Slashdot Mirror
Blog Binging Gorges the Net
Site Pixie writes "Most blogs are created by someone you don’t know, often about something you don’t care about, but that hasn’t stopped ‘blogging’ from becoming a remarkably ubiquitous phenomenon. There are even blogs about blogs such as The Blog Herald. It looks like everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame online. Estimates put the number of blogs to be in the tens of millions, with several factors influencing the count, such as whether a blog is available for public or private consumption. Carl Bialik investigates the intricacies of counting blogs, and shows how blog indexing sites like BlogPulse and Technorati are bursting at the seams with thousands of new blog entries everyday."
Just another internet fad (though useful to some degree, if they're good).
But may I suggest rather than blog, we could call them blahgs, or even blah-blah-blahgs.
Carl Bialik investigates the intricacies of counting blogs, and shows how blog indexing sites like BlogPulse and Technorati are bursting at the seams with thousands of new blog entries everyday.
Technorati has always been slow for me and somewhat outdated. Google's Blogsearch, OTOH, seems fairly current and loads much faster.
I have only seen a few hits from Technorati (ending up at my site) but quite a few more coming from Google, starting only in the last 10 days or so.
My dictionary lists "binging" as an acceptable spelling, but it took me a couple of extra parses on this (not least because "gorges" can be a noun as well as a verb.)
I still don't, ya know, CARE, but at least I understand the headline.
I'm a crabby old guy resistant to jargon.
The word "blogs", esp. blogger (and all derived words) have rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning -- especially when we have words like "write" and "writer."
Thankfully, I've found this guy who really says it all better than I can.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
News for merdes. Shit that matters.
Ask me about my sig.
I could say the same about some Slashdot comments.
But I won't, because I chose to read your comment, it was not shoved down my throat.
Apparently if I create a web page and upload some text to it, that's not a blog. But if I use an idiot proof content-management system to "type" my web page instead of "coding" it, I'm then creating a blog.
Once you start putting pictures and links on your blog, you're making a webpage...
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
Actually, that's been the power and failing of the internet all along. Anything which gives power to the common man, letting us hear his good ideas, unfortunately also gives power to the common man, giving us access to his incessant prattle. Really, what do you want? Do you want some large media company sifting through and deciding what's good?
I'd rather have access to weblogs, at least so long as they are distinguished from spam in one factor: they aren't showing up in my inbox uninvited. Say as much as you want for however long as you want in your own weblog, and as long as I have to actively choose to read it, fine by me.
If you don't like my weblog, there's a simple solution. Don't visit it.
If you mean intentional spam, then it's not the second by far (usenet spam or instant-message spam came first).
If you mean unintentional spam, then you're misusing the word. You can more or less avoid bloggers you dislike, because unlike real spammers, they aren't single-mindedly trying to insert themselves into as many inboxes and search results as they possibly can.
I maintain a site run via WordPress, that publishes an RSS feed. However, I don't use it to write about my (uninteresting to most of the universe) day to day life. Rather, I write semi-technical articles about subjects people might be interested in.
No doubt this is lumped in with the "blogs". However, it's just an extension of what I've done for years, but now I don't have to write static HTML pages and FTP them around. I using weblog software as a content management system and RSS to let people know when I've "published" something. Comments on the system allow me to get feedback and questions that everyone can see, rather than have me privately answer the same thing 10 times from my Inbox.
I would state that this categorically isn't a "blog", just a more useful incarnation of what people have been putting on the web for years. I'm pretty sure many other "blogs" are like mine (heck, looking at my RSS list, 99% will be better).
The internet has always been full of garbage (or, more PC'ly, "stuff I'm not interested in"). Just ignore it if you don't like it, and focus on the stuff you do like.
I agree it is hard to count blogs....please see my blog for more information.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
"Most blogs are created by someone you don't know, often about something you don't care about, but that hasn't stopped 'blogging' from becoming a remarkably ubiquitous phenomenon.
Most web pages, emails, usenet posts, instant messages, SMSes, books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, and indeed, spoken words are created by people I don't know, often about things I don't care about, and that hasn't stopped any of them from becoming remarkably ubiquitous.
I don't understand why people think blogging is different from any of the above.
It looks like everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame online.
That's a crass assumption. Most do it because they enjoy doing it. Some do it because they want to make money. Some do it because all of their friends are doing it. People have a lot of different reasons. I seriously doubt that "fame", even fifteen minutes of it on the web, is a real motivator for all but a tiny but vocal minority.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
Also, water is wet. Food satisfies hunger.
Can we have more of these content-free statements of the blindingly obvious, please?
Slashdot subscribers, please stand up so that I can laugh at you.
-b
myselfmusic
I have a weblog. I don't use it to look for fame; I use it to communicate experiences with friends and family, with the added feature that others who want information about what it's like to have these experiences may read my weblog to do so.
:-(.) We called it "a development log." Why do new words have to be invented for something, especially when they are just the lazy contraction of existing words that work perfectly well?
I find it a lot more effective than getting on the phone with various family members and friends in different time zones and repeating the same stories over and over again. It allows those who are interested to find out what's going on when they want to, and allows me to communicate any updates when I want to.
And I agree, the word "blog" is annoying, and, as far as I can tell, purely a media construct. Back in the day, when I was doing game development, I used to post a monthly development log on progress on the game. (Unforutnately, it's been lost to the mists of time - even the Wayback Machine can't get to it
Don't underestimate the power of The Source
Imagine if all the man-power being used to complain about people not bringing clean water to starving children was instead used to bring clean food to thirsty children.
And web pages are glorified HTTP responses.
Blogs' improvement over webpages is that it's amazingly simple to build and maintain the page, meaning that nearly anyone with half a brain can get a "write-mode" Internet presence that looks good. Today's blogs would have just been yesterday's seizure-inducing, flashing, malformed Geocities page (if it existed at all).
Podcasting isn't all that revolutionary in its parts, but it was more of a chemical reaction among the technologies of web audio (and the bandwidth to carry it), RSS with Enclosures and automated downloaders, (to some extent) portable media players, and the content, personalities, and zealotry to put it all together. Sure, you could do the same thing years ago, and many did, but static-file, homebrew "Internet Radio" never really took off until the method got solidified into a simple, standardized flow, and got the "pass-it-on" mentality that made a lot of listeners into podcasters themselves.
Information wants to be free.
Entertainment wants to be paid.
You just want to be cheap.
Wow, the submitter seems to think that blogs are worthless, yet it's a huge phenomenon, and seems puzzled as to why. I've seen this attitude before--it's common on Slashdot--but it's misguided. A weblog is simply someone posting their thoughts on a topic that interests them. It could be links to other sites, it could be software development, it could be graphic arts, it could be TV commercials, it could simply be what appear to be mundane details about daily life. The key is that you ignore what you don't care about. The mundane detail blogs are intended for family and friends (but could still be read by anyone who might want to). The graphic arts blogs are likely only of interest to other graphic artists. Slashdot-types might like software development blogs, Linux advocacy blogs, OS X blogs, and so on. There's no need to be cynical just because other people are writing about topics you have no interest in.
Just because you have thoughts doesn't mean they need to be shared. The average blogger reminds me of the average loudmouthed kid who has to make every single thing that goes through his mind every second of the day known to the world.
Okay, you hate George Bush. Wow. That's unique. Great, you hate pinko commie liberal hippies. Good for you. What a unique perspective. You're said about Brad and Jennifer breaking up. Oh, dear - I'm so glad you took the time to communicate that with the world. Your head hurts and your boyfriend dumped you - hurrah. We're so glad to be kept up to date on this. You found an interesting site to link to... wonderful for you.
Every person on the face of the earth does not need a public diary and soap box in the same way that we don't need 800,000,000 television stations so that every single individual can have their own television station to broadcast their drivel on.
And what it still comes down to is that almost all blogs are nothing but a giant ego stroke. People trying to post things that present themselves in such a way as to gain "friends" and attention and make people like them. It's all about "look how neat I am. look at how interesting my thoughts are - don't you want to know me and post on my blog and link to me?"
If you're Seamus - the xbox designer - you might have some great stuff to say on your blog. If you're Seumas, the software engineer who runs a massive free niche auction site but are an otherwise normal person with nothing groundbreaking to say that hasn't already been said a million times in this world through every medium - why should you create a "blog" and throw your every stupid observation, commentary and rundown of your daily personal life out there on the net for six billion potential people to view? Who gives a fuck? You're nobody and you're not unique or interesting.
THE PROBLEM WITH BLOGGING IS THE SELF DELUSION THAT YOU BELIEVE YOU MATTER OR THAT PEOPLE GIVE A FUCK WHAT YOU SAY.
And what is the difference between someone posting a message on Slashdot and running their own blog? A blog is about me me me with frequent updates about me me me in some way. Posting to slashdot is offering a one-time statement in a community of voices regarding the current subject.
And I don't care if people think "slashdot was the first big blog". Slashdot is no more a blog than CNN or FOXNEWS or BBC.COM is. It's just another site with news - except that you can comment on the news items (just like you can at Yahoo! news and elsewhere). Since when does everything that isn't static and has an update on some variably frequent or infrequent basis become a "blog"? If you put up a website and never change it, it's a website? But if you put up a website and you update it over the years, it's a blog?
I differentiate blogs from websites based on the criteria of "things I have to say and a place for you to discuss what I have to say with me". Websites may be about you. But blogs are about desperate attempts to build a community around *YOU*. Though occasionally put to good use by certain worthy individuals, often exploited to a useless degree by the self-important blog-cliques.
And for fuck's sake, if you're going to have a "blog", please at least call it a website anyway. When someone tells me to "check out my blog" or "take a look at my livejournal" or I see that it's just a blog from a cookie cutter domain that spits them out with the difficulty of signing in with an email address (instead of having to install drupal or something), it makes me *not* want to go to your site. And chances are, I never will because of it. Just like I would never want to go sit in your bedroom and read y our stupid journal.
It would be interesting to know how many people don't blog for fame-- blogging for personal or practicle reasons. Quite honestly, a blog is often better than a notebook. You can update your blog from any computer. Blogs are hard to lose. They don't fall apart after months of use. And you can read a blog anywhere on the internet.
I have four personal blogs just for that reason-- a wine blog because I have problems remember that great wine I had last year, a photo blog because it's easier to blog photos than it is to email them to friends, a house maintenance blog because damned if I can remember the last time I replaced the furnance filters, and a generic personal blog.
I don't consider this "blog spam" I don't hype or advertise them. Yes they are public, but it's easier to have a public blog, than a private blog for a dozen or so people. And, they are just so damn convienent.
Now for the tech diss. The blogger has no idea what he is doing. Tell me stupid blogger, what is a C struk? What is a PERL registered expression? WHO is Linux Torvalds? You do not know. Sadly. All you know is your cats, and maybe what you had for lunch, and how to link to your frends. Well, try getting a girl with THAT. Ha ha I laugh at you.
Now sad bloggger. If you'll excuse me, I have to go back to better activities than thinking about you, such as reading Slashdot and making some karma that is actually WORTH something, not stupid PageRank for my BLOG. If you see me on the street (I am the one in the pimp ALL YOUR BASE tshirt) go the other way. Do not look. Do not linhger. Go home and write about your FEELings and live the mack programming to the /. crowd and see who wins the girls.
Dys
Like many Slashdotters, I have a "blog" myself. I write it for an audience of one. If someone expresses an interest in something I've written, as they do from time to time, it's interesting and, to a limited extent, I'll engage in the odd argument, but for the most part, the blog exists for me to let off steam. As a location I can rant about politics, computers, cellphone companies, Slashdotters, open source and free software, and other stuff, without actually boring the pants off the people around me or offending them. Sometimes I'll ask a question in the hope it'll be answered, but for the most part, I honestly don't care. The only real interactive nature of it is that after a while, if and when people do look occasionally enough to think it worthwhile looking regularly, you end up with a little community of people who are interested in each other's stuff. Kind of like a group of people who hang out at a pub. That's really the only reason it ends up going online.
And I don't think most bloggers care either. Do you think the 14 year old who explains in great depth how Snuggles shat all over her mother's best rug today and how yesterday Mike (urgh!) broke up with her AGAIN really considers this more than a version of her diary with the potential for the odd bit of feedback?
As far as calling a blog a website and other stuff. Why? Amazon's "just a website" too, as is "Cingular.com" and "Yahoo". A blog is a relatively specific form of website, it's an online journal (and not a "home page" as at least one person argued. This (NSFW! NSFH either, come to think of it...) is a home page, and this is a blog.) It may be a stupid sounding name, but it's nonetheless describes a particular type of website rather than "all websites". Would I prefer a term like "journal"? Probably, that'd probably be more reasonable, and some people - and for the most part I myself do - use that term instead. But you're not suggesting "journal", you're suggesting "website", which I'll start calling blogs the day I drive to building in my vehicle every period of day, driving back to other building in my vehicle while stopping by another building to get products on the way back every some other period of day.
My advice: lose the snobbery. And if you feel posting your unsolicited feelings and news on the web should be beneath anyone, you might want to reconsider your policy of involving yourself in Slashdot discussions. You're missing the point, in a way far sillier than any teenager who writes about their cat is.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I hate euphemisms.
Let's stop calling these things blogs (a word which was probably invented by a corporate whore with too much time on his hands), and start calling them what they have always been called. It's a f*cking journal that's readable by the public.
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
I think, actually, one of the reasons people mod "overrated" and "underrated" is because it's a way to mod numerically without having to choose a description that doesn't fit. The mod probably thought that it was a generally bad post, though not flamebait or trolling.
Also, why can't a post at it's unmoderated default rating be overrated or underrated?
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
Wow, I remember when I was a teen and the internet was the new big thing (granted, this was the early 90's and the internet wasn't new then, but...)
Everyone was saying how great it would be when everyone was able to easily create and share information.
People, this is what we wanted, and it's pretty much here. This is a good thing. All we need now are better and better ways of sorting & indexing the information being created and shared.