FREN

Garoo


23 jan. 2005

My blog isn’t less interesting in English. It isn’t even much less well written, if I do say so myself. I posted a few comments on foreign blogs to advertise a bit.

So why do I have readers for the French version, and almost none on the English side? Why am I only linked by French-language blogs?

Corollary: are the French reading, or linking, this blog because they find it interesting, or just because it used to be interesting and you never know if it might happen again, or just because others do, and I’m vaguely considered a (has-been) “star” of the French blogosphere without anyone really remembering why?

Am I gonna have to enlist on I’m a blogger, get me out of here?

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Yokka Chyld, 7 years ago:

Je n'ai rien à faire de la blogosphère, même si apparemment elle existe...Je lis ce blog en français et parfois en anglais, par curiosité. Je l'ai découvert récemment et le suis régulièrement parce qu'il m'intéresse beaucoup, son auteur m'intrigue et m'apprend des tas de choses.
Quant à La ferme des Blogueurs, je suis pour parce que j'aime tout concept ringard et surréaliste basé sur la fréquentation d'animaux en milieu naturel.
Bien à vous.

Yokka Chyld, 7 years ago:

I know nothing about the 'blogosphere' although it seems to actually exists, honestly i couldn't care less and really think you should be glad being considered a has-been in any kind of community, people change and grow, they go elsewhere, they come back...I know the feeling of losing some kind of audience and wondering how to renew it, but i try to concentrate on what i have to say...and the people that keep reading me no matter which direction my writing seems to take are the people that interest me, and eventually the reason why i do write anything online at all, apart from the fact that it's fun and happily brain-consuming.
You're doing such a great job, don't worry!
Just post a gory porn pic now and then, that should make the trick.
Believe me, testé and approuvé.
Yours, sincerely.

garoo, 7 years ago:

I didn't lose much of my audience (except when I stopped blogging, last spring), I just wonder why the English version never did quite get one. Don't worry, I'm way past reshaping my blog in order to attract new readers. I just wonder, is all.

Daria, 7 years ago:

A mon avis, c'est surtout que la blogosphere anglophone est largement plus vaste et plus avancée que la francophone. C'était plus facile de se faire repérer dans le milieu plus réduit de bulle émergente des blogs francophones que de signaler son existence dans le vaste merd... fouillis des dizaines de millions de blogs anglophones.

Et aussi, faut faire ta pub :)

Katioucha, 7 years ago:

Parce qu’il a été intéressant à une époque et on ne sait jamais ça pourrait revenir.

C'est marrant je dis ça dans mon post du 23 janvier (qui sera en ligne dès que le FTP wanadoo reviens d'ailleurs)... Tu es télépathe à tes heures perdues ? ;)

Paul P., 7 years ago:

Moi aussi, Parce qu’il a été intéressant à une époque et on ne sait jamais ça pourrait revenir. On sait jamais...

Tristan in Calif, 7 years ago:

not sure -- but your "switch to english" is not very eye-catching - maybe you would consider isolating it on the left or in a different color?

Another possibility: your blog has changed a lot in tone over time (particularly so since last spring) - compared to most English language blogs it's a bit --- how to say this nicely -- impersonal?

At any rate, you are right - it is equally well written in either language.

garoo, 7 years ago:

Thanks :)

I have occasionally considered making the "switch to english" more prominent, and in some versions of the layout it was (which didn't change a thing). But I don't like the idea of putting too much emphasis on a link that nobody will click more than once; and anyway English-speaking visitors are likely to arrive directly to the English version (either from a Google search with English terms, or from a comment I posted with the English URL).

As for being impersonal, yes, I know that's also the reason why I've lost a lot of weight even in the French blogosphere, but I don't see that changing anytime soon. (And even if I wanted to write about personal stuff, which I don't really, I wouldn't have anything to write about these days. So...)

Jason Stone, 7 years ago:

I have to admit that I linked to your French version, but I always end up "switching to english" because my French sucks and your English is close to perfect.

Start posting comments on some English sites and I am sure your english version will get more traffic.

If you want to be a real whore for traffic, try out Blogexplosion. But be warned that it will suck up huge amounts of your time.

Alice, 7 years ago:

Question qui n'a rien n'à voir, mais peut-être (pour moi): es-tu un Next man? (cet openstep.se/jobs m'intrigue. Les Next men en France ne sont pas si nombreux...)

garoo, 7 years ago:

Non, mais j'aurais bien aimé :)

A une époque j'ai emprunté un manuel d'interface guidelines pour développeur NeXT, dont je dois encore avoir les photocopies qui traînent quelque part dans un carton (mais peut-être pas, j'ai jeté beaucoup de choses pour le déménagement). Et, à la même époque, j'ai fait un programme Windows qui émulait sommairement l'interface NeXTstep (le dock et le menu). C'était sous Windows 3.0, pour dire que c'est pas tout jeune -- et qu'en ce temps-là c'était pas si banal, les programmes faisant ressembler Windows à un autre OS :))

Mais ce qui est intéressant dans la vidéo que j'ai linkée (outre le fait que ce soit un keynote de Steve Jobs d'avant son retour triomphal chez Apple), c'est surtout de voir à quel point OS X y ressemble fondamentalement. Dix ans plus tard, les principales différences sont juste cosmétiques :)

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