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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.