The problem with blog-stalking.

I stalk blogs.

Like, all the time.

I love reading blogs and stalking them. Doesn't matter whose blog. Friend, family, acquaintance, celebrity of some type, complete stranger.

I'm usually pretty comfortable with this status. I don't really feel guilty for stalking blogs.

But every now and then it causes problems.

No, not with people who stalk my blog. I don't put anything on here that I'm not willing to let other people read. Stalk away (and leave a comment, you know, if that's what your heart tells you to do. Because contrary to what you may have heard, I don't hate comments).

No, the problem is that sometimes I find a blog that I love. That I enjoy reading. That brings me amusement and fun. And so I will continue to stalk that blog. I'll add it to my list. I'll get in the habit of checking it. I'll fret when a long time goes by without an update. It becomes part of my internet routine.

And then. Yes, then.

The blog author decides to make their blog private.

Sometimes this isn't really a problem, because it'll be someone I know and they'll know I've been reading the blog and I'll get an invite and everything will be fine.

But more often it turns out to be the blog of someone who I vaguely know but they have no idea I've been reading their blog for, oh, a couple of years, and at this point it's just too awkward to ask for an invite.

Because, you know, you don't want them to THINK you're some weird blog stalking-type person. There's a certain window of time where it's okay to let them know you're reading and enjoying their blog, and if you miss it, you can't really tell them without it being awkward. ("So yeah, I was wondering if you could let me continue looking in on the part of your life you post online even though we don't really talk that much in real life and the reason you made your blog private is probably to prevent exactly this sort of situation where someone is reading about you without your knowing them very well? Because losing access to your blog is kind of messing up my standard blog-reading routine.")

It's even worse than when someone just stops posting on their blog for good. Because in that case at least I know that everyone else is missing out, too.

But here, I KNOW they're still posting things and I just can't read them (and asking them to let me read would just be WEIRD)!

It's maddening. MADDENING, I TELL YOU!

Yeah. The Blog-Stalker's Dilemma.

It's rough.




"Seriously, you won't even know I'm there! I know, because you didn't notice me doing it before."

In the interest of full disclosure; or, I am a bad person.

When people post things on the internet and spell words incorrectly (especially common words like "there" vs. "their" or "they're"), I judge them.

When people post things on the internet and either blatantly misuse or eliminate punctuation altogether, I judge them.

When people post things on the internet and forgo capitalization completely, I judge them.

When people post things on the internet without proofreading, resulting in a mangled jumble of what I can only guess was supposed to be English, I judge them.

In short: I judge people for not proofreading. Seeing a post that demonstrates a less-than-minimum competency for the English language makes me jump to conclusions about the education or intelligence of the poster. And that is bad. Because I am a bad person.

But I am also an English major, an editor and a writer, and I just can't help it.

So now you know.


P.S. In the interest of further disclosure, if you are a person I know and love and make one of the above errors, I still love you and make excuses for you. If it's someone I don't know, though, their reputation sinks drastically in my estimation. Yes, it's biased and unfair. I still do it. (See supra, "I am a bad person.")