On airing dilettantism
2015-12-17 03:08:36.000659+00 by
Dan Lyke
8 comments
Rafe's comments are b0rk3d, so I'm gonna link from here: RC3: What's up with the blog?. My response:
Re "I’ve become less willing to air my dilettantism publicly", one of the problems I have with much modern Internet "bloggery" (I quote it because it's not the blogging I knew) is that in being targeted and polished, it's far too often simply regurgitating widely held beliefs in a way that gets hits and page views, rather than actually having insight and useful perspective.
We've lost, in many ways, the rough edged amateur view that made the earlier web such a tool for growth and change. I'm looking hard for where that space is now, because that's where the next evolution is going to come from.
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comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: On airing delettantism made: 2015-12-17 16:28:45.967931+00 by:
Larry Burton
I try to maintain mine with at least a story a week but I find that frequency
even hard at times. I also try to keep it a weblog by commenting on a story I
find on the Internet and linking to it. And because I use that platform as a way
to get my mind off of professional things you will find mine full of
dilettantism.
#Comment Re: On airing delettantism made: 2015-12-17 18:08:03.190543+00 by:
Mars Saxman
I've been wondering recently why I bother anymore, and, increasingly, not actually bothering. The era of blogs seems to have ended. Like you, I have my eyes open for some new space for amateurs and exploration, because the web is no longer it.
#Comment Re: On airing delettantism made: 2015-12-18 10:54:53.352495+00 by:
DaveP
I think I've made three changes to my weblog in the past five years. All have been page deletions
because someone emailed me a threatening letter saying I was using their trademark without proper
circle-R or had some comment near it that they didn't like. Apparently a link to their product wasn't
good enough, they wanted me to control the context of that link, as well.
In at least one of those cases, the page on my (neglected for the past five years, remember) blog had
higher pagerank (in google) than did their page. I suspect the others were similar, but couldn't be
bothered to check. But it's an interesting case of Search Engine Pessimisation to drive away one of
the few pages out there linking to you…
#Comment Re: On airing dilettantism made: 2015-12-25 10:57:04.519723+00 by:
meuon
Had the same problems. Explored FaceBook, find I talk to the same people there I do
elsewhere, but don't feel comfortable with deeper conversations.
Considered "BBS" style.. a place where people can be fairly anonymous if they want, and
a SysOp/Moderator can inflame or squelch things as they wish.
For example, I have a great rant in my head about getting older, after spending a week
plus with some 80+ year olds.. but no-where to share (other than Flutterby).
#Comment Re: On airing dilettantism made: 2015-12-26 12:18:52.325288+00 by:
DaveP
[edit history]
I did FB for a while. Bailed on that rather suddenly and started tweeting. Now I mostly say it in 140
characters, but I also go back and edit the past. There is no more permanent record like I had on my
blog.
For me, I've thought a few times about starting up a new blog, but I'd like to drag the old stuff along.
But then I'm faced with 15 years of stuff, in a format unique to my blog, and I lose energy. I'll
maybe get it all converted to static web-pages at some point, because my current host really isn't
very good, but there's an equally good chance I'll just let it fall off the web entirely.
#Comment Re: On airing dilettantism made: 2015-12-28 11:54:58.61919+00 by:
meuon
Blogging is useful for therapy. Sharing. But it's not the discussions or community I am
looking for. There is Flutterby of course..
#Comment Re: On airing dilettantism made: 2015-12-29 17:18:30.6032+00 by:
Dan Lyke
Flutterby works for sharing thoughts on aging! I suspect that Facebook's algorithms, in being set up to maximize advertising engagement, are also set up to maximize inane meaningless political discu... ranting.
I'm finding that much conversation these days is happening in private IRC and Slack rooms, which I'm not fond of, I don't like the synchronous nature of those, but Facebook and Twitter are... there, but not great.
#Comment Re: On airing dilettantism made: 2015-12-30 10:08:39.145624+00 by:
DaveP
Hoder got out of prison and is convinced blogs are dead or at least dying, too.