I've been wasting a good bit of time surfing around checking out what people do with their blogs.  Up until the past week or so, the majority of my experience with other people's blogs were those of people I actually know, those linked from people I actually know or the occasional Recently Updated BlogDrive page.

So I've been doing the Blog Explosion thing, which exposes me to a lot of other sites.  Here's how it works.  You get .5 of a credit for each blog you visit (their choice) for a minimum of 30 seconds.  Each credit you accrue is then turned into a viewing of *your* site by another BE member.  (Hence, the increased hit counts on my blog.)  It's a tit for tat kind of thing, and I like that.  You have to put in a minimal amount of effort in order to see results for yourself and, every now and again, you find a really good blog to read or maybe just save for later.

But, OMG, the crap I have to sit through sometimes. 

Granted, it's only 30 seconds, but sometimes that is downright painful.  I don't understand the mindsets of some of these people, and I more and more understand the points and even point (in terms of existence) of the blog review sites.

1. Why are you asking for pay pal donations on your personal blog?  I can understand if you're providing a service.  I can understand if you're selling a product.  I can even understand if you're writing stories, a novel, poetry or showing your photos.  But holy crap, is anyone actually donating money to someone's day-to-day journal?  Especially the ones that are hosted by FREE BLOGGING SITES?  This is beyond egotism, this is something that completely blows my mind.
2. Ads, Ads, Ads...  The whole thing ties right in with the donations.  First off, you're too cheap to either a) register a domain or b) pay the couple of dollars for the no-ads subscription to the free blog hosting site.  This means that you're already coming out ahead.  Secondly, what size ego do you have that you think your time is worth SO MUCH that your <sarcasm>vast readership</sarcasm> should pay (if not in money, then in the suffering of their vision) to read your thoughts?  And if you're not making money off of the (Google) ads, why do you have them?  That's the major justification that I've seen in response to blog reviews.  What?  You LIKE giving free advertising to companies you have no stock in?  You think that Google needs help generating revenue so they don't go under?  Come on...
3. Blogging is not going to make you famous.  No, wait, this is important, I want you to pay attention to this...  Blogging is not going to make you famous.  Not in any real sense.  At best, you will gain some measure of renown on the internet - and even that will be your handle.  Very few people who don't know you personally care about the stuff you say.  Those who don't know you and still read or get to know you by reading, they are not going to make you famous - at least not for more than 15 minutes.
4. If you have something to say, how about YOU actually saying it?  Copying and Pasting from news sites, or worse, copying and pasting from FORUMS defeats the purpose.  You can CP everything from fark or slashdot or whatever, it doesn't make you cool, it doesn't make you helpful, all it does is waste my time!  Seriously, if I wanted to read fark or slashdot I would.  Frankly, if I already read them and then came to your blog it would REALLY piss me off to find that you don't even have commentary (witty or not) and you are still soliciting comments!  Dude, seriously, you are not those from whom you plagiarize...  don't even try.

*whew*  Ok, I feel better after that.  The one thing that I see more often than anything else on the reviews is aesthetic complaints.  Frankly, I understand that - broken templates, horrible color schemes, it all affects the overall ease of reading, but I don't even care about aesthetics.  If your content is good, nothing else should matter.  The problem is that your content and your style are affected by your solicitation for money or your apparent attempt for fame.

ALL THAT SAID, I have also found some pretty cool blogs in my journeys through the blogosphere.  They are pretty few and far between, but I've gotten to the point where I know which blogrolls (from people I don't actually know) are worth clicking through.  Most of them are themed - political, humor, photoblogs, etc. - because, again, the mundane journals of people I don't know simply are not all that interesting to me.

It's the ones who blog like I do that I most enjoy surfing by without blogmarking, honestly.  The people who move between stories of their day-to-day life, essays and op/ed pieces and rants on whatever...  it's the type of thing that makes me feel like I've gotten a sense of who they are.  Depending on how I got there, I may make a point to go there again, but usually it's just a passing moment of entertainment.  They're there, not for other people, not for elusive fame or money, but simply to have an outlet they don't mind others peeking into.

I don't know, maybe this entire post makes me a hypocrite, but honestly, I don't do this because I think I'm special, I don't do this because I want to be famous.  I'm certainly not trying to make any money off of it.  I guess I just wanted to bitch for a while.

Because, it all really comes down to one small point - this entire rant - the cause (or at least what's shouldering the blame) for all my discontent.

I REALLY WANT A FUCKING CIGARETTE.  RIGHT NOW.

~FG };^>