Aug 20 2007
A New Meme is a NO Meme
Round of applause to Des Walsh on his official retirement from the Tagging Meme game.
Tagging is a way of linking out to fellow bloggers and loyal readers, but there are other ways to do this.
What I don’t like about tagging memes are the following;
- Feeling obliged to participate
- Feeling obligated to disclose personal facts, that I might not otherwise be inclined to do
- Feeling panicky if I don’t play
- Choosing who to tag (and determining if they’ve already been tagged)
- Passing on the feeling of obligation
While I appreciate the thoughts and sentiments behind the tags, in the back of my mind I can’t help but think it’s the blogging equivalent of a “chain letter“. You know? Forward this to 5 (or 8 ) of your friends within 5 days or you’ll have bad blogging karma forever.
So with all due respect, and thanks to everybody who has thought kindly enough of me to tag me in the past, I hereby join Des in announcing my retirement from tagging memes, link trains and carousels.
Now I’m going to tag the following to join in this meme….
😉
16 Responses to “A New Meme is a NO Meme”
I share your reasons, and now smack myself in the head for not lauching my evil plan when I thought of it – my evil plan was to start a new meme – “The Do Your Own Thing Meme”, which is pretty self explanatory – I hope! LOL
Good onya Meg!
I dont mind doing the odd meme and I dont feel bad if I dont take part. When I do, I tag friends who I know have done one in the past and enjoy them. I agree that some are a bit personal. Its entirely up to the blogger – there is no pressure to take part. But its good that you officially state your opinion on memes because now hopefully you wont be put in the difficult position of being tagged against your will! 😉
Sorry about the lack of apostrophes in this comment – its broken. Its not just bad grammar, I promise!
Katie
Hi Lavender
Glad it’s not just me! I’ve wanted to do this post for a while – Des provided the impetus
Hi Katie
It’s good that you don’t expect your “tagees” to take part. You just never know, and I’d hate to offend anyone.
Do you mean your apostrophe key is broken, or putting commas in comments here is broken?!
You could have tagged me 😛
I love this. I have never really felt comfortable doing them and the awards, but did them because I felt obligated and guilty. I usually just took the easy way out and tagged anyone who hadn’t been tagged LOL. I have just been ignoring them of late, I feel really guilty about it for a few days and then my terrible memory takes care of it for me.
I blame you, you were the first to tag and started the flood 😛
Glad to have been a Monday impetus provider, Meg.
@ Leigh, humblest apologies
I didn’t so much start it, just passed it forward.
“I feel really guilty about it for a few days and then my terrible memory takes care of it for me.”
LOL 😀 Until the next time, and then you get fresh pangs of guilt. Last time it took four tags before I finally succumbed.
@ Des – that you were. What a relief, thanks
Nicely said.
Thanks Ed
Meg – Oh I didn’t word that right! It’s not your site – sometimes my apostrophe key turns into a short link or something. See – it’s working now. Weird! I’m sure there’s some normal explanation as to why it happens…
@ Katie – oh good – glad it’s fixed, I just don’t like to hear the word “broken”
I actually like memes, I think they’re a fun part of blogging. But like everything in life we all have different ideas of what’s fun. I never expect anyone I tag to have to participate, I look at it more like link love than an actual expectation, no one should have to feel pressured to do anything out here in the blogoshpere, especially since our blogs are such a personal thing.
I’m with you on this one Meg. In some ways it is really nice to be tagged, but it can also get out of control sometimes.
Sorry I haven’t been commenting for a bit, it’s been crazy time here. Big news tomorrow, keep an eye on the blog. 😉
Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/
I totally understand how it feels because the first time I was tagged it was at a really bad time but since I was new to blogging I didn’t dare just come out and say it… I guess my response was so bad I never got tagged again! Now I’ve gotten into memes and would love to be tagged! I’m glad I saw your post which reminds me not to tag others unless I’m sure they want to do it.
Hi Delphine
It’s funny how we all view these things differently. Thanks for stopping by with your views
[…] you go throwing my own blog back in my face – yes I did publicly opt out of memes, and yes this is a meme. But I’m going to play […]