I agree with the ideas expressed in this post by Manu Moreale, an Italian blogger.

I don't offer the marmot by email, though I suppose it wouldn't be terribly difficult to export a day's posts at the end of the day into an email that could be sent to subscribers. Would anyone be interested in that?

I like what he has to say about the interaction piece, but it's never been an integral part of the marmot.

Back in the Groundhog Day era, I had comments at one point. I think it was early on. It may have been around the time of the Time's Shadow/Groundhog Day transition, and maybe the comments were in Time's Shadow.

Anyway, I had an interlocutor who disagreed with me about the Iraq War and it got kind of tedious, to the point of being unpleasant. I think I'm a bit wiser today about how I'd handle a situation like that. But it was an experience that has caused me not to miss interaction terribly much.

I think email is ok. I know I miss the correspondence I used to have with an Australian blogger, Jonathon Delacour, who used to write a blog called The Heart of Things. David Golding is another Aussie I would correspond with from time to time, and the interactions were always pleasant.

There is a bit of a dopamine hit, perhaps a "thrill," to see someone comment in their blog on something I've posted, as Garret did the other day. Likewise with seeing some number of views greater than zero on a photo I've shared at Flickr, though I take no offense or feel no profound disappointment if an image goes unseen. If I want to be certain it's seen, I can post it here and I know it'll show up in someone's feed reader!

I don't think we ought to "syndicate everywhere." I get that the priority is connection, but do other platforms, more platforms facilitate connection, or just distraction? I mean, it's the "world wide web," right? Theoretically we're all just six degrees of Kevin Bacon, connection is almost bound to happen at some point if you hang around long enough.

Anyway, I think these "platforms," whether federated or centralized, have an undesirable effect of concentrating interaction which leads to distortions.

I recall thinking, back in the early days, when Technorati was kind of a king-maker, that John Robb was an interesting blogger. But then a phenomenon like the Instapundit came along, and it seemed like he kind of changed his approach. It seemed like he was grasping for that level of attention.

The worst example, not to be unkind, was Robert Scoble. He was "chasing clout" before we knew what "chasing clout" even was. He had some success, but it seemed like he kept wanting more. And people would try to associate with him to leverage his clout. And I think it ultimately had a negative effect on him. But I could be wrong. Maybe everything was great and that was all a huge success and I was just envious or something. Haven't heard much from him in many years, and don't make any effort to find out what he's up to. I recall he didn't seem to offer anything insightful, mostly just hype. I just remember it all seemed kind of sad.

For some reason, the quote "I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star," keeps coming to mind. Maybe "us chickens," the "back-fence bloggers" are really actors, and all this is just a performance. Some of us are reliable character actors, most of us are just "extras." But some people want to be a star. Maybe "all the worldwide web's a stage," after all.

And "social media" platforms, low friction, low latency, high-frequency interactions with a focus on metrics and "virality" gives people the idea that they can be a star.

And then throw adolescents into that meat grinder! Oy.

That's to say nothing of being a "grievance engine." Apart from the self-important sages, it's the otherwise perfectly nice people who feel compelled to state the obvious about, pick any current horror that are kind of disappointing.

Yep. I know about it. It sucks. Thanks for the update.

What's the point?

I guess just to vent. Or maybe it is "virtue signaling." I don't know. But write a little essay, don't just offer a quip, a complaint, a put-down. Not a problem for me anymore, I deleted my account.

Wow, talk about "topic drift"...

Anyway, "social media bad... Blogging good."

Another Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious from a large ground squirrel.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:46 Wednesday, 28 February 2024