Blogging Etiquette?

The title is a question, because I really don't know!

So this is likely to be a post full of questions ...

I think good manners are essential in any interaction with others, so I know being generally polite is important. I try and answer every comment, knowing how lovely it is when I get an answer to mine, I continue to be amazed (may I never take it for granted) that the community of writers on here are just so ... well, amazing!

At the risk of repeating myself ...

So I know that friendly comments and supportive gestures are welcome, that sharing tips and information is appreciated (and that my tiggerish exuberance and total naivety is kindly tolerated!)

What I'm not so sure about yet, is whether it's cool to mention other people, or add them as links, or at least whether I should ask permission first?

I'm guessing that everyone is pleased to be mentioned somewhere else, as it might increase visitors to their own blogs/websites, but I wonder if that is, in fact, a huge assumption. Perhaps someone would rather not be linked to someone they don't know, or whose general philosophy they might disagree with, or whose writing falls short of their own standards, or (as in my case) who knows very little and has a blog that is little more than an indulgence!

I also wonder whether there may be someone in a list of links who would rather not be in the same list as another blog or website?

Plus, because I am so new at this, I am wary of offending people, or at least making them say: 'Ha! What does she know!'

The truth is I know very little about writing fiction, not much about writing anything, and nothing at all about being published! This blog was started, with a post in early December, because a friend told me to get on with it, when I mentioned yet again that I should start a blog. Then I forgot all about it until for some reason I arrived here again, met SallyQ and then through her blog I found lots of others, all interesting and lovely to read and with lots of links to lots of others ... I could be here for ages, just reading. (How will I ever find time for writing?)

Having been so inspired and warmly welcomed and generously encouraged, I have stayed (you will probably never get rid of me now, I am totally hooked!)

I called this blog, when I first set it up, Write Here! Because I knew I needed to write, but I also need to be told to! I had no plans for it, I had plans elsewhere, I just wanted a place to write. I decided last year that I would write articles, as my writing past consists of non-fiction writing (mostly academic essays and research papers), and I wrote a few for a website I am planning to set up, for student parents.

Well, they say we should write about what we know, and I figured if I couldn't write about studying while being a Mum (after 7 years), I should probably give up!

I have started another blog devoted to this cause and am loving that too. I now have three, in fact ... oh! so addictive! (Blogging is sort of oxymoronic, it's incredibly addictive therapy.) So I have one I hope will be helpful to others, one I hope will eventually become a book (well, we'll see, it's fun, anyway!), and one that is just sheer blissful indulgence, guess which one you're reading?

But because very busy people who know lots more than I do about writing kindly take the time to read my blog, and even comment on it (that so makes me smile, when I get an email to say I have a comment, I always open them first!), I have tried to add some helpful stuff to the rambling (ahem! rambling sentences as well as subject). I have started to sort out the links into separate categories and will add some more. I'm really not sure how useful they'll be to anyone, but perhaps the fact that I have a total novice's outlook, will be a positive thing, in some way.

I hope to continue writing this with writerly themes (please humour me, please forgive me!) although I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it up.

Any comments on blogging etiquette really would be much appreciated! :o)

Oh! And maybe someone could help with this, please?

I am having problems getting my head round the difference between 'learned' and 'learnt' ... I haven't had chance to get to the library and look at a better dictionary than mine (apparently an Advanced Learner's edition and it's useless, I have often looked not-particularly-obscure words up that aren't in there), which has both as past participle of 'learn' and only one as an example, so I am none the wiser. Again. I hate that.

But when I know the answer, I can add a post to my Learning Curve blog ... yay! it's funny how that happens!

:o)