Category: Weblogging

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Gary asked an interesting question earlier in the week:

I wonder how many people started blogging after receiving this dictat from Chris Locke.

Seems that Chris, otherwise known as Rageboy is blogging papa to several people, including Gary, Denise, Jeneane and others.

I didn’t start weblogging because of Chris. I blush to admit that I started weblogging in April of 2001 primarily because I wanted to try out the technology. And I wasn’t all that impressed with weblogging at first – particularly since I had a Manila site and didn’t and still don’t like Manila as a weblogging tool.

Though I didn’t begin weblogging because of Chris, I soon became a fan of his; he was the first entry on my blogroll, and also paid me the kindness by adding me to his. In addition, I discovered one of my closest weblogging friends, Stavros the WC through Chris – leading to some really Strange and Wonderous Moments in Weblogging (SWMW), and a life that never promised to be dull. Scary at times, but never dull.

Through Chris didn’t start me blogging, you have him to thank for me still weblogging today. When I wanted to quit (and actually did quit for a time) last November, Chris (and Sharon another of my closest weblogging friends) convinced me to give the weblog a little longer.

Considering that I have a love/hate relationship at times with weblogging (we all do, don’t we?), I don’t know whether to thank Chris for his intervention, or tell him to go get f**cked. However, knowing Chris as much as anyone can remotely, I think he’d be equally happy with either expression.

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

The Happy Tutor has written a longish weblog posting regarding my earlier posting, The Lost Art of Courtesy.

Happy writes:

I wonder, though, BB, are courteous blogs “scaleable”? If we want to reach an audience of 10-20 personable losers, and we all constantly comment on each other’s posts, then it would be cozy, but closed. Let’s say that 400-4,000 people read a blog, could the author possibly be “courteous” to all, going to their blog, and exchanging bland comments and notes?

Sigh. I never know with Happy Tutor postings whether he’s agreeing with me, or disagreeing with me. Should I respond to the Happy Tutor persona, who disagrees with agreement, compliments that which is to be despised? Or should I respond to the person behind the Happy Tutor persona, who has real opinions and real thoughts.

If I’m in a playful mood, I’ll usually respond directly to Happy, and fun is had by all. However, when I’m in a more thoughtful or somber mood, I find the persona to be irritating.

Are blogs online simply to be overheard? Or are they an extraordinarily exhibitionistic way to maintain a small social network? If you want to exchange pleasantries with a few friends, why not use email or a listserv? Why post personal conversations where millions could read and where every banal remark will be permanently archived in Google or the Wayback Machine? Why not keep a paper diary and circulate it by snail mail to your friends, and have them do the same?

Weblogging – Open door communities, with no borders or boundaries. Does this scale? Who gives a shit.

Now, Happy – you want more, knock at my door, and as password give your name and true opinion, and we’ll talk.

This is the first posting with Movable Type’s Trackback incorporated.

Ah, I love the smell of new technology in the morning.

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Along with our respect for freedom and our sense of humor and perspective, seems we’ve lost something else in this modern age of connectivity – our courtesy. And in its void, we’ve replaced it with various guises of non-courtesy masquerading as courtesy.

For instance, there’s the lost courtesy of the client who filled up so much of my time just before I moved that I had to hire help to finish.

Or the phantom courtesy of those who request help or information and who chat away, chat away, only to fall silent when their needs are met.

One of my favorites is the A-list courtesy demonstrated by the person who doesn’t respond to a personal email, not because they don’t have time, but because they don’t deem the email to be important enough.

Token courtesy is asking someone how they are and not really wanting to hear the answer; or expressing sympathy or compassion or caring, not because they’re genuine emotions but because there’s little cost to saying the words over the Internet.

How about the anonymous courtesy of the anonymous commenter. Weblog graffiti. At least the street artists have skill.

Artificial courtesy: the weblog posting, comment, or little note that gleefully points out flaw after flaw, ignoring the possibility that amidst the mud and the dirt and the garbage is a tiny perfect gem – a lovely phrase, a clean sentence, and genuine sincerity.

Finally, in this list of non-courtesies, there’s the null space courtesy:

I’m one of the luckier webloggers who has decent readers who usually stop, and take a moment to drop a comment or two. And I love them to pieces when they do. However, I go to weblog after weblog, and see the infamous zip, zero, nada comment count because those who read, appreciate, and run don’t have the courtesy to take a moment and drop a line. And yes, that’s me in this bunch because I’m just as discourteous as the rest.