Blog Psychology (updated)

After nearly three years of blogging, I offer an idiosyncratic, unscientific, but possibly realistic account of the different types of personalities engaged in posting on the blogsophere. People may fit more than one category or move back and forth between them. I name no names.

1. Emotivists: Those who cheer or jeer or thank you, but do little else.

2. One trick ponies: Those who post the same chops repeatedly, hoping that repetition makes for argument (or something).

3. Thinkers: Those who engage posts thoughtfully with a desire for knowledge.

4. Stinkers: Those who take on false names, offer gratuitous insults--my favorite, "You have a mail order degree"--and, when banned, do the same thing on another blog that I like.

5. Butterflies: Those who flit about, landing briefly, writing little beyond impressions.

6. Diverters: "those who intentionally steer the blog postings into areas never intended by the original blogpost." (Thanks to Doug White, who warn me to got be diverted by such.)

7. Lurkers: Those who read, but do not post. They sometimes email me instead.