Felicity, Miscellenia

Links and connections

I’ve been thinking about links and connections a lot lately.

The first, and super obvious, reason is because I have some awesome links to share with you!

In case you missed my notification, or don’t follow me on Facebook, the third issue of Glory Days is out.  My article on crinolines & petticoats is on pages 52/53, but there is plenty of other fun to be had throughout the magazine.  I particularly enjoyed Natasha Francoise’s article on Bodgies & Widgies, and Clarissa Dunn’s history of the Opera House in Wellington.

If you missed them, you can also read Issues 1 & 2 in the archives as well – I’ve written articles for all three issues.  Glory Days is crowdfunding to raise money to pay the staff and make it a paper issues (which would be fabulous – Christmas gifts sorted for half the people I know with subscriptions!), so if you can, please do give a little.

You’ve already seen the photos of Polly / Oliver that Sarah the Photographer took on my dinky little camera, but now she’s put her favourites from the proper photos on her Livejournal.  The first photo of the set is pretty much the most awesome thing ever!

Felicity the cat thedreamstress.com

Almost as awesome as this photo

In posting these, I thought about how I stay linked and connected online in the greater sense.

One of the problems with winter in New Zealand being cold and nasty is that I turn in to a bit of a hermit, and try not to venture outside of my house (though obviously this isn’t good for me).  One of the massive advantages of teaching is that it gets me out of the house, and meeting people, almost daily.

I’ve realised though that, despite blogging almost daily, I’ve been in a bit of an internet/blog winter, and have become a cyberspace hermit for the last few years.

It started when I migrated from Blogger to WordPress back in June of 2011.  Just as I was leaving, Google abandoned some of the interface that you used to follow bloggers (Google connect?) and half of the list of blogs I followed via the Blogger blog follower connection got corrupted, and I lost them.  And thanks to the demise of GoogleConnect, I couldn’t un-follow the corrupted spam blogs.  Then, in moving to WordPress, I discovered that, although my blog is powered by WordPress, because it end in .com instead of wordpress.com, I couldn’t get a WordPress ID which would let me comment on blogger sites.

All of which meant that it was much harder for me to follow blogs, and much harder for me to comment on them.  Which meant that I kinda stopped doing both.  I checked blogs when they commented on mine, and commented on theirs when I could, but I still ended up loosing touch with a number of fascinating blogs that I used to follow, plus all the new ones that have started since then.

And that’s not ideal!

The upshot of all this is, after two years of un-satisfactory blog reading, I’ve declared that it’s time for spring to come.

Obviously the Historical Sew Fortnightly has been a definite ‘thaw’ for me: I’m seeing all these blogs through the list on the HSF page, and through facebook, and getting to really interact with a lot of historical costumers again.

I’m trying to take it beyond that though.  I’ve signed up for Bloglovin, and have followed all of the HSF blogs, and other ones that delight an inspire me, costuming and otherwise.  If you aren’t familiar with Bloglovin, it’s a really handy tool for following blogs, keeping them sorted, and seeing new posts (and you can follow my blog through bloglovin!).

And I’m making a huge effort to read all of them, and to comment again.  I still can’t comment on blogs which don’t allow people to comment without a blogger/wordpress/openid/livejournal ID, because I don’t have any of those that actually functions properly on a regular basis.  And if I can’t comment, I’m less likely to read a blog, because its no fun if I can’t tell you how awesome your latest project is, and engage in a conversation.  For me, blogging, and reading blogs, is all about the conversation, and the interactions!

Felicity the cat thedreamstress.com

‘Talk to me!’ says Felicity

How many blogs do you read?  How do you keep track of them?  Do you comment on most of the blogs you read?  Are you more likely to comment on a blog if you don’t have to be signed into an account to do so?

35 Comments

  1. I read through Feedly now that G Reader is dead and gone – I am used to it now and find it easy to follow all my different blogs the only thing it doesn’t let me do is comment directly from the reader so I have to click through to the original post.
    I comment with my WordPress credentials on WordPress blogs and also use Disqus if that blog has it installed. I like those two options because I get a notification if the author replies to me and then I feel like I am part of the conversation which I agree is what this is all about. I wish there was an easy way to keep track of my comments on other blogs, some days I make so many comments it’s hard to keep track.

    That photo of Felicity is gorgeous, she looks so relaxed and soft, beautiful kitty.

  2. I gotta say, that whole “log in with Google ID” helps me a fair bit, but it’s a pain to log on with a phone… I think it’s enough to just READ a blog, even sometimes and then email a friend, personally!

    I’d rather have a chat or an email than a blog comment… but then again you have some pretty awesome conversations going on with your blog comments, ma dear.

  3. Zach says

    I know what you mean about being a hermit. Every summer here in the states usually ends in me becoming a big loner–something I associate with the summer vacation and not being forced to be around people. It isn’t that I hate being around people, but just not wanting to get out (it’s the slippery slope of socializing!). I’m a little better on the Internet, but sometimes I get down in the dumps and don’t feel like commenting, though I always read the blogs I follow. Sometimes I feel like a blog stalker! I read several blogs (too many to count right now!) but I just keep them all in my favorites on Internet Explorer. In response to your last question: definitely! I told you about my anti-social habits on the Internet already, but when I break out of that for a moment and start to write a comment, I may get out of that mood and not post it if I have to go in and log in first. It all depends. Also, sometimes a virus scan or the like will log me out of everything, and when I try to comment on sites like yours, I don’t always check that it has my info already typed in, so when it doesn’t I sometimes end up with a comment lost in limbo. It’s irritating to re’write a comment after that! It just never comes out the same way.

    • Zach says

      I’m up late and got bored…so I counted all of the blogs I follow. I’m sad to say the number is 44. I have no life!

  4. I usually don’t comment on things, because I feel like I am very poor at expressing myself, and countless times I have erased comments and just not sent them. 😛
    I am very unlikely to comment if I have to jump through hoops to post it, partly be cause it is a pain, and partly because it gives me time to suddenly regret my comment!
    I am always looking for new blogs to read, and I keep track of them with WordPress. That is why I made a WordPress account! 🙂

  5. I follow over a dozen blogs, but don’t usually comment. Usually I feel like an echo if I’m complimenting a project or like I’m intruding on a private party and I rarely have enough knowledge to really contribute. I’m on Blogger, so I follow on my homepage (on which I obsessively check the stats of my own blog). I feel kind of weird to pop up out of nowhere and start talking to someone, but here I am.

  6. I switched to feedly but after a couple of weeks (just about when I got it set up as I wanted it) it reorganized my page and would not let me reset it. No help to be had. So I started over with The Old Reader, which has been fine. Until last week, when there was a massive tech issue resulting in uncertainty about whether the creators (who are just a couple of very nice people who built TOR for themselves and their friends, and had never planned to be picking up the slack for Google, for heavens sake) are going to continue to operate the site. So I may be a wanderer again, but will cross that bridge when necessary.
    I honestly don’t know why I can/cannot comment on blogs, and I don’t know if anyone has trouble commenting on mine – I sure hope not, because I love the conversations!

  7. Elizabeth says

    I tumbl, so this is pretty much the only actual blog I read regularly. Its the first page that comes up when I open my browser!

  8. I follow a few blogs, maybe like 8? Most of them are on Blogger so I just check the dashboard daily. I have one on WordPress that I’ve subscribed to, a couple more that my friends share on FB so I read when I feel like it, and aside from the few LJ comms I follow (I have a few sites RSS’d through LJ, if you count Cute Overload and Itty Bitty Kitty Committee as blogs), I usually bookmark something and check it sporadically.

    I also usually don’t comment on blogs, especially if someone else has already said what I wanted to say… (But please know that I adore every picture of Felicity and they usually inspire me to yell “KITTY!!!” really loudly in my head and I usually want to comment such, but then I feel like that’s kind of a “waste”, so I don’t say anything…) I have LJ set to disallow anonymous commenting for Reasons, but unsure about my blogger. I’ll look into it :3

    (If it matters, I have an LJ cuz I’ve had one since about 2000, and I can’t remember why I picked Blogger over WordPress. Possibly cuz I could link it to my Google accounts easily. I am considering mirroring the content on other sites, but haven’t made a decision one way or the other. Most of my readership is my Facebook friends, the two people who find it via G+, and what appears to be a Russian spam site. IDK.)

  9. I don’t follow *too* many blogs (okay, actually checking, it looks like 40+. But all of them don’t update regularly!) – for now I don’t have a problem keeping track of them on my blogger dashboard.

    And I’ll echo the people who say they don’t like to just echo what a bunch of other comments have already said (ha. ha), especially on a blog that gets a lot of comments!

    I don’t mind logging in to post comments, but they always lose me when there’s a captcha…those things annoy me so much!

  10. I rather enjoy the roulette version of blog following where I just put the blogs I like reading into bookmarks (or have certain blogs with really excellent blog lists on the sidebar to haunt) and then check them for new posts.

    It’s not very *efficient*, but it’s fun.

    I have two blogs, one on WP and one on BlogSpot.

    • Oh, and I comment on blogs obsessively, but mostly on familiar blogs with helpful comment boxes. Captcha things are horrid, but if I really must say whatever – I do so.

  11. Sheila Codd says

    I use Feedly to follow about 40 blogs. I have a Gmail account which makes posting a comment easy.

  12. I use Bloglovin and follow at least 100 blogs; they cover my various interests from knitting, garment sewing (contemporary), historical sewing and quilting. I’ve recently started reducing the blogs I follow in order to have more time to actually get stuff done! My blog from memory doesn’t allow anonymous comments, but that’s mainly because when it did I was getting 10 spam comments a week, every week or sometimes more. I comment using either my Google or WordPress id’s.

  13. I follow a ridiculous number of (mostly) sewing blogs… a few hundred? I read posts via Bloglovin on my mobile phone, which is a bit clunky for commenting, so I try to comment on blogs later in the evenings if I can get onto the computer :). But I’m always running behind! I recently tightened up comments on my blog due to strange spam and worries about security…

  14. karenb says

    I follow a couple of blogs. I would like to take part in more but feel my lack of knowledge makes my comments very ordinary and boring.
    If it’s at all difficult to comment then I give up on the blog. Also if there is no interaction on with peoples comments then it also seems pointless to comment.
    The Dreamstress is the best blog I have come across….lots of interaction, heaps of interesting information and everyone seems friendly.

  15. Yan Jing's family says

    I follow 4 blogs. All, like yours, have interesting thoughts and information to share. I have learned so much from the blogs, two of which have a contemplative element that inspires me to slow down, think, and write.

    Out of the Ordinary is one about life, cooking for children, music, film and film making, all elegantly tied together.

    Indira Ganesan is a writer whose monthly blog is soft and quiet. I admire her economy of words.

    These are both powered by wordpress.

    I live life in a slower lane which is why my blog followings are few.

    • Elise says

      I follow only 4, too! I like to consider them a break in my work-day. On a serious note, though, while dealing with some stupid PTSD stuff, I happened to find one where the writer was dealing with the same dogma I had been. Through her words, I could heal. I never comment, but she has likely saved my life. Probably others’, too. I wasn’t alone. She put words to stressors, containing them, so that all of the hurt readers could heal.

      This blog is my only art/history blog–and I love it! The best one (in my limited search) to balance technique and taste, and a theme of pure fun! Man oh man, the blogs featured on HSF and this blog, though, have been so neat to peer into.

      There is a sense of voyeurism that I’m uncomfortable with….

      • Yan Jing's family says

        Dear Elise,
        Nothing stupid about PTSD issues. How wonderful that a blog could offer you comfort and support!

        I agree that The Dreamstress is one of the best. Fashion history is beautiful and fun. So inspiring.

        I know what you mean about voyeurism, but worry will not change those who view blogs in the wrong spirit. They are beyond our control, so best to put them out of our minds and be content to blog in peace, without fear.

  16. I follow about 80 blogs on a whole variety of things and read them through my blogger dashboard. I have been offline for a week and just counted that I had 160 posts to catch up on! How exciting! I do comment when I feel like I have something valid to say. If it starts a conversation then that is wonderful.

  17. I have blogger accounts and anyone can leave comments as anonymous. However I do have the dreaded captcha codes only because I get hit with nasty spam.

    I can leave comments here, but not on Quinn’s…once I could but it won’t let me anymore.

    I follow hundreds of blogs. I like seeing what everyone is doing but I rarely leave comments, either because many times I can’t.

    • whew, you made me feel better about my 225 blog feeds in my Feedly – all the other comments have under 100!

      I love the supportive online sewing community that commenting creates. The other scene I’m involved in doesn’t have that positive interaction online, and it makes me sad.

  18. It just occured to me that I had both captcha code and moderation set to my blog. Only one is needed. I unchecked the captcha code but I still have it set to moderation.
    Laurie

  19. Terese says

    I’m using Pinterest to keep track of blogs. I have 54 posted to that board…I find the visuals make it easier to find a particular one. There’s only a few I check every day (this is one of them)Your blog is one of the few that I post to because I don’t have to be logged into anything.

  20. Another post above (Hilary R.’s) is pretty much case and point for my own reasons for commenting (or not) on others’ blogs – either I feel like I’m being redundant for praising something since I’m “late to the party” (so I tend to not do that even if in my head I’m saying “wow!” with each new creation I see) or I feel like I’m out of my depth in talent or method (since I tend to approach construction a bit differently than most do). I can count on one hand the number of comments I’ve made on others’ blogs, though I have so many I follow (most if not all of the HSF ones, and a few others – bookmarked in my browser, with the blogger ones followed through that ‘reader’). I tend to be more active (tho not by much) via HSF on Facebook… but I always enjoy reading your posts about your adventures and creativity – and being a cat caretaker (haha) myself, always smile at the antics your Felicity gets into (and that she stays still long enough for pictorial evidence, something my cats loathe to do). 🙂

  21. I follow blogs through my Blogger interface – I’m not sure what relation that is to Google Reader, but this one is not dead and gone. It requires having a blog with them, obviously.
    I do not comment that often, though; I tend to comment on the same blogs again and again, and not at others – some of them, I only check once in a while, and then there is a lot of reading and not enough energy for commenting as well, unless something really catches my attention…
    I follow quite a lot of blogs, and would like to unfollow some of them now to make more room for those I really do follow, and am not sure how. *sigh*
    And then there are blogs I basically follow, but they’re in my bookmarks, or even in my head. Like yours – it does not show up in the feed, so I check it on my own discretion.

    And oh yes, I am definitely more likely to comment if the blog does not require a log-in. I’ve had some trouble logging in with Disqus and the likes on older computers, plus I do not like giving my personal information away to third parties more often than necessary (those sorts of log-ins where you log-in with your existing account with a party to another party, like Disqus is).

    Fiss makes excellent illustration photos.

  22. I use feedly and can follow your blog without problems. The only thing about commenting that annoys me is all of this captcha stuff.

  23. I read heaps more blogs than I leave comments on, mainly because I read during downtime at work, and its hit and miss whether the firewall will let me leave a comment – disappointing and frustrating when it fails to submit. To compensate, I try to acknowledge those I do visit regularly on my blog role.

  24. Another says

    Ha, I am so old-skool (or maybe just old).

    If I have 5 mins while waiting on something, I type a blog name into the web address bar and see if anything new is posted by one of the half-dozen bloggers I read.

    I’m probably limited by my capacity to remember the web addresses!

    I came to your blog via SewWeekly, and though I am never going to sew historical clothing I keep coming back because it is SO interesting to read about people who do. The projects in HSF are amazing!

  25. I follow 107 blogs (I just counted!) and use Feedly to do so after the painful demise of Google Reader. I was introduced to Google Reader by Shell and it revolutionised my blog following! I love using a reader.

    My feeds are organised into those that I comment on frequently and those that I comment on occasionally and those that I comment on rarely. Originally I never commented on blogs at all, just lurked, but about a year ago I decided to participate more fully and start commenting more regularly. But I do most of my reading on my phone on the bus and commenting is difficult, so I’m selective about where I comment, where the effort is invested. I save my comments for those blogs that are my absolute favourites, or those where I have a sense of community – I know someone in person, or they regularly comment on mine, but even then I generally I don’t comment if I feel the blogger is so big and famous that there is no sense of connection or intimacy – in otherwords, if I’m unlikely to ever get a response (not that I expect a response EVERY time but it is nice to be acknowledged, just occasionally). Yours is the only blog I follow the comments as well as the posts as they’re often so very interesting.

    Hmm, a comment about commenting. A meta comment!

    • I should add, I HATE Captcha and only tolerate one or two blogs that have it, and I use my WordPress or Disqus account to log in where required, and it doesn’t worry me to be signed in to either of those.

  26. Dear Leimomi,
    Golly, I follow upwards of 50 blogs, many of which, including yours, I’ve followed for years. It’s been really neat, actually: through blogs I’ve met a number of terrific, terrific people. It’s delightful read what I think of as letters and essays, with handfuls of snapshots.

    Plus, I’ve learned more through other bloggers’ and commenters’ sharing of their sewing and embroidering methods that I’ve ever learned in any other fashion — especially valuable since am able to travel anywhere so very rarely.

    Captcha is a pain, but it does prevent nasty spam, so I enable it on my own Blogger blog. Before I did that, the spam posts were creepy and sometimes very offensive, and I just couldn’t take that sort of assault on civility and good humour.

    As for commenting, I comment far less than I read, and generally only on a selection of blogs where feel comfortable doing so.

    Very best, and gentle strokes to Miss Felicity, one of the globe’s more photogenic felines.

    Natalie

  27. Sing it! I literally just forget to check in with all the blogs I love, especially now that google reader is dead. I’m using feedly now but I’m having a ton of problems posting comments when I use it, which is SO annoying — once you try and fail to comment twice, you generally give up. I need to find a new solution!

  28. I don’t really follow any blogs at the moment, but every so often when I’ve got a bit of spare time I’ll jump on one I know, and then follow links down into the rabbit warren that I like to call Blogholes.

    IE actually has a RSS feed reader under favourites. You’ve got the normal favourites, and then there’s another tab for feeds. I used to use that at work for following a couple of eLearning development blogs when I had a few minutes. Outlook also used to have a built in RSS feed area, but it seems to have stopped updating.

    In terms of commenting, I invariably find that when I want to comment on a blog, it’s almost invariably a blogger one, and they don’t have the name/URL option activated. Which is so frustrating!

    You might find it helpful to know that you can claim your blogname at wordpress.com as well, and link it to your self-hosted wordpress site. I’ve done that as it was necessary for some plugins. Unfortunately it doesn’t help me for commenting, because I used an existing account which has a different blog name… and generally I do want to comment as The Sewphist. But if you made sure the name was the same, I think it would probably be possible to use that for signing in to comment on blogger blogs.

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