Aloha everyone,
Once again Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown has inspired me to riff off of one of his thoughts and add my take to the mix.
Right before the Thanksgiving weekend I was writing a series of posts about the great cards that Gavin had sent to me when I won a prize in his World Series contest, but now I'm going to combine showing off the fourth part of those prizes (Game Four if you've been following the prize post series) with my thoughts on his blogger cliques commentary.
The approach I'll take is by grouping this batch of prizes into cardboard "cliques" made up from their respective sets. Leading off are a clique of Dodgers draft picks...
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| Holmes is looking good as a first round draft pick and prospective power arm. |
He mentioned card bloggers branching off into cliques, and that's true, as we all tend to clique up in whatever social situation we're involved in.
I certainly have a few favorite bloggers that I try to regularly read, and I base those on how consistently interesting they are. I don't need a blog to read like the Great American Novel, but as Steve Martin said in Planes, Trains and Automobiles (which is my personal Thanksgiving tradition), "Here's an idea, have a point."
As far as what other blogs I read, that's based on my admittedly shallow skimming of title and photo on my blogroll. Sorry, if your post that day is about hockey or football cards, I'm just not reading that one. Of course, available time is also a factor in how many I read in any given day.
Am I member of other blogger's cliques? I have no idea - and are you really in a clique if you don't know that you're included?
The next cardboard clique are tribute cards of past players. I absolutely DIG these cards, and I only bunched them into one scan to show how many G sent to me. Awesome!
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| My favorites are the Cooperstown Campanella and Wheat, and Tribute Branca. |
As far as commenting goes, it seems the other bloggers who chimed in on the comments at BCB were all around the map of opinions on whether they comment and why.
I try to comment on other blogs because I really appreciate it when someone drops a comment here on ATBATT. It takes me less than a minute, and it's my way of letting the blogger know his words were read and they connected with me on some level.
I must admit when nobody comments here for a few posts in a row...it does start to feel a bit lonely. Where's my clique????
Next up is a clique from Bowman...
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| How ironic that Johnson got a batting photo, because he's the worst batting Dodgers catcher I can remember. His eyes look like they're tracking a shallow pop fly. That's about right. |
Gavin mentioned not reading some bloggers for his own reasons and I can relate, as I can pinpoint one blog that I stopped reading for personal reasons. In case you're curious, it was a racist comment in a blog post that rubbed me the wrong way. I called the author out on it, he never replied, and I never read his blog again.
I suppose that's the risk we take when we go out on a limb and step outside of the usual baseball card topics.
Long time readers of ATBATT know that I write about whatever strikes me, and I will on occasion, stray from writing about cards. For example, I've written about Net Neutrality and race relations here. Generally, it's something that I'm passionate about, so I hope it still offers interesting reading for you all out there.
Recently I've begun introducing my hobbies of poker and craft beers into the blog, and while I may have ruffled the feathers of some cardboard-only purists out there, I sure hope I didn't chase any readers away because of those asides.
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| My fave in this clique is my new Nomo! |
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| Judd didn't accomplish much in his career beyond being named in the PED doping scandal report. |
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| EK don't need no stinkin' bat flip! |
Last ups go to a clique of (pretty much) current Dodgers and some 90's Collectors Choice Dodgers...
Next up will be Game 5, the final post from the World Series prizes - and the very cool customs that Gavin made for me.
Attn Laker Dave, Matt and P-Town Tom: I've replied to your comments on my previous beer review post.
Thanks for reading and don't hesitate to comment...there's plenty of room in my clique.
Aloha!
When it comes to reading posts, I try to read stuff that interests me. I meant to read your beer post too, but didn't get around to it yet.
ReplyDeleteGuess I should be doing that instead of commenting! LOL.
Better late than never, and I'm glad to hear the beer posts interest you!
DeleteI like your beer posts (and lots of other posts too). I'm typically reading while at work (shhhh) so commenting isn't always convenient for me. That said, I need to do better with comments because I know how much I like getting comments on my blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment. Yeh, it's those comments that really help to build the sense of blog community - especially if we don't usually trade with that person.
DeleteWho in the world is making racist comments on card blog posts? I musta missed that one. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteLike I said on Gavin's post, I comment when somebody has written something that makes me comment. It's all up to the writer. He provokes it. People can make commenting whatever they want it to be, and obviously have, but I think an instinctive response to what someone wrote is the ideal kind of comment.
Yeah, N.O., it knocked me for a loop when it happened (which was well over a year ago). It's possible the author may have just wrote that without thinking, but it was pretty harsh, so I decided to just let that blog slip away.
DeleteI try to leave a comment if anything pops into my mind as I read a post - even if it's just "hey, cool card!" I think we take a certain satisfaction in stimulating other peoples' minds.
ReplyDeleteExactly right. Sometimes my comment is just those few words about a cool card, and that's 'nuff said.
DeleteGlad again you dig the cards! And very cool my disjointed post has sparked some interesting conversation.
ReplyDeleteHey man, we've still got one more prize post to go!
DeleteYou're in a groove these days for good posts - that one had the right amount of "disjointedness". lol
I try to comment as much as possible. I've been thinking about doing a few more beer posts too. I lead up a tasting on Fridays so maybe I'll discuss what's on the menu.
ReplyDeleteYikes about the racist comment. Ignoring is the best kind of defense.
You are one of the most consistent commenters, and perhaps THE most.
DeleteYou're actually my "commenting role model", if there is such a thing.
Yeh, very yikes. Ignoring is always an option, but sometimes people gotta be called on it when they are flat out wrong. Just my opinion.
PS - can't wait to check out what you guys are tasting in your neck of the woods.
DeleteAs someone who doesn't have a blog I try and comment as much as possible. I know it takes time to it a post together. Just so the writer knows someone is out there reading
ReplyDeleteAs one of those guys trying to string the words together for you to read, I really appreciate your comments. I'm sure just about every blogger does.
DeleteThanks for reading my humble little blog :)
i've never been good about leaving comments. i didn't write for comments, but i should have left them for others far more often than i did. maybe now i can be better about it.
ReplyDeletewhen i started my blog, i reached out to many of the people who were already writing - mario, fielder's choice, dayf, captain canuck, and many others. so, after i was a couple years in and more established, i was somewhat surprised at how few of the new bloggers that came along reached out to me. i believe a lot of it had to do with how little i commented, although i read a lot of their stuff. like i said, i should have commented more.
like you, there have been a few blogs that i stopped reading altogether due to unfulfilled trades on their part or a group break sullied. most of the blogs that i commented on over the last couple of years were ones that i was trading with, so that's what drove my connections mostly. but i was/am still reading a lot of the others.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Jim. I'm glad you're still out there and reading our posts.
DeleteIn the past I commented much along the lines as you did, but this whole blogger dialogue has convinced me to drop a few more comments, a bit more often.
Craft beer. Now you're speaking my language.
ReplyDeleteWell, that and baseball cards.
I'm glad we both speak that language, Adam.
DeleteICYMI - here's the latest beer review post I wrote:
http://alltradebait.blogspot.com/2015/11/beer-review-break.html
The next one is coming soon, so stay tuned!