54 Comments on “Oh —”

1. I used to read BTW regularly. I switched to Attensa RSS feed and read all of my blogs that way. For whatever reason, I cannot get BTW to work with Attensa.

2. I’ve never read BTW, but I’ll give it a shot.

3. I read ‘Whatever’, but no BTW.

4. I didn’t know BTW existed until just now. If it has an RSS feed I will probably begin reading it.

5. I read both.

6. I read Whatever, mostly. I sometimes pop over to BTW, but not often since I switched from the family’s “childcare provider” to “income provider.”

7. Never read BTW before today, but I’ll give it a try.

   Generally, I have an aversion to anything that says AOL on it.

8. Colin F:

   “Generally, I have an aversion to anything that says AOL on it.”

   This is not uncommon, although I’ve never had the same bias personally.

   I should note that “By The Way” has a distinctly different aim and tone than the “Whatever” — among other things I get paid to do BTW, and I’m paid to be both helpful to AOL Journalers, point them to stuff online and suggest topics for them to write about. It’s still me, but it’s me exercising a different set of blogging/writing muscles than I typically do here.

9. I looked at BTW for a while, but it did not really appeal to me. I like your rants and insights on various things, not the stuff you have at BTW.

10. Alex: Yup. Similarly, I know people who know me primarily through BTW who prefer that to what’s here because over at BTW I’m not so damn ranty.

11. I usually keep up-to-date with the BTW.

    K

12. Well, your spelling inexplicably takes a dive on your AOl column (lingere?), and the font is so small as to be virtually unreadable, but the story was pretty good. And it does seem to have been written by the same person, so we can safely assume that this isn’t some clever hoax to promote your friend’s column.

13. I don’t read BTW.

14. I don’t read BTW.

15. I hadn’t seen BTW before, but I like the general level of rantiness here.

16. I almost never read BTW, and almost always read The Whatever.

17. I read both via Bloglines. I like your Friday games over at BTW.

18. I try to avoid AOL, so I don’t read BTW.

19. Never heard of BTW. Tend not to respect things with AOL in the URL but I’ll check it out.d

20. I’m gonna have to ditto Leo Zelevinsky above – whee!

21. I read both via RSS

22. I don’t read BTW…I was directed here about 6 months back from Wil Wheaton’s blog and have been reading it daily ever since. This has led me to read “Agent to the Stars” online, buy the trade paperback of “Old Man’s War” AND buy “Questions for a Soldier” from Subterranean Press.

23. I used to read both regularly but work has forced me to cut back since reading BTW caused far too much secondary reading.

    Not going to stop reading Whatever though

    Colm Mac

24. Don’t forget about nohari

25. I’m a dedicated Whatever reader, but avoid AOL like ebola, as I’m convinced AOL is the portal to Hell’s internet.

26. I’ve got BTW bookmarked, but to be honest, I hardly ever go there.

    It sounds a little silly to describe, but the AOLJournal setup seems very “closed” to me, like unless I’m an active member, it’s really not for me. For example, there’s some functionality in there that’s not very well explained (links to other people’s journals, for instance).

    I feel like everyone else gets it & I don’t, so I stick with The Whatever. Maybe that’s some feedback you can pass along to your AOL employers…

27. I have only visited BTW a few times. I prefer spending my not so abundant free time here at Whatever.

28. I only read the Whatever. I find BTW too happy and boring. I like the controversy and writer’s insights on the Whatever.

29. I read both, and enjoy both, and I kinda dig the way you come across rather differently on each one. I prefer the Whatever, cos there’s more SF and writing talk…

30. I’ve checked out BTW and prefer Whatever. It’s the rantiness I enjoy. That and the creamy nougat filling. I’m not a big fan of traditional blogs, which is usually less writing and more linkage. I like Whatever because it’s heavy on the writing.

31. I read both, but prefer Whatever. Sometimes it seems like posts on BTW are largely just because you’re supposed to post something, but you care more about what you post here. Just the way I see it.

32. I read and enjoy both. I see BTW as a kind of aggregator of interesting leads, like Boing boing or metafilter (which shouldn’t be a surprise, since a lot of the material from BTW originates with the other two, or at least cross-pollinates with them), whereas Whatever is more of an op-ed situation. Both have pros and cons, so I figure I have to read both to get my overall fix of Scalziness.

33. I read both. My wife reads only Whatever.

34. I read it when I started reading Whatever, but I found two of them hard enough to keep up with. Probably the same reason I don’t do two blogs.

35. I used to read both, but because i normally only surf the web while at work and my current employer blocks AOL addresses, now I only read Whatever. I prefer Whatever to BTW by quite a bit anyway, and really don’t have enough interest in BTW to pursue it from home during my personal hours.

36. Never read BTW, lurking Whatever semi-regularly.

37. I usually read Whatever, but will take an occaisonal glance at BTW every once in a while.

38. I read BTW via its LiveJournal feed for the prompts and assignments, and Whatever through Bloglines because I hold off reading it until I can pay more attention.

39. I read both BTW and Whatever daily. Okay, multiple times a day. Gotta get a life!

    I started out only reading Whatever, but followed a link you left a few months ago, and I got hooked…

40. I only read BTW when you link to it from here.

41. I’ve read BTW since the day it was announced here. For those who don’t: there’s some overlap in content, and Whatever is better, given its lack of corporate watch-what-you-sayism. But it’s definitely worth the daily read.

42. I have been boycotting AOHell since 2000. So I only read Whatever.

43. Regular Whatever-checker; I usually check BTW every few days and just catch up on wide swaths of posts there all at once.

44. Whatever: Yes.

    By The Way: No.

45. I remember looking at By The Way once, and having my eyes roll back into my head from the pabulum feel of it. But then, I’m an asshole.

46. I prefer Whatever, mainly because of the writing content and tone. I’m not a fan of excessive rantiness, especially political, but I just skip those posts here, so no big deal.

    I think the linky content on BTW (which I have visited occasionally) is interesting, but I really don’t have oodles of free time to follow all the links I would like to.

47. Until this moment I had no idea it existed.

48. I have bopped back and forth between the two often. As I do not blog myself, I tend to stay more with the “Whatever”, but have wandered through “By the Way” when I have more free time to follow the various links.

49. I can’t remember the last time I looked at BTW. I started reading both for a while when BTW first came out, then I lost interest in it because of the Happy, happy, joy, joyness of it. There is something about AOL stuff that just seems to pander to the stupid and it has that vibe. So, then, I’m an asshole as well.

50. Overall I prefer your writing on Whatever. My husband reads both and will point me to funny posts over at AOL, but that is usually the only time I will read the BTW. I like it when you rant – politics and all. Plus I enjoy the comment threads on the Whatever much more too. I like what your readers write.

51. I don’t read BTW. I have before, and don’t dislike it or anything, but it doesn’t drag me back. I read Whatever semi-daily.

52. I read both, but read Whatever more often (and more thoroughly — I will backtrack to at least scan what I missed in the middle, which I don’t always do with By The Way), and I more often read the comments on Whatever.

53. I read both. I comment on BTW on occasion, but this is my first comment here. :-)

54. I never read BTW because it was gone by the time I discovered your writing.

    As for the Johari Window, yes I know “extroverted” is the opposite of true, but never mind its correct psychological definition, I would still use it to describe a mallet-wielding Scalzi.

    Finally: Ozzy Osbourne’s real name is also John Michael. Let’s start a club!