Help

I was contacted by British blogger Ian Swinton yesterday. You may recall that I featured a guest post from him a while back.

Guest Post: Ian Swinton

This is what he had to say.

My ideal scenario is to be part of the wider blogging community. To read your posts, to share our work and generally help each other out. Whether that be in WordPress or on social media.

I am asking for help in joining the blogging community in a number of ways. Firstly, I would like to know of any tips on Twitter. Any accounts that you would recommend to follow and why? Are there any twitter chats worth joining in with? Any other tips for twitter that you would love to share?

I am keen to join the blogging community on Facebook. Can you recommend any Facebook communities, groups or pages that would be worthwhile in joining? I am specifically looking for areas to share my work, read others blog posts and be able to join in with commenting and sharing.

The internet can be a lonely place for a blogger when trying to reach out. A lack of views, comments or general interest in what you have spent time producing can lead to logging out and never returning which would be a shame, don’t you think?

We all start out at the beginning but some grow and some fall away, hopefully with all your help, I can grow and be part of a great community.

Ian’

As you can see, he is asking for advice and tips about expanding his contact with our blogging community.
I am not on Facebook, but I know many of you are. Although I do use Twitter, I only promote my posts on it as a rule, and do not engage that much with tweets.

So, please rally round, and let Ian know your thoughts, ideas, or suggestions.
I am sure I can count on some of the members of our great blogging circle to help him out.

Thanks in advance, Pete.

In quite a long life so far, I have met many nice people.
I have also met just as many who were not at all nice.

Outside of my close circle of good friends, it has become harder to meet people now I am retired. I do encounter other dog walkers of course, as well as some people my wife meets through work. Mostly, they are very nice, though some locals around the Beetley area can be a little stand-offish. And being my age doesn’t help, when many of the local residents are significantly younger, or much older.

But I do know a great number of very nice people. More than a hundred of them in fact, from countries all over the world. In many cases, they are counted among the nicest people I know, and treasured as friends.

But I have never met any of them.

That is because they are my blogging friends. Some who have been with me since 2012 when I started blogging, and others who came along more recently. The people who inhabit our WordPress world, and regularly feature in the community we share, are all genuine and lovely people. They are kind, considerate, thoughtful, and caring too. They help other bloggers, worry if you are not around, and rush to offer advice, suggestions, and encouragement. They support you when you are unwell, or feeling down, and it is my experience that nothing is too much trouble for them.

They are helpful when you are stuck on something, and display a loyalty that is hard to find outside of our electronic acquaintance.

They are the nicest people I have never met.