I love other people's blogs. I really do.
I read them daily, mostly on my smartphone or my tablet (I use the Google Reader App). I love how easy it is to gather all the blogs I like in one place and read each and every post in chronological order.
Still, there are many blogs I don't read - and won't read. The reason is simple: I hate - HATE! - it when only the topic and the first two or three sentences appear in my gReader.
Cut-off Posts
Cut-off Posts
Cut-off posts and/or one-sentence previews are used in feeds because bloggers don't want their posts stolen, which I totally understand, and that way you'll have to click directly to their blogs to read the full article.
I don't. I won't click that link telling me to "click here to read full article". I don't have the patience to wait for a blog to load on my smartphone and then discover it's not even made to be viewed on a smartphone/tablet. I'm impatient, lazy, and get easily annoyed.
I don't. I won't click that link telling me to "click here to read full article". I don't have the patience to wait for a blog to load on my smartphone and then discover it's not even made to be viewed on a smartphone/tablet. I'm impatient, lazy, and get easily annoyed.
I've seen many bloggers tagging their posts now. Some include "by blogger xyz" at the top of their posts (like I did), others include a bottom line, linking to the original post and naming the author. I've even seen bloggers use this bottom line: "If you read this post somewhere else except on MY BLOG or your feed reader, it's contents have probably been stolen."
So tell me, do you tag your posts in some way or another? Do you add each and every blog to your feed reader or do you delete some from your reading list as soon as you discover they only give you the topic and first line?
Captchas
Unfortunately, there's something else I totally hate about some blogs: Captchas. They make me nuts because I usually read them wrong and have to repeat the procedure of typing them in two or three times. Captchas keep me from commenting, seriously (they should be turned off in my blogs; please let me know if they aren't).
Don't worry, if you wrote a great article and I really want to comment or get in touch, I do. I will usually "like" your site on Facebook and drop you a note there.
So, even if I don't comment (there are other reasons besides captchas why I might be quiet; my lousy English and my low self-esteem, for example), I'll always try to connect in some other way, mostly on Facebook or Twitter (@Sal_Kaye).
What are your thoughts on captchas? Do you leave comments in weblogs? Or do you prefer other platforms (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter...)?
