Or maybe, since Bess is talking about it, I should talk about the KR thread on "are there too many knitting blogs?"

For me, the response to the question is: "And do you think there's too much freedom of speech, as well?"

I mean, honestly. As I said on the KR forum, a knitting blog is not like cable television: you are not paying for its presence in your life, and so you should feel no obligation to read a particular knitting blog - or any - if you dislike them, or if you feel oppressed by the sheer number of blogs.

(As I was not brave enough to say on KR forums: neither is it like being a North Korean under the reign of Kim Jong Il or whoeverthehell is in power now, where if you don't sing the Songs to the Exalted Leader, you will be shot, or at the very least, starved. Well, starved more than the rest of the population...)

I guess for me, it raises my hackles a little, partly because I have been such a target for peer criticism in my tender formative years, that any time someone seems to appoint themselves Censor or Guardian or Tastemaker, I brace myself, thinking, okay, you're going to be among the first they attack.

(Seriously? I'm glad no one brought up the idea of "Okay, then, list the blogs you think are supernumerary and should be shut down." Because that way would lie madness, or at least a lot of hurt feelings.)

There are blogs I read and love - ones I check each day and go "ooooooohhhhhhh, why doesn't she UPDATE more! I know there's interesting stuff going on in her life!" There are other blogs I pop into occasionally - when I'm killing time, or when someone links to them and says "this person has a particularly funny post" or "this person is talking about x" (where x is a topic I am interested in, or a pattern or yarn I want to try).

There are some blogs I rarely, if ever read - some of them out of simple ignorance; if there are the "too many" knitting blogs alluded to, there must be many I've never heard of. I'm sure some of them are absolutely wonderful and if I stumble across them I will kick myself for not knowing about them earlier.

But there are other blogs that I don't care for so much. I don't like the highly self-congratulatory blogs; I think that is because it is largely foreign to my personality to heap praise on myself (I am far, far better at finding my personal shortcomings). I also don't care as much for the ones where it's just a series of pictures, with little commentary: "Look! There is this thing I made!" "Look! here is another thing!" I want some little window into the person's mind. Or I want to learn something. I'd rather have the person say, well, I knit this sweater out of Floofy's Fuzzytop instead of out of the recommended Uberpricey Cashmere-Mulberry Silk-Goldfiber blend, and here is what happened and here is what I like and here is what I didn't like and here is why I think it's ridiculous for people to design a sweater that costs $800 to knit in the smallest size....

I like funny, but sometimes there's only so much funny I can take. I think that's because deep down I'm a pretty sincere person, and I tend to get suspicious of people who seem to be covering up their real feelings with lots of laughter.

I also don't care for the politicized blogs. I don't talk much politics on here, and I'm loathe to reveal my political beliefs (which are a big mess, anyway; I don't fit cleanly in with any typical political affiliation). There's only so much spewing anger - or so much self-congratulatory "my guy is in power" preening - that I can take without feeling ill.

But as I said before: knitting blogs are not cable tv. I don't have to turn on my television at night and watch the ME ME ME Me all the time! channel. Or the "I'm going to laugh about everything because I think it will win me friends" channel. Or the "I believe a picture is worth 1000 words so I will never say anything" channel. Or the "I hate the way the world is and I'm going to tell you in precise detail everything that is wrong, and I'm going to say it over and over again" channel.

(Well, okay. maybe Comedy Channel is the "I'm going to pretend I never have a serious thought" channel. And Lifetime sometimes borders on the Me Me Me all the time ME channel. But you get what I mean.)

But I don't know. I've said before, and said many times, that it makes me unhappy to see people criticize - not constructively criticize, just criticize for the apparent sake of stirring the pot or getting attention or making themselves feel big.

My feeling is this: if you read a blog and like it, drop the author a comment or an e-mail (hint, hint). But if you don't like the blog, just stay away. I've read some blogs where there's been a certain amount of comment-drama, where people comment "gee, your blog has gotten boring*" or things like that. And you know, that's just unnecessary and unkind.

Maybe I oversubscribe to the Plato dictum, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle," but when I read a once-sparkling blog and find it's kind of dulled down over the past weeks, I'm inclined to think: the author is going through something she (or he) is unwilling to discuss on-blog, but it's affecting their mood. Or work has gotten very busy. Or something.

(*which is something I'm very conscious of in my blog, lately. It's not been very good the past few weeks. My only excuse is the summer doldrums, coupled with longish hours at work).

As I've said, I don't quite get the pot-stirring personality. To me, that's kind of like being a person who thinks throwing rocks at hornets' nests is an exciting way to spend an afternoon. True, 80% of the nests might be old, empty, and abandoned. And 15% might have the hornets fly out, swarm a bit, and then fly away. But it's that 5% - that 5% where the hornets maybe fly in an open window and sting a kid who has nothing to do with the whole mess, or where they attack the other members of the party, the ones who said, "don't throw that rock" that cause problems.

I don't know. It just seems very strange to me for people to complain about something that's voluntary - both to write AND read. I'm 50% sure the person was doing the KR version of "trolling" but still - the comment and the idea behind it bother me.