Why I’m So Bloody Boring (And Other Excuses)

Every now and then, I encounter emails and comments that are a bit of a challenge to deal with privately. Even worse, publicly. One such situation came in the form of this comment from this post:

Hi Shai,

No offense, but your site is getting boring to read. It’s jam-packed with Blog stuff (stats, how to’s) and quotes (a lot!). You’re making yourself sound like you’re an expert in many things. Too many ‘lecturing’ material and self-help treatments. Perhaps you’re getting into a “Blogging Crisisâ€? too. I miss the usual just being yourself in the blog… simple and easy rants. Noticed that you removed your family/personal stuff. Understandable, we all need some privacy. How about creating another blog that’s all blog related - like what you used to have in about.com. Thanks for listening.

El.

I considered the various options to deal with this, and I finally decided to face this head-on. Just to clarify stuff - or, just to let off some steam.

So El, if you’re reading this and I haven’t bored you in to oblivion just yet… here’s what I have to say:

1) I can never understand how folks can stitch sentiments like: “no offense” and “your (insert whatever) is getting boring” together. If you’re going to be publicly rude, then the least you can do is to owe up to it. I mean, if you really didn’t want to offend, you could’ve written a private email, sent me a message via Skype, etc - asking me what’s up. Or even suggested improvements. After all, I have been asking what folks would like to read here over the last few months.

And really, you *will* offend ANYONE you call boring. Seriously. I bet you’ll get offended if I called YOU boring.

2) I do believe that everyone’s entitled to his/her own opinions and preferences. You are entitled to yours, the same way I’m entitled to mine.

3) I never claim to be an “expert” with any of the things that I write about (in fact, read what I actually wrote on the post you commented on). I only write about things that I’m actually interested in. And, my only hope is that I’ll find folks who’re interested in what I am interested in. Hoping that they’ll stay on, keep reading, subscribe, and come back again. Those whose preferences and interests don’t match mine can move on. It’s the same as if I was meeting folks face-to-face. I don’t want to hang around folks who bore me, the same way I’m not really bothered if folks who’re bored of me don’t hang around me either.

If you felt I was lecturing you, I apologise. That was certainly never my intention. I was never a good lecturer. Even when I was teaching, I preferred workshop situations rather than lectures, so….

My “How Tos” are primarily stuff that I’ve learned about that I wish to share. The quotes and self-help stuff are mostly for *me*. The way I blog here is more like notes for myself. I share them here, as if I was sharing my thoughts with a friend or a colleague. I like to write about the lessons I learned (in blogging, photography, art, etc) - so that I can refer back to them when I need to. If other folks find those things useful, great. If not, well… I still have my notes. My own personal history of what I was thinking about or doing at any given time.

Sometimes, I get feedback from folks who read these things and they tell me that these things resonated with them. That makes it even more worthwhile for me. Yes… even if it bored some folks. That’s okay. I know how easy it is to bore people. Anyone can bore folks. Heck, I get bored reading A-List bloggers. It’s so much more difficult to touch folks’ lives in a more meaningful way. So, yeah… even resonating with just one person totally rocks.

4) You know, for a while, I was in a Blogging Crisis. The last year or so, I was struggling so much about the direction of this blog. That’s why I found it very difficult to blog often before. I even seriously considered working with a Coach. In the end, I did a lot of internal work. I mean, I’ve had this as a personal blog for several years. But, things have changed a lot in my online life the last couple of years. And, when I had to decide whether to honour my family’s wishes (to go private) - or to proceed with how I was blogging before, well… guess which one won?

But, the great thing is: Now that I’ve made that decision, I’m a lot happier with my blogging. In fact, for the first time in a long time, I’m blogging so much more.

My comments are up. My subscriber numbers are up. My pageviews are up.

Are these the best indicators of blogging success? No way.

But, these things definitely help kick Blogging Crisis in the butt.

5) Well, you got your wish. Here’s a good ol’ simple easy ranting from me. Just like I intend to do every now and then.

And yes, always happy to listen.

Tagged as: blogging, comments, etiquette, heart, personal, plain talking, rants