPAC and the various entries to it that compound the problem for someone who needs to do anything besides a keyword search.
I was just trying to explain to someone today that I liked searching Dialog (the old fashioned command line way) because I knew exactly what I was searching. In my OPAC, frankly, a lot of the time I have no clue.
2 Karin Dalziel // Aug 22, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Also, don’t output twitter to blog. Or blog to twitter. etc, etc, etc. Just give me the option of subscribing to the RSS feeds separately.
I give people the option to subscribe to everything separately or subscribe to everything (flickr, delicious, twitter, etc) together. Coincidently, no one subscribes to the combined feed, and I don’t blame them.
3 Mark // Aug 22, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Laura, I agree that when they are occasional they are fine (for me) and that I prefer a witty/funny/intriguing caption.
Probably should have left the aside about the Onion out for “a more focused feel” or such, but this is my blog and I try to put a little of me in it.
Yeah, my OPAC committee comment was sort of an aside, too, I guess. Hopefully it was semi-coherent on its own since it is shorthand for and/or a reference to some of my comments on my On Assumptions about language use in tagging post.
Honestly, not entirely sure what I’ll do. It’s certainly anecdotal, but it seems to me that more of the people I read are starting to do this.
Certainly it will be an individual decision, blog by blog. I hate to think of it in cost-benefit terms, but I guess that’s what it will boil down to.
4 Mark // Aug 22, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Karin, thanks for bringing up the Twitter angle. It had crossed my mind at some point, but I either forgot or decided not to comment on it for some reason.
I may have decided not to so I didn’t sound like too much of a raving lunatic. But then the Twitter issue hasn’t become a real issue for me yet, although I know full well that it has the potential to do so.
So let me second Karin’s request!
5 Jonathan Rochkind // Aug 22, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Agree completely. Very much like blog posts that just reference someone _elses_ blog post with no added commentary—especially if it’s someone elses blog that is from the same ‘community’ as the blogger and I, thus I probably read it ALREADY if I want to.
I agree that my own attention is becoming an increasingly valuable thing. Yes, at the same time I increasingly expend it on internet trivialities. I was going to say that’s a contradiction, but it’s probably more like cause and effect. The problem is how to reduce the trivialities while still making efficient use of the firehose of an information conduit of the internet. And posting your random assorted delicious links to your blog doesn’t help (me).
6 Steve Lawson // Aug 22, 2007 at 10:59 pm
On the one hand, I agree. I find the daily dump of del.icio.us posts to the blog is annoying and a waste. I always pass right over them.
On the other hand, I publish selected links from my del.icio.us stream to my blog! The keyword here, I hope, is “selected.” I do this because I sometimes just want to pass on a link to something with a very short commentary, and this seems the most efficient way to do it.
The nice thing for me about doing it that way is that the resulting posts allow comments, and most of the “linkblog” posts I have done since I have started doing it this way back in March have at least one comment.
But yeah, the linkdump of everything you added to del.icio.us that day? Please stop.
7 Mark // Aug 23, 2007 at 5:59 am
Jonathan, I am in agreement about the probable cause and effect. Well, and the earlier part, too. That’s one reason I used in the first round of weeding a long time ago.
Steve, yes, I hope people don’t think I mean not to ever do it. Although, seeing as I don’t know how to do it from del.icio.us (easy, no doubt) I am left wondering why one doesn’t just add it in a post and say, “Hey, you might want to look at this.”
There are certainly reasons to bring things to others attentions, and without writing 6 paragraphs about everything. Heck, I’m guilty of that with my weekly reading lists.
I have no illusions that everyone is interested in those. But I have received enough feedback to say that some do find them useful.
It is a very fine line, no doubt. I’m not trying to draw it for anyone else, either.
My main concern is those that seem to be a “dump” of all or much of what they do everyday. And my specific example was probably poorly chosen on that count.
8 Jennifer Macaulay // Aug 23, 2007 at 7:47 am
I will add that I immediately gloss over all del.icio.us and Twitter dump posts - I especially find the Twitter dumps excruciating. There are several blogs that I subscribe to that seem to have no new content besides these - and I really, really need to unsubscribe from them.
Of course, I’m not one to try and tell people what to do. People choose to dump their links for some reason - at least I hope there is a reason. And, I’m guessing that some people probably don’t mind it - or even like it.
Now that you have reminded me, I’m off to unsubscribe to several of these blogs!
9 Karin Dalziel // Aug 23, 2007 at 8:31 am
I think a lot of the time, the reason was initially that they COULD do it. After that, it was set up, and just continued.
There still feels like this pressure to post often if you have a blog, and that may feed into this. But with RSS, if you only post occasionally, that’s fine. I would rather have a quality post every few weeks than a lot of filler every day.
10 Kirsten // Aug 23, 2007 at 8:43 am
Yes! I’ve unsubscribed from blogs just for this. Twitter is just too, too micro for my brain. And if I want to watch someone’s del.icio.us feed, I subscribe to it in del.icio.us, from which it’s much easier to add URLs that I decide to keep.
Some people like things all in one place, I know, but there are times when too much togetherness creates a sort of cognitive dissonance for me. When my brain’s in blog-reading mode, it just doesn’t “get” the link dumps, so I miss something I might otherwise find interesting.
11 Angel // Aug 23, 2007 at 9:26 am
I am glad to see it was not me. All of sudden I started seeing some people dumping del.icio.us (or Twitter) on their blogs, and my reaction was pretty much wtf. Is something wrong with their bookmarker? Are they just trying to have content due to lack of ideas otherwise? What was the deal?
So, I have been ignoring them for the most part. If it keeps up, it may as well lead me to unsubscribe in some places. As one of your previous commenters say, things like Twitter are just too micro for me (and to be honest, in my case at least, I really don’t care). As for del.icio.us, I have an account, so I could subscribe to something over there if I wanted to.
In the interest of disclosure, I have done a link dump now and then as part of notes I am keeping on a particular topic, but I try to relegate them to the “scratch pad” blog that I know few people read. Now that that tool has privacy options, I would consider making the occasional dump posts private since they are mostly ways for me to group things for later drafts, etc., often with some annotation. However, I don’t see the reason for dumping del.icio.us on a blog. But that is just me. In the end, go with what works for you. What works for me may well be to hit the unsubscribe button.
Best, and keep on blogging.
12 jenny // Aug 23, 2007 at 2:40 pm
“Anyway, my point—if anyone is still reading—is that regardless of what you are adding there is a 99.999% chance I could care less.”
–No offense (since I do it too), but I think this is a hypocritical statement coming from someone who blogs what he reads. Why would I care any more or less about what journal articles or books or web pages you have read? Honestly I care more about what web page you have read since it’s way more easily accessible (both physically and mentally)
I don’t do this, but I did until recently keep my furl on my actual page. I took it down duee to a code glitch. The reason why I did it was this: I have blogged non-publicly for about 8 years, and people I knew IRL kept saying “you read really interesting stuff–you should have a blog where you posted everything you look at.” I thought “what a pain in my ass.” Bookmarking utilities, however, make this more possible.
Everyone I subscribe to who has this has separate feeds for their actual posts and del.icio.us feed. But honestly I love reading others feeds. Mr. Sizemore and I read each others and honestly I find out more about his life that way than I probably would if he blogged personally.
I probably bookmark 10+ things a day–way more that I blog. I would way rather scan through a bunch of cool links than read a long post though. I guess the difference is that most blogs I read are personal, not professional. I do want to see what those people are reading.
13 John Miedema // Aug 23, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Agree completely. If I want to read what someone bookmarks to delicious, I will subscribe to their delicious feed, which I do in rare circumstances. With utmost respect, I will agree with Jenny that posting recent reads is not much different. In the end, to each their own.
14 Mark // Aug 26, 2007 at 9:46 am
Jennifer, Karin and Kirsten, yes, the Twitter stuff is just too much for me. I can see its use cases in some scenarios, like conferences or small work groups. And if people want to use it for other stuff–for whatever actually–then that is fine by me.
But there is a tool for that and it isn’t the blog. In fact, it seems somewhat contradictory to the whole idea of either to try and fuse them. But I guess whatever works for people.
I am not asking people not to post stuff from del.icio.us or even from Twitter to their blogs. I only asked that they consider the “why” of their blogging and how the content–which is easily available in other venues–contributes to that why.
I certainly have posted links to stuff on my blog. And as others have pointed out, I do my weekly “Some things read…” posts. It could be argued that there is little to no difference between this and sending your del.icio.us stuff to your blog.
I can somewhat see that. And maybe it is semantic quibbling and I am not really trying to defend my practice–as I have asked myself and answered the why question–but most of the stuff I am reporting on cannot be posted to del.icio.us.
I can also see that some people do, in fact, like the del.icio.us thing and I can understand that. One solution would be to use a separate blog for it. Blogs are cheap enough–free in many cases–that adding one just for that should be easy. But then I have to ask why even do that? Someone can subscribe to your del.icio.us feed easy enough. I guess by putting it out there you attract those who find your postings interesting, in the first place.
Again, I am not–nor was I–trying to tell people what to do. But clearly, there are a few people other than me who find this practice “distracting” to say the least.
There are very few people–and more accurately, none–who should care one way or the other whether I read their blog. But a little user feedback shouldn’t hurt, whether or not you agree or even care. Many of us are librarians, and are writing for an audience a tad wider than ourselves, so it seems that a little user feedback ought to be welcomed.
15 Mark // Aug 26, 2007 at 9:49 am
Angel, yes, unsubscribe may be the best thing. I honestly do want people to do what works for them.
My point was simply that one might want to consider purposes and audiences in all this. If you (not you Angel, any you) has done this then my real request was honored and it is now up to me what I do with my time and attention.
Best my friend…
16 Mark // Aug 26, 2007 at 9:56 am
Jenny, you make good points, as always.
People are different. Which is why I said above that if you have answered the why question–as you clearly have for yourself–then fine.
I, too, like electronic sources but I try not to privilege them in any way. They are certainly more accessible generally but I fail to see how they are mentally more accessible.
Bottom line, people are different, and in many different ways.
And this is a plus.
On that note, I concede. Do what you want folks, which I was always advocating anyway. Just be aware that some of us appreciate things differently than you might think.
17 K.G. Schneider // Aug 28, 2007 at 9:27 am
Mark, you make interesting points, but I have to say they were lost on me until Jonathan posted on Free Range Librarian because you didn’t link back. I like your blog but I do fall behind on things… just sayin’, I can’t respond if I don’t know.
Parts of your post feel mixed in with other issues, such as not feeling like one of the “cool kids” (who ARE the cool kids, anyway? I want to know who I’m jealous of) and not liking the Onion and oh, I don’t know… pretty much the same insecurities we all have.
I’m divided on how I feel about the delicious postings… your input is welcome, and I’ll put it on the scale with other input. Based on Jonathan’s input, I’m scaling back which links appear on my blog and will also ask FRL’s readers. Of which you are apparently one
18 Mark // Aug 30, 2007 at 2:58 am
Karen, yes, I am sorry about the not linking. It was not intentional.
As I said somewhere in the comments, I held off even writing about this for a couple of weeks and I did not intend to point at any particular person as an example. Then all of a sudden someone who I especially valued for their writing started doing it and I forgot that I hadn’t meant to “point fingers.”
Yes, there was a little wandering in my post and even more so, perhaps, in the comments. But my mind wanders a lot and makes all sorts of odd connections. I generally see no need to clean that up in my blog.
19 K.G. Schneider // Aug 30, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Mark, I am sure you forgot to link… that was not my point. It’s just that I had no idea I was under discussion… you don’t phone, you don’t write…
Not a biggy… but I can’t fix what I don’t know about, and I can’t decide if it’s important if I don’t know about it.
20 Some things read this week, 18 - 24 November 2007 // Nov 24, 2007 at 6:53 pm
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