::scr Blogging

[simon wistow]

I have to admit that I'm confused by this whole blogging phenomenon - it seems
to have rocketed in popularity in the past year or so - estimates have put
the number at around 500,000. With approximatley 248 million web users that
means that 1 in 500 people has a blog. That's a fair amount.

When pushed on this down the pub I admitted that I read some things that could
be described as blogs - Slashdot, Mandrake.net (although not as much as
before), Plastic, Damien Conway's page and the DNA lounge page. Plus I
contribute to #london.pm's blog-of-sorts at http://www.astray.com/scribot/

Slashdot is *the* place to go get tech news. It may not be up to date and it's
full of tossers but it collates a load of links that I may otherwise have
missed. Ditto Plastic. 

Mandrake.net I only read occasionally - I started when Enlightenment DR 0.11
was in the pipelines and I found it fascinating to read about how the
development process was coming along and the design processes that were
happening. Now it's fairly dull and I only read it when I'm bored. This is
sort of true for Damien Conway too. Also, to a lesser extent, for the DNA
lounge - that's interesting because it's a diary of one man's 2 year
sturggle to get a club built and running in SF and now the fact that he hates
running it because he can't run it the way he wants to.


At the other end of the scale are the people who write personal diaries on the
web. On the one hand some are just banal -
http://www.grayblog.co.uk/2001_09_01_yesterblog.html :

o I now have ICQ on my home PC (but not at work). If anyone particularly
wants my ICQ number, ask.

o Just munched my way through a fantastic casserole and half a bottle of
really-very-good Chilean merlot. Pity that the only company I had was a couple
of pot plants and the stereo, but hey-ho.

o Why didn't someone tell me about Groovetech before?? 3000 DJ sets as
RealAudio streams. Coool. Currently listening to Stakka and Skynet.

o A good site about Elite and other games of that ilk. I've played Elite on
the C64 and PC, and it still rates as the best game I have ever played - the
prospect of Elite IV fills my wallet with foreboding.

o Possible subjects for content at Grayblog today:

    * the anti-globalisation protests in Brighton
    * harvest festivals
    * the weather
    * new railway timetables
    * Brighton football team
    * PHP

But frankly, I can't be bothered.


Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull. *YAAAAWN*

Others are just plain fucked up

http://www.livejournal.com/users/gothbytch/

in particular 

http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?itemid=10759288&nc=1

and that blog was just chosen at random from livejournal

I can see why people might think it cathartic to play out their lives in front
of an audience but ... /shrug/

http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?itemid=13696274 is fairly informative
: 

"How come i'm invisible when i'm not here? No-one knows me or thinks
about me unless i am in their face. Well Mat did. He emailed me but i tried
emailing him back and he was not a current member. I guess Denis thinks about
me too. *kisses to Denis* But no one visits me. Noone talks to me :("

Most however, fall, somwhere in between and as such, to me, seem fairly
pointless. Mainly, I suppose, are a bit like the cgi chatrooms and message
boards of a few years back. Thos irritated me because they were like news
groups or mailing lists - only worse. Ok, sometimes it was useful for people
who had restricted access but they still irritated me. A lot of the blogs that 
I've seen  recently seem just to be an incestuous group who self reference and
link.

Maybe it's because I'm worried that if this had all happened a few years ago
maybe we wouldn't have things like Slashdot - instead of contributing to a
common blog they would just keep the links to themselves.

I dunno, I'm jsut rambling and tired. Silly me. Shut up.

the cluetrain list has been rambling on about stuff liek this recently - it's
mhonarc'd here ...

http://www.twoshortplanks.com/simon/blogging/

and .... fade out

-- 
: apparently, cheese isn't scalable