October 30, 2002

8:54 AM

Eight blogger archetypes? A funny story on Kuro5hin describes various types of webloggers in the blogosphere. Are they they missing a few blogger types or did they nail it?
posted by Argyle (26 comments total)

"Side note: What would happen if AOL gave everyone a free (so easy to use!) blog with their AOL discs?"

Wow, there's a frightening thought. Could blogs become the battleground for AOL/MSN 9.0?


I'd say there's at least one archetype left out -- journal bloggers (joggers, to put into the author's nickname style), bloggers who write diaristic entries, but aren't focused on boy bands, goth bands, or broadbands.
Since the other archetype percentages add up to 98.5%, I guess they make up only 1.5% of the population.
posted by me3dia at 9:10 AM on October 30, 2002

He missed out Lazy Blogger. I think I'm Lazy Blogger.

Actually, the whole range of titles makes it sound a bit like the Smurf Village. Except bloggers have less tails, and some of them wear shirts. Now, if I can only work out who Gargamel is.
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:11 AM on October 30, 2002

My favorite bloggers are the Storytellers: folks who recount humorous and interesting anecdotes and ideas. mimi smartypants, Mighty Girl, Clark Horbell, and Metafilter's own Kafkaesque and Machaus are among the best.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 9:15 AM on October 30, 2002

count me as missing! not polite to give URL, but you can check. I am over 70, and what I do differs from all blog archetypes mentioned. There are a few others who do antholgies--links to this and that of interest, tons of them, many hours per day and week, no ads, no pay pal, no pop ups...just serving the cause of Humanitiy!
posted by Postroad at 9:16 AM on October 30, 2002

I, for one, welcome our new blogger overlords.

Any bets on when the "What kind of blogger are you?" test appears?
posted by Foosnark at 9:20 AM on October 30, 2002

heheheh they got my number; I'm definitely a linkblogger. And the funny thing is, I do tend to test INTJ.
posted by condour75 at 9:22 AM on October 30, 2002

i'm guessing i am part of that last 1.5%. perhaps a jogger, as me3dia mentioned.

and he left out photography-based blogs as well. (phoggers?)
posted by grabbingsand at 9:30 AM on October 30, 2002

Postroad, is your blog still not work-safe? You may want to warn people. You do dredge up some interesting links, but the pictures on there, in terms of sheer volume, well, that's a whole different kind of blogging.
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:35 AM on October 30, 2002

I checked Postroad's blog from my desk. Good thing I'm a CIO... It's not work safe. But I did make a note to check it out from home. :)

Perhaps progger or xogger would be fitting terms.
posted by Argyle at 9:42 AM on October 30, 2002

Nitpicking: I know all the techies I am acquainted with would blanch at this phrase alone: "my project to turn GIMP into an auto-dynamic IP range modifier" -- and the rest of it is pretty goofy too.

And this is just silly:
"Stupid right wing commie nuts like X and Y really upset me. This country was founded on the principle of guns and happiness or something, wasn't it? What's all this peace crap?"

yes, I do have the unfortunate problem of being unable to appreciate inaccurate parody. no, I'm not any fun at parties.
posted by babylon at 9:51 AM on October 30, 2002

Shadowkeeper: Mimi's hilarious! Thanks for a great find.
posted by condour75 at 9:55 AM on October 30, 2002

From my own limited experience and frustration with templates (losing of) and archives (non-recovery of), I'd say that Blogger=Gargamel.

And Shadowkeeper is too modest to mention that his own Defective Yeti is also an excellent Storyteller blog.
posted by yhbc at 10:01 AM on October 30, 2002

babylon--you stole my comment. This article seems like a reasonable idea that is sloppily-executed. It's too cutesy and not really all that funny. And most of it is too...obvious. Making fun of techies, hippies, teenage girls? Fish-BLAM!-Barrel.
posted by Fabulon7 at 10:02 AM on October 30, 2002

"Favorite Offline Activities: Meeting other bloggers in real life to talk about blogs."

Hee! That was my favourite part!
posted by kristin at 10:25 AM on October 30, 2002

Ooo, I neglected to mention one of the best (and, sadly, now defunct) Storytelling blogs: EOD.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 10:32 AM on October 30, 2002

I think they left out a large population like myself: politically frustrated people who are bored at their 9-5 and just rant about whatever comes up on sites like MeFi.

I guess I agree with Kafkaesque... I'm lazy.
posted by zekinskia at 10:41 AM on October 30, 2002

I also don't want to self-link, but feel left out of these descriptions. Closest would be warblogger, I guess, though the area of interest is completely different.

A more general term might be ideoblogue (yeah, I know you could also say "idio-"), where the blog exists in order to support a specific point of view, not just with rants but with an accretion of mainstream-sourced "facts." The appeal is based not on how many people may see it and/or be suddenly "converted" but on the convenience of having all these sources handy within a couple clicks, wherever I happen to be.

Any one else of this type, or am I ideo-syncratic?
posted by soyjoy at 11:01 AM on October 30, 2002

Despot Blogger: creates a tiny republic online and rules over it with an iron fist. Swats visitors like flies when they get out of line and is not above using server admin priveleges to takethe advantage in a flame war. Postings consist of unresearched proclamations about everything under the sun, with which you'd better agree, or else.

I am definitely that.
posted by scarabic at 11:32 AM on October 30, 2002

I think he missed the Vaguely Disgruntled Stay-at-Home Parent Blogger. A Pogger? or a Blogorent? Generally late twenties to early forties. Blogs about lack of money, cabin fever, and either fulsome praise of or angry rants about kids and spouse, depending on the day. Kinda like a Trailer Blogger, but with more class. Occasionally like a Goth Blogger, but not given to crappy poetry. A lot of times, doesn't update daily, because too exhausted and/or depressed from housework and cooking. I'm one of those.

And a lot of blogs are combinations. Lileks, to give a well known example, is a combination of Warblogger and Blogorent. He's less disgruntled as a parent than most, but I attribute to the fact that he actually has an outside job and gets out of the house, and that he's not struggling for money. So it's basically war war war, my 2 year old is the smartest 2 year old ever, war war war, my 2 year old did the cutest thing, war war war.
posted by CoFenchurch at 11:58 AM on October 30, 2002

I'm with bab and Fab. Nice idea so sloppily done it was hardly worth reading. "Trailer blogger"? "Right-wing commie nuts" (as babylon already noticed)? If you're gonna draw that pistol, bwah, you better know how to use it.
posted by languagehat at 12:05 PM on October 30, 2002

What about nonconservative bloggers who don't write about themselves?
posted by PrinceValium at 1:38 PM on October 30, 2002

or did they nail it?
dood ain't got a clue.
posted by quonsar at 2:53 PM on October 30, 2002

a

it'll be hell trying when to link to it for the best effect but if ever i saw a site that i knew for sure i'd link to at some point, it's this one.

quonsar, i owe you a drink. thanks!
posted by dobbs at 4:51 PM on October 30, 2002

poetry weblogs?
posted by walrus at 10:41 AM on October 31, 2002

I have another version with more bloggers (Raver, Web Logger, Anti-Blogger, Troll, etc...) done with D&D stats. K5 didn't vote it onto the site, but it may find a home elsewhere soon. I'll come back and leave a link if it does.

Thx.
posted by kpaul at 12:18 PM on October 31, 2002

Blogger Bestiary (2nd ed.)
posted by kpaul at 3:01 PM on October 31, 2002