Alpine Opinion

Dying blogs

Posted in Uncategorized by Ray Dixon on 17 November, 2009

All over the place I see blogs that are all but abandoned with the authors barely managing one new post a month.

What’s happened? Is it Twitter?

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34 Responses

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  1. Don said, on 17 November, 2009 at 11:48 am

    Oh dear, I think I’m probably in that category. Working on the Don’t Shit Me! book though and other things. But thanks for the prompt, I need to lift my game!

  2. RodH said, on 17 November, 2009 at 11:57 am

    It’s frustrating Ray, there was once a lively, informative and highly amusing community out there, but now only the sound of crickets, the death of Grods seemed to herald the end.

  3. Ray Dixon said, on 17 November, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    Well it’s hard to replace Grods, Rod, it was so unique. I can’t get into the more serious pseudo political & media-criticising blogs though, they’re not my thing. Politics & journalism is best mocked, not analysed in my opinion.

  4. Iain Hall said, on 17 November, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    It does not help when certain sanctimonious idiots go around playing vigilante over old and imagined sins of various individuals think that they can dictate what others write about.
    I recommend that you make use of the”tag surfer” page on WordPress to find new playmates and new writers who are still interested in the blog as a platform for discourse. I have found some great blogs with it.
    Grods had its moments but as the “home” of many of the aforementioned sanctimonious idiots it also had more than its share of problems as well.

    Twitter will only last as long as there is not a platform( maybe caller”Itr”) that allows just 14 characters and the fashion victims desert twitter for it in droves…….

  5. Ray Dixon said, on 17 November, 2009 at 2:02 pm

    You mean like iTwitter 2.0 , Iain?

  6. Ray Dixon said, on 17 November, 2009 at 2:08 pm

    On this subject, I just found one of the blogs on my blogroll has now converted to a ‘Wiki’ page. It doesn’t make any sense.

  7. Iain Hall said, on 17 November, 2009 at 2:18 pm

    No Ray more like Twitter .002
    ;)

  8. Greg Naylor said, on 17 November, 2009 at 2:41 pm

    Hi Ray, I am now well enough to blog again and have added three posts in the last two days regarding the withdrawal of medical services in the King Valley and Sophie’s statement to Parliament last night about a Bill of Rights. Come on over!

  9. Ray Dixon said, on 17 November, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    Will do, Greg. Cheers.

  10. Clubwah said, on 18 November, 2009 at 12:01 am

    I’ve been slack blog wise, mainly because there hasn’t been much to inspire me and because I’ve been on a series of rolling magazine deadlines at work so the last thing I want to do in my spare time is write an edit.
    The inspiration will return.

    Is Twitter to blame? Perhaps. Why write a whole blog when you can get something off your chest in a sentence? I think Twitter has also filled the Grods void in that it has given the regulars a new place to hang out and communicate – it’s not a bad thing, just different.

  11. Ray Dixon said, on 18 November, 2009 at 9:53 am

    Why write a whole blog when you can get something off your chest in a sentence?

    Actually, my post was short enough to be put on Twitter, but if I’d done that it would have gone off into the ether and no thread of comment or debate would have ensued. Not that there’s a big debate or thread here but at least it’s a fixed and permanent record.

  12. Greg Naylor said, on 18 November, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    That is not really true, Ray. Twitter provides the ability to subscribe to an author and the ability to reply. Every tweet you make is then automatically shown on the subscribers home page. Here, it is fixed for all time but if the masses walk away blogs very few will ever see it.

  13. Greg Naylor said, on 18 November, 2009 at 12:19 pm

    You can also automatically tweet links to your latest blogs so that your twitter subscribers know you have written something more substantial than a tweet. Twitter can be used to enhance your Blogging experience. Why don’t you give it a try?

  14. Ray Dixon said, on 18 November, 2009 at 12:31 pm

    Twitter provides the ability to subscribe to an author and the ability to reply. Every tweet you make is then automatically shown on the subscribers home page.

    Yes Greg, along with all the other inane crap. Look, I realise *some* people can use it as a blog substitute but the fact is that most people are not doing that, and they are just wasting potentially good topics by tweeting about them.

    I won’t ‘give it a try’ because I consider it a waste of my time.

  15. JB said, on 18 November, 2009 at 2:11 pm

    Should pick up in cricket season?

  16. Wah said, on 18 November, 2009 at 2:11 pm

    Some of it’s inane, but I often respond to tweets and end up having prolonged exchanges which in which other people join in.

    Blogs are as much about social engagement as they are about information and opinion – think of all the people you’ve seen comment at blogs around the traps and consider how many of them don’t have blogs of their own.

    If anything twitter is like the comments section in a blog without the need for a post to comment about.

  17. Ray Dixon said, on 18 November, 2009 at 2:32 pm

    twitter is like the comments section in a blog without the need for a post to comment about

    I actually like that definition, Wah. Sort of like a chook without a head?

    JB – I dunno if this cricket season is going to be that interesting. Unless there’s a major controversy. Here’s hoping.

  18. Ray Dixon said, on 18 November, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    The other thing is, Wah, that Twitter comments (from what I’ve seen, although I rarely look at any now) tend to be more attempted (and failed) humour than an actual debate, and the engagements are fairly fleeting and short lived. It’s okay if you like that sort of thing, but my point is simply that it has impacted on some pretty good blogs and those who have blogs are letting them go.

  19. Carlisle Greeves said, on 20 November, 2009 at 10:25 am

    Hi All,

    Long time reader, first time poster.

    It is a shame that people no longer contribute to their blogs but at the same time it is quite a committment (as i’m sure you all know) to continue adding to your blog. Furthermore, if people don’t comment on blogs then what is the point of writing them. For this reason i think they die out.

    I’ve just started my own blog at http://www.carlislegreeves.wordpress.com

    Please feel free to contribute.

  20. Ray Dixon said, on 20 November, 2009 at 10:46 am

    Hi Carlisle. Good to see a new blog starting up, I’ll certainly pop over.

    As for running a blog being “quite a committment “, it really only requires a new post every day, or every second day at least, to keep it active & going. A quick run through the daily news usually provides at least one idea.

    What’s happened though, is that a lot of blog authors have got out of the habit. Cheers and good luck with yours.

  21. Rox said, on 20 November, 2009 at 12:24 pm

    And you can always have an open thread so people can just chuck in whatever they like, to give yourself a rest.

    Like France cheating to get into the World Cup.

  22. Ray Dixon said, on 20 November, 2009 at 12:51 pm

    Like France cheating to get into the World Cup

    It’ll just make it all the more sweeter when the Aussies beat them, Rox. I reckon we’re going to go a long way this time. Well, let’s face it, if the eventual winner Italy hadn’t cheated against us in faking that foul in the 2006 game, we could have gone a lot further than we did.

  23. Carlisle Greeves said, on 20 November, 2009 at 1:28 pm

    Let’s not talk about THAT GAME against Italy.

  24. Baldrick said, on 21 November, 2009 at 8:48 pm

    I reckon the French will be as popular as a fart in a sleeping bag at the Cup. And as for Henry himself, persona non grata everywhere but France.

    I really feel sorry for the Spuds. Let’s hope that every team that play the Frogs “stick it right up em” as our own legend Teddy Whitten used to say.

  25. elephantandrat said, on 22 November, 2009 at 10:49 am

    I think we are getting a bit blogged down with far too much blogging and twittering anf facing and whatever else it is we do.
    What if we organised a 24 hour free no comment, no discussion, no reply day and just did something else like read a book (you know those paper things with lots of words inside)
    Just imagine the amount of stuff we could write about then! A whole 24 hour space!

  26. Ray Dixon said, on 22 November, 2009 at 11:32 am

    I think there’s not enough blogging, but too much Twittering.

  27. Rox said, on 22 November, 2009 at 12:58 pm

    I’m going to read the paper.

  28. Baldrick said, on 22 November, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    Just finished another novel elephantrat. I might be a bloke but I can write rubbish and read.

    I do draw the line at Twittering. I actually think that writing in full sentences is an art.
    Lol, rofl, lmao

  29. Ray Dixon said, on 22 November, 2009 at 4:49 pm

    I actually think that writing in full sentences is an art

    Me 2. wot r u readen?

  30. Greg Naylor said, on 22 November, 2009 at 7:30 pm

    You have missed Dave’s return to his blog, I see

  31. Ray Dixon said, on 22 November, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    You mean the one where he says, “I’m back and that’s all I’ve got to say”?

  32. Greg Naylor said, on 22 November, 2009 at 9:21 pm

    No, the one that asks, “Has it been that long?” – go take a look.

  33. Ray Dixon said, on 23 November, 2009 at 8:21 am

    That’s the one I meant, Greg.

  34. ileum said, on 24 November, 2009 at 5:03 pm

    Ray, you should give twitter a go for a month or three – you never know…

    We have sixteen posts up so far this month. We didn’t write it so I recommend reading this one:

    http://ozpolitik.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/guest-post-on-queensland-police-special-branch-lest-we-forget-or-best-we-forget/


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