Erna, however, makes a great point in that this study didn’t really study bloggers but rather social network users that use their profiles to “blog” — or rant, complain, rave, whatever.

Also, the atmospheres of a social-network “blog” and a “real” blog are entirely different. Social networks automatically connect you with friends etc. so you automatically know your likely readers. A “real” blog doesn’t connect you with anyone automatically, and your friends are less likely to visit unless they’re into “real” blogging too — in which case the whole concept of the blogosphere comes into play, achieving a very similar result to a social network.

I started a web service where you can pay people .25 cents each to read your venting and then write something back to comfort you.

I got the site up and running and everything was fine until it became apparent that all the people leaving “comfort” messages back to the venter’s were just insulting them. Here is an example

Mary Stenson writes:
I am having so much stress at work, everyone I work with are all jerks and when I got home today my dog was dead.

Al Norton replies:
Your a faggot!

Steve Gerald replies:
I’m glad your dog is dead

Bill Kemar replies:
hahaha your life sucks you should probably kill yourself now

As you can see although a great idea for a service it didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped. So now I’m working on a site for people who want to be insulted… hopefully people won’t leave them positive comments this time around.