…pointless, if one doesn’t actually like or follow a blog. All this is about creating a network in hopes that some real follows and likes will occur. I see that that is the way it works. I see the need to do it. On the other hand, I feel compelled to at least have a look before I follow. And I can’t bring myself to click ‘like’ unless I actually see something I like; and, in that event, I usually will comment also. I suppose one might call that doing it ‘the old fashioned way.’
Really, it is a compromise, because I am generally going to follow someone’s blog, unless its content strikes me as unusually offensive, especially wrongheaded, or, especially ugly or repulsive. That doesn’t happen often, however when i get a follow from someone and their site immediately hits me with massive amounts of ugly right off the platform, then I can’t see my way clear to clicking ‘like,’ or ‘follow;’ and, of course, there is no ‘wipe this hideousness from the face of the Earth,’ button.
David Emeron: Sonnets 