Me, My Blog & I - Crossroads

So here I am, standing at the crossroad after tracing the path that has led me thus far, in my previous post.

I ask myself these questions. Where to take this blog next? How to get there? Why there? Well, let's look around us and see where I am and what's going on out there.

For me, I categorise bloggers into three main categories.

1) The Thought Tweaker (TT).
The author who writes what's on his/her mind. He/She pours everything into it. Even if it is the most mundane event, he/she would still be able to express it in an way that is unqiuely his/hers. Even stuff that we overlooked from our daily lives could yield an new found insight or wisdom from time to time.The topic is probably one that he/she is knowledgeable and passionate about.

2) The News Reporter (NR).
Basically, a collector of news, events and putting them up into his/her cyber scrapbook. If there is something that caught his/her eye in the papers, on the web or anywhere else, he/she would be sure to get them onto his/her blog. Then there is also another kind of reporting where the author's daily activity is logged.

3) The Bean Counter (BC).
Nothing matter more than hits and counts to this author. In Point #13 of Tony Pierce's "How To Blog", Pierce encourages writing about sex, religion and/or politics and I agree that these 3 topics will be the ones that generate the most attention. Religion and politics will raise the most controversy while sex simply sells.

Perhaps (TT), (NR) and (BC) forms a triangular matrix where each and everyone of us bloggers would occupy a spot within.The question is where is the "X" that marks our ideal/optimal spot? I seriously doubt putting oneself at any of the extreme apex would make any sense.

The all out TT may write about his passion with lots of energy but will anybody be interested in reading it? Don't lie to me by saying that the author doesn't really care if anybody out there bother to read it or not. Let's face it, we all have a bit of narcissisim in us or we would not have publish our thoughts in the public domain. Obviously, we all want an audience to read what we have to say and better yet, respond to it.

The extreme NR simply just reports things as they happened. "I woke up and had 2 muffins for breakfast today." End of story. I wonder what is the point in that at all? I also see some blogs where they put sports scores or new articles on it and nothing personal added to it. What is the point of doing that? To me, it looked nothing more than a space filler. A disguise so that the blog looks alive and bustling when in actual fact, is as lifeless as a block of wood. I mean if I want news or sports scores, I think I would be better off visiting the more established commercial websites. After all, isn't it where the stuff were originally lifted? On that note, I would have to confess that at one time, I was guilty as hell on that count. Yup, fucking slacker. That's moi.

And lastly, the obsessive BC. I have seen some blogs that write machiam like Penthouse Forum. This is thin ice territory here and I risk being chastised by my fellow bloggers. I don't mean that one should not be writing about sex (or politics or religion, for that matter) but I question the author's intention behind it. Is it his/her way of expression or ii it just a ploy to generate the hits and counts? Whatever it is, I will never know and as such, I will never be in a position to judge. But, I do hope it's the prior.

Now before I carry on any further, let me pause here by saying that I do not profess to be an authority on this subject matter (nobody died and made me the King of Blog Police). I am merely thinking out loud and transcribing it here. I do apologise if anyone felt offended as it was never intended. Obviously there is so much that I have yet to learn and my comments are based solely on my limited wisdom. So forgive me if I come across as tunneled-vision. I am.

The way I see it, there is no such thing as a bad blog. We are free to decide on what we write and how we write. Heck, the fact that you are writing, already deserves some credit. Like I said, no such thing as a bad blog. Just one that you do not bother to return again i.e. Not up your alley. Not your cuppa tea. With the world-at-large so vast, I would have to concede that there is no way we can cater to everybody's preference. As much as I love to read the blogs listed on my left, like Brown, Sheena, Nethia, Lancerlord, IniQx°, Troy (my God-son!), Ah 9, Anna and Belle, I believe that there will be people who feel strongly otherwise. Similarly, there are blogs out there that absolutely bore me to pieces while the others may be lapping up every scrap thrown at them (I won't mention anyone here but it won't be difficult to guess, if you know me well enough to deduce).

The question of the day is: Are they wrong while I am right?

I doubt so. I think it is more of an agreement to disagree.

So, where was I in the matrix up to recently? I guess I am probably around 30% TT, 60% NR and 10% BC. Perhaps for those who just stumbled in here recently, may I direct you to Part 1 of Me, My Blog and I --> The Road Up To Now to have a bit of background information. That way, you would be able to have better understanding of what I am about to say.

Carbon-dating my blog history, I guess the Starting Point should be around 1994 when I started writing in my BBS column. While my mailing list may have been in existence before then, I guess my BBS column should be counted as Day 1 due to the similarity between the present-day blog and the BBS column itself. So based on that, it would add up to more then a decade already. I am coming to my 14th month, with Blog-City, of non-stop writing and my spot in the matrix kinda shifted to 30% TT, 70% NR and 0% BC. Frankly, I am quite amazed at my stamina to carry on for so long with 0% BC. Machiam like spending 14 months in the solitary confinement cell. It's akin to facing the thunderous silence after shouting your lungs off at the echo valley. Granted that I do get passer-by dropping comments from time to time, but they have been few and far between. So BC is still 0%.

The month of March is when the tectonic plate of my spot is shifting again but I will talk about it in Part 3 of Me, My Blog & I --> The Road Ahead.

Now. To all my fellow bloggers. To all my blogging Sempais.

Where are you in the matrix?
How do you feel about it?
Would you want to shift to another spot? If yes, where to and why?

Honestly, I think I ranked pretty low in terms of a successful blog but that's ok. Learning is a lifelong process, anyway.

Do share with me your wisdom pertaining to your own blog. I'll be thrilled to be able to learn something from all this.

Quick Link --> Me, My Blog & I - The Road Up To Now (Part 1 of 3)

Quick Link --> Me, My Blog & I - The Road Ahead (Part 3 of 3)

Image Credit: http://dreamwalker.files.wordpress.com; http://www.fablevision.com/

- Voxeros

1. a reader left...

Friday, 1 April 2005 12:40 am

awww... u listed me as one of your favourite blogs... i'm so touched!!

belle

2. a reader left...

Friday, 1 April 2005 3:38 am

Interesting observation and categories of bloggers! Although I had been reading blogs since last year, I only started recently, so definitely not in a position to comment.

I can't really say for sure what intrigues me. Some blogs do, some don't. But I'm definitely put off by absolute negativity in a blog, outright sex-selling, non-stop bitching, and ranting about getting hits and comments. [I'm also very traditional, so don't like to see the F word sprouting everywhere ;) ]

I like to read about someone's life, no matter how mundane. That's why I seek out bio page first. That said, even in one particular interesting blog, you may also find stuff that bores you. But it doesn't mean you won't visit again. Life is up and down anyway, can't be fun, fun, fun!

I don't really know where to place myself on your 3 categories. Definitely a conscious low for BB. I told myself not to get carried away with number counts. Of course, it's nice to have people affirm your writing. But if I base my writing on what pple want to hear, then I may not write truthfully. Besides, I'm not about to become an ace journalist with a target audience. (I don't even know who my target audience is.)

My objective of blogging is having an outlet for my offbeat humor, a community to share thoughts, and trying my hands at writing.

anna

3. a reader left...

Friday, 1 April 2005 12:11 pm

Blog honestly...can be anything under the sun. =D

Like mine...i simply express...i don't bother how others think...write with your heart on your sleeve...soon you will love writing your blog. =D

9 [igotgame12@lycos.com]

4. JayWalk left...

Saturday, 2 April 2005 10:44 pm

Anna: I have to agree with quite many of your points raised.

I'm afraid, if I were to addressed them here, I may end up with nothing to write in Part 3 of Me, My Blog & I - The Road Ahead.

So I guess for now, it's akan datang.

Cheers. (",)

5. a reader left...

Sunday, 3 April 2005 1:06 am

Curious to understand why you say "I seriously doubt putting oneself at any of the extreme apex would make any sense".

By your model, my blog is at the extreme of the TT category. And worse still, it is on a very focused niche topic. But it makes perfect sense to me. Which is why I am interested to hear your views to the contrary.

Waiting for your part 3..

knightofpentacles

6. JayWalk left...

Sunday, 3 April 2005 8:19 pm

I think the problem here is how you define an extreme TT.

The way I see it, mostly likely our interpretation of the extreme TT is different.

Thanks for the input. I shall make the effort to elaborate on it in Part 3.

cheers. (",)