I am really very curious about you. You don’t leave comments, so I don’t know much about you. I often wonder if perhaps you happened upon one of my posts on one of the topic pages and it just struck a chord with you, so you hit the follow button only to find out that I rarely if ever do a post like that again. Or do you like the way my blog meanders all over the place?
I am not trying to make you feel guilty for your silence. It is just part of my nature to ask questions and think about things. When there is no answer, I tend to invent them… to make them up. I guess that is why I write fiction and humor. It is my attempt to provide insight into the unknowable. Are you shy? Are you too busy? Do you just hate typing? How often do you come here? Which parts do you like and which ones annoy you?
I am particularly intrigued by my followers who seem to be part of some business or company. Am I being followed by bots that are out searching the interwebs for some reason I do not understand? Or did you just find my blog while you were on the company computer and you were supposed to be working? Or maybe you own your own small business and you relieve the stress of a busy day by reading some of my posts.
Whatever the truths are, you are all welcome… and I hope you stay. I may not ever learn anything about you, but I will try to continue to let you learn about me in the most amusing ways I can think of.
Pouring My Art Out 
I wish everyone who followed our blogs would comment just once in a while so we could get to know them better. When I get a new follower, I pop on over to their blog, read a couple of posts to see what they’re about & then send them a thank you for following me in their comments. For some of them, it’s the only comment they have ever received. Wouldn’t that be sad? If I really, really, really like them (like I did with you), I follow them back. And then all hell breaks loose if they are in the least bit funny!
that is the way of things
It is so hhaaaaaaarrrrrrdddddd to be a mystery when you are basicly an open book…
That does sound tricky.
I wish the automated followers would stop following me, likewise the followers that are just businesses selling fine imported shoes and the like as well as the the spam followers advertising get rich quick blogging schemes.
I have real life friends who try to sell me stuff… or don’t seem like real people… HA!
hahahahahahahahaha! Sometimes I like the virtual world better!
me too
Shhhhhh… the secret followers are all actually me, using other blog names… don’t tell anyone…
That wouldn’t even bother me.
My favorites are the ones that follow me and yet, write in a language I cannot even identify. Then I know they are not trying to sell me something, that they are real people AND that I don’t have to bother checking out their blog. Good for my ego. Good for my stats. Good for the planet, too, I’m sure, but I haven’t quite figured out just exactly how.
mystery followers are like the mulch on the forest floor…
Asking about bots…bot-any lessons? How real is real, anyway?
ha… a plant/robot joke!
wait… Robot Plant… the singer for Led Zeppelin, right?
Bot really, what did one robot say to the other robot?
I don’t know
come on think of something.
“I think we were duped.” (Get it!)
Ha!
I have no recollection of how I found you. I do have to tell you that I can’t believe you haven’t yet found the conversation that Gringa and I are having about you over on her blog right now…lol
I was driving all day yesterday… what did I miss
I’m sure that you’ll find it, if you haven’t already…
I think I saw it… you little whippersnapper
moi?
yes
That was so inviting for the friendlies, and a great message for the silent, the watchers, the passive-aggressive ambivalents, the marketers trying to sell you promotions, etc. I love the conversations that happen in the Comments sections… 🙂
I am immensely proud of the comment sections of my blog… maybe that is why I want to get more people in there participating.
I can’t remember which post first drew me in – but I’m definitely not a bot! (There’s a lot of concern about bots in the blogging world at the moment – this is the third time I’ve tried to justify my follow and likes during my five weeks of blogging, lol) I like witty but I’m also writing a sci-fi novel and will soon be entering the depressing world of rejection…so am trying to follow a few people with work already out there – for inspiration (but no, I haven’t read your books…yet 😉 )
Self publishing eliminates the rejection… and most of the sales…
😦 Oh no! Well, at the moment, I’m ironically more scared to go down that route – can handle rejection more than the thought of sending out my work without a decent edit, lol, as I have no idea what I’m doing (and can’t afford to pay 😉 )
I am going to try to get an agent.
Good luck! 🙂
thank you… you too
Thanks
no… thank you
I’m pretty sure I’ve commented on most of your posts since I started following you. Then again, shit dude, you post a LOT. 🙂
It is those pesky crack squirrels in my head… they keep coming up with ideas…
I come by here now and then, and I think maybe you know me/my blog(s), maybe not. I very rarely comment on blogs. In fact, I’m always impressed by people who take the time to comment. I guess part of why I don’t comment is time. I read a post, like it, and go onto the next blog. I like to support my fellow bloggers as much as I can. Another reason I don’t comment I guess is maybe I am kind of shy in the way that I really don’t want to say anything unless it means something, and as a fiction writer, sometimes it’s hard to just write anything else, since I want to be sure my comments are good enough to express something insightful regarding the posts I comment on. I don’t know, something like that. See, now I wonder if I made any sense lol
That made complete sense, and it was insightful… unless it was fiction, and then it was just well written… thanks.
Nope, that was non-fiction, thanks. But after reading your other comments, I realize you’re probably mostly addressing those followers who don’t seem to exist except for a follow. They follow arbitrarily without liking anything, and follow for a reciprocal follow. It’s because of those bloggers that I primarily visit blogs through my email notifications. I don’t go through my reader too often.
It has been explained to me that when people quit blogging, the follows they started are not deleted… I have ghost followers… I guess I was talking to them…
Ah, ok. Phantom bloggers. I think I’m going to refer to mine as Zombie bloggers.
That gives them a certain flair…
Yep, Zombies have flair no doubt.
You can kill them, and nobody minds at all…
I never thought of it like that. But if I get on the subject of Zombies now, we’re heading in a whole other direction. One of my favorite genres.
I did a whole bunch of posts with zombies… funny Photoshop stuff… just sayin’…
I’ll have to check them out sometime, don’t think I’ve seen them before, if I did it was a long time ago so I don’t remember. My character dressed as a zombie a few times, among other things. You a Walking Dead fan or are you on the lines of Romero thinking it’s a soap opera sometimes with zombies?
I like a good zombie movie…
One of the best I’ve seen is “The Horde” which is a French film, so probably “L’Horde” or something like that.
Brains… with garlic and a nice table wine?
I’d prefer liver with fava beans and a nice chianti. But make that the liver of a carrot because I’m vegetarian.
You will make a lousy zombie…
Yeah, and vampire, I know. That’s something I’ve got to ‘live’ with if it happens.
uh…
Ah, the ghost follower. An annoying breed I find. You get the email to say someone new is following you and that’s it, lost to the void of the Internet for ever more? Unlike yourself I would like for those people to leave… Either that our at least pretend by liking something every now and then.
Well I just learned that most of them have given up blogging for one reason or another, according to statistics… so, they did sort of go away
But have you noticed that they have never liked or commented since the very moment they followed you, in fact they may not have even liked or commented before they followed you. So all these people suddenly decide to stop blogging the moment they follow you (or me or Guapo :))
we must really suck at this blogging thing
Haha, I am not inclined to think that they suck at it, They have not learnt the ettiquette yet.
I probably do too
I’ve seen the following statistic quoted by several people who would know:
Over 50% of WordPress blogs are abandoned within the first six months.
And then I’ve noticed that more experienced bloggers often reduce their blogging schedule. I do just under half the weekly posts I did when I started and some blogs I follow don’t even appear in my reader once a week. More often than not, irregular bloggers aren’t around when they’re not posting something and they don’t go back to examine the past 2 weeks in the Reader. Mr. List of X is an exception, not the rule.
Unless these absentee bloggers delete their blogs, they remain on your follower list as the so-called mystery followers. They are people who like you but are no longer around to read you. Or, if they do still read you, it’s through an RSS reader that WordPress can’t keep track of.
well that cleared up the mystery… in a sort of sad way…
I know you weren’t talking to me but I thought I should put words here anyway just so I don’t get added to the list you are talking to.
You have your own mysteries…
I like to think so.
Michelle, you are the best. Nobody could forget you. And I’m sure hardly any try. 😉 Sorry, I couldn’t exist. I mean resist. I am not a robot. I am not a robot. I am not a robot.
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ne too
I’m a big fan of being followed by businesses.
I also get followed by a lot of very religious people, which surprises me, because I deliberately type god in lowercase almost all the time.
I think many of them expect a twitter-esque follow back, which I wouldn’t do here because I actually read the vast majority of blogs I follow.
I read all the blogs I follow… but it does make me nervous to follow new ones.
There are some I’ve switched to weekly or no post notifications if they change tone, or become something I’m not really interested in.
I don’t like to unfollow though, as I know a lot of people track their stats closely.
I tend to notice when people stop commenting on my posts… and then I start just hitting the like button on theirs, sort of to make a point, I guess
People come and go.
there’s an awful lot to read out there….
Yeah, I am not expecting much from this post, but I have heard from a few people who I haven’t heard a lot from, and I learned some things, and I got a few people thinking about it, so I did what I always do.
I often wonder if these ghost followers actually hit follow with the main aim of getting a follow back.
I think they do.
Though I’m not sure why Arizona Heating and AC thinks I would…
I think they are following me too… is there some kind of automated program that companies can use to just follow everybody on the internet?
haha, who is to know their reasoning, I guess they just follow en-masse hoping that people blindly follow.
It might not be a real mystery, but I still got people talking and thinking…
Yes you did, and that is all good.
I try to sneak in some thinking when they aren’t looking.
That is often the case too
Amen brotha. I only follow blogs I read and comment on. I even unfollow blogs if I initially liked the stuff but then it seemed to take a left turn..,
And, like you, I get really religious ones following me – which is mind boggling since I’ve openly said I’m anti-religion. Maybe they’re trying to convert me? 🙂
I don’t think many of them have ever even read me.
Regular bloggers too – I get a note that they’ve followed me, and that’s the last I ever hear of them.
I do save the notifications, and I’m trying to visit all of them to see if I want to read their stuff.
Or to find a good PlumbingServicesOntario.wordpress.com You know, just in case.
I don’t think I get companies. But I do get the foreign language ones.
I get a lot of them too. I’m always impressed that they’re bilingual.
Snort.
not that there’s anything wrong with that
hey… what their words do in the privacy of their own brain is none of our affair…
hehe
affair…
sigh… I am supposed to be the immature one here…
I find that even among people who type in English, it often seems like a foreign language… HA!
I think I have a chiropractor down there somewhere.
I do sometimes feel a little lick a cult leader…
Wha?? You licked a cult leader? You a sick puppy, dude.
stupid spell checker
😛
sigh
I get a lot of new followers too, but then never hear from them…..sometimes I check out their site and it’s in Hebrew or something…..
WordPress is a mystery… and so are people.
Q: Which parts do you like and which ones annoy you?
A: Yes
See, I knew if I asked the right questions that I could clear all this up… thanks.
Well, now you’ve guilt-ed me into a reply. Mind you I do reply on occasion, but guilt none the less! OK lets see…I’m a freelance copywriter, so any attempt at writing a novel that’s more than a page long is right out. I’m dominated by 18 cats, but my fans like them. I enjoy red meat and your blog equally, which is to say, a day isn’t complete without both. So carry on, as I now have to figure out how to make a hammer sound sexy. 🙂
I am so sorry if it seemed like I was using guilt as a weapon… I was trying more for ‘amused whining’… I like cat’s… freelance copywriter sounds cool, even if I am not sure exactly what it means… comparing my blog to red meat is perhaps the nicest thing anybody ever typed at me… and hammers are sexy because they build houses… and houses have bedrooms…
Sorry, I write advertising copy for clients. Mostly TV and radio commercials. Yes, hammers are very sexy. I just happen to have the most butt ugly hammer I have ever seen! Also no! No guilt. My grandmother however…another story! 😉
I think I would be good at advertising… and now I want to see a picture of your hammer…
You probably would be good at advertising! After the ads run I’ll send you a picture. It’s a cross between a claw and a mallet.
and you say it isn’t sexy? How can that be?
Oh the shape is fine, its the colors! Hammers are NOT supposed to have pink and mauve trim!!!
I like the idea of a hammer having its own sense of fashion… but these colors do not always work well together… I guess.
Now that I’ve read the documentation, the pink is florescent and its designed to work in “low light” areas!
It is the super spy stealth hammer…
“Do you hate typing” I HOWLED WITH LAUGHTER!
That may have sounded just a bit sarcastic when I typed that…
O.O
ha!
They know you…and worriedly want to keep their distance? (giggles – hope you poke some of them out of the shadows)
I try every now and then. Some of them might not be real people.