I’ve signed up for MyBlogLog. If you haven’t been there, it’s part stats and referrals, part blog widgets, and part online community. I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time over there lately. (As if I weren’t already piddling away enough of my time playing with the sitemeter, let alone bloglines, not to mention the blogosphere as a whole.)
So far, I’m intrigued. I like the stats page, with information about where people have come from, what they read and what they click on while they’re here. I even installed a little widget that keeps track of the most popular out-clicks every day and gives a little pop-up window when you hover over a link, showing how many people have clicked that link today. (Try hovering over the comment link from yesterday and you’ll see what I mean. The top 5 outclicks box is waaaaaay down on the sidebar, near the bottom.)
But there are a couple of things I am less sure about. Another widget you can get shows an avatar (photo you upload) and the name of the most recent visitors to your blog. So, if you’ve signed up for MyBlog Log, and the blog you are reading is also registered, even if you are only quietly lurking, your avatar and name appears in the “recent visitors to this blog†widget.
That, for reasons I don’t entirely understand, freaks me out a bit.
I have always liked the anonymity of blog surfing. You can peek in, take a look around, and leave without saying a peep. Yes, your IP address leaves an electronic signature for those who are tech savvy or simply persistent enough to know how to trace it, but it’s a long way from an obscure character set representing my internet service provider to my name and photo right there under the ‘recent visitors’ column.
(I still haven’t figured out whether you can turn off the recognition thing, or whether you have to be logged in for it to work, or whether it follows multiple IP addresses. One of the reasons I actually signed up for MyBlogLog is because they are sadly lacking in useful FAQs and so I signed up out of curiosity to see if I could figure it out as I went along.)
And then there’s the whole community aspect. I’m wondering if I’ll be any better at this one than I am with any of the other social media sites. I’ve got my Flickr account, and a Linked-In account, and I’m still terrible about the ‘friends and contacts’ part of it. (This would probably be why I’ll never have a MySpace or Facebook account!) If I know you and you ask me to make you a contact, I’ll happily do so, but I never actively seek out contacts.
I’m shy about approaching people. MyBlogLog makes it as easy as a single click to join a blog’s ‘community’(you don’t need to have the community owner’s approval), and when you do your avatar and name are shown on that blog’s community page (here’s mine). I wasn’t too sure about that whole aspect – I was more than content to grab the outgoing-click widget and play in happy solitude on my stats page when one blogger I’ve never encountered before joined my community, and my courage to be social was bolstered. I even ventured out and joined a few communities of my own, mostly because I’ve had personal contact with the blogger. But my barely-repressed inner 14 year old worries that maybe these fairly popular bloggers don’t want awkward me attaching themselves to their blog. (Terrible the scars that high school leaves on you, isn’t it?)
What do you think? I’ve temporarily installed the ‘recent visitors’ widget so you could see what I’m talking about, but I don’t think I like it. Do you also find it vaguely unsettling to be ‘outed’ every time you drop by for a visit? And of course, if you have an account or you sign up for one, let me know while I’m still in a social phase and I’d be happy to join your community!
Hey Dani,
I have a comment, but it’s not about your new toy. (I am going to check it out though – sounds interesting.) It seems I’ve found your winter. It’s down here in Oklahoma. I’d be happy to send it your way if you’d like it back!! (Although, my boys are enjoying it and would probably prefer to keep it.)
well if people are willing to put their pics/avatars up in a community then it would seem they’re OK with having it travel through teh blogosphere including the “most recent visitors”
Dani,
You are so super-cool, you wrote about this the same day as the New York Times!
I love the ability to see how many people are clicking on your links – the only drawback is that you have to aim carefully, or you end up on the MyBlogLog page instead.
I have several comments to this, but I’m brand new to blogging, and even newer to the site meter, but this whole thing is kind of intriguing isn’t it?
1. Although the site meter tells me some info about the people who visit, it’s pretty vague in terms of how long they stay on the page, what exactly they read, stuff you already know about. But what I’m afraid of is that if I have a LOT more info, will I end up never ever doing laundry again because I just HAVE to know who in PEI is spending X amount of time on this particular photo or post? I have to do more research (damn the laundry) and see what to do about it. Besides, only few people comment on my blog, but then, I don’t leave comments regularly either. Sometimes I just browse around, and get inspired (or not). Wrote about that, in a post called Technological Procrastination.
(http://nutty-notes.blogspot.com/2007/01/technological-procrastination.html)
2. I like your blog and would like to add you as a link to mine. May I?
2. part II. Do I have to ask this question? Isn’t what’s obtainable on the internet basically up for grabs? But I thought I’d be polite. I asked Andrea at the fishbowl and she said yes. I enjoy her blog too.
3. You recently posted about a kid with butt wiping issues. I only have one toddler (so far) and we’re a little early (or not) in the toilet training business. BUT, he made me so proud today, that I wrote about it in my blog. Right after another sort-of toilet-related issue, but this time about dog poop. So, if you have the time, and I’m not sure that you do given how much time you spend wiping bums and mybloglogging and doing other advanced, tech savvy things, feel free to visit anytime, particular this post:
http://nutty-notes.blogspot.com/2007/01/different-kind-of-toilet-training.html
I enjoy dropping by and will again!
Have to say that I just don’t get the mybloglog thing. I already have stuff to track visitors, they can leave comments if they want to be seen, what more does it have to offer? It just clutters up my sidebar and–as you put so well–removes the anonymity that is a great part of blogging.
I just wish it would go away because I don’t want to sign up for it but am afraid of being on the outs when everyone else and their dog has jumped on the bandwagon.
Lugina, you can keep your winter – we got lots here now! Half a foot of snow on Monday and -25C yesterday. Now that’s more like the winter I know!
Claudette, I’ve always found the practice of asking permission to link sweetly unnecessary. As you said, I think things are mostly just up for grabs on the Internet, but I’ve had lots of people ask my permission. It’s a nice way to encourage people to come and visit your blog, too. When the boys are in bed I’ll come on over and check out yours!
And Madeleine, the NYT has probably been lurking here for ages, stealing inspiration. Right? 😉
Blog toys are fun to play with and I find myself doing the same. I’m with you about the creepiness factor with the recent visitors, especially when it shows your picture, but a person does have to opt in, though.
Winter came here to Austin, but I liked it. Thanks for sharing.
What bugs me is that I can’t use my BLOG name (nancy) cause it is already used…why the hell not? So on mybloglog I am nancy99. I signed up a long time ago, but haven’t had time to play with it. I am still bitter they wouldn’t let me keep simple ‘nancy’. That’s ONE thing Blogger does right, it allows more than one ‘nancy’.
And that is all I have to say about that.
Wow! Nice comments for a slow news day, Dani!