For the longest time, I’ve wondered, ‘Why don’t any of the wonderful people who follow my blog and like my posts ever post anything to THEIR WordPress blogs so that I can like and support THEIR stuff?”
Yes I did. Wonder. Such a thing.
Probably not as many times as someone in the world wondered, “Why doesn’t this self-centered schmuck ever hit ‘like’ on any of MY WordPress posts?”
Wow.
I even said to some fine fellow who was incredibly supportive of this blog and after many messages had passed between us, something like, “Gee, I’d love to see some of YOUR stuff sometime. Do YOU have your own blog or website?”
That was actually the last I spoke to him. Nothing at all after that question. The line went dead.
So I’m on this thing called The Reader yesterday, I’m sure you’ve all heard of it, scrolling down and thinking, “Wow, WordPress does a really nice job of selecting material from its tens of thousands of blogs just for me. I really like all this stuff. Good job of curating, WP!”
Then I see MY latest blog post. And NOW I’m excited. I said to my more significant other, “Honey, look! WordPress is featuring my post in The Reader.”
I did say that. Yesterday.
She was like, really? What does that mean? And I said, “Well, it means that probably everyone interested in photography will see my post in their Reader, it’s like being featured on the front page. Or something.”
(I probably shouldn’t be posting any of this. Do my face palm in silence and move on.)
But then, sharp detective that I am, I sez to myself, “Myself, this is going to mean a significant increase in traffic. Gird your loins, brother. This is your moment.”
My ship had finally come in. I thought.
But then when I checked my stats… 😦
I won’t drag this out any longer. Yes, I am obviously a self-centered schmuck. And I had seriously conflated The Reader with, “Freshly Pressed”
Somehow.
I just want to say now to all of you SO familiar names who have hung in there, liking my posts, THANK YOU for your patience with me. Seriously, thank you. I would like to say that I’m just so busy, there certainly is something busy going on inside my head, but I don’t think that’s the issue. I’ve always been this way. Conflating. Confusing.
I’ll give you one very early example. First grade. Catholic school. 1963. Sometime after the Christmas break. I was sent to the principal’s office, I can’t remember what for. Sister Victor was the principal. Yep, that was her name and that’s who she was. I vainly tried to make an excuse … something about the 3 months we had ‘off’ for the Christmas vacation.
You see, loyal readers, I had conflated SUMMER with the 10 days of Christmas break.
Sister Victor was not generally known as a forgiving nun and she snarled at me that we didn’t get three months off for Christmas and then a few minutes later threw me down a flight of stairs.
True story.
Anyway. I am sorry, fellow, WordPress photo-bloggers. I can see now that most of you really are posting YOUR stuff to your WordPress blogs and I am blown away at the quality and breadth of the great photography and creativity you all are putting forth into the world… and… I’m LIKING it all as fast as I can. 😉
50'Lux 
Hi there,
This really made my day. I have also done my share of mistakes as a new blogger and it is just great to find out that I am not the only one 😉 Thank you for sharing this and making me laugh!
Thank you! Look forward to checking out your blog. Just had a quick peek on my iPhone but it looks very cool already. Thanks again.
db
That´s a great story! I always thought you don´t like liking, and that would have been ok! 🙂 Don´t hurry with liking as long as you keep on posting your own stunning pics! Big respect for your honesty and thanx for the fun I had reading!
I believe you are talented in the most exceptional way and I enjoy most of your posts/photos. Due to the nature of some of my writings I do hesitate to reblog others works unless they have full understanding that for me to do so might cause them difficulties. Like this photo above, it mesmerizes me, the faces, but I wish to do you no harm.
Well I thank you so much for your appreciation. I do like this shot to express the emotion of embarrassment. Thank you!
Look Donald, we live busy lives and although we would like to have a sudden influx of thousands of likes, that’s not really why we blog. Yes, it would be nice. Yes, we would feel justified. Yes, it would do our ego a deal of good, but really we do it because it’s a platform for us to develop our own work and it’s much easier to do than preparing an exhibition with all that cutting mounts and printing and framing.
I have always greatly admired your work which is consistently good. I wish I had the time to visit and comment more often. We both know that when we reach across the ether to make a comment it creates a link between fellow artists that have common ideals, and though we don’t do it often enough, there’s still a reward there.
If I didn’t blog….and some days it’s a pain in the butt….I wouldn’t push myself to find and then edit…..and to discover…..just occasionally, a picture that really makes me sing.
Keep up the good work Donald, old chap!
Regards
John
thank you very much, John. Very very well put summation of what’s really going on here. I think, after all is said and done, WordPress is a great platform for enabling us to make attractive websites where we can show our work. The social network aspect of it probably had a peek at one point but I think it’s now sort of fading. I notice a lot of photo bloggers here who used to have hundreds of likes and now those same people get for their posts maybe 30 or 40 likes. but WordPress remains a great place to make a good website … professional, attractive … and one that works. thank you so much for visiting and liking. 😉