Blogging and the Wisdom of Crowds

[virgohippy]

Originally Posted by walrus

Leave it to a hippy to bring "feelings" in this

Originally Posted by walrus

But you do raise an interesting point and that is...considering perceptual modes. But that really is a bit off topic so.....

You're right, discussing mode of perception is off topic. Forgive me: the article you introduced is filled with technical stuff... I'd rather think of what the applications of all that technical stuff might be.

If the topic is attempting to figure out some long term strategies, the use of "feelings" tactics, like a bunch of friendly posting, trackbacking, and commenting bloggers interacting with each other through adult blogs in an uninhibited manner, seems very web 2.0 AND marketing friendly. No?

Since OTB was brought up, imagine how much publicity FetishClub could gain if Simon was jived in a public blog-o-sphere as much as he is in those private webmaster chats. Doubtless, it would be entertaining if the surfers to learned how to play along too.

All that friendly banter/debate/play becomes the unique "database" that's valuable, rather then the "I have a blog script" part. And posts become more easily exportable in an emotional sense so surfers/viewers are more likely to spread the content for you.

Or maybe I'm just not getting what this thread is all about.

[walrus]

Actually, it was me that was about to head off topic, your comments really weren't. Sometimes I'll do that....be thinking of something to say but realize that it would detract from the thread and instead of just stopping where I am, I'll write something to remind myself not to do so since I reread from 3-4 posts up to make sure I stay on track and if I read whatever it was that sent my mind running in the wrong direction, the reminder gets me back in line.

Sorry, I didn't mean to say that you were going off topic.

And yes, you are getting it, it's exactly the type of thing I'm talking about.

[jayeff]

Originally Posted by virgohippy

Doubtless, it would be entertaining if the surfers to learned how to play along too.

Go visit Amazon, some would say home to one of the earliest and best known "Web2" applications, pick a best-seller and count the number of reader reviews. Think about that number in relation to the number of copies Amazon are likely to have sold. Do the same exercise on Overstock or any sites of that ilk. Consider that at their peak, all of Yahoo's chatrooms combined, although the numbers were hugely impressive for a single website, they didn't amount to more than a tiny fraction of a percent of the people online at any one time.

The internet is global, therefore in some corner of it you could surely find people discussing the digestive cycle of silkworms. I have a friend who sells hand-made duck lures. Far more obscure topics all have a home and an audience, but as O'Reilly himself points out, "Every significant internet application to date has been backed by a specialized database". The internet is primarily a search space, whether someone be looking for text from "War and Peace", for pictures of a stranger's holiday in the Antarctic, or for a christmas gift for grandma. Although interactivity is a much-touted feature of the internet and it does appeal to many people, what you might almost call voyeurism - peeking into other peoples' lives and interests - has a far greater appeal.

That is not the impression you will get if you start visiting certain types of blog regularly. But then when I was opposed to the Vietnam war I spent a lot of my time with other protestors and it was easy to forget that most of the world simply couldn't care less about what was going on in SE Asia. Blogger.com however, found that over 90% of users' blogs were gathering dust and estimated that around 96% of all blog comments - including those with superficially on-topic comments but which nevertheless slip in "I have written on this topic at..." - are spam.

What does any of this have to do with this thread? Bear with me...

There is nothing to prevent anyone creating a blog. Over time their writing skills will improve and they will learn how to introduce more interesting information and/or opinion. It will often be natural to mention other bloggers and to be mentioned by them. The audience will grow and a handful from that audience will contribute material of their own. But that is an explanation of a process: it is not a formula for successful blogging, particularly not successful commercial blogging.

I have been a professional writer. I wrote for (national) newspapers and magazines and I have a book which was a best-seller in its day and is still in print, 20 years later. To get into print I had to convince someone to give me the space and that is a hurdle a blogger doesn't have to overcome. But once you have reached an audience, your readers will decide whether they are interested in what you have to say. From that perspective blogs are no different from any other media.

And the reality is that most would-be writers will get a thumbs down. That's a reality which shouldn't deter anyone who really wants to talk to an audience and believes he or she has something to say that an audience will care about. If you have the drive and talent to go that way and make it work, you have my respect and admiration. But within the context of a webmaster board, that is not a direction in which you would reasonably point very many people.

The vast majority of commercial webmasters need a much more pragmatic approach. They should spell correctly and write grammatically, but their job need not go beyond providing enough of the right text as bait for the search engines and content to keep their visitors happy and encourage them to spend money.

Unless they have a traffic source pumping in large numbers of visitors, most webmasters are likely to be better off finding ways to produce multiple blogs efficiently, since no single blog of this kind is ever likely to enjoy a huge audience. That need not and should not mean they produce unappealing "splogs", TGP's with a new face: just something which doesn't place unrealistic demands on their writing skills and/or their work schedule. For example, on a Monday write an article which appears in 10 blogs. On Tuesday write another article which appears in 2 of them and 8 more. Etc. Thus you can satisfy the search engines and your audiences and over time have a reasonable expectation of building that audience to significant numbers.

I'm all for passion and committment and I enjoy seeing both. But I also believe it is important to distinguish between what may work for us individually and what may be perceived as universally applicable.