Surely it’s a case by case basis kind of thing.

I’m too lazy to rant on any more… (thank god I hear you say.)

Frank

Do they still have that “Crimes Against Humanity” clause? Gits. So restrictive.

Up to very recently BoingBoing made no money but they started getting grief for their hosting charges. John Batelle came on board and “monetized them”. Up to then they were of the hippy persuasion when it came to money. I think the Gawker stable of blogs are the ones that make the most.

And sure, I can agree to disagree.

Let’s be honest … if you REALLY put down all your thoughts, I doubt you’d publish them to the world … personal privacy and all that

And don’t think that Boing Boing is either altruistic or not goal-oriented - it’s one of the most profitable web logs in the world (could be number 1 but I don’t want to quote things I’m not sure of). Admittedly they don’t have 1 topic, but Boing Boing’s appeal is it’s off-colour and weird posts (apart from Cory’s copyfight stuff) .. so it does have a certain consistency … I know what to expect from a Boing Boing post.

Let’s just agree to disagree … we both think Blogs are great, I just don’t believe most Bloggers do it with no motivations.

It’s a farce to say that bloggers are completely altruistic. Each blogger wants build readership so as to enhance their career / personal brand / whatever … their is SOME goal. Therefore bloggers do have to try and post things of interest and relevance.

I’d even dispute that. Blogging is a conversation. Sometimes the audience is the blogger, sometimes it is to family, sometimes it is to the world. It doesn’t have to be to advance ones career or get oneself noticed.

Strangely enough one of my favourite blogs is BoingBoing. Cory Doctorow on that describes how he uses the site as a personal link storage device. He posts stuff that interests him and it is a bonus that other people are interested. He says that he posts to himself.

The main two reasons I blog are:
1) like Cory does, to use my site as a linklog and
2) As a braindump. I have loads of thoughts and opinions on various things and I find it is better to get them out of my head and express them on my blog or on paper and clear room for new thoughts that are forming and distilling.

Oh my. I don’t like that. Bloggers are entitled to post what they want on their own blog.

Of course they are … but if they post crap, then no ones going to read it. Blogs aren’t private journals, fair enough, they are a persons soap box, but no one will listen if the blog doesn’t have a consistent style and type of post.

What I really don’t like though is the way some people threaten unsubscribing

No one is ‘threatening’ anything … it’s a simple fact that good, interesting blogs get read, boring rants on irrelevant topics don’t.

You can be a PR person and a blogger, a Govt Minister and a blogger and a journalist and a blogger and the blog will be different for each job.

Exactly. And each one will have a topical perspective that makes it interesting to some readers.

It’s a farce to say that bloggers are completely altruistic. Each blogger wants build readership so as to enhance their career / personal brand / whatever … their is SOME goal. Therefore bloggers do have to try and post things of interest and relevance.

I don’t think I’m the only one who won’t subscribe to a blog where only 10% of the posts are of interest to me. Am I?

Let’s move away from this idea of editorial policy and think of it more like a train of thought. I susbcribe to people who I am interested in listening to. The most successful bloggers all tend to have a train of thought, even Boing Boing - there’s is random of course

If it’s an IT related product or service then fine, but I don’t want to read about bad service in a hotel in an IT blog unless it’s linked back to your core content (although in that case I think it warranted the post )

I’m not sure I’d agree with that. But then many of the blogs I read are not tied to one topic or subject. Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, Doc Searls, David Weinberger etc. all have very loose blogs. They talk about IT, about social software, about their lives. I in fact quite like it that they do this as it gives me a better insight to where their views are coming from. I liked Tom’s rant about the restaurant because it lets me see his view on non-IT services and how he deals with other real world things.

Bloggers need to keep their posts on topic

Oh my. I don’t like that. Bloggers are entitled to post what they want on their own blog. I’m sure there are blogs out there created to talk about one topic but there are a hell of a lot of blogs out there that are about peoples views on things they are interested in. Whether that be politics, IT, life etc.

I’d class myself as a guest in Tom’s room, where he shares his opinions on things. It is his soap box, his two cents. As you say if I don’t like to hear his views on things I can walk away and unsubscribe. What I really don’t like though is the way some people threaten unsubscribing to make people get back on topic. Unless the blog is a commercial venture that you are paying for and investing in, I don’t think anyone has much of an entitlement to dictate editorial policy. You can somment and suggest things alright but the blogger is the conversation starter at the end of the day.

The idea that someones views and tastes on one area might also apply to another is the idea of OpenCola, a defunct P2P app where it would match things in your shared folder with other things people have. So it would suggest new music and new ebooks based on what you and others liked.

I think one of the issues here is that people think that bloggers are journalists or pundits or whatever. But blogging is very broad. You can be a PR person and a blogger, a Govt Minister and a blogger and a journalist and a blogger and the blog will be different for each job.

Onne thing I didn’t point out is that in a lot of cases, espeicially the free bottle of wine example, it’s enough to give bloggers your product and not expect anything out of it. Bloggers are primarily opinionated, educated, tech savy males. I didn’t take the bottle of wine, but Ed did and he’s told me about it in the real world as well as a wine retailer. Forget the blogosphere and think about the real world impact of giving connectors your product.