My buddy and coworker Nino has moved away from the warm comforts of weblogs.asp.net and thrust himself out in the cold scary world at his new home. Scoble took notice of this and mentioned that he was not fond of centralized blogging, and I have to agree. Why?
The main issue I have with centralized or community blogging is that most people will only subscribe to the main feed of a blogging community, individuals then get lost in that main feed. A perfect example is Jim Blizzard, he had a blog on weblogs.asp.net and posted fairly regularly… but I don’t remember really feeling like I knew him or related to him in any way. His post were lost in the main feed. (half the time no one reads who writes the post anyway) A couple months ago Jim broke out and started his own blog on his own site, since then I have learned much more about him and have the feeling that I know him, even though I have never talked to him or met him.
This is what I think blogging is all about, sure the technology side of it is nice, but it’s really about people. This is what is lost in the centralized blog, and this is why if you want people to really get to know you then you should strike out on your own… jump on in, the water’s fine.
(Sites like PDC Bloggers and stuff like that are cool though, they are aggregations, not group blogs)
-James
{ 3 comments }
Well, actually, Jim moving had the opposite effect here. I thought I still had his new feed subscribed, but upon your mentioning him, I looked and found that I did not. So, while individual feeds might seem lost inside a larger feed, the fact is that you might not find the individual feed (or might loose it and not notice, as in my case, as I enjoy reading Jim’s stuff…).
I did, however, just double check, and I do have both your old weblogs.asp.net feed as well as your new independent feed subscribed<g>.
Yeah, that is the major downside to moving. I bet that I lost alot of readers, but I figure that I will earn them back over time. (At least you found me.)
-James
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