Almost a blog break

I think this has been my longest post-free period since I've started blogging. I blame several things:

1. Sick kids
2. Absent husband
3. Back tack (but it's stuffed and sent now..!)
4. Bloglines

I'm developing a love hate relationship with Bloglines. I've only been subscribed for about a week and I'm not convinced. Yes, it's great to know I'm not missing any gems but it has somehow taken away the thrill of the chase. It was so exciting to click through my favourites list just to see if there was anything new, and the joy of finding something.

Also, it's so much easier to lurk via bloglines - I used to feel rude reading a blog and not leaving a comment but now I find myself doing it all the time.

But my biggest beef is that the accusing number of unread posts just seems to have become another thing on my 'to do' list. I feel unable to post my own stuff until I have caught up on my reading and with so many great blogs out there, it is taking way too much of my precious time.

No wonder I'm getting bugger all else done.

Comments

[krista]

I concur!

I like the bloglines, I too, have only subscribed a week or so ago, and I too, feel the same. I also find it causes me to search peoples archives less, and their links, even less. I just read the new post, and off I go, to the next blog's new post on the list... kind of hum-drum. I like the thrill of the chase too.
But too give a little positive feedback, I do like not having to scroll through my whole list (100 or so) of blogs I enjoy, only to find about 30% have a new post. So I guess it saves some time.
And another thing, I have noticed it's something going around right now, the need for a blog break. I think it's a good thing to do, though I haven't dared to yet, I wonder if I would lose my readers forever?
But then, if they really like visiting me they'd be back no matter how long a break I took, right?
Gee, now that I've taken up 10 minutes of your time reading this, I guess I'll end it now!
:)
Take care and I hope you find a happy balance with all of the things you love.

[Strikkelise]

Hi, I'm having some of the same thoughts about Bloglines. I have subscribed since some time last year, and have had to clean up my list of feeds a couple of times. The sheer possibility of keeping up with all the updates seems to make it a pressure.

What's good about it is that I don't fall off the blogs that update less regularly. I simply don't think about them until they turn up in Bloglines again. Before I used to get tired of waiting for a page to load, only to find no updates, so I deleted a lot of favourites because of this.

But I've noticed that I get more and more subscribers on Bloglines, but less comments. And I see on Sitemeter that fewer people click my links.

And I know from a Norwegian crafts forum that fewer and fewer of those readers visit the actual blog pages, the just read updates in Bloglines.

[m/j]

Hi Auntie Ali, we like your pictures. Look at our new blog matthewjoshua.blogspot.com

[quenna]

Good thoughts about bloglines -- I'm still debating about them. Thanks for visiting!