Terry Teachout’s “Notes on Blogging”

Monday, July 19th, 2004
by Chris Short

Terry Teachout has recently issued some “notes” on blogging that I would like to address. I first found out about these “notes” via Outside the Beltway.

1. It’s almost impossible to explain what a blog is to someone who’s never seen one. That’s the mark of a true innovation.

That would be one’s inability to articulate. Something a handful of bloggers aren’t capable of and even more of the people who comment in blogs can’t do. What a blog is can be easily explained but there has to be a general foundation of knowledge (as there is with all things) that the audience you’re explaining blogs too has to have.

I feel that I’ve thoroughly explained what blogs are in a few of my commentary pieces. The main one being Blogs Explained which was written on 24 Jun 2003; months before I ever launched my first blog.

2. I know very few people over fifty, and scarcely any over sixty, who “get” blogging.

I know very few people over the age of thirty who can program a VCR. It doesn’t mean that they don’t get how VCRs work. Let’s throw another interesting statement out there. I know very few people under twenty who know what a record player is. Blogs are technology. Eventually blogging will give birth to a new form of media which today’s bloggers might not ever get a handle on.

3. Blogs without links aren’t blogs. Blogs without blogrolls aren’t blogs. Blogs without mailboxes aren’t blogs.

A blog without links isn’t a blog. I can agree with that to a degree. Any web page without links isn’t going to do much for the World Wide Web.

I can agree that a blog without mailboxes isn’t a blog. But, do those mailboxes have to be displayed on the page? Not necessarily. Blog readers should be able to openly communicate with blog writers, but that’s why most blogs allow commenting.

To have a blog without a traditional blogroll is perfectly fine. Who needs to see hundreds of links to other blogs which may or may not be related to the current blog a visitor is reading? I recently discussed the disorganization of blogs these days and blogrolling in my opinion needs to be revamped if not done away with completely.

4. The blogosphere is a pure market—but one in which no money changes hands. If you can afford the bandwidth and your ego is strong enough, it doesn’t matter whether anybody wants to read what you have to say. But the more you care about how many people are reading your blog, the more your blogging will be shaped by their approval, whether you get paid or not.

As far as shaping your content to suit your readers; that goes for just about any web site nowadays. As a matter of fact, giving people what they want is one of the oldest marketing adages around. This is one of those “duh” statements about blogs.

5. Politicians and celebrities rarely make good bloggers. They’re not interested enough in what other people are thinking.

Why should celebrities be interested in what other people are thinking? Why would politicians be interested in what other people who aren’t necessarily their constituents thinking?

Plain and simple, celebrities are trying to keep their private lives private so why would they subject themselves to hundreds of comments and e-mails relating to what they write in their blog? Freedom of speech goes both ways; you can talk or you can say nothing at all.

6. Blogging puts professionals and amateurs on an even footing. That’s why so many professional writers dislike and distrust it.

I don’t totally agree with this either. Professional writers have corporations and a support staff of sorts backing them up. The only thing backing me up is my word processor and my readers. The first author to publish a book via a blog will have the most popular web site ever. Just think if Tom Clancy’s or John Grisham’s next book was released free of charge via a site powered by MovableType. Bloggers rarely, if ever, publish any hard copy writings unlike real writers who are still under the premise that blogging is still a fad.

7. The whole point of a blog is that its author controls its content. That’s why no major newspaper will ever be successful at running in-house blogs: the editors won’t allow it. The smart ones will encourage their best writers to blog on their own time—and at their own risk. The dumb ones will refuse to let any of their writers blog, on or off the job.

The first newspaper that runs its web site as a blog will be the first newspaper ever to become more popular on the Internet than on the street. The “dumb ones” here are attempting to protect their image. Protecting a newspaper’s image is a good thing these days considering everything is so biased or based on rumors due to the fact everyone is trying to be the first to break a story.

8. For now, blogs presuppose the existence of the print media. That will probably always be the case—but over time, the print media will become increasingly less important to the blogosphere.

Once the blogosphere can collect its own news there will be no need for traditional media. Bloggers need to proliferate and become highly mobile. A blog interface on everyone’s cell phone would be a nice start. But until bloggers are seeing things as they happen or until they are the recipients of news stories the blogosphere will always be a half step behind traditional media.

9. Within a decade, blogs will replace op-ed pages.

After ten years I would hope that op-ed pages were no longer needed.

10. Blogs will be to the 21st century what little magazines were to the 20th century. Their influence will be disproportionate to their circulation.

I really don’t think blogs will be around in the 22nd century. However, blogs will have an effect on how news is reported, how content is read, and how people are made aware of the news they want to read long after blogs are gone.

11. Blogs are what online magazines were supposed to be.

Not really. Blogging software makes online magazines easier but I think a full fledged content management system would be a lot more effective than a blog when it comes to an online magazine.

12. Art blogging will never be as popular as war blogging. More people care about politics than the arts.

Here is another one of those “duh” statements. Politics and current events change people’s lives. George W. Bush being re-elected has a hell of a lot more impact on the world than the Mona Lisa getting stolen or someone explaining the turn out of their latest show or most recent piece of work they’ve completed.

13. Blogging is inherently undemocratic in one important way: it privileges literacy. Like e-mail, it is dividing the world into two unequal classes: people who feel comfortable expressing themselves through the written word and people who don’t.

Undemocratic? No, just un-liberal. Once audio blogging becomes quick, efficient, and popular I’m sure I’ll catch a lawsuit for writing. Another counterpoint here is that you can be a horrific writer and blog quite easily. The blogosphere doesn’t care how well you write only the readers do.

14. If you want to be noticed, you have to blog every day.

This goes for any web site. This is a very true statement and it applies to traditional web sites as well. Brett Tabke recommends publishing one page of new content a day to rank well in Google. Some say it’s impossible but I say it’s too easy. But, if you want to be noticed by bigger blogs you have to post multiple times a day.

15. An impersonal blog is a contradiction in terms.

Wrong. An impersonal blog defines quite a few blogs I read, especially the “news” blogs. Blogs that have multiple authors tend to be a lot less personal than a blog with one author.

I’m sure quite a few people will disagree with me on this but everyone I’ve talked to about Terry’s “notes” don’t see eye to eye with Terry either. Maybe Terry Teachout and I can sit down and hash out all of these things some day.