Some readers will have noticed I've ventured into MyBlogLog and the Praguetory community and I've noticed Westminster Wisdom has delicious and digg-it [neither which I understand] listed at the foot of each post. Tom Paine is also in Conservatives Abroad and the Witanagemot Club.
Is this treasonable to good old Blogpower?
This blogger says no, quite the opposite. Despite anything people say about stats not mattering, I think everyone would like to be read by a large and discerning community. Most Blogpowererers joined to expand their contacts and through a friendly but very loosely confederated community which is always outward looking, rather than inwards.
If I had to sum up how I saw Blogpower operating, I'd list the following:
# The 'big bloggers' all have some sort of national exposure which ensures them huge readerships, e.g. TV spots, Doughty and so on. The 'little bloggers', though linking to the biggies, usually don't get anything in return and so there is a case for a large collective of little bloggers who provide each other with larger readerships than would ordinarily be possible.
# The whole ethos of Blogpower is 'blogging for pleasure'.
# Members feed off other members' own expanding contacts, who in turn feed off those contacts and so on. A process of personal filtration then creates an ever-expanding community we'd like to be in.
# There is a definite sense of community here, which is Blogpower's main strength, given that it is open to all shades of opinion and strongly defends the right of those opinions to exist, even if we disagree, sometimes violently, with those opinions or affiliations. Members are free to use full or abridged versions of the blogroll, as they see fit.
# Compared to other web based communities, Blogpower is very human-based and low tech, without the snazzy little 'recent visitors' boxes, marauding marsupials and the like. It works on members of a slowly expanding community knowing one another and providing solid readerships which don't diminish on whim.
# We try to write testimonials, provide technical help and run various schemes to improve the blogs of fellow members. People are lways coming up with new ideas to improve our lot.
# Blogpower, being a completely free and voluntary collective, has no opinions of its own on any topic and endorses nothing but each other. If members wish to expand their blogs by joining other communities and schemes, Blogpower positively encourages that. It doesn't alter our blogfriendships.
# Blogpower Express will soon feature a blog of the week spot and be co-administered on a rota basis. It is our flagship homepage and Defending the Blog is our discussion page.
Anyone care to add anything to this?
Is this treasonable to good old Blogpower?
This blogger says no, quite the opposite. Despite anything people say about stats not mattering, I think everyone would like to be read by a large and discerning community. Most Blogpowererers joined to expand their contacts and through a friendly but very loosely confederated community which is always outward looking, rather than inwards.
If I had to sum up how I saw Blogpower operating, I'd list the following:
# The 'big bloggers' all have some sort of national exposure which ensures them huge readerships, e.g. TV spots, Doughty and so on. The 'little bloggers', though linking to the biggies, usually don't get anything in return and so there is a case for a large collective of little bloggers who provide each other with larger readerships than would ordinarily be possible.
# The whole ethos of Blogpower is 'blogging for pleasure'.
# Members feed off other members' own expanding contacts, who in turn feed off those contacts and so on. A process of personal filtration then creates an ever-expanding community we'd like to be in.
# There is a definite sense of community here, which is Blogpower's main strength, given that it is open to all shades of opinion and strongly defends the right of those opinions to exist, even if we disagree, sometimes violently, with those opinions or affiliations. Members are free to use full or abridged versions of the blogroll, as they see fit.
# Compared to other web based communities, Blogpower is very human-based and low tech, without the snazzy little 'recent visitors' boxes, marauding marsupials and the like. It works on members of a slowly expanding community knowing one another and providing solid readerships which don't diminish on whim.
# We try to write testimonials, provide technical help and run various schemes to improve the blogs of fellow members. People are lways coming up with new ideas to improve our lot.
# Blogpower, being a completely free and voluntary collective, has no opinions of its own on any topic and endorses nothing but each other. If members wish to expand their blogs by joining other communities and schemes, Blogpower positively encourages that. It doesn't alter our blogfriendships.
# Blogpower Express will soon feature a blog of the week spot and be co-administered on a rota basis. It is our flagship homepage and Defending the Blog is our discussion page.
Anyone care to add anything to this?
James, I pretty much agree with you on most of this. (Don't worry, I'll try not to make a habit of it.)
ReplyDeleteI joined loads of these blog aggregators or whatever when I first started. I have no idea who runs most of them or how they work and I seem to get bugger all from them. Most of my hits come from searches or referrals.
With Blogpower, I know how it works and who runs it. I get referrals and comments and even some insight into the characters of the people in the collective. It's a totally different thing.
The people in Blogpower are the sort of folk you feel you could have a drink with.
Now there's a thought.....
I'm with Steve. The reason I added Digg it was that its a social bookmarking site and I thought it might give me some more hits- it seems to have given me a few but not too many.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem now is giving all these new links a fair viewing.
ReplyDeleteI go down the links and review their posts every now and again. If I like the text and it makes me think, not necessarily agreeing with the conclusion the blog comes too, then I'll add them to my sidebar. My sidebar being what I use to navigate the blogs.
Every now and again I revisit and see if things have changed and revise the links but getting the time to do this is difficult. I just don't understand how you, and others like you, manage to do this on a regular basis.
Thank you for BlogPower.It has provided some interesting perspectives on common issues and certainly identified certain sites I would never have found on my own.
I agree with you, James and like the way you see Blogpower developing. It's been very good for my blog and I have "met" a lot of interesting people through it. The way you and other members rallied round when I had technical problems this week was fantastic.
ReplyDeleteTiberius, first and apology. There was a link to you about the 'digg' and bloody Blogger played up today and wouldn't psot it. It just wiped out half the paragraph and then had the nerve not to let me back in to correct it. See my post on this later this evening.
ReplyDeleteBag, yes it's difficult - you need a cunning plan [I still ahven't found one] to get around all the sites. I think my fellow Blogpowerers may have been looking a bit askance at my no-show for some time.
Welshcakes, Steve, we do what we can. I like the sense of community we have.
Yes. I like the loose collaboration and the community feeling. This is like many organisations that I have been a member of. There are always a small number of people who do a lot and a larger number of people who don't do too much, but there is a genuine sense of community in this group. We all benefit from the input that we provide through our blogs and the extra things that people do to benefit Blogpower.
ReplyDelete