idealawg will be six months old in a few days. I continue to learn about this process of blogging and about myself as a blogger. I was happy today on this almost-fall Monday to come upon a blog post that opened up my horizons about what I should be doing here.
I watch this creation called the blogosphere and am both fascinated and mystified. The blogosphere is still new; depending upon how long it lasts, it may still be in its infancy. Its evolution is akin to the development of a new culture and customs will develop and change over time. Part of my mystification is the push to set up "rules" so early in the blogosphere's life. As an example, this advice on editing a blog:
Avoid editing posts after they have been published. It's not anathema but it's uncommon and generally not a great idea. If you must make a correction to a published post, note the update or indicate the original material by using strikethrough text.
Why is doing so "not a good idea"? After some questioning and thought, I am breaking out. I now plan to be part of the secret edit sect. Please feel free to join me.
As I blogged over the last six months, I experienced other mandates from the blogosphere or my inner critic. For example, I thought I should be jumping onto the latest blog waves -- at least every once in a while. What blog waves? Maybe they are more like blog wrinkles but I think you know what I mean: Some articles or posts result in a pontifi-flurry of bloggers talking about them. And bloggers talking about what other bloggers have said until the original item has resulted in an explosion of words "commenting on commenter’s comments on commenting comments commenting on commenters." Chris Pirillo calls this post pile the echo chamber. While we are very lucky to have so many bright analyses of a New York Times article or of the post of an A-list blogger, I sometimes feel like the flurry is overwhelming; I also felt I should be joining it to be a real blogger.
That feeling that I should be joining the blog pile was why I found this post below so freeing. I now declare that I will seldom if ever join the echo chamber. I feel a burst of energy and liberation.
The liberating post is How to Eliminate the Echo Chamber and Add New Dimensions to Your Blog at problogger. Darren Rowse borrowed from Chris Pirillo a list of 10 ways to keep your blog out of the blogosphere's echo chamber. Rowse and Pirillo each add their own thoughts expanding on the list items; I recommend that you click over and read what they each wrote. The list:
1. Don’t live inside your news aggregator
2. Say something original at least once a day
3. If warranted, quote an “unknown” source
4. Don’t link to the same site more than once every two weeks
5. Wait a week before publishing your thoughts on hot topics
6. Create, don’t regurgitate
7. Think twice before using buzzwords
8. Make yourself uncomfortable
9. Stop whining (or worrying) about what list you’re on (or not on)
10. Stop saying we need to get out of the echo chamber
Rowse added to Pirillo's list:
11. Look outside the Blogosphere
During the next six months I am going to worry less about what I should be doing. This is my freedom proclamation post. I think it is too early in the vast blogosphere's years to have many (perhaps, any) shoulds and certainly too early in young idealawg's life. Next post I am going to follow the advice of #8 of the above list and make myself uncomfortable, get out of my comfort zone, go a little crazy.
Isn't one's blog in some ways a mirror of one's life? When I first started blogging, Scott Converse told me life would never be the same; he was right.
Amen. Hooray! I hope other bloggers will take note and you'll set a new standard. Personally I get dizzy reading blogs with a plethora of links and echos. I can't follow them all and maintain any reasonable train of coherent thought. I love the idea of being true to your own message and taking personal responsibility for new and original thoughts.
With an ironic sense of relief I realize I never followed those rules because I didn't know they existed. Yes, I've corrected typos and done whatever was needed to make the archives of my blog something I can be proud of for posterity. But then mine isn't news. Mine is instruction. Different blogs for different purposes.
Though we've followed different paths, you got me started, and I thank you for that. You've blogged well, and it sounds as if you'll be blogging even better, becoming a leader in the art, and perhaps setting new standards.
Posted by: Sharon Lippincott | September 18, 2006 at 09:10 PM
As the editor of several blogs, I'm in full agreement with you. I often go in after a writer has hit the Publish button without running the article by me first. And the LAST thing I, as a reader, would want to see is a bunch of struck-through text! Gads, I can't even imagine it.
Even when I worked in the newspaper business, we didn't do that. If we found an error in one edition, we fixed it and voila! The next readers never knew they were laying eyes on corrected text. And they shouldn't. Reading should be seamless.
As for the other points, I also agree. And I'll add a 12th one -- Bloggers who suspect that they have even a tiny problem with spelling, syntax, punctuation, etc., would do their readers a favor by hiring a professional editor. Their readers will thank them for it!
And a good copy editor will NOT mess with an author's voice or style.
(P.S. There are lots of professional copy editors out there - look for one who meets your needs.)
Jenny Meadows
Austin Texas USA
[email protected]
http://www.mycopyeditor.com
Posted by: Jenny Meadows | September 19, 2006 at 09:22 PM