Category: Blogging

Largely older posts, mini blog entries and memes from the past… a vault of dusty nonsense.

bookmark_borderBlogosphere*

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Are there three blogospheres? asks John at Syntagma. He proposes the notion that blogging/bloggers can be categorised in three groups:

  • Primary – ” “Blogging” as a topic of discussion means nothing to them”
  • Secondary – contains the purely-for-business blogs
  • Tertiary – which comprises all those folk who talk endlessly about “the blogosphere”… serious bloggers, info-providers, probloggers, A, B, and C-listers

He proposes that the Tertiary group is the one that will push onwards, leading the way and which will produce “a few giants” over time, with motivation being the dividing factor.

I disagree, slightly, and think this model needs some clarification and additional rules. For a start it needs to explicitly state that the Tertiary group also consists of bloggers who are trying to make money from blogging, to that end it’s not always the case that they are “those folk who talk endlessly” about the state of blogging, more often than not they are the specialist blogs (Gizmodo for example) and rarely pitch in to discussions about the general state of blogging. However they’ll still be pushing ahead as they rely on audience numbers to pull in money.

Naturally, as with any model, there are exceptions to the rule and some bloggers will break out of their “group” and transcend everyone else, perhaps there needs to be a “Stratum” level group in which to place, for example, Dooce. Whether you like reading about her trials and tribulations as a mother, the mainstream media are very aware of her blog, she’s an A-list blogger with no monetary or advancement aspirations.

Anyway, to the crux of my disagreement, or perhaps discontent would be better. This model perpetuates the “them and us” situation we already have and I don’t see how it can, in the long term, benefit the blogging community. By declaring what is essentially a class system such as this, you immediately discount many blogs purely because their motivation isn’t to earn money, be recognised, or gain fame for themselves. There are many smart people who view blogging as a hobby – and would fall into the Primary group in this model – but offer insightful, thought provoking and useful posts. One example, and this is the first one that pops into my head (and I’m aware that I may be perpetuating my own little clique here), would be Adrian’s How to share iTunes over the Internet post which is a perfect example of a “Primary” group blog which, with one post, is now referenced in forums and sites.

Granted this will still be possible in this model but the I think there is has to be some awareness of the Tertiary group becoming very circular. Mind you, that would actually change anything that isn’t present with the A-list blogs at the moment, and is certainly not the fault of the model. However as it’s the “Tertiary” blogs that are discussing this at the moment, and by the model’s own definition they’ll be the only ones doing it, then perhaps John isn’t far off the mark when he states that “the Tertiary blogosphere … will eventually choke itself off”.

To summarise: I think the basic premise of this model isn’t far off the mark, but does seem a little “exclusive” at the moment. I think that can be clarified through wording though. There is also the small matter of the blogs who readily want to be part of the Tertiary group accepting some responsibility and is currently being discussed on other blogs – the small matter of those Top 100 lists. Are the A-listers really doing the what’s best for blogging or themselves?? More on that tomorrow.

* yes I KNOW what I said about that word, I still don’t like it, I’ve slapped myself already

bookmark_border7 years

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Before the blog I had a website, or home page as they were known. It featured links to other sites I enjoyed, some sample code I’d written up and a few different design ideas featuring all the new fangled stuff like coloured text, frames and tables.

That site was first revealed on the internet 7 years ago today, it took me almost another year to realise that some content was needed (I’d link to the “before blog” category but can’t get it to display ALL of the posts…).

It’s a bit scary to think how far things have come in that time, with a large chunk of it documented here. What an odd little hobby this is, but there must be something to it… seven years!

bookmark_borderBlogging Type

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via Blue Witch

Despite only have a few questions, it does seem to be accurate (check out what it made of Blue Witch, sounds spot on to me). Mind you, maybe I’d be better leaving that for YOU to judge…

 

Your Blogging Type is Confident and Insightful
You’ve got a ton of brain power, and you leverage it into brilliant blog.
Both creative and logical, you come up with amazing ideas and insights.
A total perfectionist, you find yourself revising and rewriting posts a lot of the time.
You blog for yourself – and you don’t care how popular (or unpopular) your blog is!

 
*blush*
 

bookmark_borderOut with the old

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Apparently, this site is one of 14.4 million other similar sites. Presumably, and I’m certain someone far smart than me will be able to formulate this better, of those 14.4 million, only a portion of them can be directly compared to this site. Of that portion, there will be other factors that will set my site aside as well, geography, topic coverage, age of the author, average of the readership etc etc.

I understand why it’s good to know how many blogs there are, and I think technorati is doing a good job collating and publishing these kinds of figures, but how do those figures affect me? Do I care that 80,000 new blogs are created each day, especially as only 36,000 or so of them will make it beyond the first few months? What I believe is lacking is the next level of detail, the key one being geography. However as the large majority of new blogs are created using a free tracking service – blogspot, livejournal, msn spaces – which offer no way to track where the author is located then we have a problem, don’t we.

Then again, if it’s one thing the interwebnet is good at it’s finding solutions, so why has this one perpetuated for so long? Is it because those in the US have their “rest of world” goggles on? Is it only non-US blogs that care about these facts? (I use the term care advisedly, I don’t CARE but I am interested) Should we be leading the way… when I say we… I mean the people that actually DO things, not people like me who merely pontificate from below and hope that someone somewhere is listening.

Of course this swings back around to the thoughts of community and niche. how they form whether we like the idea or not, and how categorising blogs and their influence is a hugely vast and completed job because there are no rules or guidelines to follow, no structure to how things are done, with everything both global and local at the same time.

The big numbers are important but it’s the more focussed info that bloggers need if they are to get an idea of what their “competition” is, what the trends are in their neighbourhood. I want to know how many new blogs there have been in the UK, in Europe. How many are personal sites, how many are “for profit” ventures?

No, I’m not overly bothered by these thoughts, nor will I expend much energy pursuing them, but I am curious. I guess that’s common after spending over five years on a hobby.

bookmark_borderPodcasting

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Ohh it’s the new blogging, is it?

Could be, everyone’s at it, and it’s guaranteed to be “mainstream” now that iTunes support it but, and please don’t think of me as some neolithic oaf but what IS all the fuss about?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking those who are doing podcasts, I’ve heard some very good ones recently and as an extension of a blog they give an extra dimension to the personality behind the microphone of a type you only normally get when you meet some in person (real life, remember that? fresh air, no keyboard and REAL people, what a concept! It’ll never catch on that one…).

However let’s get this straight. A podcast (blogcast, whatever) is, unless I’m hugely mistaken, mainly a recording of someone talking, with the occasional spot of music thrown in. Right? Err… and this is a new idea? Well obviously it’s not (and just in case you miss my point, I’m referring to that old favourite, of the more refined knob twiddlers out there, radio) but I’ll tell you what is.

Focus.

I can tune into hundreds, nay thousands, of radio stations right now and with a bit of searching I’m certain I can find a station that suits my interests. However the limitation of radio is that, because it’s being broadcast, it has to try and appeal to as many people as possible, even if the core subject is fairly specialised. Podcasting doesn’t have that limitation. Because YOU choose to download and listen to it, it can be as specialised and insular as it wants, the only person it has to please is you.

Anyway, if you’ve been on the ice planet Hoth for the past few months, then here are a few links to get you into podcasting. Ohh and ignore the “pod” part of the name, it’s not limited to iPods or MP3 players, you can create and listen to them on your PC.

As for me, well I’m gonna leave this one alone for the meantime preferring to remain elusively enigmatic and mysterious. Or maybe I just can’t be bothered (you can always listen to me on the radio if you’re desperate – 2.7MB MP3).

So, are podcasts the future of blogging? Possibly but I doubt it, at least not for a while. Too much like hard work at the moment, so until it becomes a lot easier to do I think it’ll remain on the outskirts for a while longer. However once it becomes a simple point and click exercise then I think they’ll soon be popping up all over the place. But then I’m sure they said the same about “audio blogging“, but they’ve been wrong before.

The real question is whether anyone can bring something NEW to podcasting. That’s where the challenge will lie, a true blending of the internet and radio is what is required and what has been sorely lacking so far. However cracks that one will leap ahead and we’ll have our first A-list podcaster.

bookmark_borderBlog Etiquette*

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Prompted by this comment thread over at troubled-diva, which started when mike revealed, according to his recent site survey, that “By far the strongest currency in blogging is inter-blog linking, be it on a main post, a linklog post or a blogroll” and that “Comment-whoring doesn’t work!”

I, amongst others, was slightly taken aback by this as I’d always presumed that inter-blog links were rarely followed, with the real value and “currency” coming through the discussion and comments on a site.

So inter-blog links, blogrolls or whatever you want to call them, are where the value is held, are they? Hmmm, well I guess they may be, and looking back at the history of blogging practises it’s understandable.

A recent spat in some US blogs had blogrolls accused of being a bad thing because they perpetuated the circular linking of the “most popular” blogs and thereby shrank the notion of who was in the “A-list” list. However it is kind of obvious if you think about it – the popular people are the ones you find first, why? Because they are popular! When you are starting out you link to them because you like what they do – they are popular for a reason after all – and their perceived popularity nips up another spot or two because another 100 new bloggers have linked to them. That kind of thing is why blogrolls can be seen to be bad/negative.

Now I’d suggest that that’s part and parcel of things, and I did the same when I started out, most people do when they try something new, it’s how fashions come about after all.

Then, after you’ve been blogging for a while, you start to find other blogs, blogs that better suit your tastes and your blogroll changes. You may leave on the original blogs but more often than not you start seeing your blogroll differently, no longer is it an “I think these are great sites” list but a “these sites reflect my tastes” list (a subtle but very valid difference).

There are plenty of sites that link to mine that I don’t even know about, I discover one or two every week, and I’ll check them out and occasionally add them to the blogroll, although more often than not I don’t. Not because I don’t like them, or don’t rate them but usually because I know that I won’t get around to visiting them often. As Mike (Troubled Diva) says – and he’ll know better than me – when you get to a certain level of popularity (or rather an awareness of your sites popularity) you CAN’T link back to all the sites that link to you or you’d end up with a stupidly long list.

However if it’s true that inter-blog linking holds greater sway than commenting then I’d suggest it’s because it’s a constant. Everytime you visit a site with a blogroll you’ll see the name of the linked sites. It’s always there, comments, by their very nature are fleeting, random and never constant. Some people comment on MOST posts here on my site, some people only comment now and then, some people don’t comment at all and email me directly.

Blogrolls, or lists of links, or whatever you want to call them, ARE of value to readers of your site. They offer a path out of your site and hopefully on towards another site they might find interesting. They show the sites you enjoy and recommend and they are always there.

But are comments really of LESS currency or are they of higher individual value but lower overall because they are less common? (And is it possible to be both?)

I think comments are of great value when they are OF value. If they are not, I don’t bother with them. By that token, the same can be said of links. If I think a site will be interesting or of value to people who visit my site, I’ll link to it. If I don’t think it offers value, I won’t. And no, it’s not THAT black and white, I do link to some sites because I’ve read them for a long time, and feel that I SHOULD link to them. Similarly if I read a comment here, or on another site, that I think is of value then I’ll usually track down their website and have a gander.

The key thing in both of these areas, links and comments, is how the value is assigned. There is no fixed “price” for either, and no way of discerning the value across different sites. I may value links over comments, someone else may value the opposite and yet another may value comments only ignore all blogrolls… and so on and so on. And that’s half the beauty of this thing we call “blog”. It’s so open to interpretation by both the author and the reader that there are few hard and fast rules.

Either way, it’s worthwhile considering how others may perceive the value in what you offer, whether in the blogosphere or real life. What are YOUR blog values?

* Anyone found mashing these two words into one – blogiquette – will be removed from the blogosphere and sent to Van Diemen’s Land. You have been warned.