4 ms·

Why tech blogging has failed you

28 points by bootload 18y ago

edw519 18y ago
Finally, I see a lot of blogs that tear down companies, people, or ideas. I remember when the blogs always just were trying to uplift each other and put interesting ideas forward. The same thing can be said about comments in general, and more specifically, comments here at hacker news. This has always been a great place to get inspiration. I love Scoble's phrase "uplift each other". Probably the main reason I'm here. There's also, of course, a lot of debate. Healthy debate can also be uplifting if there's something to be learned. But there's a fine line between "constructive criticism" and "attitude". Any good on-line community or blog will probably always have to walk that fine line.
- henning 18y ago
  I've certainly written plenty of criticism of people, companies, and ideas on this site. Usually it's directed towards people who talk about nothing but business and act like know-it-all gits. Saying that something is "dead" (especially when it's still, say, a multi-billion dollar industry) or something is "the new (whatever)" infuriates me. You don't see anyone here heaping scorn on, say, Erik Meijer even though he does prominent work at a company a lot of people don't like, because all he does is produce code and papers and that doesn't set anyone off.
PStamatiou 18y ago
I don't like how he thinks he speaks for everyone..
- boredguy8 18y ago
  Very well said. Plus, I don't know what Scoble thinks he's been doing if not "Tech Business" blogging. Looking back at his archives: not much has changed.
rkowalick 18y ago
New arcticle: Has/How/Why meta tech blogging has failed you
sh1mmer 18y ago
I'd been steering clear of Robert for a while. However I think he is bang on the money here. When Tech blogs think that an audience makes them business pundits it's a sad state of affairs. I'd much rather that we all remained wide eyed children, amazed at all the new and wondrous things happening around us. Being aware of business is one thing, being focused on it to the exclusion of everything is something else. PG's post on Cities stuck with me, I'd like to think the Valley and tech entrepreneurs in general are all about changing the world for the better. Business is just a small part of that.
rw 18y ago
"God, I loved getting attention for meeting famous techies."
comatose_kid 18y ago
Tech Blog is too broad a term. Both his blog, and say Andrew 'bunnie' Huang's (hardware hacker who has done a ton of cool stuff) blog are about technology. Anyways, the words 'failed you' with respect to Scoble's variant of tech blogging is kind of silly and pretentious - I keep thinking of some guy at his computer, head hung in sorrow, all because Scoble and Matthew Ingram wrote a pro-windows article for their blog.
nir 18y ago
Tech blogging by people who actually build stuff (like Spolsky or Winer) is often pretty good. You may disagree with a lot of their views, but there's also some good insight too. Tech blogging by people like Scoble or Arrington, on the other hand, is even worse than mainstream media. Over the years they've proven to be at least as susceptible to hype ("Silverlight will reboot the Web") with far lower ethical standards and general journalistic professionalism of MSM.
mattmaroon 18y ago
Didn't read the article, but to answer the titular question, it's too out of touch. Too focused on Apple/Facebook/Google (currently in that order, though sometimes it gets shuffled) and not focused enough on what's really happening. You'd think from reading tech media that 100% of the population owns or cares about the iPhone. The writers need to take a step back and look at the general populace, where far more people own a Blackberry and, despite loads of hype aren't even considering switching. Despite the tech media's constant insistence that it is "game changing" the cell phone industry is the same for 95% of the population and carriers as it was two years ago. A surprisingly large % of Americans use MySpace or Facebook, but even most of them only do so casually. The average American has never heard of Twitter, and likely never will, but anyone in the tech industry is doomed to read 5 entries about it a day. So I guess I'd like to see tech media realigned, such that the number of articles about any given company match the amount of difference they make in the real world.

28 points by bootload 18y ago

Finally, I see a lot of blogs that tear down companies, people, or ideas. I remember when the blogs always just were trying to uplift each other and put interesting ideas forward. The same thing can be said about comments in general, and more specifically, comments here at hacker news. This has always been a great place to get inspiration. I love Scoble's phrase "uplift each other". Probably the main reason I'm here. There's also, of course, a lot of debate. Healthy debate can also be uplifting if there's something to be learned. But there's a fine line between "constructive criticism" and "attitude". Any good on-line community or blog will probably always have to walk that fine line.

henning 18y ago
I've certainly written plenty of criticism of people, companies, and ideas on this site. Usually it's directed towards people who talk about nothing but business and act like know-it-all gits. Saying that something is "dead" (especially when it's still, say, a multi-billion dollar industry) or something is "the new (whatever)" infuriates me. You don't see anyone here heaping scorn on, say, Erik Meijer even though he does prominent work at a company a lot of people don't like, because all he does is produce code and papers and that doesn't set anyone off.

PStamatiou 18y ago

I don't like how he thinks he speaks for everyone..

boredguy8 18y ago
Very well said. Plus, I don't know what Scoble thinks he's been doing if not "Tech Business" blogging. Looking back at his archives: not much has changed.

rkowalick 18y ago

New arcticle: Has/How/Why meta tech blogging has failed you

sh1mmer 18y ago

I'd been steering clear of Robert for a while. However I think he is bang on the money here. When Tech blogs think that an audience makes them business pundits it's a sad state of affairs. I'd much rather that we all remained wide eyed children, amazed at all the new and wondrous things happening around us. Being aware of business is one thing, being focused on it to the exclusion of everything is something else. PG's post on Cities stuck with me, I'd like to think the Valley and tech entrepreneurs in general are all about changing the world for the better. Business is just a small part of that.

rw 18y ago

"God, I loved getting attention for meeting famous techies."

comatose_kid 18y ago

Tech Blog is too broad a term. Both his blog, and say Andrew 'bunnie' Huang's (hardware hacker who has done a ton of cool stuff) blog are about technology. Anyways, the words 'failed you' with respect to Scoble's variant of tech blogging is kind of silly and pretentious - I keep thinking of some guy at his computer, head hung in sorrow, all because Scoble and Matthew Ingram wrote a pro-windows article for their blog.

nir 18y ago

Tech blogging by people who actually build stuff (like Spolsky or Winer) is often pretty good. You may disagree with a lot of their views, but there's also some good insight too. Tech blogging by people like Scoble or Arrington, on the other hand, is even worse than mainstream media. Over the years they've proven to be at least as susceptible to hype ("Silverlight will reboot the Web") with far lower ethical standards and general journalistic professionalism of MSM.

mattmaroon 18y ago

Didn't read the article, but to answer the titular question, it's too out of touch. Too focused on Apple/Facebook/Google (currently in that order, though sometimes it gets shuffled) and not focused enough on what's really happening. You'd think from reading tech media that 100% of the population owns or cares about the iPhone. The writers need to take a step back and look at the general populace, where far more people own a Blackberry and, despite loads of hype aren't even considering switching. Despite the tech media's constant insistence that it is "game changing" the cell phone industry is the same for 95% of the population and carriers as it was two years ago. A surprisingly large % of Americans use MySpace or Facebook, but even most of them only do so casually. The average American has never heard of Twitter, and likely never will, but anyone in the tech industry is doomed to read 5 entries about it a day. So I guess I'd like to see tech media realigned, such that the number of articles about any given company match the amount of difference they make in the real world.