Well perhaps it doesn't happen to you so you've never had to. Perhaps you are not a curious person.
When I opened my dashboard one morning last week I noticed that instead of 129 followers I only had 128.
Perhaps it was because he or she took umbridge at a perceived criticism of a couple of Royals. Perhaps it was because the person was fed up of my blog. Perhaps he or she is like many, perhaps even the majority, of my 'followers' who don't actually follow at all any more but did at some time. Perhaps the person was one of those who followed me in the hope that I'd then follow their blog and perhaps I didn't. Perhaps the person has gone to Google+ or is a Facebook Follower.
Life's full of perhapses.
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I have asked the same questions. One would wonder why a follower would leave and then be able to improve the blog.
ReplyDeleteThat's a thought Red.
DeleteIt's not that long ago that I asked myself exactly the same questions. I know that many of my 105 followers do not really regularly read my blog; maybe they do not go to blogger at all anymore. But I also know that I have regular readers who never comment. One of those 105 is me - I still think it should not be technically possible to become one's own follower.
ReplyDeleteSo, yes, I do wonder, but doubt I will ever find out. Life is not only full of perhapses, but also full of questions that will never be answered. Maybe that is one of its charms.
Meike I'd not thought of life's questions being one of its charms but I shall try and look at it that way in the future.
DeleteI noticed the same thing the other day - the loss of the folower. I wonder if it was the same one. Perhaps taken umbrage at the world in general and bloggers in particular? Or just someone who has taken themselves and their blog offline for a while, perhaps....Yes, I think that is more likely.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad, Jenny, we are not alone in our wonderings.
DeleteIt could just be blogger playing up. It isn't the first time that follower numbers have fluctuated randomly; sometimes just refreshing the page changes the number.
ReplyDeleteEver the technical person Mark.
DeleteI have a clean up now and again. I've not deleted you though.
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of you Adrian. Life without you would be so much less rich and more dull.
DeleteI'm still 'ere!
ReplyDeleteI have for years had a mystery follower who has a business address when you click on him. I think there are a few like that. Perhaps their businesses periodically go bottom up.
I hadn't noticed that Katherine. Certainly some of my followers are long gone and some followed simply after leaving one or two comments which were obviously meant to lead me back to their blog (sometimes one with 5 or 600 followers) to make up more numbers. That's presumably something people do if they have advertising on their site. It's not why I blog and I certainly don't want to have to read any more blogs than I follow already.
DeleteI invariably think it's something I did or said, but the counsellor in me (and since I am one, I ought to listen to her) says if someone doesn't want to read my blog, that's fine. If there's a problem, it's not mine.
ReplyDeleteBut I still wonder. And I would never leave someone else's blog unless they wrote something offensive. Just in case they, too, fail to heed their inner counsellor...
It could be something one does or says Frances but I think people leave for a huge number of reasons. If someone doesn't like my blog or doesn't like the occasional post (on Facebook I got a really stiff rebuke from a Royalist over my innocuous post about her neighbours those two likeable lads who live near her in Windsor - Princes William and Harry).
DeleteAs you say, life is full of perhapses :) I've given up wondering much about it, unless I notice it is someone I actually "know" who seems to have gone missing! I sometimes (like Adrian) clean up my own list and "unfollow" some blogs - like when the title in the list makes me wonder "who on earth is that?" (which usually means neither of us has been a very active follower of the other lately...). On the other hand, I also follow some blogs twice (or even thrice) as I have three different Blogger accounts!
ReplyDeleteMonica there are lots of non-followers on my list - most of us have but it doesn't stop me wondering (momentarily it has to be said) who and why.
DeleteBlogging is not a commitment for life. Nor is reading someone's blog. Perhaps people just have other things to do with their time. I know I have stopped reading some blogs for a number of reasons. I have 4 followers, but know more than 4 people read my blogs. They are just numbers GB ~ and there are so many reasons you could have lost ONE follower ~ death, account deleted, technology being unreliable. My advice ~ find something else to wonder about.
ReplyDeleteCarol. I both agree and disagree fundamentally with you on this one. Blogging is to a person what blogging is to that person and people have blogs for different reasons: you blog both for a completely different reason and in a completely different style to mine or to, eg, Adrian's. That's what makes blogs interesting. I agree with you that the number is just a number. Where I fundamentally disagree is that the people who make up that number are 'just' people making up a number. The most important think in life to me is people. If I lose a follower it is not because I have lost a number it is because I have lost a person. I want to know who and why because that person may be someone who matters to me (and of course some of my 'followers' do not). I do not keep a list of my followers nor do I go through the followers gadget every time I lose one. But I wonder. Not for long, perhaps, but long enough and if it had been death or account deleted I would consider those important.
DeleteOh well, Carol, at least I know who the last follower I lost was!
DeleteI still read!!!!! Quietly :-)
ReplyDeleteps I consider you a very important and special part of my journey to good health. Thanks GB
DeleteThank you so very much Jaz that's a lovely to say and to be told. But it is you, Jaz, who have been such a positive role model that you have inspired me to be so much more aware of being thankful for things in life.
DeleteLike Jaz, I still read and enjoy your blogs, GB. I don't think it's anything you said or did, I think it's just the vagaries of the net. Weird stuff happens to me all the time. Today I couldn't print a photo. I could see it right there in front of me on the screen, but for some reason, the ol' computer just balked. Mind you, I haven't printed out a photo for a couple of weeks, so maybe its nose is out of joint because I haven't used it, but the fact remains -- I couldn't print the photo. I will have to try again tomorrow. Maybe it will have recovered its usual good temper by then.
ReplyDeleteCanadian Carol I'm sorry I missed your comment (although I'd read it in my emails) printers seem to have a mind of their own sometimes and it's very easy to upset them: especially wireless ones I've discovered.
DeleteI don't follow any blogs....but that doesn't mean I don't like them.
ReplyDeleteI read the blogs that I like....plain and simple. I read and enjoy blogs of all descriptions and I make lots of comments too, but I am not a follower of any. Somehow becoming a follower reminds me of being a "Friend" on Facebook.
Having said all of that, I still understand why you would wonder why one of your followers has disappeared.
Happy Sleuthing....let us know what you find out.
It had never occurred to me Virginia that you might not be a follower. I follow blogs simply because that is the only way they will show up on the reading list on my dashboard.
DeleteYes, life is full of perhapses. As to blog followers, who knows? I lose one or two and gain two or three, so the trend is upward. We can have fun on our blogs and say what we want, and I enjoy yours.
ReplyDeleteTerra I've never kept a list or even really noticed much about the numbers of followers as such. The number is in an unmissable place on my dashboard though. When the number goes up I have a look to see who the new person is. If it drops I get curious but I'm hhighly unlikely ever to know whom it was that dropped off the map so to speak.
DeleteThe number of followers on my blog seems to go up and then down again quite often. I'm not sure if that's because people are deliberately unfollowing me or because of some electronic weirdness.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure either Patsy and I've now got an extra follower I can't identify too.
Delete