Saw a couple of comments on Steven's blog relating to advice and had a couple of thoughts as to the nature of blog posts in general. Steven, this isn't implied criticism, just something that crystallized a couple thoughts I'd been having about why I don't actually post that often.

Steven's been posting a series of posts related to his attempts to add a little spice to his quesadillas, which are apparently his bachelor staple food (good choice!), without causing his mouth to catch fire. One of the problems related to these posts is that they tend to draw a lot of "have you tried x?" comments, and Steven hates unsolicited recommendations.

I would too, in his shoes. It only takes a few e-mails recommending that you watch shows that you know are terrible before you figure out that very few people share your exact tastes. Steven likes Gravion a lot; I think the writers weren't in on the joke. We both loved Nanoha but apparently it sapped Pete's will to live. And we've got a lot of similar tastes; it's a lot worse when you get recommendations from people and your only response is "yes, well, now I can't listen to anything that you say because you just opined that One Piece was the finest anime masterpiece ever."

But some posts work a bit differently. We can talk about Saito's lack of curiosity and the writers' straitjacket making Familiar of Zero a lousy show without saying "hey, this other show is more your thing". But how do we comment on hot sauce along those lines? Inevitably there's going to be some "yeah, this brand is good, but the other brand is better". Or more to the point, if you're not interested in a conversation about hot sauce, that kind of blog post devolves quite quickly into a journal listing what you ate that day.

I toss a lot of post ideas because, frankly, they're "what did I eat today?" posts. I can talk about how I'm cautiously optimistic about how my new boss is going to work out, or how I got cheap tickets for Hawaii this summer to see my kid brother get married, but is that stuff other people would be genuinely interested in?

(At the same time, I don't do a lot of "grr, here are serious policy prescriptions" posts for the opposite reason. My logic's fine, but there are things not best discussed on a blog that's mostly dedicated to anime with the occasional video game thrown in. That's what other people's blogs are for, heh.)

I don't know. Maybe I should post more generic "here's what I'm thinking" posts, after all. I can always stop if I'm just that boring...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at 11:39 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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