Slashdot Mirror
What Brings Users to Blogs?
Billosaur writes "The Center for Citizen Media Blog has an interesting overview of the Collaborative News Survey 'Hype versus Reality', detailing the results of a study done by Hsing Wei from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government on why users are attracted to collaborative news, commenting and blogging sites. Among the conclusions of the study are that people who use these sites are 'mostly young and male, especially those who visit technology-related sites, looking for 'a fix of unique, informative fun,' and 'filling in the blanks' left by traditional news sources. Or is it just because it beats working?"
Dark and lonely on a summer's night.
Kill my landlord. Kill my landlord.
Watchdog barking. Do he bite?
Kill my landlord. Kill my landlord.
Slip in his window. Break his neck.
Then his house I start to wreck.
Got no reason. What the heck?
Kill my landlord. Kill my landlord.
C-I-L my land lord!
-Tyrone Green
It could be worse, it could be Monday.
No they don't.
On a "big news site" they give you the information. Period.
If they're wrong (in your opinion) or leave out important facts - too bad, they don't care about you. In a blog/comment arena you can interface directly with the author and flesh out the details, inaccuracies, or corroborate their work.
Community = Good.
noobcake or noobmuffin? It is the same price...
You know, the kind of person that keeps on talking without really even thinking about what they are actually saying. It is my belief that the same kind of logic can apply to a digital format. Friends do not let friends blog.
Yes, they do. I remember a group who said they didn't. They were called NAZIS!
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
My suspicion is that most users of sites like Slashdot are attracted to the site not because of original news content but because it offers a competitive forum and an opportunity for basking in the public spotlight. Young males eat that shit up. Give them a chance to post comments to hopefully accumulate good reviews and karma, thus establishing on online reputation, and they'll go for it. Not really that different than MMORPGs, if you think about it.
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
And for everything else there's Slashdot.
I remember when folks got online to share information about challenging technological problems... they exchanged code... and shared configuration tips... wanted to hear what other folks were doing... back in the daze of Usenet, you could find all sorts of folks from experts to beginners, and there was no deep psychological basis for those who stuck around to help... we were just glad to have them online... a bunch of nerds... Nowadays, we'd probably call these guys sickos needed to substitute their lack of self-esteem... blah blah blah... Could it be that some folks still do that? --Ray
http://www.beanleafpress.com
I don't recall the exact details, but Daily Kos has been fighting that "young and male [and uninformed]" meme for some time. In the last survey the age profile was fairly flat, with a modest peak in the 40s (iirc), but with strong response well into the 60s and 70s. Young males, ironically, were underrepresented given their relative abundance and their prime candidacy for bearing the weight of current GOP misadventures on their draft-age shoulders.
The other political blogs I'm on seem to have the same skew, if they report it at all. Technical blogs skew younger, but IIRC even slashdot has a sizeable over-30 and over-40 crowd.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Say what you want about blogging, but I've found it very useful to keep friends and family in touch with what I am doing. The fact that some people have found my blog content applicable to their interests says that others may find the content to be interesting. It has resulted invitations for me to speak at seminars, or ask me to consult or even to purchase pictures presented on my blog. Most times I've turned these offers down because of time constraints, but on some occasions I have accepted or granted permissions to reproduce articles/images.
All in all I would say that the benefits of keeping a blog have exceeded the costs and if you maintain that friends do not let friends blog, then perhaps you are hanging out with the wrong crowd. I for one would not want to keep company with folks that prevent one from succeeding, but would rather have friends that encourage success.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.