What is Wrong (and Right) With Blogging

Darren posed two provocative questions:
What is right about blogging?
What is wrong about blogging?
Here’s a summary:
What’s Right
Facilitates conversation. Freedom of expression. Freedom from a web designer’s tyranny. Speed. Business card, networking tool, sales brouchure all in one.
What’s Wrong
Reliance on Google and other ad networks to make money. Text can be msinterpreted easily. All niche blogs are starting to look the same. Constraints of existing tools and their template engines. Idiot commenters (and conversely, idiot bloggers). Too self-referential (echo chamber?). Bloggers seek out controversy and the negative side to a story. Cult of artificial experts.


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66 responses to “What is Wrong (and Right) With Blogging”

  1. John Evans Avatar

    I’ve written about this on my own blog, but to try to sum it up in one : What’s Right ~ costs are practically negligible allowing anyone to have a go. What’s Wrong ~ anyone can do it, thus lowering standards and therefore credibility.
    Like everything else in life there’s a trade-off there. What’s wrong is a cost that what’s right can more than afford to pay. Ergo, win-win.

  2. effexor Avatar

    HeÒs impressed by how many people are keen to attend public talks and debates at the moment.

  3. elavil Avatar

    Finally we have a replacement for my long lost beloved riding crop! (The story about how I lost it is here if youÒre interested.)

  4. enalapril Avatar

    was reading over in the Blogasm blog bettymcboobs’s tale of the first time she Licked a Girl and it reminded me of my first time.

  5. erythromycin Avatar

    “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say.

  6. evista Avatar

    Your imagination, confidence, willingness to explore, and appreciation of beauty make you a CREATOR.

  7. fioricet Avatar

    Naughty Virgin’s Inside the Mind of A Virgin

  8. flexeril Avatar

    well, you’ll have to go for a leak eventually, won’t you? then we’ll see what happens.

  9. flomax Avatar

    Kim RightÅ Look! Shadow puppets! ItÒs a dog! Ruff RuffÅ Meeow!

  10. furosemide Avatar

    And my silent agreement goes something like “Because she was fucked up enough as a kid to decide to fuck on film for fortune and fame.”

  11. glucophage Avatar

    explicit work is ok. Please include a short biography with your work.

  12. hyzaar Avatar

    I wonder how robust this statistic is? And does this one only tell half of its own story?

  13. ibuprofen Avatar

    Yesterday was much quieter, but we managed to fit in a visit from Nicki and Clemmie, who enjoyed capering with her cousines.

  14. inderal Avatar

    PS I wonder how Blunkett would feel about the fact that this same person explained how she understood this way of using words by saying ÓitÒs the kind of thing Haider does in AustriaÔÅ

  15. lamictal Avatar

    Spoon’s Chez Spoon (formerly SpankMeWithASpoon)

  16. lamisil Avatar

    then i looked around me, and down at the shag pile rug i was sinking into, and realised that maybe, for him, they’d never been away.

  17. lasix Avatar

    Enjoy our beloved Gore Vidal in all his clothed glory.

  18. levaquin Avatar

    Several hours later, Dangly came home from work & I’ll tell that story next time!

  19. lexapro Avatar

    Personally, IÒm on the side of the exterminators even though I have some sympathy for the people who report that they feel physical pain when they see apostrophes misused.

  20. lipitor Avatar

    Secret History featuring yet another media appearance for Bessie and Ted.

  21. lisinopril Avatar

    When it rains you can really smell the poo on the Parkland Walk

  22. lortab Avatar

    Instead Cup seems like a good option, but I know next

  23. meclizine Avatar

    Remember my little music box that I was so delighted to discover this winter? Yes, Pandora.

  24. meridia Avatar

    And here is the message which started the discussion at Shaksper

  25. metformin Avatar

    I call him after the awards fiasco, very drunk and tired. “It’s not in the stars,” he says, explaining why it has been impossible for our paths to actually cross.

  26. mobic Avatar

    I couldnÒt sleep last night, but sheÒs been completely fine

  27. neurontin Avatar

    Instead Cup is all it’s cracked up to be, it seems

  28. nexium Avatar

    What is this country coming to when itÒs only old gits like us (no, heÒs no relation) who can be bothered to utter a voice of dissent every now and then?

  29. norvasc Avatar

    I have to agree with Merv, whoever he is. Yowza! This is scary to watch.

  30. omeprazole Avatar

    no fucken way i’m untying you, you stupid bitch, he said, spitting into the bushes. you’re fucken well staying right here.

  31. percocet Avatar

    Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the way politicians and journalists are pronouncing place names associated with the war on Iraq.

  32. percodan Avatar

    Nigel says that the person referred to in My Perfect Cousin by The Undertones is Jim McCloskey, famous Irish linguist.

  33. phenergan Avatar

    There are some really good web resources on sign language.

  34. pravachol Avatar

    As soon as you do, we’ll stop selling it.

  35. prednisone Avatar

    Tim suggests that whatÒs special about Tom WatsonÒs blog is that heÒs the first politician to use a blog to tell us what he really thinks instead of just telling us whatÒs in his diary.

  36. premarin Avatar

    Two languagey stories in todayÒs Independent, both useable for teaching, I think.

  37. prevacid Avatar

    Staying with a poetic theme, here is something I wrote in college. As you can see, I have a rather warped sense of humor.

  38. protonix Avatar

    Luckily, Stefan, the director of the institute, was there to discuss it all and I enjoyed listening to Alan and Stefan discussing it all.

  39. provigil Avatar

    Finally we have a replacement for my long lost beloved riding crop! (The story about how I lost it is here if youÒre interested.)

  40. prozac Avatar

    Today is the European Day of Languages. I wonder if David Blunkett is taking part?

  41. ranitidine Avatar

    ItÒs simple but effective. They also do other genres. Adolescent poetry is worth a look.

  42. reglan Avatar

    ItÒs official now. Black people love ethnorotica. [LiveJournal]

  43. renova Avatar

    Yes, I love these guys. I want them to be President. Nobody mentions this, but this is really a brilliant parenting book. Throw the rest of them out. (*****)

  44. risperdal Avatar

    IÒm surprised she didnÒt wait until tomorrow night.

  45. seroquel Avatar

    it was like he had me where he wanted me, so he could do anything he wanted to me, and yet he wasn’t that good at what he wanted to do.

  46. singulair Avatar

    I wish I had more to offer you than that.

  47. skelaxin Avatar

    My highbrow argument goes something like “Because of Joy King and Steve Orenstein, silly!”

  48. testosterone Avatar

    Does anyone else find that hard to process?

  49. topamax Avatar

    WeÒre having a lazy Sunday around here, nothing special going on. IÒm still trying to find a comforable sitting positionÅ

  50. tramadol Avatar

    Separating, we laid down on the bed and cuddled for a short time. He suggested a shower to wash off the oil & I said I thought that would be a good idea.

  51. tricor Avatar

    “P.G.S., I really can’t function without you.” I’m quite serious.

  52. ultracet Avatar

    Graphic Stories Ö No more than three pages per submission

  53. vioxx Avatar

    Just another lesson learned. A broken rule will come back and bite you in the ass in more ways than one!

  54. wellbutrin Avatar

    And doesn’t *that* little fact make your panties wet?

  55. xanax Avatar

    I too let out a loud chuckle until I caught myself thinking “he might be serious”.

  56. zanaflex Avatar

    Nigella is extremely fuckalicious. It’s just a shame that she opted to marry an insidious prick with lots of money, instead of a rich man with an insidious prick…

  57. zantac Avatar

    Damn, once again I was too disorganised to get myself ready in time for National Slacker Day

  58. zyban Avatar

    You can see the rest of the column here.

  59. irritable Avatar

    access for his gift (although it’s kind of a selfish

  60. irritable-bowel-syndrome Avatar

    Those Friday Thing folk said that boobah is Ña bit oddÒ

  61. folic Avatar

    well, you’ll have to go for a leak eventually, won’t you? then we’ll see what happens.

  62. lipitor-side-effects Avatar

    straight from the telegraph comment pages!

  63. tenuate Avatar

    I answered her questions, I just did not volunteer any further information.

  64. accutane Avatar

    I sit down at my desk and start writing the job description.

  65. Martial Development Avatar

    I had to read about a dozen of these comments before I figured out they are spam. The funny thing is, some of them fit right in.

  66. Cheap vicodin. Avatar

    Cheap vicodin….

    Cheap vicodin. Cheap vicodin cod….

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