It seemed to me that the number of useless postings and blog entries was starting to increase and there was less and less there that was really of interest.
This could be the sign of a worrying phenomenon. Perhaps the blogs, after a brief time when they were seen by some as a wholly new wave of internet development, are losing their appeal.
The earliest bloggers have been at it for two years now – how many days can someone keep on posting to their LiveJournal site, or visiting Blogger to add more details about their cat’s mysterious illness?
OK, that’s all I need to hear. I hereby quit weblogging.
Let the backlash begin… though this piece seems to fall into the same trap as the hype around weblogs. The amount of wothwhile reading out there is proportionate to the good ideas that are reasonably well expressed. A weblog is just a useful mechanism… if you’ve got nothing to say, or you don’t have a real reason to write, then there’s no point in reading you. A nice software application won’t make you interesting. Then again, I don’t know anybody who says that it will, except maybe for journalists who write dumbed-down tech pieces for mainstream audiences.
Via OLDaily
Caution: Ill formed thoughts dead ahead!
I agree that there may be a problem on the horizon…although it is neat to watch some articles create a buzz and get reposted on numerous blogs….I think we need to be careful and add sufficent new value to the reposts.
Cyprien (http://radio.weblogs.com/0100115/) and I having been talking about a “turnitin.com” type filter for your aggregator that might strip out posts that don’t wrap enough new value around reposts?????
Jim
Jim: That type of filter might have another unintended benefit: out of consideration to my miniscule outside readership, I try not to post on articles that have been extensively blogged elsewhere… but that sort of self-censorship attenuates the “personal knowledge management” benefit of maintaining a weblog.
I’m not aware of plug-in filters for aggregators, but that notion in itself is intriguing.
I started using the weblog as an online brain, to keep all kinds of bits of stuff that might come in handy later. I’ve come to realize that a whole lot of the stuff that rolls around in my head doesn’t belong in a public forum, so I’ve also got an offline brain as well (currently using DEVONthink Personal Edition). The combo works quite nicely – online weblog for stuff that can be shared. Offline version for stuff that is best left to the inner voices.