::scr Blogging

[Earle Martin]

On Wed, Nov 21, 2001 at 03:44:48PM +0000, simon wistow wrote:
> I have to admit that I'm confused by this whole blogging phenomenon

Rebecca Blood's history of weblogs[0] is worth reading for anyone who hasn't
already done so.

I think there are two strengths of blogging, both closely linked:

1: Accessibility

It's extremely easy to create a blog. No web hosting needed, nor domain name,
etc (although many blogs have them as well). Various innovations for
manintaining blogs (see 2) mean the technological priesthood loses its grip
and the masses can build their own altars to preach at.

2: Usability

Most blogs use a system developed specifically for blogs: blogger.com,
pitas.com, weblogs.com, livejournal.com. These systems make all the
time-consuming tasks of chronological website maintenance - archiving,
adding new chunks of markup to display entries, etc - transparent (is this
the right word?). There are no markup languages to learn, you can just click
and type - which is also part of the accessibility. And for those who are more
familiar with such things, it removes the associated (real and perceived)
effort from doing so.

The more advanced blogging systems - in particular, LiveJournal - provide a
host of meta-blog features: embedding other blogs as part of yours, defining
metadata about yourself that other people can search for in order to locate
blogs closer to their own interests, creation of collaborative blogs,
built-in messageboards (a la Slashdot).

Of course, the scene is split between the journal keepers and the link
posters. The former tend to do a little of the latter; the latter very
little of the former. IMHO the vast majority of the former spend their time
posting uninteresting minutiae and are essentially writing their own
docusoap. And the latter are generally banal statements about websites you 
either don't want to see or have already seen.

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

It depends. If some of the people who read a blog actually know you, it
becomes a communications device that lets friends stay in contact. If you're
using LiveJournal - I actually do[1], I admit, which is why I pimp it - you
don't even have to use the system publicly. You can limit the people who
read entries in your blog to your friends, or even nobody at all, thus
turning it back into a traditional journal. It, like other blogs, also lets
people show their literature, poetry and art to an appreciative audience and 
receive feedback and constructive criticism.

As to expecting random people to care about your life... well, good luck to
you. Don't expect me to.

That said, I've made some good friends via LiveJournal, which allows you to
easily find interesting people. 

> A lot of the blogs that I've seen recently seem just to be an incestuous
> group who self reference and link.

Yes. The problem with many blogs is that there's really no original content,
which beggars the point of a system which makes it easy to present content.

> 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.

This worry is circumvented by group-blogging innovations like the ones
developed at LJ.



[0] http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
[1] http://www.livejournal.com/users/troubledwater/

-- 
Don't picket - vandalize. Don't protest - deface. When ugliness, poor design
and stupid waste are forced upon you, turn Luddite, throw your shoe in the
works, retaliate. Smash the symbols of the Empire in the name of nothing but
the heart's longing for grace.    - Hakim Bey, "The Temporary Autonomous Zone"