Saturday 5 January 2013

All Together Now


That's an earworm you won't thank me for, but if I can suffer, so can you.

It's been a few weeks at Blogger and I think I like it, more or less. I'm not sure about the notifications - conversations in comments aren't very long, and no third parties are joining in, but maybe people are still shy. For me the whole point of a blog is to get discussion going, so that problem remains. 

I have disabled that annoying Captcha thing, so when you comment you don't have to go through that nonsense. I hate those things with a passion. So, my #1 tip for others is "If you turn that off you'll get more comments". To turn yours off, you need to go to Settings > Posts and Comments, and then change "Word Verification" to "No". 

All this "Stats" data is fun, I think it's there for people with more obvious reasons for needing high audiences and details thereof etc, but it has already shown one clear thing: as always, sex and food win. Yes, the blogs entitled "Nipples" and "Shepherd's Pie" have the highest viewing figures despite being so recent. I shall keep an eye on that phenomenon to see if it continues. But I guess I'm not really surprised. 

Not everyone I met at Blogster has taken me up on my invite to stay in touch via Facebook or e-mail. There are a few that I shall miss, and I'm half-tempted to go back there and post a link to this blog. But then again, invitations to continue a relatively new friendship should not need repeating or pushing, there's some sort of social deadline or limit I think. 

Time passes. I am absolutely rotten at the old-fashioned ways of staying in touch with people offline, and I truly value the online methods. Thinking about all of this reminds me that there are people I used to talk to at Multiply that I've lost, and it seems a shame. 

There were "real life" friends in other places, back in England, and back in the city. There were many  people I knew before I moved here, that I intended to stay in touch with, and didn't. I can't help thinking if there had been Facebook back then it would all have been different. It's the lazy person's back-up connection, isn't it? But nothing wrong with that. All those people I've "found" on Facebook, that I "lost" years ago have forgiven me for not staying touch. They had to, because it works both ways. 

Mind you, I will never forget a rebuff I got some years ago. When we first came to Canada we were introduced by our landlady to another new immigrant family she'd helped get started, and for a while there they were our closest friends. They had also made some friends close to where they lived, who we saw regularly at their home and who seemed a lot of fun. After a couple of years, our friends called it quits on Canada, and threw a goodbye party. Maybe I was only being polite, I'm not sure, but I suggested to their Canadian friend that we should keep in touch, and she said "I don't really see the point". Yeah. OK. 

Poor social skills or just brutally honest? You choose, but obviously, that was a lucky escape. Nobody needs social contacts like that. 

Anyway, as I was saying, I do value Facebook and Google+. Even if I just don't "get" Google+.

I am trying to use it. There's something I'm missing. The lack of activity isn't just that we all don't get it. There's something I haven't switched on or my friends haven't switched on, because we're just not getting it. We'll figure it out, I guess, but if you have Google+ even if you have friended me and I have friended you back, we're not doing something. We need to do that, whatever it is. Gawd.



22 comments:

  1. I'm still trying to figure this thing out too. Thanks for the tip on the Capcha or whatever it is.. I will go disable that.

    You seem to have a good sized following here, but you posted a goodbye with the link from Blogster. I am still double posting as well, I made a friend there I would like to keep in touch with sooooo... maybe I'll send him the link to here.

    I think despite our best intentions, there are very few people we are meant to keep in touch with for a life long journey. Some come and go... some come back again.. some are only there for a very short time, others much longer. It's just the way it goes. You know the old adage...season/reason/whatever..

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    1. It's true. I have two contradictory characteristics. I never want to lose touch with anyone I've ever met and liked (10 minutes laughing at a party and I want them to be in my life forever)but I am THE worst friend there ever was, because I never contact anyone just to see how they are. Sometimes I just need slapping.

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  2. Thanks for the tip!!! I like it here.

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  3. and...there is no way in hell I am turning that video on..I will be signing it all day..*fingers in ear*

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  4. I am so bad too at keeping in contact with my friends. Some though you will talk to them once a year on the phone and it is like you were never seperated (Colleen). I think that Facecrack has filled in the cracks of communcation between people. We see the updated statuses, click like or maybe make a short comment and feel that we are keeping in the loop of our extended lives. Family, jobs and in my case "das boot" take over our lives and we feel that we just don't have time to take those few minutes to touch base with our friends (especially those that are just as insane as we are). And for that we are all poorer in our experiences in this journey we call life. So for this year I pledge to make more face time rather than more Facebook time.

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    1. There's no replacement for face time, I absolutely agree. But better Facebook than nothing? If nothing else, it helps me keep up on birthdays, new babies, passings, that I might otherwise miss. A few years ago my uncle died and I only found out on Ancestry!!

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    2. I understand Jay... I think our lives are so damned busy now, it's hard to fit in all the facetime we wish we could have. Distances make it difficult too. But Facebook does help some.. at least I still feel like I have some connection that eases the "missing".

      By the way Jay... CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING A GRAMMA AGAIN!! Still waiting on the details!

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  5. I appreciate not having to verify myself every time I comment. I thought I was the worst friend ever because I only tend to keep in touch with those people who interest me or educate me. I really like people who do both. It is why my facebook list keeps shrinking.

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    1. In TRUTH, if I tried to keep up with absolutely everyone I'd ever met and liked, I'd never sleep. There have to be some that drift.

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  6. I don't think I have an account here. I just opened one on wordpress. My user name is northofthelights.
    http://deenafredenburg.wordpress.com

    I will look around here.

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  7. I cannot figure out the Google+ thing at all.

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    1. When I do, I'll blog some advice, LOL. I have tons of friends on there, but hardly anything ....happens. So I try to post something daily, even if it's only a video.

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  8. If I remember correctly the Google+ was supposed to be G's version of Facebook (yeah, right...) and I agree the notifications on this side of the internet universe could be a lot better. I have two emails at this point, my Yahoo one that is my main go-to site, and Gmail, which handles the Google-, You Tube- and Blogster-related stuff. I have to make it a point to check it everyday, at least once. So yeah, I get this this has its restrictions, as much as we may not like them. ;) ~ Blessings!

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    1. But I use Google for everything, and all my accounts are linked. And the Google+ notifications just don't work!

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  9. So glad you are here! I am still learning here too, but your hints have been great. I also find the gadget "subscribe by email" priceless. To get discussions going, invite people to subscribe to the comments, I think you have to do that after posting each comment. I still need to do that myself. Sometimes people will comment on a blog of mine months later, and I have not noticed and not had the politeness to react. Still learning, but feeling more at home all the time. Google plus still eludes me, but I have not tried much.

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  10. Okay so I'm here too.
    http://a-personal-blog-for-sherry.blogspot.com/?zx=9d819a6cc491fce8
    that's the personal blog I transferred from Multiply.
    http://thestitchkateer.blogspot.com/
    My business blog which is about to get active again.
    http://withmirthandreverence.blogspot.com/
    that one is a little more spiritual based and tends to be a dialog with Tim's blog http://followingthevoicewithin.blogspot.com/

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    1. Sherry, it won't let me join your blog... *pout* You need to invite me first!!

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    2. Me too. First of all ut said it couldn't find it, then it said it was invitation only.

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    3. I've added all the others Sherry, even Tim's:)

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  11. I hate captchas too. I like it here at Blogger but am having the same problems as you and I cannot figure out the google plus thingy either. Going to look for nipples and shepherds pie now, must have missed those.

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