@ Karen - I agree that a blog doesn’t have to be intimate to be good. I suppose it has a lot to do with what you are looking for. However, I think that more often than not, the internet is devoid of humanity and any time we can bring ourselves in, as much as possible, it can only benefit. Oh and I am glad you enjoyed my pain

Actually, my associations with the word judgment (negative; someone telling you how to live/be/think/act based on their beliefs without respect for yours; generally involves someone looking down their nose at you) make me very cautious of the concept in general.

Opinions (positive; personal preference; decision) have good associations.

Word games. I get tricky that way sometimes. We’re on the same page. And who says you get to be on top, huh?

The one thing I am not clear on is whether or not you think making a judgment is wrong? I think you are saying that’s not appropriate. If you are saying that than I would respond that there’s nothing wrong with making judgments. We do it all the time. It’s how I picked clients or friends or authors I read.

I think we are on the same page, but I am on the top of the page because I am slower reader

Of course patronizing is a whole different story. That, I get. No questions there.

There’s a difference, too, between having an opinion and a preference and passing judgment. “I like AC/DC.” Preference. “I think AC/DC rocks.” Opinion. “I think AC/DC is better than Chris Brown, who comes off as some lazy teenstar wanna be.” Judgment. Or even, “I think AC/DC rocks.” Opinion. “You suck because you like Chris Brown.” Woo.. judgment.

Anyways, I need more coffee. We’re probably on the same page

In regards to passing judgment—I suppose you are right. Is it wrong that I like one style of writing over another? Or is it because I am in the genre of meta-blogging that if I speak ill (which I didn’t do, but for the sake of argument) of one of my contemporaries that would be frowned upon?

There is a musician in Canada who got in trouble a few years ago because he was asked if there were other musicians in Canada that he liked (or didn’t). And he answered by mentioned a group that he didn’t like. Which, of course, the media ate up. But his response was why he wasn’t allowed to have an opinion. Are we to hide our opinions when we are public personas? I don’t know the answer to that. But it seems like an interesting discussion.

And why wouldn’t be able to tell who has genuine personality? Being genuine usually takes a bit more energy and effort and I know that some days I don’t always feel up to it. Hopefully, I am a good enough judge of character that I can tell if someone is being genuine or not or whether they are truly engaged with me or just patronizing me.

And thanks for stopping by and keep up the good work!

I agree that no one should be creating content if their heart isn’t in it. Why bother?

On the other hand, there’s no hard fast rule that says posts need to be intimate or reveal personality. While Problogger doesn’t turn everyone’s crank for intimacy, it certainly does have good, solid information in its posts that help many people be better bloggers. Nothing wrong with that, and while it may bore you, it’s a bit silly to say that only intimate content is good content.

It’s also interesting that you group our blog in with the intimate ones. Sure, we use more personality and so does IttyBiz - we aim for entertaining and informative.

But then again, it seems you’re passing judgment on who is offering genuine personality based on the posts that you feel you like or don’t like - and that’s a pretty big assumption. While some readers may not like Buzz or Naomi’s cursing or any number of other bloggers’ posts, I don’t think it’s possible for you to know who was genuine in their personality when they wrote it.

Of course, I could have taken the wrong message from your post, so if I did, forgive me. And like I said, your mention of lost hours over crap content is a good one and worth writing. Well done.