Mixing Topics
This is something I have "gone to guns" on before, but now I want to take a more thoughtful approach. I was reading Dan Miser's blog and noticed his post about Robert Scoble. Dan is upset that Scoble posts about political topics in his personal blog. It is Dan's opinion that Scoble's blog is a technical blog and it his Scoble's responsibility to only post technical posts. Either that or provide post categories so that readers can subscribe to only the topics they are interested in.
Like I said, I've "gone to guns" (a Top Gun reference) on this issue before. I was on a programming mailing list and the moderator posted a heated controversial message to the list along with graphic pictures and a call to action. The list turned into a flame war for a while - everyone felt like they had been spammed since they subscribed to the list for programming topics and they received an email about politics, especially with graphic pictures.
So is Mr. Scoble posting about politics (aka poliblogging) in his blog different?
I actually started this blog because I wanted to have a different venue for blog posts that don't fit on www.bsdg.org. I felt that I have am agreement with my readers on that blog - I agree to post on topics related to software development and they agree to read my blog. I'll admit that I am not perfect. I've discovered that I also believe that readers of my blog are also subscribing to my voice. They want to hear what I have to say. Now this may be my ego stepping in, but I discovered that in a lot of the blogs I read I also enjoy hearing the poster's voice, even when off topic.
So where is the line? Did Scoble cross it in talking about politics? Furthermore did Dan cross it in complaining about Scoble talking about politics? It would appear to me that Dan has a technical blog. His post topics are .NET, ADO.NET/BDP, DataSnap and ObjectSpaces, which covers most of his posts, except the one about Scoble. So, does Dan hold Scoble to a higher standard then he holds himself? Using Dan's logic would we all now unsubscribe from his blog? I'll keep subscribing to Dan's blog for now. How about you?
I think Joe White is a good example of doing this well. The stated subject of his blog is Life, .NET, and Cats, and his post categories include .NET, Delphi (BorCon2004), Extreme Programming, Ruby, Projects (DGrok, Diff, SharpLayout) and then Personal which includes Ooo pretty (Adult ADD), Writing, the dreaded Politics, and even some Religion for good measure. I notice no categories about cats though, interesting. Now I may not like cats, and I have gotten into some interesting discussions about Religion with him, but I subscribe to his blog because I like his voice and now he is my friend (I actually met him briefly at BorCon2004).
I believe that when you subscribe to a blog you subscribe to a voice. Sometimes it is chorus of many voices, other times it is one voice. It is also a relationship, which goes both ways. You leave comments and visit their blog, they share posts with you. As with any friend sometimes you disagree with what they say or how they say it. If you decide the signal to noise ratio is not to your liking you move on, or you may decide that your friendship and relationship is worth putting up with their quirks.
posted by unused on Tuesday, August 16, 2005
1 Comments:
Very well thought out post, Jim. Let me bullet point my thoughts:
* I don't believe I hold Scoble to a higher standard. I said off topic is fine once in a while. We're not robots. But continual posting on issues that are *political* in nature (i.e. not just off-topic, but clearly political) violates that agreement you talked about. One post about what I perceive to be a global blog problem isn't really the same.
* Yes, the author can do whatever they want and risk loss of readership. I was commenting on the ramifications of that decision.
* Having a voice in your blog is great. I'd like to do more of that. But when I do it, it's still about things pertaining to the reason my blog was established (see the Arrogance in Programmers, Sr. Developer vs. Jr. Developer, etc. posts I've made).
* I suppose Scoble's blog finally tipped over the S-N ratio for me, so I unsubscribed. I feel like I'm losing out on some good stuff, but if one chooses to be apathetic on this, then it will only promote more of it. I'd like to see less of it.
* Note that not once did I say that I agree or disagree with the contents of those poliblogs, and that I have unsubscribed from several on all parts of the poli spectrum, including those I agree with. It has nothing to do with content, and everything to do with an abuse of readership.
Anyways, no biggie. Hope we can still get to meet and become friends. ;-)
Dan Miser
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