I've been blogging for nearly eight years.
I'm curious about a few matters related to blogging.
(1) How do you choose which blogs to frequent? Do you check profiles and frequent blogs that agree with your own worldview, or do you frequent blogs with a point of view quite different from your own?
(2) Why do we blog at all?
(3) What caused you to start blogging?
I am looking forward to your feedback on the above matters.
Good questions!
ReplyDelete1.Since I'm working full time, I can barely visit blogs of those I know and like!...normally, they're my viewpoints. In the past, I visited all kinds of blogs but I had more time then.
2. Why blog? Good question as I'm getting quite tired of the 'fight'...Also, I would SO MUCH like to argue Republican politics but can't because of the liberals who just can't see the slightest criticism of Republicans by me without piling it on...in ways that don't help. Very frustrating.
Not sure how long I'll continue blogging but I've threatened to quit for a couple of years now, so I probably won't!
3. Elmer's Brother. "Hey, you should open your OWN blog!"
"I couldn't ever figure that out technically!"
"I'll do that, you just BLOG!"
and he did. And I do.!!
Front Page Magazine, years ago, got me interested in all of this. It was, back then, the best venue for commenting. Then commenters ruined it and they changed their format. So sad.
BUT, it got us blogging, AOW! at least it contributed greatly to my interest! :-)
(1) How do you choose which blogs to frequent? Do you check profiles and frequent blogs that agree with your own worldview, or do you frequent blogs with a point of view quite different from your own?
ReplyDeletePersonal associations developed from the troll-inspired conflicts that developed while commenting at Lucianne.com and FrontPageMag.com. This began during the buffoonish era of Monica Lewinsky.
Some of us managed to exchange email addresses with individuals who seemed understanding and empathetic amidst the hurly burly. This led to the formation of small private discussion groups. Soon after that personal blogging became epidemic. Participation was almost inevitable.
The atmosphere at blogs is generally contentious and filled with chastisement, mindless spite, bitter denunciation and endless vituperation. One keeps searching for rational, well-intentioned discussion prompted more by curiosity than hostility. Alas! It is not easy to find.
(2) Why do we blog at all?
In my case it started out as an unworthy substitute for the modest career in editing and publishing I had enjoyed before retiring. Then, it became a habit. Also, most of us like to feel we COUNT for SOMETHING and have the ability to exert SOME influence on the political process. Blogging helps sustain that illusion.
(3) What caused you to start blogging?
See above.
Jim over at conservatives on fire asked that I let others know that Venezuela has shut down Wordpress.
ReplyDeleteI blogged for totally selfish reasons. I wanted to feel as if I was part of the resistance to statism in merica. I was looking for confirmation that my thinking was not flawed. I wanted the chance to feel like I was in a conversation in English. Only an ex pat appreciate that last reason.
ReplyDeleteNote that I am speaking in the past tense. Yesterday the Venezuelan government blocked access to WprdPress. Asylum Watch has gone silent for lack of freedom of expression in Venezuela.
The only way I can post this comment is to do so anonymously.
I spend more time on blogs that support my position, but........I spend plenty of time at opposing sites. Know thy enemy and all that.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I skim the articles and go right to the comments. It gives me more of a sense of what people are thinking. The comments at American Thinker are some of the best in the blogosphere and often have links to other information I wouldn't ordinarily see.
Why do I blog? I'm not sure anymore.
I started blogging because I got tired of emailing news stories around to my interested peer group only to have one of them tell me they missed the email and could I please resend it. Now, they can ignore the info at my blog without bothering me to repeat it.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that recently more and more people are spending more time at Facebook rather than blogging. I think that is unfortunate as FB does not offer much opportunity to expound on an issue the way blogging does. And I hate to think that everything we talk about can be reduced to a simple bumper sticker which seems to be most of what FB is about.
Traffic also dropped off after the election which is understandable. But perhaps we bloggers can work together to promote each other. A few years back I did a blogger roundup where each of the participating blogs shared a snippet or two of what they were talking about on each other's blogs. Seemed a great way to build interconnections between otherwise insulated blogging audiences.
Asylum Watch has gone silent for lack of freedom of expression in Venezuela.
ReplyDeleteTERRIBLE NEWS!
I was wondering why I was seeing no new postings at Asylum Watch!
Is it only WORDPRESS that's down in Venezuela?
ReplyDeleteI hope so...
HOW: If I usually like what someone has to say and I find that they have a blog of their own, I'll give it a try.
ReplyDeleteWHY: It beats the heck out of "Letters To The Editor".
WHAT: I started when a friend established a blog in Grand Junction, CO: "Living The Grand Life". From there I have segued to other sites such as this as described above.
As you know, AOW, I started blogging after Sepbember 11, 2001. I first started reading other blogs to find out everything I could about the enemy. I wanted to be informed, educated. I of course read news sites also and anything else I could find.
ReplyDeleteI found a blog, In The Bullpen, which doesn't sound anything like a blog on terrorism, but the owner was very informed, had some connections, and some great guest contributors.
I started reading, there, commenting, was invited to start guest posting there. The owner was kind enough to help me figure out about blogging and setting up my own site.
He has since quit blogging and has concentrated on his own life, family, etc. I remain very grateful to him.
We to what blogs I read, that's hard to answer. I've used "readers" to aggregate articles from news, blogs, on all sides of the political spectrum. I like to know what is being said on both sides.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
(1) How do you choose which blogs to frequent? Do you check profiles and frequent blogs that agree with your own worldview, or do you frequent blogs with a point of view quite different from your own?
ReplyDeleteI have a desire to understand conservatives. I started visiting blogs that vectored of of z's and discovered a world I found hair raising.
But you enter a world where people think Obama is a socialist (absolutely insane) and haven't accepted that the south lost the Civil War. Discussion is rarely possible, hell acceptance as a sentient being is barely possible.
It's like an online version of the Jerry Springer Show but the right still fascinates me.
(2) Why do we blog at all?
I would never try a political blog. The division in America is so deep that discussion is impossible.
I might try a film and arts blog but even then you'll get open minded types like Freethinker going off on "Japanese films that no one in their right mind would watch."
The divide is everywhere.
(3) What caused you to start blogging?
See above.
"I have a desire to understand conservatives."
ReplyDeleteYou stink of the foulest kind of hypocrisy, little man.
Heller Van Erve
I used to write "Letters To The Editor" to the Detroit Free Press for years. It was much like commenting, I was familiar with the other writers.
ReplyDeleteI've always enjoyed the structure of thought that pen to paper encourages.
I like the sense of camaraderie in the dexterosphere, but if I want the opinion of leftists, I'll listen to NPR, or Ducky. But having been one, I need not.
1) I normally stick with the bloggers I see here, or if I'm re-directed via linky often enough I'll add it to my roll. Honestly though, I rarely check any blog besides this one, due to me being lazy. With news at least, I do stick to the other side, if only to counter-argue. (And so no one can accuse me of being a Fox-er)
ReplyDelete2)To get the word out, to inform the few willing to listen, to sharpen our arguments in an arena that allows more time to respond. For me, I see it as practice for the real world. Here, I can take all day to think up a post or response, I am not afforded that IRL. But, once my thoughts are fully formed, I can tell them to others much more easily.
3)Coming here (and going to class). And, well, everyone on FB told me to stop ranting. I've always been an arguer and a debater, and I will go on, and on, and ON to everyone else is sick of it. Blogging gave me a place to rant/argue/debate, and it could be achieved for later reference.
-Wildstar
1.) I learned early on that left-wing blogs FEAR conservative views so much that they delete them on sight. I still frequent a wide variety of blogs, but rarely comment on them these days.
ReplyDelete2.) It's nice to play "agent provocateur."
3.) I was upset with George W. Bush's strategy in Iraq. He left far toO many people alive over there.
1. I'm a peripatetic blogger. I visit all kinds of sites, often without rhyme or reason, because I find the exploration interesting. I also try to visit those who visit me.
ReplyDelete2. I blog because I have something to say and I enjoy the feedback, whether positive or negative. As I was telling another blogger, posting is like sending out a message in a bottle and actually getting a reply.
3. I was complaining about some current event back in early October of 2004 and my husband suggested I get off my butt and put it in a blog. I did so that very morning.
I visit sites that I can learn from.
ReplyDeleteTHANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE COMMENTED SO FAR. I APPRECIATE IT!
ReplyDeleteFor me, there seems to be something magical about typing in words and seeing them appear on the web. Otherwise, not very many people would read what I write.
I find blogging a good form of catharsis. To a point, it does help to get certain matters off my chest. However, I also think that we bloggers tend to dwell too much on the negative: "stitch and bitch." This negativity has caused me to step away from the web and try to enjoy life more.
For example, right now I'm revisiting the book All Creatures Great and Small; I've read this book twice before, but the author's words celebrate life instead of moaning and groaning about how bad the world situation is.
Bloggers CAN serve as pamphleteers. But, honestly, I think that we do more preaching to the choir than anything else -- now. It wasn't always so, but I do perceive a sea change in American politics and American society. The shift to the Left and into jaw-dropping ignorance has become more powerful since 2008.
Wildstar (my dear arguer),
ReplyDeleteonce my thoughts are fully formed, I can tell them to others much more easily
That is a good use of social networking!
It used to be, of course, that writing one's thoughts on paper served that very purpose. Remember diaries and journaling? It will not surprise you that I kept diaries (journals) for well over a decade.
The shift to the Left and into jaw-dropping ignorance has become more powerful since 2008.
ReplyDelete--
Not that the shift to the left (which hasn't happened) or the shift into jaw dropping ignorance are the same thing to anyone but the true believer.
Sometimes they are the same thing, sometimes not. You've seen those man-in-the-street videos of complete idjits, right?
ReplyDeleteThere are great differences to be found between ignorance and stupidity -- and malice.
ReplyDeleteIgnorance we must forgive, and attempt to correct.
Stupidity is more to be pitied than despised.
Malice, especially when generated by persons of high intelligence is unforgivable.
FT,
ReplyDeleteIn the 21st Century, both stupidity and malice rule the day! **sigh**