ay Tea of Wizbang fame writes on Willisms "E pluribus unum, or "everything that rises must converge", where he questions whether a single author blog can keep up and/or compete with the blogs where writers have joined together to bring you the group blog:
A little over a year ago, Russ at TacJammer composed a piece on how group blogs tend to... well, have quality issues. His thesis is that changing a solo author blog into one maintained by several writers tends to dilute the essential "flavor" that drew the readers in the first place, and the resulting miasma of opinions, styles, and voices tends to muddle the former unified perspective.
There are pitfills, of course, but in the end Jay opines: "On the other hand, if managed carefully, expanding the author pool can improve a blog tremendously."
This is a question dear to my heart. I struggle every day to provide content and in doing so, I find that more and more this blog has become an aggregator, a compiler. I don't have the time to write long individual posts and I don't get enough traffic to get good discussions in comments going that gives meat to subjects that can be jumping off points for new posts. I never intended The Squiggler to go in the direction it is going now.
I would like to add at least three authors. Good writers, but even more important, common sense writers who can write with a touch of humor. After a year and a half of blogging, I've come to believe Jay is 100% spot on when he says:
But far more important than whether group blogging is a good or a bad thing is that I am coming to believe that it is essential, and mandated by one of the fundamental forces of nature:
Entropy.
A blog needs to be continually refreshed, given new material, new topics, or it will wither away and die. Blogging is still a relatively new phenomenon, but we are already seeing the toll of having to post new material, new thoughts, on a regular basis, day in and day out, month after month, year after year. It's far too much for any one human being to sustain. (Unless, of course, you're Laurence Simon.)
When I first started blogging, as I've mentioned before, I never dreamed anyone would read or care about anything I posted. Then, as the months went on, I began to dream of making The Squiggler a blog worth reading. I think I do an okay job and I do get compliments about the site, but readership remains stuck in the low hundreds a day. I think I've now provided the "bones" of something that could be a player but not alone. I don't have the contacts, the time, the killer instinct to take down the idiots, or the wit necessary to provide the content I think is necessary to get readers to come back, and even more importantly, to interact.
If you know of anyone who would like to audition to become a contributor here, please send me an email. I would like to provide some diversity of views through adding a couple of younger writers, maybe a writer or two who live either in other parts of the world or at least in different localities within the U.S. Having lived in 9 different states, I can speak from experience that the Eastern seaboard view on many subjects is far different from, say, the southern or Pacific northwest view, just as my view here in So. California is very different on a subject such as illegal immigration from someone sitting in Kansas or Washington, DC.
Sadly, I cannot argue with Jay's conclusion:
For good or ill, group blogs are the future. The audience demands far more than almost any one person can sustain. The key is to forge groups where the writers are complementary. Those that do, will prosper. Those that do not, will dissolve into chaos and fall into obscurity.
Related:
When the "top blogs" such as the "Higher Beings" : 1.Instapundit.com (3682); 2.Michelle Malkin (2835); 3.Daily Kos: State of the Nation (2361); 4.Power Line (2130); 5.lgf: militarized theocratic sheep police (2041); 6.Captain's Quarters (1974); 7.Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall (1768); 8.Hugh Hewitt (1645); 9.Mudville Gazette (1637); 10.The Volokh Conspiracy (1598) are held up as the "top blogs" or the "Higher Beings" are we really seeing the best blogs or the most popular blogs or the most informative blogs?
I've questioned this for some time. It is my understanding that the alogorithm used to determine Ecosystem ranking is based on inbound and outbound links. But there is a catch. The links must be of other Ecosystem members to count. You could have hundreds of links to very interesting material and if they aren't Ecosystem members, they don't count and you will sit at the bottom of the Ecosystem rankings.
I've been watching it all work up close and personal lately. One day of being sick and not posting dropped The Squiggler over a 100 places in one day and lately since I've been providing a lot of coverage on Israel and the Middle East with dozens and dozens of links, it has dropped even further, because those links are to original news reports or articles or commentary by experts who aren't bloggersl. In fact, I selected 4 posts of the past 14 days and counted a total of 54 links in those 4 posts and not one link will be counted. A blogger has to find a way to link to others in the Ecosystem to rise in the rankings and to stay there. For blogs that have been around a long long time, they can slack off with links to other blogs and not suffer, but when you are right on the edge, even a half day off can drop you from one level to a lower level. Does this really say anything about the quality of the material presented, the accuracy, originality, or overall content in a blog? I don't think so. Where is the incentive if all we all are is parrots of each other and mutual admiration societies for our favorites?
I've done my share of link whoring in the last 18 months ... I just did it in the paragraph above. Does it advance the argument? Do you get frustrated to follow a link that is nothing more than a sentence giving you yet another link to follow with no substance? Is it annoying to follow a link and find there is nothing new at the link that you didn't just read from the blog you came from? This is the flaw of the Ecosystem. And one more reason a lone blog author cannot really compete when that lone author has a real life and interests that go beyond the "blog du jour."
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