Passion
That is the one word that a BlogCamp can be captured in – passion. Bloggers, the serious ones, are very passionate about their blogging. And usually, the more successful blogs tend to be about a few specific topics that the blogger is very interested in, and puts a lot of time and effort into. And there is nothing like learning about a topic from somebody who has put years of effort into learning about and writing about that topic.
And you get about 20 such people in a blogcamp.
First, though, I need to clarify what a blog is, according to my definition. Far too many people thing of a blog as a “Dear Diary” where someone writes about every little episode of his or her life, and what they had for lunch, and how much they hate their boss, and how Pune’s traffic sucks. Those are not the blogs I am talking about. Those are pretty boring, and other than a few close friends and family of the blogger, nobody really reads those blogs.
I am talking about those who use blogging either to write about interesting insights they have related to their field of work, or who use it to explore an interesting hobby, or a topic that they are very interested in. In general, these are blogs by people who put some serious thought into what they write, and write things that their readers are interested in.
In the first category – those writing about topics from their work – are people like Dhananjay Nene, who writes long and insightful posts on software programming, design and architecture, some of which take is weeks if not months to think about and write. And for anybody interested in being great at software, it is a must read; and like Suvrat Kher, a geologist who writes on geology, evolution, and the changing earth. In the second category are people like SandyGautam who is really a software engineer, but writes the Mouse Trap, a blog about psychology and neuroscience, that is considered amongst one of the best science blogs in the world (those technically minded should note that his blog has a Google PageRank of 6). Or meetu, who in spite of being a CA and an MBA in finance, gave up the corporate life for writing about movies at wogma.com. Arun Prabhudesai is interested in the Indian Business scene, and his blog trak.in has over 5000 subscribers (and god knows how many more daily readers). And Tarun Chandel, who in addition to “regular blogging“, also posts his experiments in photography to his photoblog.
You’ll meet Rohit Khirapate who writes at Aamhi Marathi, Nitin Brahme and Vishal Gangawane who are reporters with Pune Mirror, Sahil Khan, who started The Tossed Salad, a life style magazine, while still a student, Debashish Chakrabarty, who amongst other things, is also very active in Hindi blogging circles, Nikhil Kaushal of Rang De, which is a micro-finance organization, trying to make a difference in the lives of poorest people for whom a loan of a few thousand rupees can make a difference, and people from OLPC Pune, who are trying to put laptops in the hands of poorest kids – the stated goal of the project being achieving one laptop per child.
Register, and attend. This will be your chance to find some of the most interesting people you’ve ever met. This will be your chance to possibly find people who share the same weird interests as you. This will be your chance to inspire a bunch of college kids, who will all be there because of their individual and varied interests. This will be your chance to be inspired to do something interesting and different with your life.
BlogCampPune2 – come to inspire and be inspired.
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I would like to differ with the definition of blog.
Why blog only to be read? Why blog only about software, science, travel or anything in particular?
A blog is also a vent to your expressions, to your anger, to your frustration, to your creativity.
I blog, I blog for myself. I blog for people who think like me, who share my views.
Blog is MINE, I don’t have to be technically correct or make monetary gains or compete with rest of the world.
I don’t want to be liked for what I write.
Hence a blog is also a depiction of who you really are or your unbiased views.
So a blog need not be topic specific or interesting to a large group.
Apart from interesting bloggers, intelligent bloggers, technical bloggers, any day I am also interested in meeting bloggers who blog for nothing specific but for themselves and blog about things that they really like about on any particular day they are blogging.
And I think BlogCamp should Welcome and encourage such Bloggers too.
Navin-
thanks for linking
suvrat
Abhinav
I am by no means suggesting that people should only blog to get readers. Self-expression, catharsis, sharing personal life, and views, are perfectly good reasons for blogging. But almost by definition, a person who doesn’t blog to be read will not attract readers. And for the same reason, not many people will come to a blogcamp to listen to such a bloggers, since s/he will be speaking for self, and not to be heard.
I can’t encourage people to visit blogcamp for that.
Sure. But, I’ve noticed that the blogs who are striving to be technically correct, or to make monetary gains, or to compete with the rest of the world, are the most interesting blogs, and those bloggers are the most interesting bloggers. I will read blogs that are not trying for any of the above only if they are written by my close friends. It’s very unlikely that I’d be interested in the casual views of a perfect stranger unless that stranger happens to be very, very insightful (and is trying to compete with the rest of the world on the insight front).
BlogCamp is for the bloggers, by the bloggers. Nobody, neither the organizers, nor I can dictate who comes, and who is encouraged to come. The character and agenda of the blogcamp will be determined by the people who show up. That is the great thing about unconferences.
Abhinav,
Blogging for expression is a wonderfully refreshing and occasionally exhilariting activity in itself. I really didn’t read anything into Navin’s post which discouraged bloggers for expression from blogging or attending the meet.
If you extend the analogy from blogging into talking – unconferences allow us that liberty as well. Talking for expression and self. So I really think all our collective expectations are covered.
But if you do want to excite more people into attend, you want to give people something that they can look forward to, and attendees have more to look forward to (at least as a statistical aggregation, not individual cases I emphasise) when presented with a spectrum of people who not only express but reach out and focus on providing value to the reader – and value is what the potential attendee is going to be looking for (in different shapes and form). So lets refocus on the essence of the message that there is value in attending the blogcamp and there is value for all, even though characterisation of value across individuals could be different.
Navin/Dhanajay,
I am in tune with most part of Navin’s article but I take an objection where he mentions:
“Far too many people thing of a blog as a “Dear Diary” where someone writes about every little episode of his or her life, and what they had for lunch, and how much they hate their boss, and how Pune’s traffic sucks. Those are not the blogs I am talking about. Those are pretty boring, and other than a few close friends and family of the blogger, nobody really reads those blogs.”
As far as I remember blogging started like that as a “Dear Diary” for most of the people. It changed its meaning in the next 5 yrs, like twitter did.
There are people who don’t like to read the so called “boring” stuff of people’s life but then it should be realized that there are people who love to read and sometimes find it refreshing to read others “Dear Diary”.
I myself follow a few such blogs from around the world which can be considered banal by a few. A girl in Madrid posts pics with her dog and with her friends, I like that photo blog, a cartoonist logs his days activity and what he finds inspiring in every day life.
A software engineer blogs about his day at his company.
All such blogs also have following, may be they don’t rank 5 or 6 in google ranking. Nevertheless I wouldn’t call such blogs as boring or uninteresting.
Moreover had this article found a place on a ‘blog’ i would have had no objection but on the punetech forum the tone of the article might seem discouraging for a few.
As i said earlier, Yes I would like to meet interesting bloggers on blogcamp but then I would also like to meet ordinary bloggers who blog for nothing in specific because I find them interesting too.
And though blogcamp is an unconference and we are not restricting such bloggers nevertheless calling any ones blogging as ‘boring’ might not be the right encouragement too.
Abhinav,
I see where you are coming from, and I agree that I shouldn’t have really said that those blogs are boring, without qualifying the statement. Part of the problem is that I was overcompensating for the other category of readers – those who don’t read blogs or attend blogcamps because they think blogs are only personal diaries of strangers. Hence I wanted to introduce them to the other kinds of bloggers – in the hope of getting them to attend blogcamp.
But you’re right, there are some “personal” bloggers who are quite good and interesting and insightful. Shouldn’t have painted them all with one broad brushstroke.
Hmmm. Abhinav, I agree with most of what you say, except for the last line. Blog Camps have not much to gain from such bloggers. Bloggers like that, might have much to gain from, from other bloggers like that, or might not, depending on what they’re looking for. But Blog Camps are a much more formal/structured activity than the first generation blogging culture was all about. And that is probably the reason why I won’t attend Blog Camps at all, including this one. And i won’t even insist that they should encourage participation of bloggers like you talk about (I believe I do fall in that category, although I do write fiction, which I share on my blog because the niche readership that I have — not my friends, necessarily — matters to me: the feedback, critical and otherwise).
I don’t share Navin’s observation about most interesting blogs and most interesting bloggers. Interesting is a very subjective term. I do mostly follow the blogs that don’t fall in any of the categories that are absent in the “why you should attend blog camp” reasons. They’re not blogs by my friends. Or at least weren’t when I started following them. Some of those people became my friend because of the blogs, and communities centered around them. But you see, bloggers like that won’t be able to add much value in a more or less structured activity like Blog Camps. Why not let them be what they are, and be comfortable what you are?
regards,
asuph.
Blogs have traditionally been looked down upon as a ‘dear dairy’- a personal, subjective , private and socially non-committal take on things that are of not much importance, but to the writer, and which are not really directed towards an immediate community or audience but more like a message-in-a-bottle left to be discovered in posterity. That might have been how they started , but with due regards to asuph, they have come a long way and perhaps for the better. While nostalgia has its value, the blogs of yore have also led to this strong ‘dear dairy’ stereotype that nullifies much of the active engagement that blogs of today engage in and the wide use they are put to- from political journalism to technical discussions to scientific collaborations to corporate communications. Twitter likewise started as lifestreaming , but has evolved into link sharing and community conversations. While lifestreaming and ‘dear dairy’ blogs have their own value and historical significance, they have also led to the strong negative stereotypes and are a primary reason that blogs are considered untrustworthy, insignificant or just plain waste of time and effort (of both the reader and the writer).
Navin should be commended for making the uninitiated more interested in the blogging phenomenon, by exposing the falsity of the stereotypes (the ‘dear dairy’) and highlighting the real stuff that drives and has driven the blogging phenomenon- passion. Passion to engage with a community, passion for one’s field or area of expertise/ interest, and passion for utilizing the latest technology to better connect with others. The passion need not be restricted to science or software etc; one can be equally passionate about capturing the phenomenological aspects of ones everyday life experiences- but the passion has to be there- to present something unique or if not unique in content, then in form and presentation- and the passion to present it to as wide a world as possible.
I see a possible disconnect here- some would prefer to live with nostalgia and deny blogs of any more value than a personal dairy; while others want to explore the rich possibilities that are inherent in the medium and want to distance themselves from the negative stereotypes that are factually incorrect and serve no good. While I myself value ‘personal’ blogs a lot, and have a poetry blog that would fall in that category; I am more sympathetic to the new uses that blogs are being put to and would find those bloggers more interesting who are exploring the new uncharted frontiers.
Sandeep,
This either/or is your position (not sure if abhinav is taking it too, but I don’t want to go back and read the whole thread again). Nostalgia is your take. There are guys, who want different things from blogging. And It’s a great thing, IMO. No one said everybody has to convert to the latest religion, or the oldest, however future rich, or tradition rich.
By all means, choose what you like. That freedom is what blogs were about, and will be. No nostalgia there.
warm greetings,
asuph
I meant feature rich, not future rich. Lol! Hope that’s not taken as a Freudian slip 😉
cheers,
asuph
@asuph
I am both surprised and curious at the tone of what you commented upon.
Speaking for myself, I would not be able to resist the temptation to understand or at least attempt to, the nature and sense of satisfaction, that a blogger articulating his thoughts and experiences on his blog, derives. I suspect I would be that much poorer for not having the opportunity to do so.
And thats one more notch up on the disappointment scale. I don’t understand what the first generation blogging culture was all about. I really don’t know how a blog camp could be less formal and structured. If many bloggers share your thoughts and approach, perhaps many of us wouldn’t now even get to know.
I would most certainly be curious if thats an observation based on an earlier blogcamp.
Dhananjay
asuph sumed it well when he said:
“By all means, choose what you like. That freedom is what blogs were about, and will be.”
That is what I stressed on when I started the thread. Blog gives me that freedom to express my views (whatever I like and whatever way I like).
And there is absolutely no nostalgia attached to it.
And the negative stereotypes are not only caused by the “dear diary” type blogs but blogs which deals with different topics too.
Take the latest example of Iran elections, the coverage of it on any political blog or on twitter, how trustworthy can you say it would be?
Can we deny the fact that stories from either side could well be cooked up or not served in the right perspective through twitter or blogs.
Hence trustworthiness, waste of time and effort also depends on a person’s perspective.
Yes Blogging has come a long way and it needs to spread too but I think still the “dear diary” type blogs would outnumber the other topic specific blogs.
Then why look down upon them.
And the debate here is now does the BlogCamp calls for only such “topic specific” bloggers or also personal bloggers (or “dear diary” bloggers or bloggers who blog for themselves, whatever you like to call them).
Passion is there in every type of blogging and I strongly object to the statement that personal bloggers have led to negative stereotypes and made blogging untrustworthy. Through such type of blogging only blogging has been able to live till now and now blogging is reaching new avenues.
And I will again quote asuph here “There are guys, who want different things from blogging”.
BlogCamp has become a metaphor for the so topic specific blogging community.
So the BlogCamp can go ahead with so called “interesting” bloggers or BlogCamp can welcome “Bloggers”.
PS: Navin’s contribution and initiative is unquestionable, the discussion now has gone beyond this article.
When I say that blogs have traditionally been looked down upon as ‘dear dairies’ that doesn’t mean I endorse that view or think that personal blogging is any way less important; I am just pointing to how non-bloggers and the uninitiated ones look at the bloggers as a collective; in a similar vien, untrustworthiness/ insignificance is what other people , in my opinion, attribute to the bloggers based on their ‘dear dairy’ stereotype; it may or may not be factual- I personally do not find banal lifestreaming interesting; there are other ‘personal’ bloggers whom I read and find interesting nonetheless – but my opinion/ reading habits is not important for the discussion or the barcamp; what is important is the perception in the mind of the common non-blogger and whether that perception is factual- and there one cannot close ones eyes to reality and pretend that the negative stereotype does not exist. The effort to shake off the negative stereotype has to bee seen in that light and any efforts to politicize the issue or make a mountain out of molehill claiming that personal bloggers are being denigrated/ made to feel undervalued in the blogcamp is deplorable and I am sure was neither the intent of Navin’s initial post, nor my subsequent comment.
Dhananjay,
It’s curious that you do not find the tone of this article surprising, after what you’ve written in the comment above — addressed to me.
To Navin’s credit, he has gone that extra step to take back what was said in the haste, and tried to explain it well.
Sure it was a marketing pitch, to get more people interested and all that. In fact that is what is happening more and more — arranged unconferences, professional blogging. Which can be a good thing for those who’ve a different view of blogging. And that’s why I jumped in this discussion, to tell Abhinav that it was okay. Navin had an idea of what a blog camp should be, or what it’s value is, and that might be well shared view, in people who are enthusiastic about blog camps in general. Great thing. It helps people to come together for a shared purpose.
Now imagine someone like me coming there and talking about my blog that ten people read, on a particularly good day. Imagine a person who writes mostly about her dogs, or about how he ate his lunch at a hotel alone, and looked at the people around him, and they sharing their experiences. A cursory glance at the blog-camp page (and not to mention this article and some of the comments) tells me what value these will have for a majority of Blog Campers. Blog Camps have moved from informal group of bloggers meeting in a coffee-shop to a semi-formal gathering with a shared, even stated at times, agenda.
The intention was not to disappoint anyone. I don’t really know either, how a blog camp could be less formal, and structured. And I don’t really believe many bloggers share my thoughts and approach. It’s a gut feeling — they don’t. And it bodes well for blog camps. And I’ll be very happy if PBC2 is a roaring success.
The Blog Camps that I will attened, will be probably be smaller in scale, and more like blogger’s meets, where one can have more small groups, free form, discussions, than sessions after sessions about moneytizing blogs, or blogging tools, and where blogging is supposed to go. Very important topics, all those. And I’m sure it will help lot of bloggers to attend these blog camps — newbies or not.
With the scale, without structure and a shared agenda, it will be a disaster.
I’ll just leave a thought out there in the open to be responded to if and when appropriate.
Even if conducted for expression, my belief is there is an implicit objective if the blog is public (as opposed to local on your desktop). That objective is reach. Even if blogging for self in terms of overall value, the value is maximised by reaching out to the maximum people. Taking this premise for granted (for a moment)
I see blogging as a triad of factors (quadrant if being done for commercially)
a. Expression : The very essence which defined (whats been described as) first generation blogging
b. Promotion : The act of promoting the blog to maximise the reach
c. Value Focus : The act of figuring out and being driven by an attempt to maximising the value to a target audience.
d. Monetisation : The act of attempting to make money out of the blog.
Note that (b) per se is not important except that it helps enhancing the reach.
I think the diarised blogs can attempt to do service all three (or even the fourth) of the factors. In my limited observation they focus on point (a) and not so much on the remaining. And somewhere deep down I think it is not so much passion as a deliberate or indeliberate act of not attempting to address factors (b) or (c). And if I have to speculate, there’s perhaps a germ of a thought that (b) and (c) will somehow impurify a blog.
So my question is whether are factors (b) and (c) the defining differentiation which some bloggers adopt and some don’t ? And could it be that not attempting to address (c) leads to some readers to classify these as not interesting ?
Going back to questioning the very premise I suggested – is it appropriate to factor in reach as a deliberate objective of the blog or does it somewhere dilute the original essence of blogging which was focused on expression. My response to this is that the decision is blogger specific and blogging is ready to accept this diversity.
And finally wouldn’t it make for a much more interesting blogcamp – if bloggers of all feathers made it there. Again my response to that is a strong yes. And if blogcamp is a metaphor for topic bloggers – is there a way to delink it.
If I thought a blogcamp did not address my concerns – I would treat it as an issue where the ball is in my court – and the only way to volley appropriately is to be there to make a difference. But thats just one way of looking at things.
Dhananjay,
We’ll get back to the discussion soon. But in the meanwhile, do we want or don’t want the ‘negative’ stereotype of ‘dear diary’ blogging to be further cemented? If too many ‘dear diary’ bloggers turned up at the blog camp, wouldn’t it be strengthened? Everyone may have different take on it, including the ‘dear diary’ bloggers.
Also, you raise the point of which side of the court ball is in. The assumption is that we’re playing or are interested in the court/match/crowd. Clearly, not all bloggers will be interested in *any* idea of a blog camp. Some will not be interested in *some* idea of a blog camp. Whether to influence those who are interested in *that* idea, into changing *that* idea, by turning up there, or not, is a much personal decision (based on passion, time, energies, priorities and so on), won’t you agree? To let be is also one way to volley, in a meta-sense.
I agree with the last sentence of your comment a hundred percent.
cheers,
asuph
@ All those blogs should be abt something serious
Firstly, I don’t condemn those blogs but I am quite skeptical about trusting their content. They are a good place to develop interest in the topic get an overall view but certainly, I do not trust them blindly.
The reason being simple they are still an individual’s opinion even though he may be in an expert his views need not be always true and the general opinion or belief. If he had been so sure of his/her opinion he might have put a research paper on it.
Blogs are informal and will always be informal. Content verification cannot be done in most cases and then again references are often to a third party blog, which translates as no verification.
Now, if personal blog is a waste of time both reader and the writer, by same logic sketching, dancing, gardening (only flowers), philately, playing chess, singing etc are a waste of time if u don’t intend to do it professionally.
And FYI the most successful blogs (even if by a professional blogger) are not on a specific topic. If I talk abt say finance theory say, then do i expect a huge following when I speak on BSEL2 implementation impact in 2011 when a general visitor doesn’t understand Securitization – apost written back say 2 yrs ago.
And Who says one needs 10000 visitors/readers. I am more than happy with my 10 and even happier if they were 5. Simply becoz I can express myself the way I can… My way …And I say it becoz on my personal blog I hardly have 3 visitor a day and I like it that way!!! It gives me more freedom to curse, to abuse without even caring that my words may evoke a strong resentment in some..
But when I am on my team blog, I simply can’t use harsh and strong words even though My heart really begs me to use it since the traffic is really high. And I want to ensure that I do not hurt someone or community unintentionally. And then there are people questioning ur every statement that means to give substantial proof.
take the Navin’s case, an unintentional statement caused such a negative reaction that comments long enough to be a post in itself have been left by bloggers (and this includes yours truly!)
@falcon The references , to improve blog post credibility, at least in the case of science blogs is to journal articles published in traditional journals- see researchblogging.org – a tool developed by science blogging community itself, when a need for content verification was felt. Apart from that, many times bloggers refer to Main stream Media and of course other bloggers as references- and I see both as sufficiently credible sources of information and not just as personal opinions.
Regarding why not write a research paper in a traditional journal, remember Impact Factor is not everything that drives publishing decisions of scientists. Some have deliberately chosen to publish exclusively in open-access journals, even though it may have a low IF, as they have a strong commitment to that philosophy, some choose to use blogs as their platform even though they have no IF associated with them for now. And just FYI, there is an emerging trend in which blog posts are being cited in scholarly traditional journal articles and research papers as credible sources of information/ideas and tools are being developed for the same.
I can go on and on about how blogs are being innovatively used but perhaps as I mentioned earlier some would like to deny a blog any more importance than a personal diary/opinion. Always remember that you need not pull down something to establish your case- one need not denigrate personal bloggers to claim that topical blogging is good/ the future/ the next big thing. I think the whole confusion of this thread stems from the fact that one is not able to differentiate the dislike for a false stereotype and takes that as a dislike/disrespect for a whole slew of personal bloggers. As a matter of fact, if I dislike the stereotype associated with say Blacks as being violent, I am perhaps more sensitive to the fact that Blacks are not violent and perhaps view Blacks in a positive light. If however, as a Black I take pride in the stereotype that I am violent and seek my identity in that stereotype which has been trust on me by outsiders, perhaps I will only make that stereotype true. One can take pride in the fact that blogs are not considered trustworthy/significant or one can work actively, and try to overcome that stereotype. The choice as always is personal.
Sandeep:
Can you substantiate your (bogey, IMHO) claim that “some would like to deny a blog any more importance than a personal diary/opinion”. Or are we supposed to take it as a given? On this thread? Anyone?
Because, if that’s what we’re arguing for/against, I’m really on your side.
Does ‘deny’ mean being unconcerned/unimpressed, or does it actually means: deny, as is meant in an English dictionary? Or does deny means saying that “hold on. there is more to it than …”.
regards,
asuph.
@asuph by ‘deny’ I meant more of ‘hold on there is more to it than …”. I see Navin’s initial post as an effort in that direction, trying to highlight that there is more to blogging than just personal opinion/diary.
I somehow felt that taking to arms against that position was preferring nostalgia/ stereotype of ‘dear diary’ over the diverse reality of present-day blogging. I can now see that the concern was more over equating the many interesting personal blogs and bloggers with the negative stereotype of banality/boringness. I must admit that perhaps I too went overboard and made a strong and perhaps unwanted comment that the negative stereotype (untrustworthiness/ insignificance) is primarily due to personal dear dairy bloggers of the past- I admit that the stereotypes need not have a basis in reality- and if they do indeed have a basis in reality perhaps all types of blogs and bloggers- topical or otherwise need to share the blame.
Its heartening to note that we all agree that blogs are much more than dear diaries and personal opinions, and perhaps for a few misplaced wordings, that was what Navin had tried to say and I had tried to defend.
Let peace prevail!
Hi Sandeep,
Glad to see your response. Agree with you.
I thought blogs as being more than dear diary is hard for *anyone* to deny anymore. My point all through is just this: sticking with *whatever* idea of blogging a blogger has, for himself/herself, is okay (so far as he/she that’s what blogging is all about). We don’t need to grow one at the expense of the other.
Or, that it’s not necessarily nostalgia. I’m not denying there is an element of nostalgia for some. But for others it might be a much more than that. The ‘lack of focus’ could be intentional, or a matter of choice. A niche, non-growing, audience, might be fulfilling someone’s requirements from blogging. It might be a way of life chosen, and not necessarily by default. And it’s fundamentally okay.
I don’t think such bloggers are looking down on bloggers who write topical blogs, say, or deep technical blogs, or blogs that are optimized for traffic and/or monetary considerations (but then again, some might be, unfortunately). However, the feeling has to be reciprocated, as a matter of philosophy (I might believe my religion is the greatest, but I should give allowance to other religions, right?). I didn’t feel that was happening here, till navin’s clarification and now yours.
I think this plethora of possibilities in both spectra that we have in blogging (including podcasts/photo-blogs/and-so-on) does put us in a unique position vis-a-vis mass, mainstream media. I’m all for mutual respect :).
You know what: all these 20 odd comments could have been avoided (of course, what fun would it be, then?) with one reason added to the list: “and if none of this interests you, there might be bloggers like you, who blog on whim, and you might just be able to connect with”. But then, one might argue that that is given in a blog-camp, and Navin was trying just go beyond that. Just looking at the article, it wouldn’t have occurred to me (although now, I do see it that way, even though much was lost in expression).
For me, the most important strength of the blogging medium is this: we can have dissent, and discuss, and if it’s a particularly good day, we might even all agree.
Amen to that 🙂
asuph
Now that the Blogcamp is over I would like to go back to the question that @Dhananjay asked somewhere in between.
Using the same nomenclature, I would think “yes” factors (b) and (c) i.e. promotion and Value focus (to use the same triad) are the defining differentiation between topical and dear diary/non-topical blogs.
If some non-topical blogs/diary blogs don’t share the same readership it is sometimes out of the skepticism that in pursuit of “value focus” they might loose their Mojo.
Increased readership or making it interesting sometimes ends up in endorsing someone or something which you didn’t begin to do with your blog, and at that point your blog stops being a blog.
@asuph had one view about Blogcamp to let ‘such’ bloggers have a party of their own and @Dhananjay raised the point that why don’t bloggers of all feather flock together and that was the premise of my initial argument.
Who dictates the terms of BlogCamp and how can you decide who is a real blogger? Or blogcamp should have ‘interesting’ bloggers only? To which @navin explained his stand well enough and that was fine.
But then at the end of BlogCamp Pune 2 I have a question lingering in my mind, how many such non-topic bloggers attended the Camp and how much they contributed to it (off course I could have made it up there myself to take up the cause but unfortunately I couldn’t make it) and if the number was negligible then is @asuph’s idea better to have a separate format of blogcamp for such bloggers? Or try to work on @Dhananjay’s advice to get all bloggers (topic specific, non-topic, dear diary, etc. etc.) under one roof and if it needs some tweaks in the current BlogCamp format, then be it?
@ Sandeep Gautam
thx for the info. I did not say all I said “MOST” and not all Blog abt “Science”…What I said was what I tht was the general Opinion.. Now what if I had posted my entire comment on my blog and just pasted a link here…
My words were tempting enough to provoke a reaction from you, may be it could have been tempting enough for someone to believe it.
And that’s where the folly lies… My statements can and cannot be true. let’s for a moment agree it is true. Now even though it may be a true statement it lacks credibility .. the very word “most” makes it lose credibility. And that’s why I said it is difficult to use them as references while they are good to gain an overall knowledge.
In fact even for the science stuff i have access to better sources like Ebscohost… (paid service) so I choose the safer way out for my references.
The freedom of unchecked publishing has its cons too, there is no one to verify “ALL” the statements published, the same is true for websites and that’s what I pointed out!
I seriously believe that a day will come when One can use blog as a reference just as one would use an encyclopedia.. A day where there would be no issues of content lifting and no fear of Plagiarism… but for that day to come we all have to be a much more responsible bloggers.
We have come far away from “Dear Diaries day” even though there was nothing wrong in it.. kind of diversified but then blogging has to cover a lot more…