I am not new to blogging, but I am new to the concept of growing readership, caring about stats and dreaming some big bloggy dreams. This means I am also new to the blogging community, link-ups, blogging courses and the general blog subculture. Whenever I participate, I feel like one of those “long time listener, first time caller” types. And as I first time caller, I have made some slip ups.
Here are a few for your amusement…
I work in IT, love tech and joined Facebook when it was still cool (yeah, a long time ago). So this should never have happened: I am a part of a Facebook blog group that has one of those nifty photo collages of its members as its cover photo. That’s cool I thought. Wouldn’t mind my photo included in that awesome looking collage I thought. Oh lookie, an add photo button I thought. So hi-ho, uploading I go. Suddenly, my visage fills the ENTIRE cover photo and the collage has disappeared. Cue MAJOR panic and a hasty delete to restore the proper cover photo. Relief when it comes back and I slink off, hoping nobody noticed the (completely unintentional) newbie sabotage.
I am currently a student in the latest Blog with Pip course (which is awesome btw – check it out). An eager beaver, I clicked ahead a few assignments and set about making my first ever podcast to share with my fellow students. I saw some others had beat me to it – more keen beans, my kind of people! I listened to their delightful podcasts, left some comments and uploaded my own, eagerly waiting for conversation. As mine uploaded, all the other contributions disappeared. Had I somehow managed to, yet again, upset the apple cart? I texted Sarah: I broke Blog with Pip. I wondered if that was grounds for expulsion. A reassuring FB convo with Pip revealed that the comments section was just being a bit tetchy and hadn’t reset from the previous course intake. So basically, I was talking to people who had long left the party. As a newbie-ish blogger, this is not entirely an unfamiliar feeling.
Bloggers are a generous bunch, but there are rules and etiquette to get one’s head around. There are also loads of helpful posts outlining these expectations. Every time I read one I imagine it’s completely directed at me. Oh no, what did I do? What did I not do? Did I break this rule? I don’t think I did. I didn’t mean to. Please like me other blog people. I promise not to change any more Facebook cover photos.
I can’t talk about techy slip ups without a Dad story. My Dad is a wonderful artist (check him out at Cees Art – I am hoping a plug will compensate for telling this story). He often takes photographs of landscapes for inspiration and reference for his paintings. When he discovered google images and the incredible access he had to an amazing array of photos, he was well pleased. This is how he collates those images: He takes a photo of the computer screen. With his digital camera. He then downloads the photos from the camera to the computer. Pinterest is going to ROCK HIS WORLD.
Robyna xxx
Gotta blog or techy slip up to share? Please make me feel better.
My big fear has always been that you’re not supposed to hang out with mummy bloggers online unless you are a mummy blogger too. Is this one of the rules? Sorry everyone if it is – but you’re all so friendly!
Hahaha. Well, we can’t speak for all mummy bloggers, but we enjoy lovely company, mummy or no 🙂
BAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA! We patiently tolerate your company. Mummy’s are good at that.
I too was all enthusiastic and replied to people who were no longer present and accounted for on another assignment page, lol! And… we’ve just told the blogoshpere!!! Maybe they’ll take pity on us and like us anyway (while eye rolling) 🙂
It’s just all in the name of a good blog story – that’s what I tell myself when I do silly things.
I don’t follow any rules, mainly because one set of blogging guidelines will say something like ALWAYS end a post with a question, and the next set will say NEVER end a post with a question. And so on. *CANNOT COMPUTE.
My posts are usually at least twice the recommended word limit of 300-400 words, too. Am probably alienating everyone. I’m sorry!
Rules are for breaking. I always sit down with a cuppa and your blog 🙂
Not a four-course meal? 😉
I’m too old to be a mummyblogger but I would have loved it back in the days when my children were small. We travelled a lot then (we still travel a lot) and I have a set of diaries, all hand written, covering our wanderings – blogging would have been such fun. If I can offer a bit of advice across the generations: don’t worry about the rules just enjoy your children while they are young and keep telling the world how wonderful they are.
Oh how wonderful those diaries must be to look back on! Sometimes I wonder if the digital documentation of our lives is a bit transient. And don’t worry – I tell everyone how fabulous my boys are 🙂
I’m super impressed with all you bloggers. I had no idea there was so much etiquette involved. Afterall it wasn’t that long ago I didn’t even know what the word blog meant and now it’s this mysterious world I really have no idea at all about other than I enjoy a good laugh reading your blog Robyna!!
I really had no idea either until I joined a few groups! But they are very forgiving bunch.
I love your Dad’s story – so awesome! I think we’ve all made our fair share of mistakes along the way but the blogosphere is very forgiving and accepting. I can only imagine your panic at ‘breaking’ Blog with Pip – sounds like a great course, off to check it out 🙂
I am really enjoying the course. Dad is hilarious with the technology. Or he might have just discovered a very clever way to beat copyright.
Love it and you know what? I reckon there’s really only a few rules, which you already do, just treat others as you would IRL! And as for link ups, the fewer rules the better I say! Thanks for being a great contributor and commentator on my blog and the Laugh Link! Em x
I think that’s the best policy Em – blog onto others and you would have them blog onto you. 🙂 I love your laugh link and have met some lovely blogs through it.
I can totally relate to the newbie feeling, I constantly feel like I don’t belong to the cool group or know the rules to play 🙂
We are slowly figuring out the rules, and you look pretty cool to me. 🙂
I am totally new to everything blogging related. I’m scared to think of how many slip ups I’ve had in these first two months of blogging including the time I accidentally linked up all of my kids email addresses to a link up instead of linking up my post. Ooh the scramble to try to undo that!
Oh wow! Yes I can imagine the panic. I guess it’s some thing you would only do once!
Totally agree! Rules schmules!! The only rule I think important is to be kind to other people, but that is a general life rule anyway.
We are into kindness around here too. But we are also very good girls who don’t like breaking the rules (at least not unintentionally!)