home

Reasons to Stop Blogging

By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 07:29:12 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

I've been reading through the submissions for Altercation's blogroll contest, over 250 of them. I try to only read a few at a time so I can get a good sense of each one. A blog by Blaghdaddy got a laugh from me tonight Between the time one of his readers submitted it (March 18) and the time I looked at it (April 10), the guy had quit blogging. Go read his reasons. It's enough to make you hang up your keyboard. Here are some snippets:

Blogging has been an interesting experience. There was the rush of receiving one's first complimentary message and the warm-faced emotion of reading one's first hatemail, and of course the thrill of stumbling across something in the media to circulate with glee or horror.

Behind it all, I learned what an insular world the political types inhabit. I'll reference Anne Coulter....Imagine my surprise....to discover that, in a recent poll, 81% of Americans had never even heard of her. She had an 11% favorable rating and an 8% unfavorable. Basically, she was talking to about three people on either side whenever she opened her mouth to spew her vitriol, and why the hell would I let that get to me?

When I studied those numbers, my heart fell. I realized that, having joined the political blogging world, the battle between right and left involves very few people....Small wonder that, as political debate has "raged," the majority of society has stifled a collective yawn and gone about its business. Eric Alterman? Karl Rove? Bill O'Reilly? Andy Borowitz? Rush Limbaugh? Who cares? Who even knows who they are, if not just the morning's entertainment on the drive to work?

...Who cares what I write? Who cares what you write? Who's even heard of the most popular blog sites outside of the hardcore political bloggers? Why even bother? Is anyone even reading this, and who gives a sh*t, really?

He goes on, but you get the picture. I doubt Eric would put him on his blogroll after the comment about no one knowing who he is, but still, the guy had some style and some righteous anger - it's too bad he quit so soon. His first post ever was on Law and Order -CSI and laugh-out-loud-funny.

From reading all these blogs, one thing we need to tell the blog-ware companies is that we need more templates. Too many blogs look alike. Also, so many blogs reference the same top five blogs over and over. Kevin Drum will be glad to know he is clearly the most frequently quoted blogger on the left.

But, there really have been a lot of excellent submissions. Probably 50 of the 250 fit Eric's unique requirements. He'll have a tough time making the final calls.

Thanks to everyone who responded, and maybe if enough people leave Blawgdaddy comments, he'll start blogging again.

< C-Span Tonight | Salon Takes on Judicial Activism >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Reasons to Stop Blogging | 5 comments (5 topical)
    Re: Reasons to Stop Blogging (none / 0) (#1)
    by cp on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 09:46:11 PM EST
    ok, i'm glad to know i wasn't the only person who wondered if they automatically shut off the electricity in newly murdered people's apartments. i've made the mistake of watching the show a few times myself (i swear, there really was nothing on the history channel!), and often thought it was maybe in a different country or something. best part about the original is the "who's" soundtrack. the rest of it is utterly unbelievable nonsense. hmmmmmm, the more i think about it, it does remind me of a bush state of the union address!

    Re: Reasons to Stop Blogging (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 10:34:39 PM EST
    This is a predictable, and (for Rove) factored-in, collapse of RESISTANCE. People who are suckered into the relative lull in tyrannical nastiness hang their hats up and go back to bed. Lightning will strike again. The protest movement and the blog movement are naturally related. But listening to bloggers (legitimately) complain about the costs of blogging, the time demands, etc., only reminds those of us who give time every week street protesting, vigiling, writing letters, organizing in our communities, doing representative contacts, etc. that the work is hard, and the rewards are often YEARS in the making. Many of us gave up good-sized portions of our income when the coup in 2000 pulled us from the comforts of our homes and into the streets. To paraphrase Bishop Tutu (or Mandela?): 'Political action isn't something you do. It's something you FIND YOURSELF DOING.' Some of us need to rest, and some need to get real about the threats, and not let artificial generalizations about the hopelessness or absurdity of the work turn them into bystanders in their own lives. There has never been the kind of vote fraud, the kind of media fraud, the kind of gross misconduct we are witnessing and fighting. Fight on! Or live the coward's lie.

    Re: Reasons to Stop Blogging (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Apr 11, 2005 at 03:49:55 AM EST
    It's enough to make you hang up your keyboard. Nah. The guy just needs to write about something else for a while. Even I, lefty though I am, get a bit tired of the left-wing echo chamber. It's hard to keep wanting to write about the same thing everybody else is writing about. The solution is to either hang up your keyboard, if that's what you want to do, or write about something else for a while, stuff that involves more of yourself, if that's what you want to do. See my most recent post to my blog for an alternative to hanging up your keyboard.

    Re: Reasons to Stop Blogging (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Apr 11, 2005 at 06:56:28 AM EST
    A widespread popular belief that "politics is for crooks, cynics and the terminally combative" is, of course, one of the prerequisites for rise of much worse bastards to power.

    Re: Reasons to Stop Blogging (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Apr 12, 2005 at 11:17:20 AM EST
    As you know, regularly maintaining is a lot harder than it looks. I'm sure one of the reasons so many people start political blogs is that they look at the brevity of sites like Eschaton and Instapundit and think to themselves "Hell, I can write a couple sentences". Actually being successful (and by that, I don't mean "popular"), however, takes a combination of persistence, originality, creativity, and a pinch or two of obsession with the subject matter. Lacking any of these traits can quickly lead to blog burnout. You may have recieved 250 submissions, but I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of those writers will tire of their blogs within the next year.

    Reasons to Stop Blogging | 5 comments (5 topical)