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Blogging Faux Pas

Embarassment!Blogging - a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies; “postings on a blog are usually in chronological order” (source). Faux pas - (French) a slip or blunder in etiquette, manners, or conduct; an embarrassing social blunder or indiscretion (source).

 

Do you identify with or have you seen the following Blogging Faux Pas?

 

1. An unedited “About” page or “Hello” post. Before you announce your blog to the whole world, please edit your “About” page and amend or delete the “Hello” post. It is embarassing to leave it in its default state.

 

2. The year indicated at the copyright notice at the footer of the blog is not updated and shows the wrong year. Did you not notice? Personally, it is better to leave the year out as it is redundant, in my humble opinion.

 

3. Expired links or having links that don’t work. Check your blog’s links periodically to ensure that they are still relevant. I should do so myself too ;)

 

4. Creating a blog which screams “Tips”, “Secrets” and stuffs like that but inserting posts wholly copied from elsewhere. Readers are not stupid or ignorant, you know?

 

5. Copying posts or excerpts (if at all authorised to do so) from elsewhere without any attribution (where needed). Don’t be categorised as a thief. Be a grateful blogger instead by attributing the source.

 

6. Requesting someone to exchange links with you with your very first comment in their blog. Why should they if they have not even established any connection with you?

 

7. Shouting or bugging your social network to vote your post each and everytime you publish a new post in your blog. It is irritating to say the least.

 

8. Ditto no. 7 but asking your social network to vote for other blogger’s posts or other stories without making an effort to find out whether your social network is interested in those kind of posts.

 

9. Constantly voting your own site or posts in social media. It’s embarassing to say the least. Honestly, I did this when I first started using social media and reflecting on it, I really feel embarassed!

 

10. Shouting in the form of leaving comments typed in CAPITAL LETTERS in blogs. It’s an eyesore.

 

11. Leaving multiple links in comments (though for Wordpress users, this can be eradicated through the Wordpress dashboard options). Don’t make yourself look spammy even if your intention is not.

 

12. Leaving links in comments without the <a href> attributes to keep the comment tidy. Your long url entered might just truncate the whole look of the blog and it looks ugly!

 

13. Having a nickname such as “Make Money Online Easily” in comments. Imagine the blogger having to respond “Yes, I agree with you Make Money Online Easily“. Blogging is supposed to have an element of community and conversation. Not embarassing yourself with ridiculous nicknames which sounds so spammy.

 

14. Leaving alexa redirects in url field in comment form or within internal links of a blog with the hope of having a better alexa ranking. By the way, the alexa redirect does not work anymore.

 

15. Openly telling the whole world that the right way to go is to leave comments in blogs with “DoFollow” for the sole reason to get some link juice. How low can you get? And even if you are willing to stoop so low, why tell the world about it?

 

16. Multiple pings to social ping sites like Project Petaling Street though the terms of use prohibits such conduct. It does not speak well of your social conduct when you hog the site with your posts.

 

Disclaimer : The above blogging faux pas are my personal definitions on what are the embarassing or unacceptable behaviour in blogging. Let me know whether you agree or not. Or do you have anything else to add?

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. 16 Jan 08 | About Blogging, About Humour

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Intelligent Replies

  1. Steven Snell | January 16th, 2008 at 11:49 am

    #1 reminded me of when I saw a BlogRush widget somewhere and one of the links that was being displayed was a post titled “Hello World.” I thought that was pretty funny.

    #6 can be annoying as well. I don’t mind getting link exchange requests (although I don’t think I have ever agreed) but some people approach it all wrong.

    #13 is definitely something I would like to see less of. I try to respond to people that comment on my blog, but that makes it harder.

  2. Skellie | January 16th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    Cool list, Pablo. I’d add one thing:

    17. Making your readers feel bad for reading your blog.

    How often have you seen phrases like: “Since nobody reads this thing anyway” and “For my readers — all half-a-dozen of them!”? Sure, your traffic might be tiny at the moment, but making your existing readers feel like they’re the only people in the world who like your blog will only make them second-guess themselves.

  3. Adino @ Mr Beagle | January 16th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    Further to Skellie’s suggestion, I would like to add

    18) Bad spelling / grammar

    19) Unreadable text and background colour combination

    20) Confusing / misleading site navigation.

    21) Too many ads (am I guilty of this one? hehe)

  4. mumsgather | January 16th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

    #3 True true I know but its so much work to go through all those links! Lol!

  5. helen | January 16th, 2008 at 7:39 pm

    I might be guilty of #12. I really did not know how to insert links in my comment. Yeah, it looks ugly and it got cut off… :-P

  6. Michael Martin | January 16th, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    #1 is my favorite. I’ve seen it so many times, and it’s just pure laziness. No excuse!

    #13 is very annoying. There’s one person on my blog who left a load of comments recently, but with the name “How To Sell on Ebay.” Not the most fun to reply to, and after a good few replies, I still don’t have a name to identify them by… :(

    #15 - Agreed. I think that tip just gained popularity because it’s something anyone can do. Whenever they read advice on writing great posts that people will talk about, it sounds a lot harder to do!

    And to follow Skellie and Adino:

    22 - Not making the point of the site absolutely obvious. I want to know the topic of the site I’m on, without having to think about it. Otherwise, I’m a lot less likely to explore.

  7. Wayne Liew | January 16th, 2008 at 8:40 pm

    #6 is what I do with my blogspot blog last time is this is why it got a PR5. However, my name has been blacklisted by Akismet until after I started WayneLiew.com, I requested for a release from jail.

    I agree with most of your points but not #9. I do bookmark my own posts but I don’t do it with StumbleUpon since I see it as me and my blog’s main social media. I do submit my post to Sphinn because it allows me to.

    I refrained myself before I watched the StomperNet’s latest social media optimization video that I should not submit my own contents but after watching it, I am persuaded to change my stance. Perhaps you should watch it. The link is here: http://www.stompernet.net/goingnatural2/

    Tell me what you think about your #9 after watching. I am serious ya. Like in courtroom. :-P

  8. pablopabla | January 17th, 2008 at 9:55 am

    Wow! Brilliant feedback I’ve got from you guys up there! Now let’s see…

    Steven : LOL! That #1 example you gave me is one classic example of widget before content. I personally predict that these widgets will slowly phase out of popularity rather than gaining them - if the move to minimalism in design and presentation steps up a gear this year.

    Skellie : You are right. It just does not sound quite right to give the picture to your readers that they are all alone in reading your blog. Modesty is one thing. Inferiority complex is another, heh?

    Adino : Is your conscience telling you that you have far too many ads that it’s coming to a point of embarassment? ;)

    mumsgather : I am sure there’s a tool somewhere out there to detect broken links. I remembered reading about it in Darren Rowse’s blog.

    Michael : LOL! Perhaps Mr. How To Sell on EBay ought to read this post, eh? That should give him or her a lesson on blogging faux pas.

    Wayne : That’s 50 mins worth of video. I’ll watch that and see what it has to say :D Thanks for the link.

  9. pablopabla | January 17th, 2008 at 10:04 am

    Helen : I shall have to ask Michael to give you a tutorial on that. Though I know how to do it, I don’t know how to place the codes in this comment page without the codes making my text becoming a link!

  10. Giddy Tiger | January 17th, 2008 at 4:59 pm

    Hey, I’ll be glad to let Helen know how to do it. Just ask her to contact me.
    Great list, by the way… you can start work as the blogging police now :)

  11. pablopabla | January 21st, 2008 at 2:28 pm

    Giddy Tiger : Helen…are you reading this? ;)

  12. jessie | January 25th, 2008 at 1:23 am

    pablo,

    you hit the sweet spots in this post and probably hit a nerve or two. i’ve learned a lot from your post (which i just stumbled, anyway… but no regrets).

    as a blogger myself i have seen all these “malpractices” (if i can put it that way) on the blogosphere. i hope to read more articles like this. :-)

  13. pablopabla | January 25th, 2008 at 10:34 am

    Jessie : Thanks for the stumble and I appreciate it very much. I’m glad you found it useful :D

  14. BobbyT | February 4th, 2008 at 5:00 pm

    Regarding Project Petaling Street, isn’t it alright if I ping them once for every new post that I have? Is that a violation of their terms? By multiple pings, I interpret it as multiple pings for one single post. Is that not right?

  15. pablopabla | February 4th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

    BobbyT : I should have been clearer. The terms of PPS allows a new ping for each new post. However, some have abused the ping directory by multiple pings for the same blog post.

  16. Sean | February 23rd, 2008 at 12:45 am

    I am thankful that I came upon this website while just searching for tips and recommendations on how to publicize my blog. Thanks a lot for writing these lists. I have my pen and paper nearby and ready to jot down notes.

  17. pablopabla | February 24th, 2008 at 11:17 pm

    Sean : Glad you found them useful.

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