The Reader Appreciation Project

The following (very) short story was inspired by a comment made by Vivien on this blog.

The professor could see a single hand raised in the giant lecture hall as he quickly glanced up from his notes. But the professor continued on with his lecture.

After a few more minutes of giving his lecture, the professor could see the single hand still raised. Again, the professor ignored the student and continued on with his lecture.

The professor again looked up after a few moments, and could now see the student standing with his hand raised. It was obvious to the entire class now that this student had a question.

The professor addressed the student, “Young man, please take a seat and put your hand down.”

“But sir, I have a question about your lecture.”

The professor looked down at his notes and replied matter-of-factly, “The lecture is not a time to take questions and comments. I have office hours for that, so please take your seat.”

“No.” the student said calmly. “I will not take my seat until you have addressed my question.”

The professor took off his glasses and placed them on the podium, “Look, Mr…”

“Andrews.”

“Look, Mr. Andrews. I’m sure your fellow students could care less about your question and would be unlikely to benefit from my answer. So please take your seat and schedule an appointment. Lecture is not a time for conversation.”

The student was insistent, however, and responded, “That doesn’t change the fact that the question should be addressed publicly in class. Furthermore, someone else might have the same question regardless of your assumptions.”

“Mr. Andrews, I don’t care if someone has the same question. If it’s important enough, you both can schedule an appointment. Now take a seat or I’m going to remove you from my classroom.”

The other students in the class started talking amongst themselves, and one student chimed in, “Let him ask his question.”

The professor, disgusted, responded harshly, “Lecture is a time for me to talk and you to listen. Sit down, shut up, take your notes, and leave when I’m finished.”

“But you’re wrong professor.” Mr. Andrews said. “You’re lectures aren’t always accurate, which is why I had my hand raised.”

“You can dispute my points and credibility during office hours. Now is not the time or the place.”

“And office hours are when I can tell you you’re wrong? And if you are, are you going to announce to the class during the next lecture about a disputed point?”

“Of course not.” The professor said, “Because I’m the professor, and you are the student. I’m the one teaching the class, not you. If you don’t like it, drop the course and find another professor who is willing to put up with your nagging questions.”

“I think I will.” Mr. Andrew said gathering his school materials. “And if the rest of you are fed-up with this guy, why not do the same as me?”

In its simplest form, late commenting is simply responding to a comment late. When is replying to a comment late? The answer is more relative than absolute. Based on your own preference, the preference of your readers and among several other things, the expectations you have from your readers and vice versa, you can easily find out when responding to a comment late.

I have been revolving around this topic for several years, and I am thankful to Ronald for bringing up this question which inspired me to write this post. When is it too late to leave a comment, both as a response and also as an initiation of a conversation of some sort. To help us find out the answer, let us look at the idea of when late responses are good, when they are bad, and my own personal examples to show how to treat this question.

Are late responses always good in all situations?

Read more…

Keeping pace with your readers may require efforts which sometimes cannot be done. Offline issues keeping you off the keyboard, making your mind drift away from your blog, will make you look for temporary solutions of not letting your readers (and figures) down. In your good will, you think you got the perfect resolution: guest bloggers. So said and done: you invite a bunch of fellow bloggers to send you some articles, you publish them and think your audience is happy and connected.

Well, let’s take a look behind the stage:
When she is not chasing cash around, Kumiko of CashQuests reads blogs (like many of us do), and her conclusion as a reader is that all guest bloggers must die. The analogy she makes is simple and powerful:

When you go to a blog and find that the latest post is guest-written it’s like buying a ticket to a Christina Aguilera concert and then when you arrive finding that Christina has the day off and Paris Hilton is singing in her place. If you’ve heard Paris Hilton sing – you know you’ll be wanting your money back!

This makes sense, I would probably want my money back. What if instead of Christina, I arrive finding that Luciano Pavarotti is singing (supposing he would still be amongst us)? I might want to attend the concert and I would probably value it as much. All I need is to change my mindset a little bit.

True, but CashQuests takes the argumentation one step further, stating that nobody would give away their best content (so it would be more probable that I’ll get Paris Hilton, and not Pavarotti):

Many argue that it is in the guest blogger’s interest to write good content for a guest post as it maximizes the effectiveness of a guest posting and they’re right…but it’s not their best content!

Consider this: Imagine you have just written a super-awesome post that will be linked to by everybody who reads it. Will you publish it on your own site or will you e-mail it away to be published here…?

While this may be true, I cannot stop thinking that my blog does not contain only premium posts and that I might find out that some guest bloggers have better writing abilities than mine, so their 2nd grade B material will be better than maybe 30% of my writings. Besides, maybe some of them would really give away their best content, knowing that they can create another state-of-the-art article any time, because they are aware how valuable they are and they cannot afford to write B quality stuff.

What do you think? In our rush for readership, are we sometimes involuntarily hurting our readers, making them feel unappreciated, while all we wanted was to show them how much we care? Is guest blogging one of these uninspired moves that chase readers away?

One of the nice things about blogging is that the ability to keep the relevant people informed is as simple as providing a link back. However, there are some things that happen behind the scenes that can often be overlooked with regards to giving credit for work or keeping others involved.

There have been several things that have happened to me that are rather irritating and I’d like to get them out so perhaps others can avoid them in the future.

Posts or Projects Changed Without Notice

Whether contributing a guest post, or writing for a multi-author blog, it is best to keep everyone in the loop in order to create a more team-like atmosphere. Multi-author blogs, in my opinion, should not have an atmosphere where it’s everyone for themselves. The authors of the blog should be interested in furthering the blog, not themselves (although self-promotion doesn’t hurt).

The problem with some multi-author blogs, however, is that there is an underlying ranking system where not all authors are created equal. It’s almost the equivalent of having the opener share the stage with a headliner at a concert. As a consequence, the headliners get the preferential treatment and the openers get the shaft. This type of attitude immediately kills any chance of becoming a team.

One thing I have noticed with some of my posts I have contributed — or what I consider major contributions — is that they are changed without notice. An image might be inserted, or some ad put in, or the post moved all-together. A comment I made may have been deleted, or edited. All with me figuring out somewhere down the line with me scratching my head saying, “Something’s not right here.”

I’m not a big fan of red-tape and will accept that there is an admin at a site and that admin needs to get stuff done and stuff done now. I’m fine with that. But at least let me know about it. And if there is some big drastic change to a portion of my work, I’d appreciate at least a heads up. Read more…

Ronald gave me an idea to turn my thoughts about this topic into a question. Before I ask you the question, please take a moment to remember the last time you came across a blog where the blogger listed his or her ethnicity, and listed other bloggers who were from the same ethnicity.

Keeping that in mind, I would like to ask you a very important question: do you notice more and more bloggers promoting bloggers and readers who are from their own ethnicity?

I wonder if such a trend can ever become, or already is, the same as racism and discriminating against other ethnicities in the offline world. Please let me know what you think about this topic or such a trend. Thank you.

You’re here. I’m here. Let’s put on the gloves and enter the boxing ring.

I can see the anger in your eyes. Your glare is penetrating my skull and you only wish the punch you throw would pummel me forever into the black abyss.

But the punch you throw misses. I duck, I swing back in an uppercut and knock you straight to the floor. The image that was once me is now all blurred. And as the referee counts to ten, you regret getting in the ring in the first place.

You’re knocked out, and I’m not. I won the fight. Or, did I lose by winning?

What’s the Matter? Chicken?

Read more…

Today I would like to talk about the appreciation efforts of Vivien from Inspiration Bit. I would like to point out 3 different things about Vivien’s appreciation efforts.

Who is Vivien and what is Inspiration Bit?

Read more…

This morning, Ajax Edit Comments passed 5,000 downloads on WordPress extend. Although I track roughly 7,500 downloads since RA Project hosted the plugin file for a little while, the milestone of 5,000 downloads on WP Extend is a huge accomplishment.

I’d like to thank every single person who has downloaded the plugin, and especially those who still use it on their blog. Furthermore, I’d like to thank all the people who have reported in bugs and feature requests. An extra, extra special thanks goes out to all who have volunteered to test out the plugin on numerous occasions. Without you, this plugin would not be what it is today.

And the absolute kudos goes to Vivien from InspirationBit. Living up to her blog’s name, she inspired me to write the plugin through a comment on this site.

Last, but not least, I’d like to thank those who have translated the plugin into other languages. Thank you David May (German), Nicky (Chinese) and Lise (French).

Wow, I feel like I have just made a speech at the Oscars (music playing). But again, thanks. I never thought this plugin would be as popular as it is. It’s really a nice thing when you randomly comment on a blog and see your plugin in use, or browse a post and see someone recommending your plugin.

So thanks again, and hopefully if I ever meet you in person, I can give you a big hug (or a handshake).

Nirmal from Life Rocks! 2.0 wrote a nice post on the Top 10 WordPress Plugins To Improve Readers’ Experience. I suggest giving the post a look over as there are some plugins there I haven’t heard of before.

I don’t normally do quick-link type posts, but I couldn’t pass this one up since this has almost everything to do with the readers. I hope someday Ajax Edit Comments will make it on some of these Top 10 lists. Not that I’m biased or anything.

Simonne is out this week, so I’d thought I’d post a quick question to the readers.

Several months ago a friend of mine reflected on her experience joining the blogosphere. She wrote an insightful post on what she wished she knew before starting her blog. It’s easy to reflect on the past and say, “I wish I knew this.” But reflection shows that you have experience and how you would probably do things differently if given a second chance.

I pose this question to the readers: What if you could start over with your blog?

What would you do differently? What would you do the same? Would you do anything differently when it comes to appreciating your readers? Please respond in the comments or perhaps with your own post.

Thank you.