Richard Bennett has managed to stir the pot again in his blog on Amnesty International. Some of the comments impugning Richard motivated me to jump into the fray, the subsequent backup was appreciated. T.M. Lutas says his piece and offers this fine link about the corrosive statements of Amnesty International.
In thinking about bloggers it seems to me that there is a spectrum of bloggers that can be characterized by four boundary types:
- Blog readers - the lurkers that avidly read blogs but rarely if ever offer comments (most likely when peeved by some post). We all tend to lurk at times but thoughtful and sincere comments are appreciated.
- Non-bloggers - new blogs that go up but are then forgotten (probably due to the realization of the amount of effort that goes into blogging). CEOBlogger is an example of a blog that had exciting prospects but just halted one day.
- Amateur blogger - people like myself that blog because we love the concept. We typically don't make any money. (I spend some money to host this blog on typepad and a substantial effort to articulate my thoughts.) For me blogging helps me to develop my thinking, share it with people that may care (such as my progeny in the distant future) and learn from other bloggers by reading and interacting. Others have their personal reasons.
- Professional bloggers - people who derive a significant source of income (directly or indirectly) from their blogs. Some seem to have such as vast following that advertising revenue may be significant while other may use their blog as a vehicle to advertise their 'product'. The obvious danger in being a professional is that you risk offending your audience (and income) by speaking in an unguarded fashion - this is one of the traits I admire in Thomas Barnett - him placing his principles above his 'manners'. Although when you reach such a level of popularity it becomes impractical to either allow comments or respond individually, although Tom found a clever way to foster the interactions through a discussion board.
For those actively engaged in blogging perhaps the greatest satisfaction is the intimate social interactions and the quality of intellectual discourse.
Kyle Maxwell posts a great piece in practical blogging advice.
Andrew blogs about public discourse and its impact upon democracy. I offer that blogging is an evolution of public discourse which scales well as the size of our nation has long eclipsed the ability to connect.
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