Discover Your Readers Through Goodwill
23. Apr, 2007 
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It’s usually the little things that spawn relationships. The relationships I am speaking of are the relationships between blogger and reader. The start of a blogging relationship can start with something as little as a comment or an e-mail. Within this post, I am going to talk about how I met three bloggers and the relationships that have transpired because of little things.
My Source of Inspiration
Back in January I wrote a nice little rant about why bloggers should use full content feeds. At about that time, WordPress released a new version that resulted in the MORE tag cutting off feeds.
A commentator with the nickname inspirationbit said that full feeds are a good idea, but asked if there was a way to use the MORE tag but still have full-content feeds. I responded to the comment with my plugin recommendation and the commentator thanked me.
After the commenter thanked me, I was somewhat shocked because hardly anybody had thanked me for their help before online. I started my investigation into the secret world of inspirationbit. One of the first posts I came across on the blogger’s site was about color inspiration. I featured it on the Friday Focus at Devlounge, where inspirationbit once again thanked me. I had already subscribed to her feed and would comment on her posts every now and then.
After Bes and I launched this site, inspirationbit (whom I now know as Vivien) left a comment with an obvious spelling mistake. I corrected it and Vivien thanked me. She then explained that it would be nice to be able to edit comments. Bes and I talked about it and concluded that we should install an “edit comments” plugin at RA Project. I didn’t like any of the current solutions so I decided to create my own WordPress plugin.
I asked Vivien if she would like to help out testing. She said yes, and she helped shape the plugin during development as we chatted away over Skype. I now consider Vivien a great friend who has helped me out tremendously in both online and offline issues.
The Fight Spot
After Round 5 had ended for 9rules, I saw a comment by a guy named Shawn Blanc. I am not sure why, but I went to his site to investigate it. Perhaps I was seeing if he had a decent enough site to get into 9rules.
There was one post that talked about a piece of scripture I was familiar with. I commented giving my own view on the subject. Shawn Blanc later personally e-mailed me and thanked me for the comment. I e-mailed him back and asked if he had heard back from 9rules. He said no, but he would let me know if he did hear back.
I had subscribed to his feed and really dug the content and his writing. I had commented here and there and e-mailed him to check out certain things.
On one e-mail exchange, Shawn asked me if I was familiar with a plugin that would allow full feeds while still using the MORE tag. I did a little digging and finally found one. It was because of this digging that I was able to give inspirationbit an answer rather quickly.
One day Bes Zain and I were talking and came up with the idea of Reader Appreciation Week. I invited Shawn to join us on the planning. Shawn’s input was extremely valuable since Reader Appreciation Week was originally going to be Reader Appreciation Month. He advised us to shorten the length of the contest and gave us some ideas on non-monetary prizes. Shawn was indeed one of the big helpers in helping Reader Appreciation Week be a success.
A few weeks ago, Shawn e-mailed me and said he would be in the Nashville area for a conference. I agreed to meet up with him on the 20th of April. It was really cool being able to talk to another blogger in person over a cup of coffee. It doesn’t get much better than that.
I consider Shawn a good friend and a mentor in the Christian and blogging world.
My Sense of Reason
I met Bes Zain (The Reasoner) through my entry in the Weblog Tools Collection essay contest. On the day the contest ended, I wrote a post that outlined my favorites for winning.
The day after I outlined my favorites, I announced Peeve Week. I guy named Bes Zain wrote and said he would like to participate in all five days of Peeve Week. I was flattered. I went to his site and found out that he had written one of the posts I outlined.
Bes and I shared some e-mails I was extremely grateful that he was willing to write for my site. Soon after that, I announced the close to my comment contest and it turned out that Bes was the winner. I asked him to meet me on Google Talk so I could give him the gift-certificate code. We have been chatting on Google Talk ever since.
We decided to start the Reader Appreciation Project and launched the site together on March 18th, 2007. I would consider Bes a good friend and am glad we met.
Conclusion
I have outlined three relationships that have formed over what some would consider little things. Some of the things I noticed that occurred in the forming of the relationships was that we were all willing to “discover” each other in a unselfish way. If you desire, please comment or trackback with a story about how you established a relationship with a blogger and/or reader.
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If WordPress didn’t release the version 2.1 that cuts the feed posts after the MORE tag, I wouldn’t have to search the web for hours, looking for a way that would bring my full feeds back to being complete.
If I didn’t stumble upon Devlounge and left my desperate comment asking for help with the More tag, I would’ve never got the attention from Ronald to visit my blog.
If he didn’t comment on my blog, I would’ve never come across his personal blog and found out about RAW.
If I didn’t make that typo when leaving a comment on this site and if Ronald didn’t fix it, I would’ve never expressed my wish for an Edit comments option.
So many IFs, and I’m so glad that everything happened the way it did, otherwise I wouldn’t have a personal custom plugin writer
a.k.a. my friend Ronald.
Custom Plugin Writer. I like the sound of that. Oh yeah, friend Ronald sounds good too.
Thanks for such a nice article Ronald.
It is indeed interesting to realize how relationships start, so we can learn which elements of communication trigger which actions and reactions. I am honored that you consider me a good friend Ronald! 
It is very interesting to know how you met Vivien and Shawn. It is also good to know that someone is noticing your spelling mistakes. =P Just kidding!
Hmmm, you consider me a good friend? We are friends now??? 0_0 Yeah, err, umm, yes, I consider you a good friend also…I think? LOL j/k! Yes, I am also glad that I bumped into this Ronald fella. I would also consider him a very good friend too.
Do you think it would be good to compare online and offline friendship starting points in a series or something to see how people start appreciating each other?
One way to know if someone is reading your post is when visitors leave some comments. This kind of interaction simply shows that readers adore your post. Always try to write high quality and eye-catchy kind of post that attracts interaction.
I have had many great discussions with bloggers and readers alike. I have also met some great people through message boards.