February 8, 2002

8:59 AM

Here comes the backlash. Like a torrent of crap down Main St., Blogtown after a heavy rain.
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger (13 comments total)

i'm sorry, t3, but why post a recap to the front page? both the dvorak and time articles have been posted, while the TMN article is original. (why not also mention the cs monitor article?)
posted by moz at 9:18 AM on February 8, 2002

Hang on tight...Its tme for the great Blog shakeout of 2002.
When the music stops, every blogger try and grab a reason for existence (other than the ubiquitous "look at me!").
posted by BentPenguin at 9:20 AM on February 8, 2002

Sorry, maybe it wasn't a valid post but it just seems like there's a trend here...
Blogs flourish so now it becomes cool to hate blogs. Thought it might make for an interesting discussion as I know many MeFi members also maintain blogs of their own.
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 9:20 AM on February 8, 2002

t3:

actually, i think the articles you cite (besides the TMN mini-op/ed) are positive of weblogging. the negativity hasn't quite hit the journalist community in significant degree, though it probably will at some point. i mentioned at the TMN forum as well that i think many weblogs shouldn't be judged so harshly for they really aren't intended to be well-written pieces of art (as opposed to trying and failing).
posted by moz at 9:26 AM on February 8, 2002

Funny, I thought the backlash happened three years ago.
posted by jjg at 9:58 AM on February 8, 2002

Another point to be made is that the majority of bloggers make no effort to reach a wide audience. They exist for the pleasure of the author(s) and their friends'n'family, and their content reflects that.

I have a blog, and I've made efforts to make it "public" (I've even taken out TextAds), but the vast majority of bloggers will never take that leap. There's no point holding them up to scrutiny for making spelling mistakes.

Sure, we might see a shake-out, but what I think is more likely is a further differentiation between these "public" and "private" blogs.
posted by me3dia at 10:00 AM on February 8, 2002

Yes, this backlash hit years ago, but I'm wondering if this is the second-generation of backlash. The weblog phenomenon started when a) the tools arrived to make the backend process easy, and b) a format was established that made coming up with content easy (annotated links and diary entries). So a lot of people got on board. But now a couple of years have gone by and recently I've been seeing a lot of posts from bloggers who are getting bored of the format and don't want to do the default thing anymore but instead try for something more ambitious or maybe just truer to themselves. That's why I think this round of backlash isn't focused so much on weblogs themselves but the quality of the content.

Anyway, speaking of backlash, here's another recent find: The List.
posted by jga at 11:19 AM on February 8, 2002

wow, all the a-list noise you could ever want repackaged and sold for no profit. thanks, jga.
posted by moz at 11:27 AM on February 8, 2002

Figures, just as I get around to doing a blog, they go out of style... someone give me another project, please!
posted by Hugh2d2 at 11:37 AM on February 8, 2002

What does that PCmag guy have against pages of cat pics?! More kitty porn!
posted by meep at 12:18 PM on February 8, 2002

I don't mind weblog criticism, but couldn't we get some new complaints? Reading the same ones time and time again is boring.
posted by megnut at 12:38 PM on February 8, 2002

0format adds a response to the previous comment. It's a global village we live in, isn't it.
posted by jga at 1:35 PM on February 8, 2002

...but MY blog is *different* than everyone else's...I swear...and my purpose for maintaining a blog is much more profound than everyone else's. Really.
posted by davidmsc at 8:54 PM on February 8, 2002