Schmoozer?

Jazz has once again hit me with a meme, this time a meme award:

Wanting to know more about this award, I tracked it back to its source to see what it's all about.

Here's what's there:

Schmoozing as defined by Dictionary.com is the ability "to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection." When it comes to blogging, schmoozing is your ticket to making new friends, getting yourself noticed and building a reputation. Some bloggers are gifted with the ability to effectively schmooze and others not so much. My new friend Danielle and I would like to recognize those bloggers who exhibit strong schmoozing skills. In order to do so we've created the new Power of Schmooze award! Each of us are rewarding five bloggers to kick things off. Here are my five. These folks are not only wonderful friends but also masters of the schmooze.

That doesn't sound like me, in real life or in the blogoverse. And I have proof:

Click the picture to see if you're an A-List Blogger.

That site describes my D-Listness as:

Your Results:

With 3 links in the last 180 days, Technorati places ticknart.blogspot.com in the low authority group.

That makes you a D-List Blogger!

The Low Authority Group [D-List Bloggers]
(3-9 blogs linking in the last 6 months)
The average blog age (the number of days that the blog has been in existence) is about 228 days, which shows a real commitment to blogging. However, bloggers of this type average only 12 posts per month, meaning that their posting habits are generally dedicated but infrequent.

Although my blog has been around for nearly four years now and I try to post about 20 times a month (at least one for each day I'm at work), the D-List seems about right.

Why?

I go out there and I lurk. I read a bunch of blogs, but I only post comments on a couple of them with any regularity. The topics of my blog are almost as erratic as the thoughts in my head. That is not the way to build up any sort of readership base.

For the most part, my blog is for me. And I'm not the sort of person who appeals to the mass audience. I also blog for people like me. People who just want a place to write stuff about stuff. People who are not quite right and are okay with it. People who will admit that the Dirk Gently books are better than the Hitchhiker's Guide books. People who don't really care if their blogs become popular.

Sure, I have those moments where I wish that Sitemeter was telling me I have 100+ visitors each day and long conversations/arguments were held in my comments section, but those are very few and very far between. I wouldn't be me if I were out there working at getting people to add my blog to their Blogroll. I want people to visit because they want to, because they're okay with me being who I am, not because some trendy link pimping site links here. (If it happens, great, there'll be a day or two surge in my numbers, but in a couple of days things'll be back to normal. It's not like I'm trying to make money off this thing.) Most people aren't like that, are they?

So, Jazz, while I appreciate the sentiment, I don't think that this award is for me. I've found one that works, though:

And I'd like to nominate anyone else out there who blogs erratic topic and who doesn't care about who out there will get it. I nominate the people who know the right people will get it. I nominate the people who keep their "friends list," on any site, under 100 people. I nominate the people who write for themselves. I nominate the people who actually take the time to think about if they really are a schmoozer and come to the conclusion they aren't.