Monday, March 26, 2007

[blogging on blogging] a bit incestuous perhaps

There is something a bit 'in-house' about blogging on blogging, I know and yet Norm's post, via Cleanthes, makes some good points:

Has the blogging phenomenon passed its peak? According to this piece in the Sunday Times, maybe. It focuses on the number of blogs that go dormant - 'because their authors run out of things to say, have not got the time to write' etc. - but in any case it's an impression I've formed as well.

Some of the earlier enthusiasm of both bloggers and readers of blogs seems to have cooled; several debates that occupied the political blogosphere have been gone over so many ways there's less life in them now, even if they haven't fully run their course; the very abundance of online comment may well discourage potential participants by suggesting that their voices are lost in the crowd.


Cleanthes himself concludes:

To say any more is to commit the unforgiveable sin of “blogging about blogging”.

Personally, I feel it has neither died nor is dying and to this end, I've noticed Thersites and Daily Propaganda have returned, whilst the number of relatively new blogs turning up during the trawl for the Blogfocus is encouraging. Just hope we can get some of them into Blogpower.

If you look at Westminster Wisdom, for example, it seems very much alive and kicking, even if I am currently getting a kicking over there. But that is the joy of debate.

6 comments:

  1. I think that it is a bit overblown. The article picked up in the Australian rehashed all the stuff about celebrity blogs being dormant. Who cares? Who cares if gazillions of blogs got started and then stopped for whatever reason. Blogs have to have energy and commitment and if it is not there then the writing will be uninspiring and uninteresting. Remember virtually nobody is making any money here and the ones that are are professional journalists, using blogs as a different way to say the same thing. I think that the quality of the blogs that are hanging in there are generally higher and that is a good thing. There are more than plenty good blogs around to spend all day reading and who has time for that?

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  2. There are more active blogs than can possibly be accessed by one person. The blogosphere is constantly changing and adapting, and it is simply not possible to keep up with all of them. Some of them die out because the author runs out of things to say, but many, many continue on.

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  3. Celebrity blogs do not interest me. That is just a way of someone staying in the limelight, just for the sake of staying in the limelight. More blogs will die than will stay alive, but I enjoy the blogs I read and they keep me informed. Even though the vast majority of blogs I read are political and conservative, I find they are better balanced than the BBC; which isn't very hard when you think about it.

    Perhaps blogging is reaching a mature status. If it is, there will be fewer blogs, but the quality will go higher and higher.

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  4. Personally my feeling is that blogging is just a platform. Its a bit like keeping a diary- and you should think of it like that- I can't quite see that it will now die so long as the technology exists. My own thoughts for what its worth is that particular groups of blogs may die- Guido Fawkes said he'll shut down in a couple of years for example at one point and I can well imagine us all taking a break at particular points- but I think the medium will exist no matter what.

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  5. As Colin said, 'Who cares?' Thunderdragon is right about the sheer number of blogs. I'm also with Andrew on 'celebrity blogs'. They leave me cold. Tiberius, it's a diary, yes and the medium will keep going as long as we want it to.

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  6. Excellent comments here: as I've blogged myself, I've fallen out of love with it slightly and I know one or two others who have too. Perhaps the initial burst of energy is fading and we'll see a slightly altered or shifted blogosphere emerge from this phase (if it's happening), with perhaps the best surviving or certain types of blogs surviving.

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