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How Much of This Do You Actually Read?
While we’re on the topic of my website: just by a show of hands, is there anybody out there who actually reads EVERY single article or post that I put up on this website? I’m not expecting that there would be anyone and if there is I have no idea how you have the time for it if you have a job. But kudos regardless, I guess.
As much as I like to pretend otherwise, writing this website is really a selfish pursuit in a lot of ways. At this point it is really a research vehicle and a way for me to document “web workspaces” which I travel through. Of course I derive a whole lot from people who read and comment on my website, but in a way, it’s also a clever ruse to get people to do research for me which I could never do all by myself. It’s like distributed research or something.
In any case, I don’t expect or need anybody to read all of it. In fact, I’m trying to find ways to make it so that you can quickly scan down the pages and pull out key phrases and subject matter out of context and then go on and immerse yourself further if you so desire. I’d also like to find ways to laser-focus in on certain points, and to have various “scales” from which you can zoom in and out of the topics which are being presented here.
But anyway, that’s a diversion from the real point of this post: just to get an informal feel for how many people actually spend the time on a regular basis wading through all of this stuff, or if not what percent you would say - on average - that you usually end up getting through.
Another question: what types of content, articles and subject matter do you tend to gravitate towards? Not saying I’m going to begin tilting things in that direction, but I’m curious if there is a format or a trend that is common among regular readers.
October 17th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
I skim the headlines and read maybe a quarter to half of the things you post. I gravitate more towards posts about action/intention harmony, life improvement, life strategies, and the occult. I tend to skip over posts about technology, website maintenance, and business.
October 17th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Business is all about intent/action harmony, life improvement and strategy! That’s why I’m posting that stuff… just so you know.
October 17th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I skim the headlines and read maybe a quarter to half of the things you post. I gravitate more towards posts about action/intention harmony, life improvement, life strategies, and the occult. I tend to skip over posts about technology, website maintenance, and business.
October 17th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Holy Cow! Did somebdy already say that?
October 17th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Actually I am interested in the bussiness ones, but the techy ones are kind of beyond me.
October 17th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Wait a second, did you really both just post the exact same comment word for word?
http://prosperityuniverse.com/artman/publish/article_6.shtml
October 17th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
I don’t complete reading posts that aren’t interesting, but I try to look at everything you do. I am largely here to scavenge for ideas regarding technology and culture.
October 17th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
What makes something not interesting generally?
Perfect! I see this site as sort of a cross between a think tank and a dump!
October 17th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
no, I was just pulling your leg. But I could have said the same thing.
October 17th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Unfortunately there’s a timing element for me. If several posts come in on several feeds all at once, while I’m in the middle of writing or working on something, I’ll tend to skim everything and blow through it all quickly to clear out my feeds. But then later when I’m bored, I don’t think to go back and read stuff more carefully.
I try to not discriminate based on topic, because everything is inter-related, but I think I can’t help but do it automatically. I think readers on my blog do the same thing — I try to sneak something in that I *want* them to be more interested in, but I can’t fool them into becoming interested in it.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
One thing I intentionally do for people who are using RSS readers or else only skimming headlines: I try to make my main point within the title of the article itself so you don’t really need to read the articles unless you do want to go deeper.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Tim, first I should say that this is THE blog I visit, so I really do take in most of what you say. Your head just seems on the same track as mine, so its I think its pretty hard for you to miss with me. I was just looking at your site trying to see what it is that makes me read all of one post or not finish it. I noticed what I do is something with my eyes where I scan for keywords and images and that appeal at the moment, and I get sucked in and read posts that have them. I can’t say what those keywords and images are, I just can tell when a post has them and they interest me. There is no general rule of what makes a post bad or good.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Yeah, keyword scanning is what I am setting this blog up for, so it’s good to hear that this is working. I would like to find ways to make this keyword business more useful so that people can scan and digest information on different scales.
Any ideas on how to implement that? Tag clouds spring to mind, but meta data is so annoying. Would be cooler if there were just a WP plugin to automatically pluck out the most popular current words and phrases that I am currently (currency!) using and then link you direct to posts that contain them, or else show you in a mouse-over the passaged surrounding key phrases, which you can then drill down into reading regular posts… something like that.
A lot of my technological needs and desires for stuff like this are beginning to outgrow my abilities as a web developer though… Especially hooking all this stuff into some kind of virtual or SVC currency system.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I read all of it. Every word.
Except when I don’t.
I end up reading about 80% of what you write.
October 17th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
You do a very good job of that by the way. You also do a good job of often making your headlines enticing whether the subject matter is of personal interest or not. Clever sneaky one, you. But it’s good. Expands horizons.
I skim headlines in the RSS reader but lately, since I know they’re all probably really short, I often skim the posts themselves. The ones that catch my interest, I read right through and often come here to check out comments on a specific post and/or comment myself.
It depends on the day, but on a day I even have / allow myself time for internet leisure, I read about maybe half the posts. more if you count skimming. Of course, if I didn’t have them all listed by headline in my RSS reader with it nice and obvious which ones are read vs. unread, I would miss a lot more of them. I don’t like clicking back through the history on here. It’s too inefficient for my impatient ass.
I pretty much third that, except I try to skim them all or sample from all subjects to get a sense of where you’re coming from, since everything’s interrelated and each thing informs the others.
October 18th, 2007 at 12:01 am
I’ve been a sporadic reader for over a year now. Sometimes I’ll go weeks without even checking out your site–mainly due to my time constraints. Right now I’m on a read-most-of-what-you-write kick. I’m usually not interested in your more techy/business stuff, but I’m finding your currency discussion interesting.
If I have a lot of time I’ll usually give all your topics at least a cursory read, just to see if it sparks my interested. If I have limited time I’ll just skim headlines and read those that grab me.
Keep it up, Tim! You definatly make me think…
October 18th, 2007 at 4:14 am
Yeah, I have been thinking deeply about solving that particular issue, and when your talking about helping people “digest” information, I think we’re on the same wavelength, that’s what its all about, making that easy. Feel free to email me to discuss the details…
Really though, I think the best thing you can do to add value is not lose the core essential philosophy in the details. All of this came from a really intense period of being and existing you appeared to pass through, and the core, the heart, is what matters most. The root and source of your power isn’t in ideas, its in that something that transcends ideas. Stay with that, and just let all these good ideas be vessels. I am warning you about this though because I am exceedingly skilled in getting lost in the details and losing the core ideas!!!
October 18th, 2007 at 9:25 am
i’ve read most of what you’ve written since robot camel jockeys. i’m carlos aka unthinkable. hello again. i’ve not spoken here since december i think. i like what you’ve done with the place.
i didn’t read much of your multipictorial stream of consciousness phase (my computer runs out of electricity if i make it fetch too many ones and zeroes) but apart from that you’ve earned a fair amount of my nettention.
i skim all your posts, taste some, devour a handful.
they do, don’t they?
this is all meta data! all data is meta, and so on…
i mean, does meta data have to be annoying? turn it into a feature if it isn’t already. perhaps tags are annoying because it’s so obvious that they are tags.
my ideal browser would work in the same way that bees find nectar. the internet should feel like fields of flowers. is the dancing of a bee annoying? is purple? sweet? warmth in the east? restlessness? a new day dawning?
a bee hive and a meadow. keep dancing!
October 18th, 2007 at 10:47 am
I’m working on creating that exactly as one of my several projects.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Peace!
Long time reader, first time commenter here, I try to read as much as I can of your writing. I subscribe to your RSS-feeds as well. On an average week, given that I’m not out on drinking binges and/or to busy working I probably read 65-70% of everything posted here.
I really appreciate your posts about the occult and religion, gnosticism in perticular. Also, this blog inspired my to take my own in a new direction, as previous atempts at serious bloging just ended up in being quite mastrubatory with little or nothing being posted that could have an appeal what so ever for anyone else. You really proved that one can discuss “heavy” topics without being to pretentious. Keep up the good work!
And by the way “Love” really is my name. I’m born, raised and residing in Sweden, so the prenounciation is different.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I pretty much read it all. There are about 6 sites I do that with and I don’t tend to frequent sites if there not worthy of that kind of attention. I’m a nut for Chronological Order so I can’t help myself.
If I log on at work and thinks it’ll take too much time I wait until I get home.
I liked it better when you were heavy on the life strategies and occult themes, I stuck with the pictures and got meaning from them and I like the way this discussion has gone. It’s necessary because technology is our way of life now so you can’t have life strategies w/o technology.
Esp. when you tell us you’re scamming us to get free research out of us.
I think this is the point. I stuck around for a while and got to know your voice so I trust you as a currency. This is why people are willing to go along on this ride with you. There may be only a few people who comment regularly but there are a lot more who stop by and value what they get.