The answer is difficult to articulate. For most, it's a sense of community just like what you find here, but in a different format. Some blogs are support sites for software/hardware that you may be interested in or already have. Some blogs are support sites for places like this when places like this are new. I'm talking about good blogs. There's also bad blogs you want to stay away from and I do believe my fingers are too tired to type them all out.

First of all, I didn't vote you down to zero. I simply voted your submission down and gave a reason.
Second, If you were going to review a site, maybe you should have spent a little more time here to find out what the general attitude was about submissions. This might have made your review more accurate, as reviews should be, and you would have found out that Hoosker just ain't the coddling type.
All that said, I'm glad someone found your thread and bumped your Karma back into the plime, but if you post another Q & A to your blog, I for one, will vote it down.
Welcome to plime.

posted this as a comment on the page above but don't see it. I am assuming comments are looked at before being posted to prevent spam/vulgarness/etc:


There area ways to submit articles from your blog and have it accepted.

1) Become an active member, posting links, stories, articles, etc that have nothing to do with your site. Then when you post the occasional self-article it will be looked on much more favorably. The main complaint, and the ones that caused the problems is those who post nothing but their own material. Posting nothing but your own stuff, turns it from a sharing conversation to a lecture.


2) Some personal posts belong more in the forum than on the news page. These are usually short little snippets of a story such as the one about funny girls getting the guy. The forum is for more personal interaction. A place we can hang out together and discuss things on a more intimate, personal level.


3) If your blog post is about some news story or is an opinion piece, than post a link to the original story or subject and then follow that up with a comment about your thoughts and even include a link to your site.
Those type of posts are especially appreciated by many of the users. We do want to hear your opinion, thoughts, analysis. We just want the aticle that is posted to the front page to be as unbiased as possible than we can engage in friendly conversation.

[plime]
I didn't add this because I was too lazy to look up the link but as an example of #3 see this:



Friedbrains posted an article linking to his site. It was voted down partially because of that.

I submitted a link to the original story, than followed up with my thoughts as well as additional links discussing it, giving details on the books, and even to Friedbrains site.

Instead of being voted down it started a conversation and was voted up by many members.

As an aside: How much traffic did the plime article give you?

That is a good question and the answer is not cut and dried.

In the beginning, blogs were personal web diaries. they were used by people to tell about their life and share things of interest to them.

Over time, some blogs became very popular and were able to draw in advertisers. these blogs slowly mutated into news sites. Think TechCrunch, Engadget, BoingBoing. These sites are still blogs but they are often not looked down upon as most blogs are. Because they have risen to the top of the 'blogosphere' they are seen as being more of a news site than a blog.

New bloggers show up, find a niche and write. My own blog covers social media, gaming (board and video games) with some 'fluff' content thrown in to allow my readers to form a more personal bond with me. I do not have the traffic numbers of an "A" list blog but I do have other writers who contribute to my blog. some of my writers are better than others.

Do I run advertising? Yes I do. Is the site created around the advertising? No it is not. I do take the occasional 'sponsored post' but I only take them if they are in line with my blog or of interest to my readers.

I do not think this discussion needs to delve into the "paid vs. non-paid" debate going on among bloggers but I did want to give some background on my particular blog.

To put it simply, most news sites are blogs but most blogs are not news sites. Any site that posts stories and allows for reader feedback is a blog.

O.k, Fair point, I guess i was a bit quick to start criticising stuff without reading through properly.

I applaud your honesty and I have no way of knowing who voted me down because I can only see who voted me up.

I tried to spend more time on the site before writing my review but I was dropped down to zero karma rather quickly. This made it hard for me to test out the site properly. Think of it as walking into a restaurant, ordering some food, eating part of your appetizer and then being kicked out and having to complete your experience by looking in through the big plate glass window!

I still think my review was fair and the only truly negative thing (as mentioned in the review) was the problem I had with community members in regards to comments left and being knocked down to zero karma.

I listed far more good items than bad about the site and told readers to check the site out and decide for themselves.

I wanted to cover the fact that you can go back and edit a post/comment after the fact (I love that 'cause I can's spell) as well as a few more items but, having zero karma locked me out and frustrated me.

As much as I would like to answer that question my "easy access" tracker (MyBlogLog) is acting up at this time and I see no data for today.

I found Plime by checking my server logs. Someone else had submitted my site to Plime and I jsut followed the back links.

I think I had about 500+ hits from Plime on March 8th. I'll know more when I check my server stats tonight.

Plime does generate good traffic. Not as good as Netscape but it is nice and steady traffic. As long as you can figure out a way to keep the sploggers off and not scare away new users Plime can become a big player in social media.

That's pretty good. Considering that when it launched in October it was averaging 100 hits on articles, color me impressed with the growth.

In my opinion, there are is a huge difference between a Blogger and a Splogger.

For example, one of my favorite blogs is Security Monkey on ITToolbox. To me, that's a blog.

Another example of a blog is Mark Cuban's Blog Maverick

I have no problems with those.

A Splogger is those blogs that have little to no original content and/or a ton of ads (or off-site links).

I completely agree with that. I run an entertainment site and me and the rest of the writers strive to write good original material. I'd feel very bad if someone called me a splogger if I submitted my own material to Plime.
Just because something is hosted on Wordpress or Blogger, doesn't mean it's some guy ranting about his day or luring readers in to click on links.
There are very good writers in the blog-sphere and if it weren't for them, we'd all still be fed what the mainstream media feeds us.

I'm fairly new to the blogosphere (at least from the side of actually running a blog) and I'm sitting here reading the "negative" comments about bloggers and sploggers and I thinking "Am I a splogger?" I don't think I am. We try really hard to look at the topics we cover from a different angle and we write because we're fans of these shows, etc. We try to get exclusive content when we can to provide our readers with stuff they can't find anywhere else, this might venture into the "news" category but we're still just a blog with our opinions on things.

If you don't like it, vote it down. If you like it, vote it up. But don't be a bully with double digit karma and label us spam.

About personal blogs:

I understand and agree with frowning upon 'personal gain' links. As some users have mentioned however, not all personal blog links are for personal gain.

I read a number of blogs, some of them are just ramblings or people I don't even know, and have little content. It could be about a guy that had to wait at the traffic light. Some people have a talent to make such a story very very funny, and I enjoy reading it. If I read such a story, I would post it, to share with everyone else.

If I were to write a blog article that I get a lot of comments from, and hear from readers or friends that they really enjoyd reading it, I would consider posting it, just to share to the community. I think this should be acceptable if a user has proven their intentions on the site.

I would have taken this a bit more seriously if there had not been a cadillac advert movie in the center of the page.... but you got 1 more site hit, which i'm sure is all you wanted.

We started a forum thread that said "post your blog here". But no one posted their blog except me. I don't mind reading blogs from time to time, and when I read something I like in a blog, I am not adverse to posting it. If you want your stuff read, allow someone else who enjoyed it to post it so that it cannot possibly come accross as self-serving. And lets face it, as none of us are staring each other in the eyes, all we have in perception. To coin the old phrase, perception is reality.

I have a blog. I happen to think it's pretty good. If I make a blog post that leaves me thinking.. "Man, I'd like to share this with more than just the people who frequent my blog," I just put it in the forums. (and I've done this a few times).

Maybe we can start a "post your blog here" thread again? Would this help?

It's actually a good idea, but the problem is that the threads move and then the next blogger comes and doesn't see it and either starts a new one or goes to the regular pages and posts.

jaxomlotus is working on a final solution to all of this and I think, in the meantime, this is the best interim solution.

Any way we can Sticky it, jax? I'll gladly start the thread? Also, should we link to it in the FA-Q?

UPDATE: Thread Started Feel free to post your blog/site there without the fear of nazis.