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Webloggers haven't got a mind

It's funny to notice that some are starting to realize that geeks are humans too... The strange part is that they seem to be disappointed about that.

Let's take Chris Sells as an example. For a while, there were only posts about Winforms or Longhorn on his weblog. Then comes a political post, and all of a sudden Chris Sells is not an honorable man any more.
Apparently some people forgot that weblogs are personal and that their author can think outside of .NET and even outside of the computer space. Seeing the negative response by some, Chris Sells reminds these people that this is his weblog and that he writes about what he wishes.
This is just an example, it can happen to you too.

Some have a bad reaction when they see something not technological on a weblog they categorized by themselves as "technological". Some weblog authors label non technological posts as being "Off-Topic" (or OT). There are categories on weblogs, they can be used to tag posts more efficiently. What does off-topic mean for a personal weblog? Nothing!
Side note to ScottW: .Text doesn't display the categories a post belong too. That would be a nice and easy improvement.

I'd also add that I don't read weblogs according to their author's political opinions. Some replied to Chris Sells' post with a puerile "unsubscribing now" comment. Go on, unsubscribe, that's why RSS is great. You can unsubscribe whenever you want. No one forces you to read a weblog. But think twice. Do you "unsubscribe" a friend because he said something you disagree with? Personally, I think I'd subscribe twice if that was possible. It's more interesting to read about differing opinions that make you think as opposed to consensual ones.

4 Comments

  • I agree completely, weblogs are all about people. I would much rather read a blog that is a personal/technical mix than one that is all technical.



    -James

  • I'm wondering if the blog paradigm couldn't use a push towards a publish/channel architecture. Your blog could actually be a source of multiple channels (topics) that when you post the blog, you clearly state which topics to publish to. Then RSS feeds could be created that represent any one or more of those channels/topics.



    Just a thought...maybe this is a note for the .Text crew.

  • David, this already exists. In many (most?) blog engines, you can choose which category you want to post to. Those individual categories usually have their own RSS feeds you can subscribe to.

  • Exactly David. Look at all these rss links in the Post Categories box.

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