Has Blogging Become Passe?

[JesseJB]

I've noticed a lot of my favorite blogs have had steadily decreasing traffic lately and almost no one comments on anything anymore. Even street fashion photo blogs seem to be dropping like flies. Has the blogosphere (sorry) become survival of the fittest?

And another question: Are personal blogs going away because people are realizing that no one gives a rat's ass what "I'm into" and "what I think is cool this month?"

 

[edmorel]

The narcissism involved in blogs makes me want to puke.

 

[Thomas]

Are you saying I shouldn't start that new blog I'm considering? I was hoping to spin it out into an IPO and cash out my identity. Is this a bad time for that?

 

[Night Owl]

Originally Posted by edmorel

The narcissism involved in blogs make me want to puke.

Why do you hate mafoo?

 

[JesseJB]

Originally Posted by Thomas

Are you saying I shouldn't start that new blog I'm considering? I was hoping to spin it out into an IPO and cash out my identity. Is this a bad time for that?

Yes! You could gain a cult following and become a micro-celebrity! Better start working on your "brand." Fame and fortune await you.

 

[Tarmac]

I think people are tiring of the self-aggrandizing nature of blogs. Now they get their egos boosted by the number of people on their Facebook acct.

 

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by JesseJB

Yes! You could gain a cult following and become a micro-celebrity! Better start working on your "brand." Fame and fortune await you.

hmmm...your encouragement is encouraging. I'll have to think of what my brand represents, other than the obvious.

 

[edmorel]

Originally Posted by Night Owl

Why do you hate mafoo?

I don't hate mafoo, I hate his freedom.

 

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by edmorel

I don't hate mafoo, I hate his freedom.

I don't hate mafoo, I just dislike the arms that are shaped like hot-air balloons.

 

[visionology]

Blogs still get indexed pretty well so are a good idea as long as the topics are relatively on point.

I just don't get the whole Twitter thing, instead of knowing what people are doing every blog post, now you have to know what they are doing every second of their lives?

 

[TheFoo]

I like getting a single person's unfiltered perspective. Obviously, I like offering it, too. What's wrong with that? I'd rather encourage a society of people that like to say what they think and aren't afraid to put themselves out there than one where people subscribe to magazines, follow commercially-endorsed advice, and pretend they are being individualistic.

 

[v0rtex]

Most of the really good early bloggers have been sucked into the traditional publishing route (coining the odious neologoism, "blook" = blog + book) because this is where they stand to make actual money whereas most of the tech-for-tech's-sake geeks are just getting bored and moving on to other stuff (Facebook, twitter, Google Latitude).

This also explains why personal blogs are no longer that relevant (their tedious content meant that they were only interesting while the medium itself was interesting), plus platforms like Facebook have made it easier for non-nerds to publish inane personal blogs to a captive audience - no need to set up Wordpress on a hosting account any more.

The amount of user generated content is still increasing exponentially and the technical barriers to creation are falling, but the amount which is high quality and worth pursuing is staying ever static.

Despite working in the "Web 2.0" industry and making a fair amount of my income from setting up sites for companies who think they're going to strike it big by allowing the great unwashed masses to share their idiot opinions, I'm of the firm belief that user generated content is a giant cultural dead end.

 

[mafoofan Jr.]

Too many facebook-like blogs these days. No one likes to read other people's quivering throes of relationship drama or their fiddling moments of enlightenment . I, for one, am quite dispassionate when it comes to individual idiosyncrasy. And the blogger thought he/she was being funny or cutely attractive by posting such comments. I found foo's blog through Will and I can point out certain instances when his blog enters this stage. The lapel post and pockets quare posts to name a few--I mean come on? Who gives a $hit? Foo has to step up his game if he wants to retain me as reader.

That said, I think blogging as a trend is a good thing. I reckon that we read blogs that interest us because the contents share something we agree with or find utterly disgusting about. Blogs that elicit strong emotions tend to attract my attention. I'm currently reading a blog about some guy's ordeal of going through getting the length of ********* pierced.

 

[dusty]

They've moved onto Twitter, an even lower (somehow) form of communicating.

 

[lance konami]

Probably.

But hotchickswithdouchebags.com is still rollin'