<div style="text-align: center;">V | INTERLUDE | V</div>
-You’ve Got Mail-
A month ago I attended a Birthday BBQ. It was a lot of fun, but one of the best moments of the night (for me) was when some of the guests found out who I was.
“You’re Jak?!”
When someone exclaims that I’m torn on how to answer, because the reasoning behind it could be negative just as much as it could be positive. I’d only met some of them one other time roughly a year ago during holiday events. Did I offend someone? I swear a lot and speak “off the cuff”... occasionally. Were these people “Friends” or “Foes”? It’s important to know these things.
Turns out they’ve been receiving notifications (via Gmail) when I make a post on my blog. I found that odd, considering I never had them added to my social networks like Facebook — let alone Google+. So my settings have been sending out emails to people outside mutual circles. The cool thing? They didn’t really care, they just never knew who the hell I was.
So I joked about being the most famous person they’ll never know, made some new friends, and experimented. Finishing up a blog post while at said BBQ, I posted and waited. Moments later I heard chimes on multiple cell phones of friends and guests at the party. I laughed maniacally; mission accomplished. I’m easily amused.
Skip ahead to another party amongst a different group of friends, though, and I was met with a different tone. I received my first — officially voiced anyhow— complaint. I was asked if I could change that setting; turn it off. I felt bad, but after contemplation I figured there were ways to stop receiving said notifications... I’d seen the option myself when receiving notifications from fellow bloggers. So I explained this, but for a few weeks have been contemplating changing those settings.
I understand how it could be incredibly annoying during daily blog hop/challenges. Now with those ending, and my posting being a lot more infrequent, I haven’t worried too much about it. IF, however, it really pisses off the majority of my readers... then that’s a different story. I can just take a tally and make a personal “circle” for people specifically not interested in receiving email notifications when I make a post. The goal isn’t about irritating people, that’s for sure, but a lot of times — with following so many blogs — I wish more I followed used the email notifications. It would help me keep track of where I’m at and who I have yet to catch up with in terms of visiting.
Many posts are lost in my “feed” now.
Regardless of what is decided, I will always send out a notification for my fiction blog. The time lapse between entries there is usually weeks, if not months. So that one people will just have to suck up and endure!
Basically, I’m leaving it up to individuals to let me know if they want to be removed from circles I send notifications to, and believing in their ability to stop the notifications on their end (which I’d imagine most have done already).
INCOMING!
If you haven’t already stopped notifications and would like me to shift you to a non-notified Google+ Circle let me know. If needing help figuring out how to regulate the notifications from your end, I’m sure with our powers combined we can come up with a solution.