For Bloggers: Do you ration posts? If you have a really kickass day of writing, with like six or more posts, do you save some for light writing days (excepting those that are time-bound)? Do you have a rule about minimum and maximum posts per day?
For Readers: Do you have a maximum you’re going to read at a blog on a given day? If you visit a site and find ten new posts, will you read the top three and then move on? Contrarily, how long will you forgive a blog for light posting before giving up and moving out?
If I have an unusually productive day, yeah, I will save non-time-sensitive stuff for another day. I feel like the perfect number for me is three per day; that’s enough new material to keep people checking in, but not so much that it overwhelms anybody.
As a reader, I don’t have any set maximum but if I see ten new posts (you see this often at group blogs like Shakespeare’s Sister or Pandagon) I’ll skim them and read only the ones that look really interesting to me.
No matter how good the blog, I can only read so many posts. dKos has become impossible to keep up with sometimes, and many days even Pandagon is difficult. I read, not so much what I’m interested in, but rather whatever connects to larger events and strategy. For example, Kos’s new book and discussion thereof interests me, but I’ve already read the book and don’t have time to read a discussion of it in my blog-hopping.
As a blogger, no, I don’t ration posts. I post when I write because otherwise I lose interest. I don’t believe that the point of my blog is to hint that all the visitors should read all the posts, so if I have a ten post day and I think only one of those is being read by each person, that’s fine with me.
Thanks for the input. The 22nd and 23rd (last week) I had two days with fairly heavy posting (for me) and I was wondering, because it seemed like my comments actually went down.
I don’t think there’s any causation there. I’ve given up trying to predict what will get comments. Sometimes you do a lengthy, thoughtful, well-written post and it gets zero comments–and then some throwaway post gets a ton. Go figure.
Good questions! I’ve wondered the same thing.
As a blogger, I might save some stuff for another day if I’ve already made several entries, especially if any of them is particularly long. As a reader, I may read sseveral short entries, but if there are too many (for me, that’s about five) or they’re too long, I skim.
I don’t worry much about comments. I read quite a few blogs daily and I don’t often leave comments. You never know what is going to spur people to leave them. Of all my entries, the one that got the most comments was a silly entry where I said I was a Sagittarius. They all came out of the woodwork to say hello. It was weird.
Of all my entries, the one that got the most comments was a silly entry where I said I was a Sagittarius.
That is weird. 🙂
Usually, I post at most two or three new pieces to the feed and front page in a day. I’ll only break that if something I see as urgent comes in, like an event tomorrow or something.
If I write more, I put the items up on the site, but mark them as draft (red box, italics, Draft in the heading) and not put them onto the front page or feed. They can still be found by viewing the subject. This gives me a little pot of items for days when I have enough time to edit, but not enough time or feeling to write.
I don’t have comments enabled yet. My experiment with trackbacks was fairly disappointing: I’m still getting spam from it. I may try again soon. I prefer email, though.
The other thing I do that seems a bit unusual is that I pass most items which are “off-topic” for my site to people who webmaster sites where I’d expect to read them. For example, there’s no point me blogging too much about Bond, as people don’t visit my site for that.
When I’m on a writing spree, I’ll post it all on one day. I have found that when the muse descends, she takes back anything that is unwritten when she leaves. So I post it all.
Reading? Depends. ON Livejournal, I tend to skim and only read those that really strike me as interesting or important. On other people’s blogs, like yours, well, if I’m coming to the site to read, I read it all. And I check several times a day. LiveBookmarks through Firefox are so good.
Plus, I only really read 4 blogs other than my personal one, and some of those are agregated through the LJ feed.
Contrarily, how long will you forgive a blog for light posting before giving up and moving out?
Depends on whether it’s Billmon or somebody else. 😉
I have half a dozen blogs that I check daily – some more than once. The “big” ones I rarely read comments on, as it’s too time consuming. The smaller ones, and the ones my friends write, I check several times a day… There’s only one blog that I check daily that doesn’t have at least one new post a day, but he’s a busy high school student whose room is being redecorated and whose cat is pissing on his bed in the hallway, so I cut him some slack……
For Readers: Do you have a maximum you’re going to read at a blog on a given day?
No. If I can read books then why limit how much I read on blogs? The biggest determining factor is interest and if I don’t have the time at the moment, I’ll go back and read another time.
If you visit a site and find ten new posts, will you read the top three and then move on?
No, I skim and pick out which ones I want to read.
Contrarily, how long will you forgive a blog for light posting before giving up and moving out?
Goes by interest. Forgive? I don’t place expectations on others. For all I know, they might be sick, dealing with survival/projects, have had a parent die, and so on. They might come back and make those posts that keep me coming back.
I’m patient.
However, if a blog is actually abandoned, one can sense that quite often (or just ask).
I try to keep it at one or two a day. But then I post every day if I’m inspired or not. Plus I’m pretty narrowly focused. I don’t post about my personal life or other hobbie or whatnot. I’m pretty superstitious about the posting every day thing. If I ever had to take a holiday I would get a guest to blog in my place.
I don’t mind light posting, but I you don’t post for a few months I’ll take you off my blogroll and stop caring.
“I don’t mind light posting, but I you don’t post for a few months I’ll take you off my blogroll and stop caring.”
That wasn’t directed at anyone in particular, I was speaking generally.
Months can roll by where I don’t post and then I may post 50 times in a single day. My life just doesn’t revolve about a daily schedule. BB