Blogging
Mu.Nu looks to be temporarily down, so I'll post this here, for now. Instapundit has a comment on various things about the Mainstream Media. Interestingly, the Houston Chronicle has a short article here on blogs, just ripe for a fisking: A few warnings about blogging Ooh, scary headline. Blogging causes lung cancer? Blogging causes male pattern baldness? Let's find out. NEW YORK - Many people have become obsessed with blogs, which are personal journals posted by individuals on the Web. I'm not addicted to blogging, I can stop any time I want. And can we please get beyond this "Blogs are personal journals" meme? Some are, maybe most are. But a lot of blogs are a whole lot more than that, and the ones that are kicking your collective MSM butts are clearly more than that. According to a Pew Internet Study, 50 million Internet users read blogs regularly. Ooh, they've got a study. This article must be well researched and scientific then. Blogging can be both a cost-effective and efficient way of connecting with people, but there are some warnings: Hmm. "Cost-effective." So I guess they're talking about blogs being started by corporations? I don't think the average man on the street thinks, "I need to connect with more people. What's the most cost-effective way? I know, a blog!" •Don't trust everything you read in blogs. While more and more news organizations and companies are creating blogs of their own, many blogs are filled with false information. I had to read that statement a couple of times to get it's meaning. Some news organizations and companies are starting blogs. Those you can trust. Many of the other ones are "filled with false information." Yeah, bite me. Corporate blogs are exactly the ones that I have the least trust in. Including the 11 blogs run on the Houston Chronicle site. Like the Au Paris blog [HC accountant quits and goes to Paris to be an Au Pair], or say this post from About:Chron. Some of those blogs had somewhat interesting info, but none of it was stuff I hadn't read elsewhere. •Never keep a blog in which you trash the company you work for or your boss. Also, never put your company's sensitive or inside information in your blog. There have already been cases in which people have been fired for blogging about their employers. Useful advice, I guess. •Don't give out too much personal information in your blog. Don't use your real name, which could put you at risk. Rather, use a pseudonym. Every single blogger should be blogging under a pseudonym? Why? I do it, but have some specific reasons to do so. If JohnL hadn't been blogging under his real name, I never would have noticed his blog, and probably never would have started myself. So there may be reasons not to anonymously blog. A site where you can start your own blog for free is www.Blogger.com. Hmm. The only site you give in an article about blogging is Blogger? Because, you know, you wouldn't want to point people to blogs that they might want to read, because then you might hemorrhage readers even faster than you're doing now.
- posted by owlish @ 7/04/2005 11:51:00 AM 13 comments