The Fire Ant Gazette - A Midland, Texas Blog | "Things Your Mother Didn't Tell You About Blogging"

Things Your Mother Didn't Tell You About Blogging
Category: Navel Gazing...
Posted Monday, January 05, 2004 at 10:25 PM [GMT-6]

Tom Mangan over at Prints The Chaff has a short-but-sweet post designed to stick a pin in the blogging balloon. Well, all he's really trying to do is to open the eyes of those poor suckers who think blogging is a quick and easy path to fame, power and riches. OK, I admit that it worked that way for me, but, you know, you're not me, and you're not likely ever to be. So go read Tom's post and get thee back to earth.

For the record, Tom's a real newspaperman, so he can be forgiven for his cynicism; he comes by it honestly. And his post was called to my attention by another real live journalist, Bryan, over at Arguing With Signposts, who has apparently rekindled his passion for posting, albeit at a significant cost to that pesky world peace plan.

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Comments

Yeah, I'm now worrying that people won't read the posts because I've posted too much today. Oh, well. Next week, I'll be back in school, teaching and studying, so posting is bound to lighten up a little bit.

As for the peace plan, I finished that over breakfast. Next up, cold fusion! ;-)

Posted by: bryan at January 5, 2004 10:30 PM

At the risk of being condemned by the crowd.....it seems to me that there are few purely "original content" blogs out there. Many grab a headline from another source, link it, make a few pointed comments/barbs and wait for the response.

That's why I think Lileks is the King of the bunch. Originality, even if it means reading about "the gnat" or strange Mac software.

Posted by: Wallace at January 5, 2004 11:14 PM

Wallace, if I might pick a minor nit with your statement, I believe it's plenty easy to find "original content" blogs...but it's much more difficult to find those which are interesting and/or useful. For me, Lileks works because he often uses the mundane topics as a segue into weightier matters.

As far as "strange Mac software" goes...well, I don't know what you're talking about! ;-)

But your observations really go to the heart of the matter: blog "beauty" is surely in the eye of the beholder.

Posted by: Eric at January 6, 2004 06:38 AM

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