Why “Me Too” Blogging Can Be Useful
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 | blogging, content, education, websites, writing | 2 Comments
I checked in with Twitter this morning to see what was new and noticed Justin Whitaker’s Tweet saying that he’d received his first nasty comment on his blog.
That made me curious so I went to his blog and found a post about “me too” blogging.
Justin is of the opinion that blogging is “incestuous” and that most bloggers “treat other blogs [as] grist for their own mill, as mere sounding boards for their own work”.
I agree that much of the content on blogs seems repetitive – and often these repetitive posts offer no new insights or information whatsoever. I’m not sure anyone could argue that all blog content is fresh and original.
However, I agree with Michael Durwin’s comment on Justin’s post that “me too” blogging does serve a purpose. “Me Too” blogging provides more access to content that is useful and relevant to people who might not see it otherwise:
I too often forget that most people in the world aren’t as tech savvy as those I talk to everyday. I talked to a recruiter the other day who wasn’t on Facebook because: “isn’t that site just for college kids?”. So before you accuse bloggers of writing “me too” posts to drive traffic, or to just regurgitate what other have already said, consider that not everyone has read all of those other blogs that you have. I live in Boston, arguably one of the most high tech cities in the US, home to countless colleges. I have 3 family members in college. I regularly speak at my alma mater. You’d be SHOCKED to know how few use Flickr, Facebook, or even know how to use Google.
It would be great if everyone could write new and fascinating content, but can’t blogging be a sort of conversation? You write something and I say, “I agree with that (me too!) and here’s my version and why I agree.” Does it matter that I’m “playing the blogging game” without bringing an “original voice to advance the discussion”?
I don’t think so.
If I were talking to someone in real life over coffee and I agreed with something they said and wanted to pass it along, would it be OK for them to say: “You’re not adding value to this discussion – you should stop talking.”
Again, I don’t think so.
A blog post has value if someone reads it and gets something out of it – who cares if 400 other people wrote about the same thing and hold the same opinion. The point is that the reader saw it and it was useful. It doesn’t matter if the other 399 blogs have the same information because the reader didn’t go there (and now doesn’t need to).
Justin suggests making a “concerted effort to kill “Me Too” blogging” in 2009 – I think our efforts would be better spent on making those “Me Too” posts well-written so that wherever a reader’s travels through the blogosphere lead – they lead to intelligent writing.
As a point of interest, Google “me too blogging” – there are lots of posts about this (including Justin’s), but since Justin’s post was the first one I came across, I stopped there.
WordCamp Whistler 2009 – Reflections and Thoughts
Thursday, January 29th, 2009 | WordCamp, WordPress, conference, education | No Comments
WordCamp Whistler 2009 has now come and gone.
I did a little live blogging, but most of the time I felt that I ought to be paying attention to the speakers (after all, that’s why I went!).
I thoroughly enjoyed Lorelle van Fossen’s keynote address in which I learned the following cool things:
- Firefox has some really great additions that will save you time when you’re trying to blog at the speed of light (and Lorelle actually does blog at the speed of light – it’s quite impressive). I am now using the CoLT and AutoCopy extensions and they really do make things easier and faster.
- WordPress has an annoying catch to their WYSIWYG editor – if you write up a post in the HTML view (complete with HTML tagging) and then switch to the Visual tab, WordPress ever so helpfully “cleans” your HTML code which then puts you back at square one. Disabling the visual editor will fix this problem.
- Images posted on your WordPress site do not come with an ‘alt’ attribute – these must be put in by hand. What is an alt attribute? The alt attribute provides information to the user about your image and this is especially helpful for those with text-only browsers or if your image doesn’t load.
These were probably my favourite tips.
The other speaker I particularly enjoyed listening to and learning from was Morten Rand-Hendriksen.
Morten gave an excellent and entertaining overview of how to use WordPress in alternate configurations and instructed us all to “throw off the shackles of the blog” and do something new – like use WordPress as a website and not just a blog. He showed us some very simple manipulations of the template and CSS that can turn WordPress into a website and not “just another WordPress blog”.
Also, Morten put his creativity to good use during the Most Interesting Place for a WP Tattoo contest and put his on the bottom of his foot. You should have taken the prize for that!
I also have to applaud the Fairmont Chateau Whistler for an excellent lunch and providing such a large and lovely room for us to use (complete with power bars for laptops and other gadgetry). The lemon in the water pitchers was a nice touch and the staff handling the conference were great as they always are at any Fairmont I’ve ever been in.
Aside from learning these things – I was mostly treated to “WordPress has super-cool plugins and here are their names.” presentations.
I was especially disappointed that the lecture for using WordPress as a content management system (CMS) didn’t actually cover using WordPress as a CMS. I had been hoping to learn how a system like WordPress could be used as say a help system that might otherwise require a CMS like Flare or RoboHelp.
It’s possible that my understanding of what a CMS is and does is not the usual associations with that term, but I think that possiblity is slim.
One of the things that I felt was a bit shady was being charged a “late fee” to attend the conference. I signed up Thursday evening for the Saturday conference and was charged $30 more than those who signed up earlier. I could certainly understand paying full-price when I sign up at the last moment, but being charged more than full price seems wrong.
I laughed a little when one of the speakers mentioned keeping the cost of attending the conference down. They wanted everyone to feel they could come to the conference for a reasonable cost and take away something useful as that was “in keeping with the spirit of WordPress.” I don’t think late fees are in keeping with that spirit.
I also got the feeling that this particular WordCamp was a bit last minute given the number of speakers who admitted to putting together their presentations the night before and one the speakers admitted they had to come in pretty last minute to attend at all.
These things aside, I would consider attending another WordCamp in the future if I could be reasonably assured that it would be better organized and that the whole “late fee” concept was thrown out in favour of the “pay full price” concept which I think is much more fair.
WordCamp Whistler – Updates
Saturday, January 24th, 2009 | WordCamp, WordPress, consumer culture, education | No Comments
Just some quick updates from WordCamp here in Whistler:
Lorelle Van Fossen, the keynote speaker, just finished a great and information packed session. Here are a a few of the tips I’ve picked up:
- Images do not come with ‘alt’ tagging in the code in WP – add them in and complain loudly to the Powers That Be at WP to have this added as an automatic feature!
- NoteTab Pro – get it, use it, love it.
- Firefox extensions for copying links and text makes blogging faster – try some out!
- Use block quotes in your blog posts when quoting text that isn’t yours.
Also, hearing WP described as “brain dead easy” gave me the giggles.