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99.9% of blogs are crap, including mine. I write it mostly for myself and to polish my English (not my native tongue). I don't believe one should be looking for
by tx 18y ago
99.9% of blogs are crap, including mine. I write it mostly for myself and to polish my English (not my native tongue). I don't believe one should be looking for "advantages" when deciding to start a blog. I hate to see what blogs are turning into: they aren't personal anymore and look more like expanded resumes. Blogs used to be just that: a personal diary of what's going on. And silly things like "Rails Blog" or "Java Blog" just don't make sense: why would someone keep a blog like that - nothing is happening in their life besides Rails or Java?
In fact, let's be honest: a blog is just a buzzword. "Homepages" have been around forever, why rename them into something which isn't even a real English word. Before '03 corporate websites had a page called "News", now they call it a "blog" and make it look a little bit more personal.
After about 3 years of this "citizen journalism" I went back to slashdot, they provide more than enough of daily time wasting material. Real news are in books, never mind that they happened in the past, at least they're true and delivered to you professionally.
And finally, I don't trust "blogs". Even my modest page with 40 daily accidental readers attracts an email from a PR firm every once in a while, asking me to promote some BS they're getting paid for. I can only imagine how it's like for someone with 10K+ monthly uniques.. Most of these "bloggers" are cheap part-time journalists armed with inflated egos but lacking skills/time to check their facts and, sometimes, their spelling.
- swombat 18y agoWhy should anyone be interested in your personal happenings? On the other hand, if you have some perspective to contribute about Rails development, the value proposition to the reader is much clearer. Daniel
- Glimjaur 18y agoBecause a personal weblog probably should be most interesting to friends and family, people close to the writer.
- bootload 18y ago"... I write it mostly for myself and to polish my English ..." I use my blog to 'try' and polish my ideas. Funny things happen when you write them down. The ideas that sound great in your head suddenly appear trivial, less substantial. That's why working on them in blog format is a good idea. You get to throw ideas around for others to read, comment. Shred. Some work, others get shot down or in the process you find better ones. The ones that work can attract comment. This is where you can make improvements or just kill them. Ideas can be polished far easier under the wear of others scrutiny.
- yariv 18y ago"Blogs used to be just that: a personal diary of what's going on. And silly things like "Rails Blog" or "Java Blog" just don't make sense: why would someone keep a blog like that - nothing is happening in their life besides Rails or Java?" I disagree. Fewer people care about what you did last weekend than if you wrote a cool new library for Ruby. Blogs help connect people with shared interests and what's wrong with writing about your interest in programming? I think your definition of what a blog should be is pretty narrow and it excludes a big part of the blogsphere that people care about.
- adityakothadiya 18y ago"I hate to see what blogs are turning into: they aren't personal anymore and look more like expanded resumes. " Why are you restricting blog's definition to only personal diary. Things evolve. Whoever said initially that it's a personal diary didn't know that it can evolve to any extent. What's wrong in writing your learnings or insights on any professional or niche topic? What's wrong if I spent lots of time in learning some Java hack and sharing it with community so that they don't have to invest same amount of time that I have invested? I think your view-point is extreme. There are always handful bloggers who write great analysis of particular topic genuinely. It's totally in reader's control to decide what to read and what to pass.