Just when things were getting all warm and fuzzy …
But sometimes as they say, “It’s not you, it’s me,” and it’s time to sever my ties with a blog that sours my day instead of brightening it.
There’s a button for that. It’s called unsubscribe.
Have I unsubscribed to a blog or two? Yes!
In my case, the usual suspects were at fault: Too much politics, or posts that cut down other writers, or even flat-out too much posting. I was drowning in a deluge of thrice daily posts imploring me to buy a book, and another book after that. I just couldn’t take it any more!
For the most part though, it takes a lot to drive me to unsubscribe.
And, as much as I try not to stress about it, I know there will be times when my message won’t resonate with a reader, when my banter becomes banal, my alliteration annoying– or when my Muse has one too many rants. It’s a free worldwide web. There’s room for all of us, but all of us won’t necessarily like each other.
How about you? What is the final straw that makes you hit the unsubscribe button? Has something you’ve written ever caused someone to unsubscribe?
(Here’s your link back to the A to Z Challenge Sign Up list.)
I don’t know if anything I’ve written has caused people to unsubscribe, but I’ve certainly unsubscribed from people. It takes a lot to bother me, but it does happen. One example is this lady who seemed really nice and wrote a couple of interesting posts, but she was constantly talking about super-religious stuff. I’m normally very tolerant about people’s faiths, but after one too many posts about what “we Christians” are “going to do about this” in relation to things like lesbians getting married…sorry, I just didn’t want to see that on my feed anymore. 😛
I think that’s the key, Tracey. I don’t mind reading about someone’s beliefs and convictions at all, especially if they are well-supported, but if it’s the only thing they blog about it turns me off.
Precisely. This particular blogger, I gave her a chance even though I’m not a religious person, but when my feed started to be flooded with her daily religious rants, I had to let go. Not everyone is for everyone, I suppose. 🙂
Hello Kirsten
I think it would take a lot of anguish to make me unsubscribe. I tend to ignore most of the blogs where the same blogger tends to turn up every day, only responding occasionally.
The other day I was thinking about some posts I’d written and I thought I should make myself write a hundred lines saying: I must not be controversial on my blog.
I never bang on about anything, but I’m afraid that I cannot write only about writing. To write means that you will have many interests and many views. There’ll always be someone who won’t like what I say.
Sometimes I can be offended, then I ignore it. It’s worthwhile – so much variety.
I don’t mind a bit of controversy either. I think it spices things up, especially if the arguments are well-supported. But I do tend to avoid stirring up trouble in my own posts.
Maybe someday, when I’m a more sure-footed blogger, I’ll give it a try. 🙂
I’ve seen abandoned blogs get overtaken by a business trying to sell stuff, and I unsubscribe then. Sadly, the reason I unfollow is the person either unfollowed me or never followed me in the first place.
Good point, Alex!
I know, it sounds calculating to think that way, but it seems to me that if someone isn’t interested in reading what I have to say once in a while, then perhaps we don’t have that much in common after all!
I have unfollowed blogs if I originally followed to see what they were all about, and their posting trend proved not to be of interest.
I unfollowed one of my favorite boomer bloggers – who has a very large following – just last week. She is a satirist, which I enjoy and her posts were generally funny views on aging, fashion, relationships, etc. Suddenly in the middle of a normal blog, she criticized people who are opposed to the new health care law, saying anyone opposed to the law didn’t want poor people to have medical coverage. Ok, I can overlook one broad political generalization. She then labeled those same people as homophobic, gun-toting, and anti-abortion. Then went back to her normal topic!
I’m a middle-of-the-roader on most political issues because there is always room to meet somwhere in compromise. If I’m reading a political blog, I expect this kind of negative stereotyping from left and right. But not from her. What were readers supposed to do if they felt attacked? Call her on it and end up in the middle of an unwanted political argument? Pretend she didn’t say it and “like” her blog?
I clicked the unfollow and never looked back.
Good for you! I probably would have done the same.
I’ve come to believe that a lot of political rhetoric is aimed at bypassing our logical thinking abilities to have us act on raw emotion. Usually outrage.
Some bloggers handle contention quite admirably, and I enjoy watching them work from a safe distance. For me, I like to stay out of the muck, and stick with having fun. 🙂
Exactly. I’m blogging because I want to get away from all that, not because I want to engage in it online! (I’m not stalking you, I just jumped online to comment on a couple blogsites I haven’t visited in a few days :-))
No worries! I know we’ve all been online a lot more than usual during A to Z.
Besides, it’s kind of fun to talk in real time once in a while. 🙂
I find unfollowing to be abnormally stressful. I’ve still done it on occasion. Sometimes the test drive wasn’t satisfactory. Sometimes they feel the need to post ten times per day. I’m looking sideways at one right now that blogs, then reblogs her own material within minutes.
Reblogging herself? That’s just … wrong. 😉
I don’t like to unfollow either, so I’m real hesitant about who I follow. I sometimes wonder if I’m missing out on some great blogs due to my commitment issues.
to be honest I think that most blogs that I unfollow were from last year’s challenge. I followed those I found of interest and then when they never commented on my stuff and after the challenge I just clicked the button. Oh yeah and the writer who I was pretty friendly with and then all of a sudden she totally ignored my comments and emails. Clicked the button. Some blogs I don’t follow but check in on regularly
I try not to take it personally when someone I’ve been corresponding with disappears, and just assume they’ve stopped blogging and moved on. But it still makes me sad.
As far as when to check in versus just reading the posts, I think you’ll like tomorrow’s post, Susan! 😉
I guess I’m not that sentimental, I’ll unsubscribe if the blog doesn’t interest me much. Sometimes I’ll also unsubscribe if I just don’t have time to follow a certain blog, or if I’m always procrastinating about read just that blog’s posts, like when I keep a tab for weeks on end.
However, usually it comes to a boil and I’ll unsubscribe several at once. Like when google reader decided to stop, I had to make a decision. I decided to stop using a reader, so that meant I would subscribe by email to all blogs that stayed on my list. When you’ll get everything in your email, you get a little picker. Or I did anyway. Since then it haven’t gotten to be too much, perhaps because I’m finding good blogs? Who knows?
One thing is for sure though, I won’t unsubscribe from here anytime in the foreseeable future. 😉
🙂 Aww, thanks Felicia! It’s always so nice to see you stop by.
I unsubscribe in batches as well, usually after a long time away from my computer overwhelms my Inbox since I subscribe to most everything by email. I might have to rethink that!
When I’m on (a traveling) vacation, I almost never have computer or internet access. Actually I find it really relaxing to leave such things behind. This also means I usually have a mountain of emails to go through when I get back, I have a tendency to find a lot of unnecessary email newsletters then.
My biggest pet peeve is when I’ve bought a product and they have an email list for updating me when they update their product, but they also send all their regular emails to that list. If I unsubscribe I’ll never know if they update, but if I stay I’ll get a lot of emails I don’t read… With them I usually wait at least a year to see if they seem to ever update their product, if they do I stay on the list otherwise I don’t. The only trouble I have one of those that add new things about once a year, but they also email every day…. A lot of deleted emails there.
Too much and negativity are the main reasons why I unsubscribe. And politics, but usually I don’t visit political type people to begin with, so I don’t subscribe.
I actually prefer readers to subscriptions, just because it seems less overwhelming to me.
Maybe one of the issues with politics is exactly that: If I’m not expecting political rants and get them anyway, that’s not what I signed up for!
I don’t know if anyone has unsubscribed from mine, but I hope not. Would I receive a notification saying “so-and-so has stopped following your blog?” Surely not. That would be awful. I haven’t unsubscribed from anyone so far, but a sudden shift to politics and/or religion in a blog where I wouldn’t normally expect to find them would probably do it.
It’s actually quite difficult to figure out if someone has unsubscribed, probably for that very reason. Who wants to find out that something they wrote has turned off a bunch of readers?!
But (just in case I’m in the mood to be even more insecure than usual) I have been guilty of perusing my follower list, wondering if I’ve made anybody mad or bored someone enough to leave! 😉
As Alex said, sales blogs are out of here. Ugh. Also, blogs that are waaay too long or way too frequent. I have unsubscribed to a couple of blogs because the writer was so full of themselves. But, it takes a lot for me to press that button. 🙂
Oh, you struck a nerve and made me laugh when you mentioned writers who are full of themselves, because that’s so true! But I’m so worried about hurting someone’s feelings that I just delete them in my Inbox rather than unsubscribe.
It takes a lot for me to unsubscribe.