MADE SOME TINY PIXEL BEARS FOR MY PALS!
From Sylvia's tiny pixel bear submission for the Bear Blog Creation Festival.
⇣ Just take me to the pixel bears
But first, some serious thoughts...
I've been thinking a lot about my blogroll these days. Thanks to Bear's "Random" feature, I was able to read this post from Steve back in 2024: Re: To Blogroll, or to not?
His post was a response, and this quote from the original blogger stood out (the whole post is worth the read):
I grew up in the days of MySpace, and this irrational want to be included in everyone’s Top 8. Then when you’re in their Top 8, you watch that list like a hawk in case you drop from Top 2 to Top 5, or even worse, drop off altogether. Granted, blogrolls are a bit different since there’s no hard limit on how many can be included (or specified order), but the idea is similar. — JCProbably
A friend of mine had also made this association, back when I confided in him about my trending fiasco over a month ago, which was the reason I removed upvotes from my blog.
I check my Analytics page often because I find it useful to discover blogs that have linked back to mine. Most of the time, it's because they've added me to their blogroll. That sometimes leads me to feel like I owe the other person something, and this type of social currency is why I wanted to escape social media in the first place.*
*The opposite has also occurred, where I felt butthurt for being removed from someone else's blogroll and ended up creating a whole story in my head against someone I didn't even know. Um, yeah that's bad.
I think the original intent of a blogroll, and even a "bearroll," (i.e., a blogroll consisting of Bear bloggers), is a sweet idea as a way to foster community. It was all fine and dandy until I realized that my list was getting really long and I wanted to maintain it. That's when the anxiety hit.
My golden rule for any hobby is that it MUST BE FUN.
Once it's no longer fun, why do it? I'm having loads of fun right now, but the social media-like aspects of blogging are bringing me down.
As I write this, it cements the fact that perhaps having a bearroll may do me more harm than good. I can't handle it and it makes me feel badly about myself. One thing I'm learning these days is, if it's too overwhelming and doesn't even serve you, then don't do it.†
† I learned this when I was practicing for my speaking exam with N. I was stumbling over a word, and she said, "Why make your life more difficult? Just use a word you can say! If you can't say the word, choose an easier one."
The great thing about Bear Blog is that you can simply delete all of the things that don't work you.
RIP my bearroll
After I typed out that header, I deleted the bearroll. Bye bye. Adios. To all the people who were on my bearroll (assuming you knew you were on there), I still read your blog via RSS and/or it's bookmarked. And to the people who've added me to their blogrolls, thank you. I see you. You're on my radar now. ʕ⊙ᴥ⊙ʔ
Now onto the fun stuff: Tiny pixel bears! Yay!
One thing I have wanted to do before I even learned of the concept of a blogroll, was to link to people I knew in real life. Right now, I know two people personally who have Bear Blogs, so I wanted to be able to share how I met them and link to their blog. And eventually, if more of my friends start blogging (doesn't even have to be on Bear), I would grow that list and make tiny pixel bears of them too!
The idea is that they're like little tamagotchis, haha! They now live in my INTERNET CORNERS page.
I'm so obsessed. I've been toying with the idea of making a "Characters" page for all the recurring people in my life that I mention in my posts.‡ I was going to make little drawings of them, but now I just want to turn EVERYONE into tiny pixel bears.
‡ Criteria: They must have an official nickname (not a singular letter), because that means they've consented to being mentioned in my blog. Anyone with "letter names" (e.g., N) aren't close enough to me to know that I even blog, which is why I am keeping their names anonymous. So they don't get a pixel bear, unfortunately. ʕ ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥`ʔ
The great, wide indie web
Because I made such a huge statement, I fear that people will take it as a sign to swiftly delete me from their blogrolls, which would decrease my discoverability¶. But isn't this what the indie web is supposed to be about? Intentional and slow discovery, like archaeologists patiently brushing away dirt to uncover a long-forgotten fossil?
¶ It's ironic that I worry about this, because I also make sure that like, 90% of the things I post are hidden from Bear's discovery page.
I still think that sharing blogs is a great way to increase discoverability for those hidden gems, which is why I'm sharing a list of blogs hosted elsewhere, and that list is currently very short, because:
I'm only realizing now, that the indie web is far greater and older than Bear Blog.
In fact, these topics I'm fretting over now were discussed 2 years ago, and who knows how many topics make their cyclical return, as new bloggers stumble upon the same concerns as the bloggers before us?
Anyway, I check Sylvia's tiny pixel bears page ever so often, just to see if new bears were added (I love seeing everyone's interpretations too. That Jake one by Daymien is SICK AF).
I feel like we're all recovering from the effects of social media poisoning, so imma do me, you do you, and let's all just be kind to each other and all of that good stuff. AND MAKE MORE (BAD) ART.
Signed,