Dear thepublicblogger, why did you follow my blog?

  Posted on by Kendall Fredrick Person

  1,009 Comments

Dear thepublicblogger, why did you follow my blog?

dear thepublicblogger

Dear thepublicblogger: First I want to thank you for following my blog. I could be cynical and say maybe you just did it, so that I would follow yours, but hopefully that is not the case. I am one to always believe the best about people first so I’m going to remain optimistic (although, I am glad to follow yours, because I am enjoying it quite a bit). –  cynical optimist

Dear cynical optimist:  I do not think you are being cynical in the least by inquiring the reasons for my joining your community. Cynicism would come into play if you did not ask. ‘Following’ is a common term used throughout social media, but here, we are neighbors. The cynic would be partially correct, but, in this case, a real cynic would not have obtained a season pass. The cynic would have judged my performance at the door, and never read a single post.  Several neighbors and visitors alike have inquired as to why I would follow them, and one very talented blogger, The Curse of Future Tom (2013 mid-season nominee Best Comedy Post/Blog) even wrote a hilarious piece (I hope he was being funny) ‘There’s Some Kind of Blogsphere in Here‘ wondering if I was up to something by following him. A very valid question and you are not alone in being a curious mind.

With a population of 65,000,000, if WordPress were a country, it would be the 22nd largest in the world, wedged right between  the United Kingdom (63,700,000) and France (65,700,000). It is a fascinating, international community, that enables all to build a platform to showcase their talents and/or to have a voice. I enjoy my trips around the WordPress world. The sites, sounds, stories, rants and raves I encounter from my desktop our priceless.

It is my vision that The Neighborhood become an international destination for entertainment, for discussion, for discovery, for intrigue and most importantly, for peace. Developing, designing and building the type of all-inclusive atmosphere, takes planning, promoting, imagination, intensity and sincerity.  But all of those things become moot, without  people to share in this journey, that unveils itself a little each day.

I learn of new communities, by visiting my neighbors’ communities. WordPress is brilliant in its simplicity of meeting new friends. Simply ‘Liking’ a post or ‘commenting’ on a platform, or ‘following’ another blogger, your Gravatar  or Hovercard serves as your ‘I was here signature’ linking back, from wherever you are, to your blog, making meeting new friends as easy as a ‘touch or click’. Freshly Pressed is an in-house promotional device, if you will, where ever changing categories of blogs and posts, appear, running the gamut from ‘Drawing’ to ‘Inspiration’ from ‘Startups’ to ‘Blogging’ with hundreds of stops in between. And the prominence of WordPress bloggers can be felt throughout the world wide web, as it is not uncommon  to read a headline at another online community or media source, clicking the link to follow the story, and finding it has led you to a WordPress blog.

Cyberspace, where billions have established homes, is made up of hundreds of micro communities.  Many people establish residence at one location and maintain ties to several more. WordPress is my home location, but with so many friends, family members, and early supporters at Facebook, I maintain smaller accommodations there, as well as SoundCloud, Twitter and GooglePlus, which are still  relatively new communities to me. I try to demonstrate respect by contributing to the atmosphere at each location, in a give and take. I fall short, but my intentions are good. Many times, I am outfoxed by the number of hours in a day. But at WordPress, my home base, my online resident location, being a good neighbor does not just solve fair, it is the very foundation, in which The Neighborhood is built.

I have visited, read, listened to and commented on thousands of posts from thousands of WordPress bloggers. I cross share works from different communities, and during the blogger awards season, dedicate myself to finding, visiting and reviewing hundreds of new blogs, as well as, blogs that I have bookmarked. In an effort to expand the consideration pool for the 2014 Thepublicblogger Awards,  judging criteria was established, including opening up the process to bloggers outside of WordPress, and international judging panels, and a popular vote via online poll, were installed. Utilizing this platform, the neighborhood has supported causes such as stopping bullying (BULLY) and supporting homeless Veterans and those suffering from ptsd (The Hypocrisy of War), and I am proud to do so, and humbled that my voice can be heard.

Why do I follow you? And you? And you? at WordPress, at Twitter and SoundCloud? Why do I find  ‘Friends’  at Facebook and Goodreads? Why do I make ‘Connections’ at LinkedIn, add ‘Acquaintances’ at GooglePlus, feed to Bloglovin and Tumblr and post at Reddit?

As a marketer, (the cynic will say I told you so) following is a tool used in promotions and attracting new visitors, as well as, introducing thepublicblogger.com to potential new neighbors and friends, Similar to most (if not all) performance artists, I revel in producing a sold-out show. As an author, blogger & writer, It allows me to introduce readers to my novels, series and other works I post.  As a volunteer promoter, it provides a larger audience for the incredible talent  I discover and share within a post. As a purveyor of peace, it brings the world together in a discussion of civility and respect. And as a visionary, I can see The Neighborhood as a destination, bustling with visitors, bursting with neighbors, teeming with life. But the number of followers is a false indicator for reaching set goals, and while a tool, it serves no purpose if the production falls below par and respect for community takes a nosedive. Smoke and mirrors may serve as an initial attraction, but it is beauty, and heart, and soul, and sharing, and caring, and believing, and understanding, and honesty and integrity and creativity and doubt and prayer and you that enables The Neighborhood to grow.

As of August 20, 2013, The Neighborhood has a population of 18,218 {updated: April 24, 2016: 84,678} and I am honored and proud to welcome everyone one of you. But there are so many you out there, that we have yet to meet.

No worries, we know you are there. And on July 4, eleven players will begin a quest to find you. And a voting audience, will eliminate those that don’t (big smile)

 

We know you are out there 

 Category: society, think      Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1,009 Comments on “Dear thepublicblogger, why did you follow my blog?”

    • Mona – You are quite welcome. It is my pleasure to have become a part of your community. >> To learn more of ‘what’s really happening here’ please read the post Introducing The Neighborhood…’. There is a short :60 second video that will explain it all. Thank you for adding your voice and welcome to the neighborhood. So glad you are here.

      Like

  3. Hello Kendall!
    When someone chooses to follow my blog, I do not ask myself why. I say to myself, Great! This person sees how cool and deep I am! Thank you for seeing how cool and deep I am and thank you for being cool and deep yourself! I am honored to be part of your community and I look forward to connecting to more like minded cool and deep people! Blessings to us all!

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  6. Thank you for following my blog. I enjoyed this post, even though I have trouble reading white text on a black background.
    I like where you are coming from.

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    • I am sorry about the difficulty in reading the text. I will be making a redesign soon and I will certainly take your challenge into consideration. I appreciate you adding your voice to this forum and welcome you to the neighborhood.

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  7. Thank you so much for reading about the simple lives of the people who call St. Louis Center home. I hope their stories will make you smile at least for a moment. Keep reading…

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  8. Hi Kendall,

    Thank you for following my blog. Your blog looks really cool, I enjoyed reading a variety of your posts. Just hope you find what I write interesting. 🙂

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  9. Hi, thank you for following me. I honestly did not expect to attract anyone out of the field of organic synthesis.
    I feel like being the nerdy scientist in his lab in the Neighbourhood 🙂

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  10. Kendall, thank you for your follow, and your graceful reply to the fellow blogger’s honest question. Welcome to All Things Outlander, and to our show/blog, and thank you for inviting us into your corner of the WordPressSphere. Blessings.

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  12. Thank you for following me! I shared some of the same cynicism as your cynical optimist, so I very much appreciate this post and look forward to reading more of your work. ^_^

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  13. Sites like WordPress act as a kind of “double edged sword” for up and coming writers. On one hand it’s easier than ever to get yourself noticed and — since most writers are also avid readers — it also serves as a great tool for discovering new material from other talented writers (such as yourself). One the other hand, all the following, liking, commenting, tweeting, posting, re-tweeting, sharing, etc. takes up a large chunk of our time that could otherwise be spent on our craft. Personally, I think the benefits far outweigh the costs, especially since I would more than likely be spending all that free time playing video games or browsing through porn sites anyways. Thanks for following me, and I look forward to your future posts.

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  14. Kendall – thank you for following my blog also. i hope you will find it interesting and useful, beyond just a connection. if you are moved to make any suggestions i would be most happy to see them
    best wishes
    doug

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  15. Thanks for following my blog. You are the 13th follower. I am definitely following yours. I am new to this, and I appreciate the welcome.

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  16. You are right. I checked out your blog because you liked one of our blogs. I found your posting a thoughtful, honest description of why so many of us blog even though we perhaps haven’t entirely thought out the “why.” Besides getting to know other writers/bloggers/artists, we find our blog a good way to do some marketing since my husband (the author) and I (the editor) are somewhat limited in promoting his writings due to his age and health problems. It has been a good way for me to continue to write as well. We’ll continue to check out your thoughtful postings. Thank you.
    Gayle and Ian Moore-Morrans

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  17. Reading your blogs it is easy for me to see why you would follow my blog — and just as easy to see why I should follow yours. You Think. You think things through. More, you ask questions. Any disagreement I might ever have with you would be subordinate to the respect I have for those who ask questions and then think them through. I KNOW I will learn things from you — And I hope you learn things from me. Thank you.

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    • Thank you for adding your voice to this forum, and in turn, your thoughts. I have little doubt we can learn from one another, as well as the other visitors and neighbors who add their wisdom, knowledge and questions here. I have not studies Aristotle much, but now that I have discovered your community, I imagine that will change. Welcome to the neighborhood. You are needed here.

      Like

  19. Thanks for this 🙂 I found it because I was looking at your blog to figure out why you followed my backstage blog, and the post totally answered my question. I love your approach to writing as performance art.

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    • I was browsing my stats page and noticed a number of visitors from you site. What a wonderful active blogging community you have created backstage. Look forward to getting to know you. In the interim, welcome to the neighborhood. So glad you made it.

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  23. An interesting piece. You brought out some very good points that could well be applied to one’s physical Neighborhood. So many people, and I am guilty of this, more when I lived in the city than since I’ve moved to the country, but so many people don’t even know their neighbors next door, let alone their Neighborhoods.

    For so many, I think, their Neighborhoods extend no farther than their television sets and refrigerators. However, women are generally much better than men at Neighborhooding than are men. . . . generally. I suppose it’s because they are innately more of a giving nature than are men.

    I know this is rather a cynical approach, but then I was born a cynic. Well, if I wasn’t actually BORN a cynic, I certainly had become one by the eighth grade when the people who ran the school newspaper, which, I think, were mostly ninth-graders, voted me the most cynical person in the school, tied with one other. I was really proud of being recognized by people who couldn’t possibly know who I was. . . . Until I went home and looked up the word. Sigh. But then, you are what you are. I’ve long since accepted this fact.

    I’ve since expanded my repertoire to include sarcasm and occasionally, humor, but mostly sarcasm.

    I wrote a column for a goodly part of four years when I served as Community Editor for a small town newspaper (5,000+ people). I learned a lot those four years about Neighborhoods. Sadly, my Neighborhooding skills outside of work were sorely lacking. However, in my several blogs, I reach out to whoever might want to check me out, and I reach out to others when I find the time to do so, like now at 2:01 in the morning. One can do this if one is retired and living singly.

    Speaking of blogs (hee hee), I want to thank you for stopping by and making my f-stop fantasy a part of YOUR Neighborhood. I have returned the favor, as I, at least so far, enjoy your thought process. Other blogs I occasionally get to are Odds and End Thoughts and The Biblical Apologist.

    Nice getting to know you. You have a good and caring mind.

    Like

  25. I like your perspective. I wouldn’t have followed you just because you followed me, but after reading this post, I am interested in following you and, more importantly, hearing what you have to say. Thanks for your community-building efforts.

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  27. Well that’s a first, an explanation of why you follow people. Makes sense when you put it like that I guess! I have barely scratched the surface of WordPress, I am still new, so I’m not sure what the reader is or how it works but I am on the case!

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  28. Thank you for following my blog and inviting me to your neighborhood. I must admit, tho, that with a husband, 3 dogs, and a house to take care of, I just can’t return the favor right now. I’m up to my earlobes — forget the elbows — at this point with all I have to do. But I’ll stop by from time to time to see what you’re up to.

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  29. Hi Kendall, thanks so much for adding me to the community. This is the reason I Joined WordPress, to meet people like you. I’m just curious as to how you found me…

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  30. Thanks for newly following my blog. Yours is, well, prolific and intelligent and a bit overwhelming. I may be back.

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  32. Where do you find time for all your pursuits? You’re either an incredibly fast reader, or you have miraculous time management skills.

    I’m certainly interested in where your Right To Life project goes. I personally value the sanctity of life, including that of those who most people feel don’t deserve to live. Years ago, Paul Harvey opened my eyes to the folly of capitol punishment; if the unborn have a right to live, so do alleged violent offenders. If our Justice System were perfect, and abortions of justice never occurred, I’d give the bad guys thumbs down, but that is certainly not the case.

    I appear to have discovered a topic worthy of blogging upon.

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    • Hope you enjoyed The Right to Life. It was one of my favorite series and has received a very warm welcome by all sides of the aisle. Would love for you to add your voice at the end of episode III. Your opinion matters to me. Welcome to the neighborhood. So glad you made it.

      Like

  33. Thanks for following me. My time is limited and if I were to read everyones post of who followed me, I wouldn’t have the time to be a good wife, a good mother, a good church member etc. I hope you understand at this time I am unable to follow your blogs. To me, WordPress is my public diary.

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  34. The question is: should I worry that I have not been “Freshly Pressed”? 🙂
    Glad to be part of your community…. And thank you for following me too

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  36. Unusual to find a follower with a link down at the bottom of the notification mail answering your wonder as to who they are and why they have followed you 😉 love it! Nice to meet you…

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  37. Thanks for the follow. I hope you enjoy punk rock and skateboarding. Let’s just say I never grew up and the lifestyle never leaves you. Great blog, keep the goods coming. Rich

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  39. I’m in that moment when speechless defines my initial reaction to opening up to your blog in the ‘now’. See I followed you back here so that I can thank you for stopping by and liking mine today and I was pretty sure it would be a quick in and out thing…yet I’m trapped. I’m no longer speechless by what I’ve taken in…like a moth, I fear I shall be flying back…

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  40. What a fascinating blog! I love the idea that blogging is performance art, not just written art. Thank you for following me– I’m so glad to find your work.

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  41. Thanks for the follow. I really honestly appreciate it. And thank you also for this post. Funny how we are hard wired to be cynical.

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  43. I’m glad I followed you back here. Your writing style is intelligent, engaging and fascinating. I would also ask about your statistics regarding France’s population of some 65.7 million. Surely that can’t be possible, since according to HuffPo (I think) the NSA intercepted the conversations of 70 million Frenchmen (I guess they weren’t interested in French Women’s conversations). We’re talking 4.3 Million French citizens here, and I Know HuffPo can’t be wrong. Inquiring Minds want to know about those missing Frenchies!

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    • I googled ‘The population of France’ and every response was somewhere between 65.3 – 65.7 million. Now the number you have of 70 million could be inclusive of their overseas territories, so both, technically, could be correct. Thank you for adding your voice to this forum and welcome to the neighborhood.

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      • Thank you for responding. Now I’ll be able to sleep tonight!

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  44. Thanks for following me. Wasn’t sure why at first – will admit I had a cynical response myself – something to do with marketing – although then I have to ask myself why I choose to follow someone’s blog. “If you saw it, you got it.” But I also believe there is something to seeing commonalities in another writer’s subject matter. I believe there is something to trying to build communities via the Internet. Our current culture has done well in breeding us with the “What can I get out of this” mindset. We suspect everyone as having ulterior and selfish motives, and we may harbor those motives as well. Everyone has an angle to play. Maybe. But if we’re going to start building new communities out of a world that is quickly destroying itself, we need to learn to start trusting folks. Giving ’em the benefit of the doubt. Recognize that we can’t do this by ourselves. We need each other.

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  45. Thank you for following my blog. I’m new in this village, still peeking ’round corners and checking my new home out.
    Loved your post. Extremely on point. It answered my questions about how you’d found me and why you’d follow me. How very apt. And timely.
    Now if I can just figure out this internet gauntlet, wend my way through ‘twisty little passages all alike’, I’ll join this community. And follow you.
    thanks again –
    d snape author of Kin Ship; Moustache on the Moon, part one
    Believe in extraterrestrials

    Like

    • Thank you for following me at Fiona Kernaghan, Kendall. I enjoyed your thoughts above. Especially, “… it is beauty, and heart, and soul, and sharing, and caring, and believing, and understanding, and honesty and integrity and creativity and doubt and prayer and you that enables The Neighborhood to grow.” I’ll second that!

      Like

  48. Thank you for following my little blog of this and that. I love all small things in life. I love your blog as whilst it is huge it speaks of the little things that mean everything. love,kindness,peace and neighborhoods.

    Like

  49. Kendall,

    Thank you for following my blog… and in the process, introducing me to yours. I am fairly new to blogging and I learned a great deal simply reading a few of your posts. I’m glad we’re neighbors!

    Like

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