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Monday, October 06, 2008

indie blogs

Quiet around here lately.
And not just here (computer issues), but more generally. There did seem to be a mass desertion lull. Has blogging palled?
Content appeared to be going mainstream as a commodity, or perhaps it was invisible, facebooked elsewhere.
The point of my intended conversation wasn't to bemoan my lack of readers - content here has always meant to pleases only myself and perhaps a handful of others - but to maintain that microblogging and social networking combined with time constraints have made indie blogs obsolete.
Anne - in Comments at the wonderful Ample Sanity


But then The Presurfer turned 8:
It was great fun to start The Presurfer on September 24, 2000, and I'm still enjoying updating the site every day.

and I like is 6 and still going strong.
Every year I promise myself a bit of a sabbatical, changing tack for a while to talk more about why I do it, what I've learnt, where I think it's going. All a bit more meaty than the seaside and bubble cars. But then I think a lot of you are probably here for the seaside and bubble cars, not to hear my inner thoughts and there's the eternal conundrum.

Meanwhile, the meta musings at things (introductory or between the links) are always interesting
sometimes we think the internet is best simply for lists of things

A while ago, Fed By Birds posted a great link to the scrapbooks of Lewis Carroll, observing that the whimsical collection of items of interest resembled a blog.
I like that analogy. And whenever the blogging ennui strikes, it's good to keep in mind that a blog is allowed to be simply a web log of browsing.

And finding a fab new blog always helps.



(Update: I drafted this on Friday. Kim at LP today marks some local blogiversaries with related thoughts.)
 

8 comments:

Pants said...

we are sorry it has been quiet without us but now that we two have returned from sunny Lorne where we had everything except an ISP, we promise to make a bit of blognoise,
peace and love from me and Ann oDyne

boynton said...

Yes - we (the blogosphere) have missed you two.

I read about your seaside break with envy. I love that part of the world.

peacay said...

All well and good having blognetworks and aggregators and microblogging (millipedes at a thousand kbs?) and listomania and socialfacemyspacialising but there will always be room for good filterers and interesting voices.
MORE SHOUTY LESS NAVEL.
(I drafted this now)

boynton said...

AYE, AYE.

(Shouty and naval)

genevieve said...

Not sure whether to comment here or on the next about this - but there's a search engine that's been about for a bit called Hakia that relies heavily on the human filtering element, they have a Hakia Club (they do like the filterers to be librarians which is rather elitist of them, but you get my drift).

Margaret Simons attempted to classify blogs recently in this article - not sure if she gave enough credit to the filter effect or no, maybe her 'gatewatcher' and 'digest' categories attempt to capture both.
But I would probably stop blogging if I stopped filtering.

I don't have that much to say for myself, after all - if I did I'd be writing fulltime for money wouldn't I.

a thousand shades of twilight said...

Thanks for the link, Boynton. I love your blog and follow it regularly. Also, yay for indie blogs! Thanks for raising the topic - the discussion has been most interesting to a relative newcomer like me.
Cheers
Stevie
(aka A Thousand Shades of Twilight and Letslookupandsmile)

Anonymous said...

But the best blogs still allow you to inspect, investigate and be bemused by strange and distant things. And sample the context.

Like:

www.audiojunkies.com/blog/902/the-quietest-place-on-earth-orfield-labs
(Imagine a performance of Cage's "4' 33"' there.)

www.flickr.com/photos/george_eastman_house/2678371782/

http://curiousexpeditions.org/?cat=27

boynton said...

Simons: I think the digest function of blogs is becoming less important, because social networking sites are overtaking the function.
As a friendless FB user I couldn't say.
But as it was in the beginning, many blogs range across the categories.

Hakia looks good.

Thanks Stevie. Yay for ATSOS and LLUAS.
A blog like yours is inspiring.


Great links there, Nabs.
The last @ curious expeditions, well THIS - put me in mind of something seen at the excellent Creature of the Shade, well THIS.


Oh and I've got 10 more minutes of Fido Friday to mark this one at George Eastman House.