Am I a ‘popular’ blogger? Who cares…
Recently the Desi blogosphere experienced a brief surge of interest in finding the most-popular Desi Blogger. Each one had their standards but none really came up with a conclusive answer. Michael tried his qualitative logic, Vikram correlated Google’s page rank with popularity, and Antrix used Technorati technology but still I think they all are missing something more central to blogging. Then I happened to read Alok’s comment on Dina’s blog that she highlighted:
"Dina, as part of your post to BlogHer, you talked about the role blogs play as social networks. the way i figure it, even within physical social networks, there are always those who are naturally more popular. a watered down effect of darwinism, perhaps. you know who i’m talking about. the people in a gruop who almost always end up figuring out where we’re going for dinner. or a drink. or which film we’re watching. or where to vacation. i for one don’t really question why it is they’re popular. i just enjoy their company. and in essence, that’s precisely what your blog, or any of the blogs i visit regularly, is. good company."
Dina was impressed by Alok’s standard for blog success; so was I. I love it when people write to me saying they enjoy my writing or have learnt something new. I love it when they comment; sometimes just a line sometimes an exhaustive and contradicting opinion. Blogging for me, is a matter of connections. I have managed to find individuals scattered all over the world that care to give few minutes of their day to read my thoughts (and rants). They are real individuals on the other side of flickering monitors who share similar thoughts. They aren’t compelled to read me but they rather prefer to. Some of them have been around through the highs and lows of my life in the past two years. Some I consider the best of my friends although I have just met them once or haven’t met them at all.
As Dina says, “if someone loves hanging out at your blog, enjoys your company through conversations there, that’s the best measure for me“;
I couldn’t have said it better. I wouldn’t care if I received fewer
visitors if those that visited really stopped by to read me with little
more care and passion than those countless casual visitors looking for free online cricket.
It is akin to hanging out at the local coffee shop indulging in
intellectual masturbation and whiling away time. Aside from talks of
encouraging citizen journalism and creating greater transparency, there
really isn’t a deeper meaning to blogging. We do it because we like to.
Bloggers have the company they cherish which in turn intermingle with
other bloggers creating subtle connections known as the blogosphere. At
the end of the day, they really don’t care if they are popular in the
blogosphere or not because they are content living in their small
little world largely because people know them well there.
I enjoy the
company of my dedicated readers and I hope they enjoy mine. Rest all is
just blogspeak.
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