Hello sweeties,
it's been ages since I did a post other than a review, TMST installment or monthly recap...but I saw this tag on Lissa's blog, and I thought it was fun (plus I'm procrastinating on my reviews, as usual, and this is a neat excuse not to write one 😅)...so here I am, answering her questions. Feel free to do the same either in the comments or on your own blog (and hers, of course). And now, without further ado...let's freak out!
😨 01 - When you first started your blog, did you freak out and worry you might fail?
No. As some of you might remember, I started Offbeat YA in 2012...without any particular expectations. I just wanted an outlet to talk about books, and I've never dreamed to make it big - especially since I specialise in lesser-known ones. In a sense, I've gone much farther than I'd ever have expected...I've made friends, I've gotten digital ARCs, I'm still here after 12 years.
🤔 02 - If you share something (on your blog) and then regret it, do you revert (to draft)/delete/remove that post or just leave it? Or do you just freak out, calm down and then pretend it never happened?
Neither. I've never regretted any single one of my posts.
😠 03 - Have you ever been freaked out or offended by a reader's comment or a blogger's post?
Not offended, but a little annoyed once. One reader commented under one of my DNF reviews saying that I shouldn't have left a review for a book I had abandoned after a few pages, that I should have excused myself with the publisher and officially pretended I had never received the book (she worded it differently, but this was the gist). On a level, I understand where she was coming from, but frankly...my blog, my rules. You don't get to teach me how to blog, especially after 10+ years. Of course, I never approved that comment...
😖 04 - Do you freak out/get annoyed when a blogger leaves short comments that are generic or devoid of any relation to the post? (i.e., "nice blog" or "good post")
SO. FREAKING. MUCH. Those posts never get approved and their authors never get a visit, it goes without saying.
🥺 05 - If you cannot access your blog (i.e., because of web glitches or wi-fi not working), do you freak out and try to fix it somehow or do you just wait patiently until the problem solves itself?
Never happened so far, at least when I really needed to post or draft something. On the other hand, back when I didn't have a spare tablet, I had to go without my main computer for a few days for a reason I don't remember, and I did freak out...but not for the blog in particular - for the lack of internet connection. I suppose I would freak out if a problem arose and I couldn't post in a timely fashion...I know the world wouldn't end, but I'm wired that way.
😯 06 - Does it bothers you when a blogger changes their blog's direction/starts behaving like a new-to-you blog with nothing like the posts you are used to seeing?
It depends. If I'm friends with them, I don't care much, as long as they don't disappear on me - I still enjoy seeing what they're up to. It might bother me in other cases, but I can't remember it happening with any of the blogs I've been following.
😃 07 - Does getting comments (on your blog) makes you giddy?
Yes. I'm grateful for every single one of them, and if a new-to-me reader takes the time to let me know they enjoyed one of my posts, I feel elated and keep them in my heart, even if I don't see them anymore after that day.
🤐 08 - Was there a time you freaked out when you made a mistake on your post, i.e., got some information wrong or said something that you really shouldn't have?
Haha, yes! On my frigging template, even! Back when I put it together (using PhotoFiltre), the tag I wrote for my banner (the one I still have, because I've never changed anything in my template since I started the blog) said "...refreshing books you don't often see rewieved" 😮 😅. I have no idea where it came from, and the worst thing is, it took me two years to correct it, and I only did because a fellow blogger pointed it out to me...you know how it is with things you've gotten so used to seeing that you can't seem to notice them anymore...but goodness, it was so embarrassing.
🤯 09 - When bloggers overshare (on their blogs), do you get annoyed or happy that they are willing to share even the most intimate of things?
Happy (unless they treat me to a tour of their bedrooms - so to speak - which luckily no one I know does LOL. Or to gross images, which, same). I mean, so far I've never come across a blogger who'd go truly overboard with their sharing...and I hope I haven't done that either.
🤗 10 - Do you sometimes freak out (in a good way) when you get new readers?
Not exactly...I mean, I'm happy of course, but in a quiet way. Also because it's mostly us book bloggers who follow each other these days...I mean, hardly anyone has readers whom they aren't following back. And I don't mean it in a derogatory way of course! It's a gift! But the fact is, there's hardly anyone following blogs who is "just" a reader anymore (plus most non-mutuals follow you but never seem to comment, and you don't even know if they're still reading your posts or ever did...). We're like an online club of friends, and the "follow" thing doesn't mean what it used to, like, 15 or 20 years ago, when the whole blogging gig started...
***
So, what about you? Do you ever freak out/have you ever freaked out for any of the blogging-related reasons above? What's your stance on bloggers who tend to overshare?
I love that you have no regrets.*applause, applause* I actually did delete a post that was very personal, but after I read it, I realized how it seemed like a cry for help. Don't write posts when you are in a dark place. I have to admit, I do get a bit upset when someone says only negative things about a book that I am gushing about. Even if I hated something, I will be vague - "it was not for me", but I don't try to convince the person that they are wrong about their opinions. I definitely changed direction with my blog going from almost all YA to almost no YA, but I am glad it didn't make a difference to you.
ReplyDeleteSome posts can be cathartic even if one doesn't ultimately make them public...like writing a diary. I'm sure it helped putting your feelings out there, even if you decided the post wasn't suited for being shared.
DeleteI'm usually not vague in my reviews, but I try not to offend anyone...of course there will always be people who'll comment only to rain on your parade or to convince you that you're wrong, but at least it rarely happens with blogs (I think?)...social networks are a whole different matter, of course.
I hardly noticed the change, I think because it was already in place when we stumbled on each other's blogs...I can't remember how long we've been friends for! Yikes! Anyhow, you read more in the contemporary genre back then as well, right? so it hasn't been jarring. Then again, you don't read the same books I do, and yet you follow me (and comment 💚).
1 - No particular expectations? Maybe I should have done that. But I can't remember what I was expecting.
ReplyDelete2 - Not a single regrettable post? I wish I can say the same thing.
3 - I see no problem in reviewing books you have DNF because you still read it even if not all of it.
4 - I guess I'm different from you. I just leave these comment unless it's annoying me too much.
5 - So I guess you prefer to keep your schedule which is something I would like to do but I'm not into scheduling anything. Whenever I try to plan something, I end up not following it.
6 - I also prefer that people change their blog rather than quit completely.
7 - Insert smiley face - forgot how to make them.
8 - It's true, you can make corrections but you can't erase your embarrassment, nothing can do that. But it's okay because most people probably already forgot about it. That's the thing about the internet, it keeps moving on no matter what happens.
9 - People are odd. Sometimes they share things they just really shouldn't share at all.
10 - It's true. Following a blog is not what it used to be. Most do it so other people will folow them too. I agreed with you that most non-mutuals who follow you don't even comment but maybe we can pretend they do read our posts but just didn't have anything to say.
I like that you used little emojis for each questions. Thanks for answering.
Have a lovely day
"I see no problem in reviewing books you have DNF because you still read it even if not all of it."
DeleteTo be fair, I usually give a book a number of chapters before I decide to throw the towel, but I stopped reading that particular one after only a few pages. Then again, it was enough to get a feel for the style and other problems that made the book not a good fit for me...
"It's true, you can make corrections but you can't erase your embarrassment, nothing can do that. But it's okay because most people probably already forgot about it. That's the thing about the internet, it keeps moving on no matter what happens."
Very true...but one keeps thinking everybody and their mother has seen the embarrassing thing and laughed their ass off, or thought "goodness, this one wants to keep a blog/review books/write stories/whatever, and they don't even know their grammar" 😅. Also, if you're punctilious like me, it stings...
"I agreed with you that most non-mutuals who follow you don't even comment but maybe we can pretend they do read our posts but just didn't have anything to say."
Which they probably do sometimes! I know I happen to read posts and not comment because I feel to tired to articulate my thoughts...or just agree and don't have anything worth to add to the discussion...
"I like that you used little emojis for each questions."
Thanks! And thank you for coming up with the questions.
Oh this is a fun tag! I love your answers, especially since you mostly don't freak out over blogging stuff. I've only deleted one post, and it was a review of a book I hated for a blog tour. I think that's why I don't do blog tours anymore. I posted a very "vanilla" review that didn't share my true feelings, then later I deleted the post and left my real review on Goodreads. I didn't want to be associated with that book at all!
ReplyDeleteI also recently unfollowed a blogger I had been following for years who sudden became religious. Not that I care what religion you are or aren't, but it was seeping into her blog. Sigh.
I understand your plight. It hurts when you have to compromise your blogger integrity, but blog tours are supposed to sing the praises of the books they promote...so I guess you didn't have a choice. I think blog tours are much less popular nowadays (especially since NG and EW became a thing)? I can't seem to see many around.
DeleteI would have done the same about the religious blog...I don't mind people mentioning they believe in this or that, but I don't care for posts that promote such beliefs, whichever they are...
This was a lot of fun. I enjoyed getting to know you better by reading your answers. I'm debating whether I want to post my answers on my own blog or just in the comments here...
ReplyDelete1. No. I had been building my own website for 11 years before I decided to do a blog instead. I did worry I might not have a lot to say or write about, but I quickly got over that because I always have something to say. LOL.
2. Before I became a book blogger (I had a personal blog when I first started), there were times I regretted some of the things I posted / shared. I left some and deleted others. It just depended on how much anxiety I had about the post. (I do the same thing with what I post on Instagram.)
3. I usually get more annoyed at some of the comments I receive than freak out. However, I did freak out once. Before I understood how copyright worked, I used to take images I found through Google and edit them to make them my own. In 2009, I created a digital Christmas card doing just that thing and the artist somehow found my little blog and started accusing me of copyright infringement (to be fair, I had), but instead of asking me nicely to take down the image, which I would have done and did, she had a whole group of friends come and leave nasty, rude comments and posted it all over Twitter so that more and more people would do the same. I ended up apologizing and giving her credit for the image (that's all she wanted). Since then, I only use images that my husband or I created and ones I have licensed from digital stock sites. I learned my lesson the hard way.
4. Yes. While I love comments, I'd like them to be meaningful and sound like the commenter actually read what I wrote.
5. Yes. Fortunately, my husband is my webmaster so I can just ask him to look into the problem. Most of the time, he can fix it pretty quickly. There have only been a couple of times when it took longer than a few hours.
6. Like you, it depends on the blog. If it's a friend, then no. If it's a website I follow for specific info then I'll probably stop following it after a while.
7. Yes, very much! I live for comments. I try not to, but I do.
8. I haven't really freaked out. I just edit the post to fix the mistake or whatever it is. I'm a constant editor. Constant. Once I post something and I go to read a comment, I usually reread my post and make edits if I notice I skipped a word, spelled something wrong, or my sentences are clunky and don't make sense.
9. I feel like I sometimes overshare, lol. So I usually give people the benefit of the doubt so I'm not hypocritical.
10. I totally agree with your response. It's exactly how I feel.
"I enjoyed getting to know you better by reading your answers."
DeleteSame!
"instead of asking me nicely to take down the image, which I would have done and did, she had a whole group of friends come and leave nasty, rude comments and posted it all over Twitter so that more and more people would do the same"
Ugh, the Twitter mob. She probably presumed bad faith...but even then - does it hurt to point out the problem before you start harassing someone for making a mistake?
"I'm a constant editor. Constant."
Gag, I can relate so much! I even fix old posts if I happen to reread them and find a mistake LOL.
"I feel like I sometimes overshare, lol. So I usually give people the benefit of the doubt so I'm not hypocritical."
😂
Thank you for doing the tag! And to Lissa again for providing the fun questions.
What a fun post. Like you, I started my blog specifically for me and never looked back. I've taken time off from it and regretted not keeping up better but life got in the way and I handled it the best I could. The only thing I've ever really changed after it was posted a was if I noticed a typo or something and I don't think I 've ever really regretted a post either. I share a lot about my pups on my blog and hope people don't get tired of hearing about them or seeing them but if they do, there's other blogs they can visit. Thanks for sharing so much with us and I LOVE that you review lesser known books. You've definitely increased my TBR!
ReplyDelete"I've taken time off from it and regretted not keeping up better but life got in the way and I handled it the best I could."
DeleteIt's great that you managed to keep at it despite life getting in the way...I firmly believe that a blog will keep you sane, but sometimes it's not easy to make the time to post.
Who can get tired of pups? Monsters, that's who 😂 😉.
"I LOVE that you review lesser known books. You've definitely increased my TBR!"
Aw, thank you!
I love your answers to these. It's always nice to get to know our blogger friends a little more and see how they answer questions like these. This was fun.
ReplyDelete1. I didn't freak out or worry when I first started. I never thought anyone would read my blog except for the handful of people I started blogging with. lol
2. I haven't ever deleted a post because I regretted it.
3. I was a little mad at some anonymous comments back when I allowed anonymous comments because they were so rude to me. I gave a low rating on a popular book and the authors fans came out of the woodwork to bash me. I deleted all the comments.
4. Yes, the "Great blog." comments are annoying.
5. I haven't had any glitches.
6. Yes! I stopped following or reading a blog because instead of book reviews it went to her underage daughter "transitioning" and everything that entailed. As well as all kinds of 'woke' content and talking about how she didn't understand why people were leaving comments where they didn't agree with everything she was saying. I could no longer read her blog.
7. Yes, I love getting comments.
8. I wouldn't say I freaked out but I have changed a few things in some posts when someone pointed out the info I gave about pet rats was wrong. I can admit when I'm wrong, learn from it and change how I think. Not a problem. I used to write a lot of pet rat articles and the rat parents and "experts" would come out of the woodwork to tell me I was wrong. Sometimes I was, not all the time through.
9. I haven't really seen much oversharing.
10. I love getting new people reading and following my blog.
"I gave a low rating on a popular book and the authors fans came out of the woodwork to bash me."
DeleteI think it's happened to lots of us, unfortunately. Most of the times it's the authors inciting revenge and their fans taking the bait...sweet lord.
"I stopped following or reading a blog because instead of book reviews it went to her underage daughter "transitioning" and everything that entailed."
I'm honestly glad that there are parents who support their kids when they feel uncomfortable in their own skin, and I'm all for so-called "woke" content...but I suppose that wasn't what you had signed for.
"I can admit when I'm wrong, learn from it and change how I think."
That's nice! I suppose your experience with rats might have been different from other rats' owners at times, so you were still giving right information in those cases, but every one of us can be wrong sometimes, and if people correct us in a way that's not rude, it's actually a good thing to be able to change our perspective.
I think I sorta felt the same as you when I started. Then again, that was so long ago, I don't really remember lol.
ReplyDeleterewieved 😂
We are like an online club, aren't we? I think non-bloggers do read our posts, stumble upon them from Google, etc., there just aren't many non-bloggers who leave comments. Which is fine! If anyone enjoys my posts, even silently, I'm glad.
I am a blogger who overshares lol. But I think, as a society in general, we should talk about things more, so that we know we're not alone in the things we go through.
"I think non-bloggers do read our posts, stumble upon them from Google, etc., there just aren't many non-bloggers who leave comments."
DeleteVery likely...or, one can always hope LOL. At least that way we would be read...
"I am a blogger who overshares lol. But I think, as a society in general, we should talk about things more, so that we know we're not alone in the things we go through."
That's one good reason to talk about our hardships and whatnot...the other being, after doing that, we feel a little better (at least I know I do) and we feel SEEN.
I would say that I don't freak out much about blogging anymore. However, if my site seems down or unaccessible I do freak because I don't know much about the logistics and can't fix things on my own. I had a major freak out years ago when Google Blogger removed my ENTIRE BLOG because its bots said I was spam. I did get it back after a half a day, but that was stressful. I don't freak out when I've made mistakes, but I do feel really bad and apologize profusely to the author (for example, recently, I had a post that I copied from a previous post and forgot to swap out the correct book description. The author reached out and let me know and was fine, but I felt really bad.
ReplyDelete"I had a major freak out years ago when Google Blogger removed my ENTIRE BLOG because its bots said I was spam. I did get it back after a half a day, but that was stressful."
DeleteUgh. Something like that happened to me too...I had forgotten until I read your comment. Maybe it happened around the same time to both of us...That's a valid reason for freaking out, especially since one can never know if their blog will be reinstated and when.
"recently, I had a post that I copied from a previous post and forgot to swap out the correct book description. The author reached out and let me know and was fine, but I felt really bad."
When there are authors involved, even if they're nice, one can't help feeling bad. I absolutely get where you're coming from.
This is such a fun topic for discussion! I'm with you on starting my blog in 2012 with little expectation or foresight into what it would ultimately become. Much to my delight, I've met so many blogging friends who I connect with to this day.
ReplyDeleteAs for regrets, I don't think I have any either. My thoughts on some of the books I read in the past have changed from when I wrote the review, but I think it would be dishonest to go back and edit them. JD Vance's memoir immediately comes to mind as one I have different thoughts about now given the context of who he has turned out to be.
I've had thoughts of ending my blog for the sheer grind of it, but I keep coming back because I simply get more joy out of it than stopping would ever give me.
We're blogging twins! 😃Maybe if we had started nowadays, we would have more of a perspective of what entails to be (book) bloggers, but it was still largely uncharted territory back then. I know I wouldn't have expected the connections I've made either.
DeleteUh...Vance 😂. I went and looked for that post...it was a very balanced review, but then again, the book itself seems to have been balanced. I agree about editing reviews - personally, I would maybe add a preface or a footnote if a post really bugged me, but I think I'd leave it alone too....
"The sheer grind of it" 😂 - so well said! I hope blogging will keep giving you more joy than stress, and anyhow...you can always take two or three hiatus a year like I keep doing LOL.
"One reader commented under one of my DNF reviews saying that I shouldn't have left a review for a book I had abandoned after a few pages, that I should have excused myself with the publisher and officially pretended I had never received the book (she worded it differently, but this was the gist). On a level, I understand where she was coming from, but frankly...my blog, my rules. You don't get to teach me how to blog, especially after 10+ years. Of course, I never approved that comment..." - oh wow! That reminds me of when someone came into two of my reviews and said "So you wished there was more? LOL I would've rated this higher." and "I felt XYZ, I would've rated it lower." which is perfectly valid... but they're not the one writing my reviews...
ReplyDeleteDNF reviews can be so helpful though especially if they're constructive and go into some detail because what didn't work for you might be exactly what someone is looking for, even if you didn't fully finish it!
Other than that, I usually get a comment about a year or so later from the original post that's usually annoying or pissed me off, but those I just ignored (most memorable was when I wrote a 2k review over a really messy book because I was absolutely LIVID with some of the topics and was told I sounded like a child for using curse words lol — pretty sure it was tame compared to some of the reviews out there, and usually with those type of reviews, I always go to 1-3 pals and have them check and see if I'm going overboard)
"'...refreshing books you don't often see rewieved'" I remember you mentioning this once - I remember those days (and definitely never noticed it lololol. But to be fair, v and w are pretty similar (w has an extra v I suppose?)
I definitely was scared I would fail when I started my current blog, mostly because the blog previously I stopped about 5 months, or rather I stopped being very active on there and slowly just disappeared...
LOL, we all seem to have a review horror story! or even more than one. Which, I don't know, with a friend I would probably be like "that's interesting, because instead I felt this and thought that", by way of conversation, you know - but with a stranger...The "curse words" one is pretty funny though (I mean...NOT funny, but funny).
Delete"I definitely was scared I would fail when I started my current blog"
And here you are after 12 years...🥰
I have someone come on to one of my reviews and leave a comment about me reviewing a DNF book.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not alone...so to speak LOL. It's annoying, though on one hand, I can see their point.
DeleteI love how calm you are, whereas I'm over here turning blogging into an existential crisis every 5 minutes (lol.)
ReplyDelete😂 I'm pretty much the opposite of calm, but I guess I have this particular thing under control? except when I'm drowning in ARCs? 😅
DeleteYou're doing pretty well! Don't let your inner voice convince you otherwise.
Thanks, but I think it's more like an inner board-meeting, lol!
Delete