4735 posts 4/17/2006 1:05 pm
Last Read:
5/22/2006 4:05 pm
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So You Want To Know What We Blog About
I’ve been curious about what my fellow bloggers have been up to, so I carried out a simple analysis of who was blogging what. I have divided responses by gender, but not by age, which might well give further insights.
I simply tried to classify what people were writing about, so I looked at 200 new posts. I chose new posts because I was guaranteed a sample that I had not chosen. The only blogs I discounted were ones in German that I simply didn’t understand. The rest are listed below:
- Introductions
- Come-ons/Self-promotion
- Diaries
- Sexploits
- Greetings
- Jokes
- Polls
- Own Poems
- Quoted Poems/Lyrics
- Rants & Whinges
- Reflections, Thoughts & Philosophy
- Confessions & Revelations
- Factual/Informative
- Fount of Knowledge
- Nonerotic Prose/Stories
- Erotic Prose
- About Affairlook
- Games
- Blogger Banter
Overall Number of Posts
Males: 117 (56% of total)
Females: 72 (36% of total)
Couples: 11 (6% of total)
There were slightly less than twice the number of male posts than there were female posts. Bearing in mind the overall male/female ratio on Affairlook it still means that women members are much more likely to become bloggers than men. It also means that within blogland the male/female ratio is much nearer to being balanced than elsewhere on Affairlook. Which raises the question, “Are bloggers primarily attracted to other bloggers?” If so there are all sorts of interesting further questions to ask.
I was personally interested by 20 posts (10% of total), which by gender broke down into 7 male posts (6% all male posts), 13 female posts (18% of all female posts) and no posts by couples. This is likely to be biased, but I thought you might be interested.
Although I looked at 200 posts the sample is actually quite small. Simply to get a reliable sub-sample size for couples’ blogs I would have had to have looked at about 2000 posts overall, so the data is indicative rather than conclusive, but hey, this is Affairlook, not a PhD thesis! I’ve also rounded up decimals.
Both the categories and my comments are personal and you may either agree or disagree, but I did find the exercise gave me food for thought and a real insight into blogland as it really is. Some of the categories are likely to vary in size, e.g. there are going to be more greetings at Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter, for example, than at other times. I collected this sample just before Easter.
Introductions
Overall: 5 (3% of all posts)
Males: 3 (3% of all male posts)
Females: 2 (3% of all female posts)
Couples: 0
Introductions were seen as being first posts, saying things like, “Hi. I’m new to blogging.” They were neutral, in the sense that they were not stating that they were looking for other Affairlook members.
Come-Ons
Overall: 5 (8% of all posts)
Males: 11 (9% of all male posts)
Females: 2 (3% of all female posts)
Couples: 3 (27% of all couple posts)
These make me smile. They are usually the very first post, gush with enthusiasm and hope for the best. “Hi there! I’m the best hung guy in Delaware and you babes just don’t know what you’re missing! SO CHECK ME OUT BABY!!!!!” sort of stuff. I’d be interested to know if they have any success rate at all. Anyone got a story to tell? C’mon, you weren’t shy when you posted…..
Diaries
Overall: 42 (21% of all posts)
Males: 25 (21% of all male posts)
Females: 16 (22% of all female posts)
Couples: 1 (9% of all couple posts)
Diaries are the commonest of all posts. They vary from being lengthy accounts of a usually current episode in a blogger’s life to being short statements about the here and now. They also vary enormously in quality, from being deeply moving, to not catching my interest at all, but then I am not necessarily the target audience.
Sexploits
Overall: 10 (5% of all posts)
Males: 7 (6% of all male posts)
Females: 3 (4% of all female posts)
Couples: 0
Sexploits are a particular form of diary post where the blogger’s sexual activities are at the core of the post. To be a sexploit a diary post has to have an exhibitionist quality. Sexploits vary from eliciting a “so what?” response from me, to being outstanding posts. Simply cataloguing what you did last night in a pretty impersonal way just doesn’t float my boat. “Look at me!” in a tacky kiss and tell way doesn’t catch my attention much either. A good sexploit post has got to be well-written, with qualities such as detail, humour, and emotional landscape.
Greetings
Overall: 8 (4% of all posts)
Males: 4 (3% of all male posts)
Females: 2 (3% of all female posts)
Couples: 2 (18% of all couple posts)
Usually short and sweet. Generally bring a smile and get lots of comments quickly. Awwwwwww! Nice!
Jokes
Overall: 6 (3% of all posts)
Males: 1 (1% of all male posts)
Females: 5 (7% of all female posts)
Couples: 0
This was a real revelation! The first was that I expected there to be more joke-based posts. The second was that women posted jokes much more than men. This could mean all sorts of things:
Are women funnier than men?
Are women better at cutting and pasting jokes from elsewhere than men?
Are women more resourceful than men, and when they run out of blogging material just sling a joke in?
Hmmmmmm!
Still, gotta laugh! 
Polls
Overall: 10 (5% of all posts)
Males: 6 (5% of all male posts)
Females: 2 (3% of all female posts)
Couples: 2 (18% of all couple posts)
Another revelation! After all the song and dance about polls (that I kinda joined in as well, ahem!) polls actually constitute a minor proportion of posts. If you consider the whole of the blogs section on Affairlook as being a kind of magazine then the polls certainly don’t dominate the content, and with this kind of profile are probably best left in with the rest of the posts. Things have settled into a kind of equilibrium.
Original Poetry
Overall: 12 (6% of all posts)
Males: 4 (3% of all male posts)
Females: 8 (11% of all female posts)
Couples: 0
You’ll be pleased to know I didn’t massage the figures and write my own! There are some excellent poets in blogland. Proportionately many more women write poems than men. Is it a right hand side of the brain thing? I’d be interested in a male response for why poetry is not for them. Or is it, and guys simply prefer not to write poetry? Personally I prefer to express my sensual, erotic, personal and emotional landscape through poems than through prose, but why this is not common currency for men never ceases to interest me.
Quoted Poems and Lyrics
Overall: 3 (2% of all posts)
Males: 0
Females: 3 (4% of all female posts)
Couples: 0
There were so few responses overall that it is hard to come to a definitive conclusion. But I’m interested in why no males created a post of this type.
Rants and Whinges
Overall: 19 (10% of all posts)
Males: 15 (13% of all male posts)
Females: 4 (6% of all female posts)
Couples: 0
Men are proportionately twice as likely to complain about their lot on this friendly site than women. The usual complaint is, “Everyone on this site is a fake.” Okay, if you want it that way I’m PVC, inflatable and I’ve got a rabbit for a dick ….. and I don’t mean the Easter Bunny …….
Generally these are first posts and either the person doesn’t carry on blogging, because they get no responses to whingeing, or they quietly learn the ropes, delete an embarrassing first post and soldier on. Is it a male thing to rant and whinge, or is it a product of the large m/f ratio on the site as a whole? It’s certainly not an attractive thing to do.
Reflections, Thoughts and Philosophy
Overall: 20 (10% of all posts)
Males: 15 (13% of all male posts)
Females: 5 (7% of all female posts)
Couples: 0
The boys are twice as likely as the girls to write about their thoughts and ideas about life, love and the origins of the universe. These are posts that are insightful, sometimes even theoretical but a number of them make interesting reading. The content range varies enormously and I haven’t further examined about what we’re all philosophising about and whether there are distinct gender differences.
Confessions and Revelations
Overall: 14 (7% of all posts)
Males: 6 (5% of all male posts)
Females: 8 (11% of all female posts)
Couples: 0
Ah, it’s the girls’ time to be twice as likely to confess and tell their darkest sex secrets. You know, stuff like, “I have this kinky fetish of having a large European sausage in my vagina while I buzz my clit with a mini vibrator…..”
NO LADY, NOT THE EXTRA HOT CHORIZO!!!!!
Damn! Too late! Someone’s going to have a tingly sensation for the rest of the week!
So if it is a predominantly girly thing to tell us all these deliciously naughty home truths, why the need to do it? And why no confessions from couples? I’m not going with the small sample statistics alibi …… there’s a Swinger’s Code ….. there’s got to be!!!!
Factual and Informative
Overall: 7 (4% of all posts)
Males: 4 (3% of all male posts)
Females:3 (4% of all female posts)
Couples: 0
Something to do with what’s in the news and we’re feeling strongly about. The war in Iraq, price of petrol (that’s gasoline in England ….. petrol costs three times as much as gasoline ….. ), stupid laws about sexual behaviour etc. I guess some of us are just fantasy CNN reporters huh? Hmmmmm! I want the holiday spots!
Fount of All Knowledge
Overall: 4 (2% of all posts)
Males: 4 (3% of all male posts)
Females: 0
Couples: 0
I call these posts “Fount of All Knowledge” because they claim to make out they know everything about how to be great lovers, telling the rest of us mere mortals with second-rate sex lives how to do this and how to that. All male, I’m sad to say. Things that pass for arrogance don’t do much for me. Sorry if you are the world’s greatest lover, but keep it a surprise for the ladies, huh?
Postscript 21st April 2006: I have since found an exception to this comment and would like to endorse [post 138711] by goodatgspots, which is truly worth a read, comments included. It was, however, not part of the original sample.
Non-erotic Stories
Overall: 6 (4% of all posts)
Males: 3(3% of all male posts)
Females: 2(4% of all female posts)
Couples: 1 (9% of all couple posts)
A small proportion of posts, but usually worth the read. There are bloggers who simply like the relative sexual freedom of writing on this friendly site, even if they are not writing explicit material.
Erotic Prose and Stories
Overall: 8 (4% of all posts)
Males: 5 (4% of all male posts)
Females:3 (4% of all female posts)
Couples: 0
Proportionately the same for both sexes. I guess a lot of bloggers are capable of writing erotic prose, but I’ve found very few who do it well. It’s not simply an issue of how uninhibited you are in writing, but the quality of writing itself. The turn-on is in the build-up, the quality of description, the luring into the situation …… not too fast, but not so slow. Women writers in my view write erotica better than men.
About Affairlook
Overall: 4 (2% of all posts)
Males: 3 (3% of all male posts)
Females:1 (1% of all female posts)
Couples: 0
Issues, technical frustrations, pointers. That kind of stuff. Interesting to keep an eye on.
Games
Overall: 1 (1% of all posts)
Males: 1 (1% of all male posts)
Females: 0
Couples: 0
This particular game was getting Purry naked. If I had done this survey in the midst of Trav’s tagging epidemic things would have looked very different. Games, competitions, Blogmies etc seem to come and go in fits and starts. Some bloggers get themselves well involved. Others give them a total miss. Very much a matter of choice.
Blog Banter and Gossip
Overall: 5 (3% of all posts)
Males: 0
Females: 3 (4% of all female posts)
Couples: 2 (18% of all couple posts)
This was much lower than expected, but maybe that’s because I was looking at all posts and not just the posts of those regular bloggers that tend to aggregate and comment. It looks as though the ladies are gossiping (as if they would, lol), particularly since it seems that the female partner in a couple tends to post more than her man, but in truth I think I saw such a low number that it’s hard to say. What I missed altogether were horny fantasies revolving around named bloggers, which do appear, but were missed altogether by this sample.
And in Conclusion…..
Well there you have it my bloggy friends. That’s one blogger’s view of 200 posts. By no means exhaustive, and it’s raised as many questions as it has cast light. But I feel a little more “in the know” about my blogville neighbourhood and I really did want to share it with the rest of you.
So blog on my friends…
And may the Blogmuse be with you all.
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