Comments on: Op Ed – Nothing better to write about http://www.farawaynowhere.com/blog/2006/11/15/op-ed-nothing-better-to-write-about/ nowhere near somewhere . . . Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:37:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Burrowowl http://www.farawaynowhere.com/blog/2006/11/15/op-ed-nothing-better-to-write-about/comment-page-1/#comment-7401 Burrowowl Thu, 16 Nov 2006 19:58:00 +0000 http://www.farawaynowhere.com/blog/2006/11/15/op-ed-nothing-better-to-write-about/#comment-7401 "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."<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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. “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.

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