The Friday Hop

It's Friday! I need to write up my review of Ship Breaker, but in the meantime, if you're looking for some new blogs to follow, you might check out the Book Blogger Hop.This week's question:

"What are your feelings on losing followers? Have you ever stopped following a blog?

I might notice it in terms of numbers, like I had 101 and I'm back to 100, but I don't see any reason to stress about it; there's also the consideration of people reading privately or via a different format (bookmarks, RSS, etc.) and the idea that more isn't necessarily better. Maybe someone is overwhelmed from following blogs. Maybe they don't care for my reviews or other content. Maybe they've realized that they skim my entries every single time--or they skip them every single time. Following or not following is a personal choice in every way, and I don't begrudge that of people.

Have I stopped following anyone? Sure. I've stopped following people who've stopped updating their blogs, or when I've moved on from one interest to another. I try to add slowly, because it's easy to get overwhelmed and to find that you have time to read but not to comment, and I don't comment as often as I might; sometimes, I'll write out a long comment and delete it without posting it! I think it comes from this decade's personal goal of listening more than talking more than trying to avoid people's blog comment area!

So, to sum up, follow or unfollow at will. Bloggers enjoy an audience, but I'd rather readers not feel that they can't slip out the back. Readers will read what they want to, and just like all books not being for all readers, so go blogs.

(Now, Twitter--scarier, I follow more people in the first place and feel like there's more pressure to follow if someone follows you; I unfollowed someone the other day when I was culling my list down a little for manageability, and I hope they didn't think it was about their last tweet, which was a good one...I'd just already made my decision. Eep.)