Dear Serial “liker”..

~ the britchy one

Are you having a seizure of some sort?

I’m writing this post on my phone. I have the WordPress app on my phone so I have always got something interesting to read. That’s useful but what you may not realise is it also shows just how fast notifications come in. I was just texting with a friend and getting interruption after interruption. Exasperated, I went into the app, pretty sure what was happening and sure enough, 13 likes in less than a minute on different posts, all from you! You actually created a total of EIGHTY TWO LIKES in less than four minutes. I have screen shots of my notifications to prove it.

There’s no way you have read them all. I don’t believe you’ve actually read a single post of mine which is upsetting. You’ve just gone through my blog like diarrhea, splattering your mark everywhere. Not one comment either. I ‘like’ posts when I’ve read them. If I like more than two in a row I’ll comment somewhere so people get some input. That’s why we’re all here after all – we want to read, to be read and interact.

Is it supposed to be flattering? It isn’t.

It’s actually a little insulting. Either my posts aren’t good enough for you to read or you think I’m too stupid to realise that’s what you’ve done.

Do you think if you like 13 posts I’m going to follow you? If I’d actually read 13 posts of yours I’d have followed you after the first couple. You’ve splattered 13 posts of mine but haven’t followed me – why?

If you think that’s how to get followers, guess again! You gone done pissed me off now sausage, I wouldn’t follow you on principle because I bet you’re the type who plays the follow/unfollow game too.

Here’s a little advice.

Be sincere. If you click like, do it because you enjoyed the post. Do not click like repeatedly when it’s impossible for you to have read posts. Bloggers aren’t stupid. We don’t like insincerity.

Engage with other bloggers. Comment. I do look at who likes my posts, I look at the blogs of a large percentage of my ‘likes’ and all of my follows. If I’m interested I follow them. I follow a lot more blogs than follow me. I read and comment as much as I can. I HAVE FUN!!

No matter why you blog, as a release, for fun, in the hopes of making money – you need to build trust and faith. It doesn’t happen without work and effort and it doesn’t happen overnight.

So far you have done nothing to gain credibility with me. In fact, you’ve achieved the complete opposite. I hope you learn from this.

Published by the britchy one

A PROUD American Citizen who was born and bred in England and now resides in the US. I’m married to an American who really didn’t have a clue what he was letting himself in for - poor sod! I’m a cranky bitch who loves cats and books and hates chocolate, politics and Dave’s. Oh and mosquitos. I hate those blood sucking parasites but since I’ve already mentioned politics I’m repeating myself! I’m a short, skinny redhead, 3 kids, 2 dogs, not enough cats and a mouth with a death wish. Blood group - certifiable.

182 thoughts on “Dear Serial “liker”..”

  1. lmao…diarrhea! tell me about it…!!!! it grinds my gears really… I’ve seen this in action many of times and I’m not flattered… I guess they figured you’d see them maybe…? and when you click you contribute to their stats…? beats me… very relatable post…

    Liked by 4 people

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      10. It might be due to whatever theme you have picked – they all have different features apparently. I would love a chart with what each theme is good for but I don’t think that’ll happen!

        Liked by 2 people

      11. Honestly I have no idea, your the first blogger that has responded to me, you told me about the reblog button. I’m so happy I have a blogging buddy to tell me what I need. Good looking out “the britchy one”

        Liked by 1 person

  3. 🙂 Hmm. Could some of those likes be from bots? Or, does the WordPress community love your blog posts?

    I would go with the WordPress community loving your blog posts.

    I too would like people to genuinely press the “Like” button if they truly liked my blog post.

    In addition to likes, I want valuable comments as well.

    Liked by 5 people

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    1. Every comment was on a different post and they were from someone with an actual blog. I want people to read my blog. I don’t care too much about numbers, I would prefer ten who read to a thousand who clicked like and didn’t.. there’s no gratification in that. I love the interaction as you’ll see from my comments on everything!!

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      1. 🙂 Now, what about the case of bloggers who really read what you wrote, pressed the “Like” button and are too shy to leave a comment? It would be unfair to put them in the same class of people who pressed the “Like” button for the sake of just pressing it.

        Liked by 5 people

      2. That’s very true – but then the notifications aren’t bam, bam, bam immediately following each other either. It was purely because I was on my phone at the time that I saw what was happening 😊

        Liked by 3 people

    2. Too many of my “likes” recently seem to be from bots trying to rack up likes/follows for their own blogs that want to sell me page/website designs, writing classes, cat supplies, or whatever. I actually recently got a like AND a follow from someone who cancelled their account immediately thereafter! Go figure.

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    1. Why though? It’s worthless! I will happily sit and read four or five posts in one go from the same blogger – but I’ll always leave at least one comment so they know I liked their stuff enough to read and keep reading 😊

      Liked by 3 people

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  5. The worst is when your comments get spammed with likes too. If you like 50 of my comments on other people’s posts all within the span of 5 minutes, it’s clearly spammy and it doesn’t make me wanna check out the blog! So annoying 😅

    Liked by 4 people

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  6. Am I allowed to like this? 😉
    Seriously, feel your pain. I had one or two nights where I was woken up in the middle of the night by annoying pings – I changed the settings to only show notifications and no volume.

    Liked by 3 people

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  7. I was a tad bit scared to like this – but I’m commenting so I think I’m good! 🙂

    How annoying though – for all the reasons you stated, but also for all the annoying notifications. Ugh. I don’t understand that mentality at all. Thanks for posting this – although the ones you really need to get the message probably won’t.

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. You’re right! The culprits will just click like 😂
      I did think maybe I shouldn’t post this but then I thought that maybe they think it’s a good thing to do. Of course I want a bazillion likes but I want them to be from people who genuinely enjoy the shit I produce!!

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      2. Oh yes! And I’ve fallen victim to following a couple of bloggers on Instagram when I first started, took me a while to work up the courage to unfollow the ones that i wasn’t interested in

        Liked by 2 people

      1. That’s normal, I think. I try to comment whenever I read something, which is why i get further and further behind on reading the blogs that I follow. But I’ll definitely leave just a like if I end up reading multiple things from one person or if I’m in a rush and can’t comment right away… And since I use the app on my phone I also use the likes as a way to determine what blogs I’ve read already

        Liked by 2 people

  10. here here!!!!
    confession sometimes I am guilty of clicking like without reading just like a serial psycho liker but only for people my fave connections and only because later I can view my liked posts lists and read them on on the WordPress app on my phone
    ~B

    Liked by 3 people

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  11. This is becoming an epidemic I believe…. and it’s definitely not in the spirit of good blog building and community, which is sad. You’re right: we’re all here to read and be read. Have fun! Don’t “flatter” people to potentially build your own self esteem. Sure, high numbers are immensely flattering. But the secret I’ve learned and have to continue reminding myself: I am writing for myself and everything else is just a lovely bonus. I’m so sorry you had your notifications on and had to be pinged so frequently, Britchy. Maybe you’ve them off now so that way you didn’t just get two more from my like and my here ramble… oops! 😳

    Liked by 4 people

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    2. “But the secret I’ve learned and have to continue reminding myself: I am writing for myself and everything else is just a lovely bonus.” So well-said! That’s how felt at first, too, until I got my first couple of “likes.” Now that I’m over the thrill of that, I’m back to writing for myself and likes are a nice bonus. Follows are even better bonuses, but I still don’t trust that anyone follows me for my writing and not just hoping that I’ll follow back. I’m not so sure *I’d* follow me for my writing! (I’m not fishing for compliments or follows, by the way. Just sharing my thoughts.)

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. Writing just for the fun of it is absolutely the best way! I think the best way to get followers is engaging with people. Show them you value them! Not only do people follow you they stay with you if you appreciate that choice 😊

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I think we’re all very hard on ourself with our writings. Just keep writing for you! 🙂 and it’s okay, I didn’t take it that way (at least not with your in-depth comment. I always feel like the ones that spam you are “love!” “Nice!” And nothing, ya know, productive.)

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Oh I will like several in a row – if I’ve read them! Sometimes I have to catch up with someone for instance but I generally don’t like more than 2-3 without leaving a comment. If I’m enjoying myself enough to read several at once then the author of the blog deserves to know as much 😊

      Liked by 3 people

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  15. My goodness FINALLY someone posting about this phenomena.
    Why do this?
    Why?
    Go do that nonsense on Instagram. That’s what the “bots” do to get your attention so you will follow them but not on WordPress!
    I only “like” post that I actually enjoyed READING.
    It’s so fake and I cannot stand it. I also love how genuine WordPress readers will stop, read, like, comment, and engage with one another UNLIKE typical social media.
    Loved this post, thank you!

    Liked by 4 people

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  16. Oh this happens to me all the time and I hate it! I try to comment on as many blogs as I can but sometimes I just don’t have the time. But if I follow someone I make sure to comment at least once in a while. I have a few who will like a post within a minute of it being posted and I’ve never had a single comment from them. Its a little confusing.

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  17. Hahaha….”sausage” – but yeah! Hate when someone does that to me. I realize there is no way they read the posts and so I wonder if it just a plea for me to go to their blog and vomit likes all over their posts. Maybe I should turn it into a competition – “Bet I can give you 84 likes in under a minute…” 🙂 But I don’t return the likes. Hahaha….sausage….

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  18. Definitely all sorts of weird stuff going on, I’m getting a lot of spam comments in reply to genuine comments (Usually just the single word question ‘What?’)
    I guess this is robo-spam evolving or something.
    Narrators voice: ‘Spam became self aware in 2018, it had a lot of questions….’

    Liked by 3 people

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      1. Yep, I suppose I see this new spam robo-comments wave as worse than the disingenuous ‘likes’ by whoever they are… Like advertisers, if I ignore the fake likers totally and don’t give them the time or attention they crave, it’s me that ‘wins’ in a way.

        Spam comments mean I have to interact with the bastard things in the notifications tab to confirm I want to trash them. Gits. This valuable time all adds up, I could start my daily nap almost ten seconds earlier if I didn’t have to do that.

        Liked by 1 person

  20. It makes me sad if people are being disingenuous. The blogging community is so loving and encouraging. One of my favorites is reading how a post impacts other fellow bloggers. I’m always excited when I get a few likes. I guess I need to pay attention to my stats more. Not sure if if this happens to me. I’m sure it does I just don’t know how to track it.

    Liked by 4 people

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  21. I lost it when you said diarrhea 😂😂😂 I hate these kinds of people. It ticks me off. It makes my stats look wonky. It isn’t an actual depiction of my site. Thanks for addressing this.

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  22. There are things I don’t understand about blogging yet. For example, there are days when, according to WP, I have tons of views of my home page, but not that many views of blog posts. Why would that be? People just come on to my site and view my home page? I also have had friends tell me they read certain posts, make specific comments about those posts, but no views of those posts show up on WP stats.

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    1. That’s odd – is your blog linked to fb/instagram etc? do they look at them on fb or any other sites you might use?
      I do look at someone’s homepage to see what their blog is about – to see if it’s something I’m interested in 😊

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  23. Insincerity is so frustrating. When you’re trying to be genuine and just put some thought out there and all you get back are these dings on your device that mean nothing.
    Not gonna lie though, I’m scared to like this post.

    Liked by 3 people

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  24. Preach it! I did a post last year (I think) about the Invisible Follower, the one who follows you and then you never hear from again even though they are active on their site. THAT annoys me.

    I tend to weed my followers every couple of months, so that helps get rid of the spammers. But I don’t think I’ve ever had the phenomena you describe here. I think part of it is that I’m still dot wordpress instead of dot come or dot blog.

    Speaking of dot whatever. What made you decide to go with dot org? What were the upsides that made you decide that? If you already have a post of that, a link to that is fine too. Thanks.

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      2. I think it’s just that one is paid and one isn’t. There’s more support, themes etc. I chose the personal not the business because that seemed the best option because personal was/is all I want

        Liked by 2 people

      4. I don’t know a huge amount – I literally chose based on the info I found when I clicked on the WordPress start a blog page! I use WordPress. I asked a lot of friends who blog and they all said to go with WordPress so here I am! I’ve only been blogging since February so although I blather a lot, I know bugger all about blogging really. There are WordPress community help threads – they might have more efficient info (I don’t mind helping I just don’t have a lot of knowledge to give good advice!!) Blogger groups on Facebook or twitter might be good resources too

        Liked by 2 people

      5. Can I add my two cents? I recently switched to paid but kept dot com, for two reasons. First, dot org to me says “nonprofit” which I’m not. Well, I’m not making or looking to make a profit; what I mean is, I’m not a charitable organization. Second, I wanted some protection for “magnoliajem”. That has been my username for over 30 years everywhere I go on the web. At the time, relatively few individuals had internet access, but I wanted a name that was unique. This one has a special, personal, meaning for me. I’ve done google searches over the years and found only my internet presence. Until recently, when I found a person on Pinterest using my name & conducting some sort of business with it. I also found a builder who named one of his model plans “Magnolia Jem”, and another who sometimes uses “magnoliagem.” It’s a magnolia explosion!!! When I realized WordPress’s paid plans included a custom domain name that *didn’t* include “.wordpress.com”, I knew I had to claim & register “magnoliajem.com”.

        Liked by 1 person

  25. Wow!!! 82!!! Sheesh!! I follow more than follow me too and there’s no way to read everything that is posted. It’s not the quantity of interactions we value but the quality. I hope they are now set straight, if not, the Britchy One is not someone you want on your bad side lol.

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  26. Yes yes yes yes to this post. Can I like this particular post 82 times???? Lol. I really dislike that serial liking as you’ve put it. Interaction not random button clicks!

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  29. Sorry I did that to you!!
    Just kidding…it wasn’t me, folks.

    Hope they get the point. Although I doubt they’d ever read this since he/she is not following you.

    Like the the follow/unfollow this can be aggravating.

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  30. I loved this post! You gave some really great advice that everyone should really hold value to! I do my very best to engage with my followers and it really does pay off. It is amazing the friends I have made through my blog and have been able to help so many which is a great feeling!

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  31. I understand the annoyance, but I have learned to just accept people and how the express themselves here. I have had this happen quite a few times, and yes, usually it is just an obvious attempt to drive likes to their own page, but sometimes, it is just someone who is new and doesn’t quite know where to start. I have, on several occasions, seen these people convert to true followers, eventually leaving comments and becoming an acquaintance. So in the end, to each their own. 🙂

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      1. I completely agree. That is one thing I have always appreciated about WordPress… There us a genuine community here. It is so unique relative to many other social media platforms (though I don’t even know if that is an appropriate comparison). The connections here are real… The people are like friends, even though so many have never met. I am glad to know you, and quite happy that you are one of the good ones. 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

  32. OMG YES! YES YES YES!
    Sorry but this has been a “thing” of mine for SO LONG! lol

    Like I don’t understand what my blog about sappy love poetry and weird little short stories has anything to do with marketing or some of the other stuff people have been “liking” or whatever. I mean sure, if the person behind it does actually enjoy what I’m writing that’s cool but like…dude….the insincerity of it, as you said, is insulting.

    Ah well…we know what they’re up to and we’ll send out bad internet vibes towards them. That’ll learn’m =)

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  35. Think the comments above say it all 😉
    The next time that someone does this to me, I will post the whole freakin’ screenshot so that everyone knows they can be put on the blacklist.!

    Liked by 1 person

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  37. You completely nailed it. It’s quite insulting when someone mass likes my posts within a minute when I know you can’t read ten posts in that one minute. That person isn’t Dr. Spencer Reed. I wan’t feedback and to interact with my readers. I get it that sometimes, people are too shy to comment so they just click like, but what exactly do they like about it? I don’t bite. I welcome any kind of criticism with reason behind them, just don’t be rude to me.

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      1. I watch that show so much I’m surprised I haven’t been able to tell which season is which based on Reed’s hairstyle alone, lol.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I don’t mind that if it’s done respectfully – if they comment on my blog and ask for feedback in theirs it’s not a problem at all. It’s when the binge- drop links on every single post or comment that it bugs me!!

      Like

      Reply

  39. An other blogger gave out at blind liners few days ago and I can only say I’m too old to buy without seeing what I’m buying so I always read the posts and the comments I like,but may be it also has to do with the fact that not blogging for money or fame I’m not obsessed with stats and so I don’t like just to be liked back💁🏻‍♀️I mean I’m the woman with only 50 Instagram followers but still I sleep well at night😂

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  47. Serial likers make me crazy! Since I’m relatively new to blogging, I didn’t realize at first that serial likers existed; I was just too thrilled that my posts were liked. Wised up pretty soon. I’ll still generally read a post or two the first time someone “likes” something I’ve written, but if they’ve “liked” too many at once, I’m not likely to follow them. As a new blogger, I also had no idea that a follow/unfollow game existed, so I’m afraid someone might think I’m one of those players. At first, I followed blogs if I liked the first couple of posts I read when that blogger first “liked” one of mine because I wanted to keep track of them and give me some time to decide if I really liked their writing enough to read it consistently. If not, I unfollow. After reading a few posts on the follow/unfollow game, I feel terrible when I unfollow someone whose blog I followed too quickly. Now, I try not to follow someone unless I’ve stumbled across their blog often enough to know whether I really want to follow them. Don’t know whether to call that thoughtful or cynical.

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    1. I think what you do is fine, it’s the people who don’t engage at all and follow you purely for you to follow them back then unfollow within 24 hours that are the problem! If you follow them to read and not to get a follow back it’s just preferences. No different to not finishing a book you just don’t like really!
      I’ve followed a few different blogs myself only to find their content goes in a direction I don’t want to follow them so we part ways.

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Thanks for the support! I’ll try not to feel so guilty when I need to “part ways” with a blog that turns out not to be my cup of tea. (I also like “part ways”. It’s so much gentler & kinder than “unfollow.”)

        Liked by 2 people

  48. I have liked this post! I do try and support other bloggers but I do read a lot of posts. I don’t always leave a comment if all the comments say the same thing either 🙂 just call me Spambot.

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  49. Aggressive! I like it! I hate when people do that dumb “follow for a follow thing” or “follow and I’ll follow back” thing. You’re right, they’re just going to unfollow you anyhow. Plus, people actually caring about what you post—-THATS what matters. Empty likes are stupid

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  50. Hi! I absolutely know what you’re writing about. The thing is, it also happens on small websites. There were some days, when I had like ( and now please don’t laugh, hahaha…) 1 like, 0 visitors, 0 views.
    I don’t think, that this strategy can be a long term success, but on the other hand, these people (if they are no bots…) probably succeed short term a lot….

    However, nice post and a good read !

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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