So I went and asked one of my friends at work what they thought of my blog, and after sending the following reply they asked me if I'd be posting it (albeit anonymously the little scamp !).
So here it is...
As promised over lunch, some honest feedback on your Blog. I only took a quick look at it, but here are my thoughts. If this looks like I am letting off steam about blogs in general, then you are right.Good Points
- It's better the Xxxx's, mostly because...
- There is some content that might be interesting to someone (not really to me, but that's not your fault).
Bad points
- A lot of content of a lot of blogs, yours and Xxxx's included, is about blogs. I think it is a little odd that so much content in blogs is about blogging as it implies that the only people interested in blogs are people that have blogs themselves (which is mainly true, I think) , and probably adds to the perception among members of the blogosphere that they make up a significant and important proportion of the worlds population, when in fact they are neither. Your "#1 blog on sun.com" story may be big news among Sun's bloggers, but means f*** all to the rest of the world.
- Like 99% of blogs, yours doesn't seem to have a purpose, other than as a repository for your own thoughts. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, I have seriously thought about having a private blog, used in much the same way as an old fashioned diary/journal, not intended to be read by anybody right now, but may be of interest in 10/50/100 years time. Although Jonathan's Blog is also just a repository of his thoughts (albeit a carefully spun one), he is sufficiently important that people like me are interested in them. Without wanting to be rude, I'm not sure that you (or Xxxx X) are. As mentioned over lunch, this blog has a purpose - It is their way of keeping in touch with their friends. They don't expect it to be of interest to anybody else.
- This habit of regurgitating news stories, and passing comment on them, seems to be pretty common among bloggers. I'm not sure what it achieves, other than an extension of the "repository for your own thoughts" thing mentioned above. If I knew you socially, then this is the kind of thing we might well talk about over a pint (i.e. we wouldn't need a blog). If I didn't really know you socially, then your opinions on such matters are not really interesting.
Please don't take any of this too seriously or personally, it's just the views of a non-blogger. A bit like me asking an eco-warrior what they think about my new 4x4.
. Let's stay friends !
When I first read my friends response I empathised with some of the points that they were making, and although it won't stop me blogging I think that it will encourage me to divide it into multiple channels, so that in general it becomes a little more lucid.
I've summarised the response into four rules of worth while blogging.
- Interesting content - keep it fresh.
- Don't blog about blogging - blogs about blogs and blogging are boring in the extreme, especially to those who don't blog.
- Purpose - find one and stick to the point.
- Don't post links as news - passing off links as news, even with opinions added, is boring too.
I actually think these are quite good, and in general I'll try to stick to these from now on, although I will still blog about blogging, just deliver it via a separate channel.
And I definitely won't "take any of this too seriously or personally" and it's certainly not worth losing a friend over.
Wayne, as you probably know, I don’t have a blog. Perhaps some day I might, but I enjoy reading others’.
If you are a dog person and I am a cat person, I am not likely to read your blog. :-)
That’s the black and white version.
The color version is, I am a cat person, and it doesn’t matter to me if you are a dog person or a cat person because our common interest lies in other things you write about.
True, too, that (some of) my friends are not interested in blogs just like I am not interested in watching TV. That doesn’t stop us from being friends, although it is sometimes disappointing when you want to share something that excites you from a (blog / link / TV / whatever) and they don’t give a f*** (which is a two-way street BTW)
Oh, well. We’re still friends. That’s valuing diversity.
Posted by Carolyn on March 01, 2008 at 01:58 PM GMT #