November 3, 2009
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What exactly IS blogging?
I've been a member of Xanga for quite a while now. And all the time I've been here there's always been this conflict over what Xanga is that drives the debate over how to reform it.
People ask the question, is it a blogging site or is a Journaling site? Is it a blogging site or a personal webpage generation site? Is it a blogging site or is a Social Networking site? Is it a blogging site or is it a video and image posting site? Is it a blogging site or a wannabe microblogging site? Is it a blogging site or is a network of online collaborative magazines site? And most recently is it a blogging site or is it a forum site?
But I have a much simpler question I want to ask. A question I need an answer to before I can even begin to answer any of those other questions.
What exactly IS a blogging site?
What are the principles that make a blogging site a real blogging site? What are the features a blogging site can't do without? What are the kinds of features that facilitate and enhance blogging as opposed to any or all of those other sites?
Because when I look out at all the online site from facebook to myspace to twiter to gaia online to blogger to orkut to wordpress to livejournal to youtube to linkedin to blogspot to tumblr to deviantart to xanga... and they all tend to sort of blur together in my mind. Features are repeated across each service. As time passes they all tend to copy off each other so much that they all start to feel the same. It's hard to see what the design principles are that separate each of these services.
So I'm asking you. What are the first principles that define each type of internet service? What does it mean when we say we want Xanga to focus on blogging and not trying to be some other kind of site? What are we talking about when we say Xanga operates more like this or that kind of site then a blogging site?
I'm looking to determine a theory of blogging. Can you help?
Comments (4)
Myspace was like the telephone directory and Facebook took over that position. Everyone needs one to keep in contact. (Although even these sites have defining qualities).
But most other sites have to define themselves. Youtube is a video site. It is plain and simple. Youtube would make a big mistake if it tried to change that. WordPress is more of a professional website that focuses on people that want to host their own .com.
For xanga, they are a personal blogging site. It is set up for people to express their own thoughts and feelings about their day. I believe xanga has run into problems because they have never accepted that. About 4 years ago, I talked to one of the owners of xanga and he communicated that people were not interested in blogging anymore. They wanted all the features that myspace had. So xanga started adding those features. As xanga did that, they saw their traffic drop off. Then xanga communicated they wanted to have Xanga TV. So they were going to add that feature.
You heard a big outcry at different times over the last 4 years about xanga getting away from its "blogging" roots. In other words, it was no longer about blogging. But talking with xanga, they felt blogging was not "sexy" enough (The word "sexy" came from one of the owners of xanga).
Over the last 4-5 years, xanga has never been focused on the bloggers. Remember the big push about a year and a half ago when xanga said they were going to return to their blogging roots? Xanga made a big deal about it and posted about it on the xanga team site. Why did they do that? Because the community was complaining about xanga being ignored.
At the very time that xanga was posting on their site that they were going to return to their blogging roots, xanga was once again communicating in private that blogging was dead and that they were going to start the ish sites. That is when I really started to distance myself from the xanga leadership. It felt once again they were sort of lying to the xanga community. I am sure that wasn't the intention but I just came to the place where I realized that at some level the leadership of xanga resented the blogging community and was sad for the box they felt it put them in.
I think your post is the most important question for xanga to answer. All features that are added should be added with the thought of focusing on the blogging community. I think it would cause growth and xanga could return to its true roots. Will they be as large as Facebook? No. But look at what has happened over the last 4-5 years as xanga has focused on everything but blogging. It has caused them to fall behind.
Considering that the first "weblogs" were just diaries online, blogging has come pretty far in a relatively short period of time.
Sometimes it feels like we're a bunch of pamphleteers. When George Washington issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, Hamilton and Madison published essays that argued with one another over the proclamation. That is, they "posted" and "counterposted". They even wrote under pseudonyms, which is no different from usernames. People have always found ways to discuss issues, whether they are famous individuals or ordinary citizens. Blogging is how we do it today.
Then again, to some, blogging is still just a way to put a diary online.
The interesting thing about blogging is that it almost has no form- it's whatever we want it to be. Everyone gets their own site and then proceeds to fill it with whatever they choose.
On Xanga, so many people know each other we do tend to spend more time talking to each other than straightforward blogging of any stripe. That's why I compared it to forums. Sometimes it even acts a little like IM.
Blogging, however, can be boiled down to one element- the freedom to express personal views. Whatever those views may be.
EDIT: I originally said "disseminate" rather than "express". But upon further thought disseminate isn't the right choice of words, because it implies spreading one's views around. As there are two main types of bloggers- those who like to keep to themselves and those who want traffic- it would be better to say that freedom to express personal views at all is the one element common to all blogging.
That is a very good question. To me, I appreciate Xanga and I think it should quit trying to be like Facebook or Myspace. I liked the fact that Xanga wasn't a social networking site, per se. I always saw it as a place to share different kinds of writing, express opinions, post poetry, and share photos. Plus you can design your own webpage, which for me, has been a lot of fun.
for me, blogging's just writing and posting whatever it is that you wish to post in the net...