Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Memes

Tea has given me the honor of selecting this as one of the blogs that make her think. I am feeling so good that Tea holds this blog in such high esteem. Thank you so much, Tea. I can’t tell you how meaningful it is to me to know that you find some pleasure in visiting my little plot in cyberspace!

That said, I hope no one takes offense with I am going to say next.

I do not participate in most memes. Why? Because I have a suspicious nature.

When I see something in the rules that request a link back, I am immediately suspicious of the post's intent. Why can’t we just say, “Mary started this meme”. No, that won’t do. They want to make sure they get a link.

Have you ever wondered why? Well, I certainly have.

In my ever-so-humble opinion, this smacks of a blogger on a social climb to the top of the almighty google rankings. These memes reproduce more rapidly than rats in the sewer lines. Imagine how many links will come from thousands of unsuspecting bloggers, who think this is just a bit of fun. Little do they know they are rungs on the ladder of the blogger's hungry climb to the top. (you don't have to imagine. I looked it up. This blogger had 40,200 links at 6:15 p.m. today. Just to give you a comparison, I have 147 and most of those are my own links to other pages in my site.)

Now I could be completely wrong about all of this. Maybe the majority of those who start such memes have no idea that the thousands of links they get will shoot them way up in the rankings.

Yeah, and I’m a middle-aged Playboy model making 6 million a year.

Tea, please don’t feel that I am saying anything negative about you! I am totally flattered that you chose me. I have been thinking about a post of this nature for the past few weeks and your nomination just gave me the platform.

I am only ranting about the people who start these things with the goal of increased rankings. I think a blog’s ranking should be based fairly on its content. I understand that links are about the only way a search engine can evaluate them. I just feel that links should come from people who actually read the blog!

Ok. I am off my meme-with-a-rule-to-link rant.

Upate: Good morning, everyone.

I can see by the comments that people are taking this the wrong way.
I need to clear up one thing.
It's not people like us who participate in the memes that I am ranting about. We all do it just because it's often entertaining and it gives us something different to post about. Lots of times it's fun to read the answers to find out more about our blogger friends.

It's the originator of those memes that require a link back. That little badge that you put on your blog goes right back to the person who started it. He/she is the one getting the thousands of links.
If all they really cared about were the friendly, getting-to-know-you answers to the questions, there would be no need to stick the badge (the link they made for your convenience) on your blog.

11 comments:

  1. Zoey, you gave me new information about this subject, and I had no idea that was how some of the memes worked.

    So although you declined the badge, you sure qualify as a blog that made me think.

    Annie

    ReplyDelete
  2. AMEN!!!
    I am so glad of this!!! I have only a few blogs I am down to that doesnt' ask me to vote, (you know what I mean), or to put a blog badge on my blog!!
    I have only done one and it was the quiz type, without a badge. But I refuse to buy into the social climbing game!
    Thanks, Zoey, for this post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have to say I honestly have never thought of doing a meme just so that I could get a link back. (and I've done literally dozens)
    I do them for the fun of it, and no other reason.. It doesn't matter one bit to me whether they link back or not.
    I never have thought of myself as a "social climber" and I could care less about stats. (in fact I don't even have a stat counter)
    I deliberately try to avoid anything that would be "google fodder" by using a *.
    I'm glad you shared your thoughts on memes...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wowzers, I never thought of memes like that either! sometimes I do them if they seem fun, sometimes I don't. Never thought about the link ladder games though.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hmm. The only memes I've participated in are when I was tagged by someone else about "5 things about me" and that only gets linked back the person who tagged me.

    But on the subject of ranking, there are a lot of people who are "comment whores" who comment everywhere hoping people will come to their blog. I know there are a lot of blogs out there, I prefer my list of blogs I read to actually be ones I read on a regular basis. But I have some people who comment every once in a while, and I always get the impression from their comments that they don't read regularly, just enough to encourage me to visit their site. This is different from my regular readers whom I know read regularly and when they comment, I can tell they keep up with me. Does that make sense?

    Anyway, I read your blog almost everyday, even if I don't always comment. :P And I forgot to second everyone else's compliments on your lovely bird quilt. So much work and detail!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Zoey, I'm not sure I even understand what a meme is and now I have to worry about zillions of links? If there was a nomination for "blog I visit every-other-day-or-so because I like to read it", I'd put you up for it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good morning, everyone.

    Just need to clear up one thing.
    It's not people like us who participate in the memes that I am ranting about. It's the originator of those memes that require a link back. That little badge that you put on your blog goes right back to the person who started it. He/she is the one getting the thousands of links.
    If all they really cared about was finding the answers to the questions, there would be no need to stick the badge link (they conveniently made) on your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Even if I had the luxury of high speed internet, I wouldn't have the time to read all the blogs in which I would have an interest. Slow dial up being what it is, I enjoy reading about a dozen gardening blogs on a regular basis and can only comment on a few at a time. Memes would be out of the question for me. I read most of Zoey's comments and visit many of her commenter's blogs. I like to think of this group as my morning "kafee klatsch"! "-) Y'all get my mornings off to a great, smiling start - thanks much!

    ReplyDelete
  9. What really bugs me are those people who leave a comment in your comment box who have NEVER even visited before and prvide a link to thier site by saying something cheesy and first....I have been getting a lot of that lately. I deleate them. If they want a link, they should at least ask first and not be so rude as to assume I want a comercial link on my site! I need to go delete some of those this morning from my blog (rolls eyse) might make a good rant LOL

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Zoey - as a new blogger, I've seen reference to memes and lists (things I like, do, etc). Until I read your post I didn't know how they started or what the purpose was except to get people talking. Interesting. I've also seen comments left on various sites that were obviously not left by the devoted reader. Thanks for the good info. I've been checking out blogs to find ones I like - and I use the links that are listed on blogs I do enjoy to find more. So I hope a lot of people use your philosophy - and only list sites they actually enjoy and visit regularly. Someday I'd like a long list of links on my site - but I'd like them all to be new friends!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your addendum makes me feel better about the couple of memes I've done - none had a link-back badge, so they really were just for fun.

    Many Thanks, Zoey

    Annie

    ReplyDelete

I appreciate you taking the time and effort to leave a comment. I will try to answer any questions you have. Please note due to Blogger changing word verification so almost nobody can read it, I have had to change to no word verification and only allow registered users to comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...