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Do You Play By Blogger Rules?
from the does-anyone-really-care? dept
I know I’m probably asking for trouble wading into this debate, but after a few recent conversations, and reading the following article, I thought I’d just bring this up. I’ve always considered a “blog” to be a tool. It’s a tool designed to present information in a certain way. That’s all. I don’t really care if it’s to make money or not, edited or not, “personalized voice” or not. It’s just a tool and people are using it all sorts of different and creative ways. Some aren’t very interesting and some are. Luckily, on this big internet thing that we’ve got here, people get to vote with their mouse clicks. That said, I’m not sure what the big deal is over the decision of the folks at Dynamism to start their own gadget blog called Akibalive. Dynamism is the online store that sells cool gadgets from Japan in the US (we’ve written about them before). It’s a pretty useful site if you’re addicted to gadgets and have some extra money to spend. However, some are already worried about blogs becoming little more than catalogs, and that people will be confused, since the blog looks independent and they won’t realize it’s really run by Dynamism. I don’t see why this is such a big problem. If the tool is useful for the job, go for it. In fact, the blog doesn’t appear to be selling anything directly, but just gives folks an update on new and cool gadgets. In many ways, it’s quite similar to another personal favorite, Gizmodo, which some could argue is even more “commercial”. The point is, that if the tool works for the job at hand, why not use it?
Comments on “Do You Play By Blogger Rules?”
No Subject Given
1) There is no such thing as a “blog”. it’s a weblog. The word blog is just a stupid misunderstanding of a joke made on robotwisdom years ago.
2) Weblogs *are* mostly just catalogues – they are meant to be a collection of links (which is why they are called WEBlogs). Anything else is a journal or a diary.
It’s really very simple.
Re: No Subject Given
Yeah, the English language never changes.
Blog is certainly now common usage no matter how it was started.
Re: No Subject Given
1) There’s no such thing as a “weblog” either. A weblog is a file that lists HTTP requests to a server. The word weblog is just a stupid misunderstanding too. But it’s caught on, and now it means what it means. Live with it.
2) Weblogs are whatever they want to be. Saying “they are meant to be a collection of links” is imposing an arbitrary rule like Mike mentioned. There’s no official organization that determines what is or isn’t a weblog. There are no rules. Live with it.
Mike's right, it's silly to worry about people bei
A blog is actually a tool plus a set of social conventions about how to convey information to people. It can be used as a sales tool, a catalog, a diary, a real life adventure story, a biography (See the Samuel Pepys blog), an ongoing photo-essay, a product support site, and hundreds of other things that people ingeniously cook up.
Further, blogs as we know them — both in form and usage conventions — will constantly eveolve. People can handle this, just as they can tell the difference between a restaurant menu and People Magazine. There’s no need to put Blogs in a box and claim that something else has to stay outside that box.
– Precision Blogger
precision-blogging.blogspot.com