Op Ed – Nothing better to write about
RAB wrote an essay about how anime bloggers aren’t unique or creative.
Okay, that’s not exactly what he wrote, but I think that many who read his post felt it came out that way. It was mentioned on the recent nano podcast (#15 I think). As expected, many anime blogs responded to the post not only in his comments section but also in their own blogs. There were many post with pseudo-editorial content, which I found amusing.…(more)…
To be honest, I don’t think many bloggers were particularly offended by the post. Of course, that wouldn’t stop them from posting a comment arguing opposite his points. Frankly, I think people were overjoyed that there was finally something else they could blog about. There has been a dry spell on meme’s as of late.
I probably didn’t need quantitative proof showing that many anime blogs subsist on episode reviews. It’s fairly evident. I don’t think it would be incorrect to say that for every fansub released there is some anime blog that will write about it.
More formally: ∀x ∃y [fansub(x) => blogger(y) ^ post(y, x)]
What exactly is the point of blogging? There are many sources of anime related news online and in print. Why blog what is in the news already? That point must contend with the fact that it has already been shown many times over that news travels over the internet faster than other forms. Not all blogs focus on news or editorials though, according to RAB most don’t.
So, again, what is the purpose of blogging? One of the major countering points when the argument comes up that many anime blogs are focused too much on episode reviews is, “people should be allows to blog what they like.” So, we can segregate two classes from knowing that this prospective exists
The first set: BlogWhatYouLike = {. . .}
What would the other set be? If the “blog what you like” folks are focused on the individual. Their only concern is the gratification they get from blogging. What would be the other side of the argument?
The second set: BlogForTheCommunity = {. . .}
That would seem to be the most accurate representation. Weather he intended to or not, it would appear that RAB was proposing a, “You are your brothers keeper” type attitude about blogging. Is that so bad? Shouldn’t people be concerned about what others are saying or thinking? Is it your business?
I guess one could argue that if it’s in the public domain, it is. On the other had, no one is forcing anyone to read anything here. RAB’s essay did get me thinking about one thing in particular, and that was that I am drawn to the post that seem out of the ordinary. Not necessarily f***-up or weird, just something unique to the individual.
Notes:
Post feed
“blogging for the community” presumes the presence of a community. Are anime bloggers communing with each other? Are they a tightly-knit social group that looks out for each other, sharing the sweetness of successes and easing the pain of failures? I would propose that “blogging for the community” would be better described as “pandering to a demographic.”
Not that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with pandering to a demographic. I personally tend to look at sites that do episode reviews for the express purpose of deciding whether I want to spend time, bandwidth, and storage on a particular title. Occasionally I jump in on “meta” posts like this (where the blogger talks about blogging) because I’m a sucker for comment-bait. Though many people post about the same episodes (which means they ostensibly have the same or very similar content), I tend to return to those sites that I have enjoyed reading. I suspect that others have similar blog-reading behaviors.
Ideally, bloggers should post what they like to post. There are aggregators and spiders and indexes all over the place that can help folks find your content. Unless you’re trying to make a living off your blog, you really shouldn’t get too hung up on whether you’re getting dozens of comments on every post and hundreds of hits per minute. For most, it’s a hobby. Treat it as such: try to be good at it and enjoy yourself.