On Blogs, Bloggers, And Blogging

The "blogosphere" (thank you, Bill Quick) has been buzzing with a number of "insider" topics recently, and I think it's about time to discuss them in some detail.  As we go I'm going to give my thoughts on the topics, and impart a little philosophical underpinning to it all.

The TTLB Ecosystem, established by The Truth Laid Bear, set up a system using Sitemeter hits and links, whereby blogs and bloggers could be ranked in terms of their popularity and the worth of their linkage.  Obviously there are big fish, or "Higher Beings" in such a system, and little fish, or "Slimy Molluscs" in my case.  I was recently an "Adorable Little Rodent" but have been demoted by NZ Bear's dramatic link purge.

It seems that there are a lot of blogs out there gaming the system.  Using "open trackback" posts, whereby a link is automatically generated to your post, and linking almost without rhyme or reason to multiple sites became the way to generate large numbers of links to your own site, thus improving your ranking in the ecosystem.  NZ Bear has attempted to weed out some of these essentially spurious links by jiggering his system to void them.  He's counting mainly direct links from other blogs as a link, and therefore the "self-generated" links of open trackback posts are discounted.  This has caused some consternation, in that a lot of smaller blogs were using this technique to generate traffic, yes, but also links.

Yet another problem has cropped up, with the unveiling earlier this month of Open Source Media OSM Pajamas Media, the spawn of Roger Simon and Charles Johnson (LGF).  They've been accused of having a bad business model; of screwing an associate; of not doing sufficient due diligence in setting up the business; of sexism; of greed.  I had flirted with the idea of joining.  I came to my senses when I ran into droughts like I have over the last week or so, where the time to blog well simply did not exist.  Could I be part of something like Pajamas Media?  Sure.  The question was did I want to.  I still don't have a definitive answer to that.  I'll come back to it later.

Then there was the furor several months ago over the "grading" of Carnival of the Vanities posts done by Will Franklin when he hosted.  This generated quite a fluff and a flurry of emails, some angry and some analytical, in response.  Will's point was that many were submitting posts for the COTV that were really not worthy of all that vanity, and he took it upon himself to rank the posts that week.  He's been hosting his own self-selected Carnival of Classiness for some time, usually 10 to 15 posts that he feels are worthy of additional attention.  So with his turn he transformed COTV into COTCV - Carnival of the Classy Vanities.

There have been other blog-land issues I've noticed over the 14 months since I started, including flame wars, but I'd like to weigh in with a few thoughts on the four issues listed above, and present a little of my blog philosophy (cue the harmonica.)

Let's start with the COTV.  Silflay Hraka's original concept was for bloggers to have a venue to expand the readership for posts of which they are justifiably proud, or for which they seek feedback.  COTV was supposed to be a place to find the best posts in the blogosphere.  I joined COTV and have presented a few posts, but I found that many weeks even my best posts were not, in my opinion, worthy.  So those weeks I submitted nothing.

That filter doesn't exist for all, however, and there were certain COTVs where some of the submissions were ... well, not junk, but certainly not gold.  Will tried to "adjust" the thinking of those submitting, and maybe he overstepped his bounds in doing so, but it was becoming necessary for a little judicious editing.  I do like his Carnival of Classiness.  Will's judgement has been very sound - few if any clinkers in that carnival.

The question is, does a blogger have a right to COTV linkage regardless of quality, or should the submission be of sufficient quality and/or meet the Carnival's criteria to be linked?  In my opinion the latter is true. Think of the COTV as a large cocktail party.  All the invitees may be there, but not all of them have something valuable to say.  If I submit a post to COTV and it gets denied, well, I'll wonder about the judgement, because I'm usually fairly selective myself, but I won't get angry.

Speaking of angry, there are several who qualify in that category in the OSM/Pajamas Media dustup.  Dennis The Peasant was, by his telling, an original founder squeezed out without notice by Simon/Johnson.  Their telling has it that the project just moved away from the original concept, and so did not include DTP.  Meanwhile, Ann Althouse apparently felt both slighted and handcuffed by the low ad rates she was offered along with a restrictive contract.

I don't have much to say about Ms. Althouse's situation.  I doubt that sexism played a part in the process, but if her traffic levels should have led to better rates than she is right to complain.  If her complaint is any indication then probably the "board" should have been a little more forthcoming with how ad rates and reimbursement were to be determined, so that the fairness could have been assessed a priori.  But perhaps she should have stayed away from body fluid comments.  On the other hand, if Dennis' story closely follows his telling here then Mr. Simon and Mr. Johnson have some explaining to do.  They seem to have shrugged him off for no other reason than they could.  Dennis' related posts can be found here.  He's convinced the project is a turkey.

Does being part of PJM make sense?  Maybe, in the sense that being part of a "new" media that gives informed individuals a chance to make a public statement is something special and unique.  Roger Simon, Charles Johnson and Glenn Reynolds are, particularly collectively, much bigger fish than I, and it certainly is an appealing thought to become a small part of something big.  I just wish the general setup was a little more clearcut.  Lots of paperwork showed up, without much explanation.  My medical school did not include a course in contract law, nor in "Business/Not Getting Screwed."

Finally we come to really a combined topic, link-mongering and the ecosystem.  Let's stipulate, at this time, that people are people.  And if there are ways to game the system to gain recognition bloggers, being people for the most part, will find the ways.  Philosophically I'm opposed to blanketing open trackback posts with your post just to get more links.  Philosophically, however, I'm not opposed to selecting a couple of higher traffic blogs with open trackback posts to "advertise" your post and gain readership.  I've used Kevin Aylward's Carnival of the Trackbacks on Saturday mornings to try to gain readership.  Hey, I figure since Jay Tea and I live only about 20 miles apart we're, like, related almost.  What I don't do is link to this blog and that blog and the other blog ad infinitum to try to generate more links.  Maybe that' why I'm a Slimy Mollusc now.

What you really want is people linking your blog because they appreciate the writing, or because you've presented some new information to them, or a new point of view.  I try to do that when what I'm discussing dovetails with someone else's work, and that link is usually appreciated.  Occasionally you even get thanked for your link. I agree, in principle, with NZ Bear that link-mongering distorts the ecosystem in undesireable ways.  I would caution him against filtering some blogroll links.  While some blogs simply blogroll as many as possible, most are somewhat selective in who they have in their blogroll.  On the other hand, here's another view at OTB.  I removed one individual because, although he's generally a very good writer with keen insights, his profanity was a problem.  The occasional F-bomb doesn't bother me, but a steady stream of gutter talk does.  Hey, my mom reads my blog, I don't want her visiting sites like that.

Well, that's it.  See, nothing for days, then verbal diarrhea.  Where's that KaoPectate?

Comments

[Will Franklin]

Nice post. I think a lot of people were flirting with joining OSM or whatever it is called and are now glad they didn't.

[Giacomo]

Thanks. I've been swamped and tired lately, and I think it all came out in a rush. It was weird seeing so much angst and animosity in blogging over the last several months. And it's still going on with OSM.