Blog Reader and Writer Types

Posted on May 1, 2009 in Thoughts, User Experience by dee 0 Comments

I’ve been an avid user of the Internet for many years now and have noticed several types of behavior associated with browsing. Over time, I’ve even given some of these types of people names and descriptions that I’d like to share with you.

Disclaimer: this are my opinions and descriptions only. This isn’t industry standard or based on extensive study. Its merely my observations over the years. So take with a grain of salt :)

Author Types

Open Extrovert

There is the “Open Extrovert” – someone who writes about every facet of their lives and are not afraid to give their thoughts on everything.

These people usually have long and wordy blog posts and are conducive to open discussions. The posts that they make may be opinion based and will pose open questions to their users.

They generally have a wide range of followers and frequently these websites tend to build into a community. These people love social networking and frequently have an account in just about every social networking site in their age group.

SME (Subject Matter Expert)

The “SME” or “Subject Matter Expert” – someone who is technically adept at some particular product or service and will go to great lengths to describe in detail all aspects of that product/service.

These frequently have a blog or website where they can “share” their wisdom. Usually in the form of tutorials or how-tos.

Usually analytical in nature, the good SME will provide step by step instructions on how to get the best out of their products/services.

Collector

The “Collector” – also recently known as the “ReTweeter”, this person loves browsing and researching. He/she will go through all the news feeds and sites finding links for the subjects they are passionate about. They thrive on finding sites that may have nuggets of information that they believe is important enough to forward.

Then this person will collate these links and put them on their website or recently use Twitter to propagate the links. They usually don’t write their own posts, apart from “list posts” to tell everyone where to go.

These people perform one of the most important functions in terms of internet collaboration. These list posts along with search engines are usually the best way to find information.

Fake Extrovert

The “Fake Extrovert” – someone who creates a website with the intent of getting their thoughts and knowledge public, only to freak out when someone disagrees with them. This results in them being overly cautious when publishing any post or comments.

Frequently analytical in nature, the Fake Extrovert wants to show their emotions, but may find it difficult to do so when under pressure.

These people, when browsing, seem to think that everyone is an author/contributor (because they don’t see the lurkers) and wants to conform to what they believe is the normal standard.

So they start by making small remarks on forums and if their confidence increases, they may even create a blog or two.

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Reader Types

This is only a subset of the different types of readers out there. In particular, I wanted to write about people i describe as Lurkers, Fanbois and the Avid Commenter :)

Lurkers

The “Lurker” constitutes the majority of Internet users out there. These make up the biggest user base. They usually have a wide range of sites they go through every day but only for the sake of browsing. They can be looking for something in particular, or generally meandering.

1. The “Voyeur” – someone who gets pleasure from going to many different sites and reading what other people are thinking about. They get the most buzz from forum or news sites where the information is flowing through fast.

They normally don’t make any comments at all even if they feel strongly about a subject. Generally introverted in personality, these people don’t want to make themselves known.

They are usually afraid of even the possibility that someone will disagree with them in public.

2. The “Nonchalant” – someone who loves browsing and will spend time doing so, but hasn’t got the need to reply/contribute to the subject. They are more laid back and will reply if they want to. They are not fussed about what other people think and will take things with a grain of salt.

For them, browsing is an enjoyable activity and one associated with little to no stress. Generally non-competitive.

Fanbois

The “Fanboi” is someone who feels extremely strongly on a particular product or service and so strongly that they are unwilling to see any criticism placed on their product/service. Their belief is so strong that they are against seeing any alternative out there and will often see only the upside of their products and downsides of any competing products.

This is quite frequent on game sites where “fanbois” from competing games will often congregate on a forum and have pointless arguments about why their game is the best and how the others will never match its capabilities.  Eventually, these types of threads end up in the “Rants” section.

The Avid Commenter

There is the “Avid Commenter” – someone who likes to comment on anything and everything. These normally come in four varieties:

1. The “Naysayer” – someone who loves to rant and disagree. They thrive on attention but are unwilling to start any conversations. However, they are more than happy to disagree on every post and will often go around in circles around a every point to render the thread useless.

2. The “Troll” – this is a term popularly used to describe a person who starts arguments up for the sake of arguments. Again, this may be an attention seeker who may start a topic that they know is controversial in nature or intentionally tries to instigate argumentative discussions.

3. The “One Sentence Replier” – a person who replies to any and all posts that they see, usually with a single simple sentence that adds absolutely no value to the post. Something simple like “Thank You” or “Excellent post” or “Agreed!”.

There may be ulterior motives behind this behaviour.

Frequently, these people have a blog or website that they want links to, and by replying in this fashion, they normally associate their website URL to their login name. This results in link backs to their website.

4. The “Informer” – usually someone who has the inherent need to comment on all posts but because they have some research skills, they will usually put helpful links to related websites. They are generally helpful in giving some level of guidance to the other readers.

In Conclusion

No one fits into any one of the above boxes completely. I’ve written this intentionally in an open manner to solicit comments. There are many other “types” that I have in mind, but I think I’ll keep them there :)

Tags: Thoughts, User Experience