So here it is. Everyone is blogging about the article now. A bout of existentialism has attacked the Maltese blogosphere. Shall we split into factions? Will we become the partisans on the web and mimic Maltese society IRL? Why do we blog? Do blogs need newspaper articles to promote us ? What is there to promote? Are we really just sons and daughters of the latest trend ? Do we really not care about who reads our blog ? Or do we really crave for the 15 minutes of blog fame ?
Blogging Elan
I agree. I disagree. I am not sure. What I do know is that blogging has become an enjoyable experience. Tinkering with your blog page for those additional gadgets assumes equal importance to the need to feed the blog or the insanabile cacoethes scribendi that hits you like a fever every time you see something bloggable. Yes, you do hope that more and more people are accessing your particular corner of the world where you shout out your latest opinion on anything under the sun. (Incidentally Arcibald, the answer is yes, the newspaper article did have an upward effect on daily logs (noticeable over the past two days with a 160% increase in loggers).
Elitisms � The Three Estates and More
Will our blogosfera have its own bourgeoisie? Mark has divided his links into the Elite Liberals (monopolising the un-monopoliseable � since when can you have a category called liberals?) and the BR while others like Fausto and Kenneth muse about the possibility of categorisation. Can I be a bohemian liberal? What to do with the pages created for a week of fun? How do we separate the trendists from the serious honest-to-God bloggers? I instinctively refuse categorisation, especially if there is no commonly agreed purpose. We will probably soon have team blogs as more and more people like Arcibald start to worry about the need to maintain a blog daily. Where are all the females by the way? I see maltagirl and Sharon� but does the buck stop there?
Portal � Enquire Within Upon Blogging
The British blogosphere has its own portal � www.britblog.com. We might soon be having one. A mixture of Wired Temples, About Malta and an online forum. It's just something that is waiting to be done. We'll see.
Dead Bloggers Society
Winifred Clara Boggs (Miss) has not blogged for ages. Leggendi Urbani was a one week wonder. Justin blogged once and then vanished into some whisky vat far away in Scotland. When is a blog really dead? Or rather when is a blog really a blog? At what level of consistency does it deserve the tag of a true blog? Statistically the average duration of a blog is 126 days (almost four months) Should we have a badge for blogs � 126daysandstillgoing?
This blog is more about posing questions than finding answers. I don't even think we need to find an answer anyway� just enjoy the experience. It is young, it is free and it is available� ah� if only I had met more females of the same description :).
Gaudeamus Igitur
Blogging Elan
I agree. I disagree. I am not sure. What I do know is that blogging has become an enjoyable experience. Tinkering with your blog page for those additional gadgets assumes equal importance to the need to feed the blog or the insanabile cacoethes scribendi that hits you like a fever every time you see something bloggable. Yes, you do hope that more and more people are accessing your particular corner of the world where you shout out your latest opinion on anything under the sun. (Incidentally Arcibald, the answer is yes, the newspaper article did have an upward effect on daily logs (noticeable over the past two days with a 160% increase in loggers).
Elitisms � The Three Estates and More
Will our blogosfera have its own bourgeoisie? Mark has divided his links into the Elite Liberals (monopolising the un-monopoliseable � since when can you have a category called liberals?) and the BR while others like Fausto and Kenneth muse about the possibility of categorisation. Can I be a bohemian liberal? What to do with the pages created for a week of fun? How do we separate the trendists from the serious honest-to-God bloggers? I instinctively refuse categorisation, especially if there is no commonly agreed purpose. We will probably soon have team blogs as more and more people like Arcibald start to worry about the need to maintain a blog daily. Where are all the females by the way? I see maltagirl and Sharon� but does the buck stop there?
Portal � Enquire Within Upon Blogging
The British blogosphere has its own portal � www.britblog.com. We might soon be having one. A mixture of Wired Temples, About Malta and an online forum. It's just something that is waiting to be done. We'll see.
Dead Bloggers Society
Winifred Clara Boggs (Miss) has not blogged for ages. Leggendi Urbani was a one week wonder. Justin blogged once and then vanished into some whisky vat far away in Scotland. When is a blog really dead? Or rather when is a blog really a blog? At what level of consistency does it deserve the tag of a true blog? Statistically the average duration of a blog is 126 days (almost four months) Should we have a badge for blogs � 126daysandstillgoing?
This blog is more about posing questions than finding answers. I don't even think we need to find an answer anyway� just enjoy the experience. It is young, it is free and it is available� ah� if only I had met more females of the same description :).
Gaudeamus Igitur
23 commentaires:
6.0 for melodrama in the first paragraph.
Jacques dear, the Liberal Elite not the Elite Liberals...ask Tonio Salvafetu
Ironically my stats show a decrease in people logging on over the past few days.
And another thing: people took my comments (and I would presume the finished article on the Independent) much more seriously than they were intended. If you take a look at my 'uncut' version of the answers (which I posted in my blog for all to see), it's obvious that I answered most of them half-jokingly.
And the last thing: the 15 minutes of fame, if there ever was one, is over. It was yesterday morning. Today, on the front-page of the Independent, there is Pullicino swimming.
I have to clarify:
The categorisation I proposed (or rather, agreed with) was simply a system whereby active blogs (they don't necessarily have to be updated every single day) are tagged while the inactive ones (those that only contain a "Hello world, this is my blog, but I don't know what to put in here" post from six months ago) are tagged differently.
Secondly, it would be nice to have some sort of Maltese blogging portal, containing a list of the recently updated blogs etc (take a look at the bottom right section of the Blogger homepage.)
And I agree with arcibald, I think it's time to move on and resume to our individual blogging routines and themes.
Jesus, I had no idea there was actually an acronym for In Real Life! Has technology really distanced us that much from the simple pains and pleasures of our five (or six) senses as they interact with our at once natural and asphaltic environment? Does chicken taste the same as it used to now that farmers use what my nanna calls the karburatur? Hmmm... I find it increasingly difficult to draw a distinctive line between what's real and what's virtual... but perhaps that's because I live in a small village now and the smell of the soil, the busbies and the artiodactyl ordure is never too far away... Personally I think blogging is just as real as sitting in the street conversing with my grandparents and watching the people go by (and then listening yet again to all their life stories and where they got their nicknames from ... I know most of them by heart now, although I still haven't managed to visualise the geneological tree because I get lost after sekond ku?in) ...
?e?e, you see this is the up-side and down-side of blog freedom: the very concept of the blog defies definition yet that same liberty allows you to talk about everything and nothing all at once. Other than the Dizzjunarju tal-Malti Baxx which unfortunately vanished so soon, does a blog have a sense of direction? Should it have one? Or do the main themes develop naturally, in parallel to the interests and personality of the blogger?
Excellent analysis of the current blogging panorama, Jacques, I think you've captured the general feeling very well. Now this short anagnorisis of the Maltese blogosphere shall pass and we will get back to our random whims and rants and 'wankellectual' rhetoric.
Looking forward to sitting down in a cafeteria somewhere in the Grand Duchy drinking wine and eating French cheese� or drinking coffee if it's any good up there, strictly without milk!
I was too tired last night to write a concluding paragraph in my last post, but the point I wanted to make was that the Liberal Elite only exists in the minds of those who for pseudo-political reasons need to define a social enemy (and, more unfortunately, also in the minds of those who listen to them).
Yesterday I spent hours trying to write a satirical sonnet called L'Elit Liberali but it was so difficult to get the rhythm right that in the end I got frustrated and gave up. Perhaps I'll post it later.
Sa??a my friend,
Antoine.
Ah, Antoine, reading your comments expands my vocabulary (via searches on Google for definitions, heheheh). Looking forward to the new sonnet :-)
Hehe, that's how I found out what IRL meant (define: IRL) :-)
I hope you didn't look up karburatur because I have a feeling it has nothing to do with raising chickens... Imma l-aqwa li n-nanna tiftiehem ;-)
Nah, it was anagnorisis that got me. You'll get some very interesting results if you Google karburatur though!
NEVER MIND THE B(O)L(L)OGS
memo to hazevi:
define "excerpt"...
- part of blog.
or
- copy all blog with intention to try to get people to read my cool anti-norm blog because i'm a cool rebel
?
the sad part of your blog is that by trying to sound different you sound the same. why don't you go go fly some flag in a mass meeting!
otherwise... good luck, happy blogging, publish and be damned.
NEVER MIND THE B(O)L(L)OGS
Hilarious, hilarious ! :-)
Hazevi, your words made me laugh but they also pissed me off. Who said that the blogosphere was exclusive? Personally I see no rivalry between old and new, in fact I find the blogging community is based more on mutual respect and admiration than on any sense of competition. The more the merrier, and the more chaotic the better.
Having said that, as they say, birds of a feather flock together... the fact that within this blog explosion (if there actually is one, for I doubt the recent media coverage will really make a difference) each individual will end up reading on a regular basis only their favourites blogs is completely natural. But that doesn't mean that bloggers will split into factions.
I am nobody to act as an ambassador to an amorphous and non-existent c�terie, but welcome to the blogosphere, and please, be nice!!
hzv...
do you take any pills for logorrhea?
One short question hopefully to the point:
x'izzikk qasmu issa dan?
jew blogorrhea ridt tg?id Jacques?
no aggro please we're maltese.
i meant logorrhea as in an excessive use of words. i beg readers not to answer hzv too agressively. i'd rather that everyone expresses their own opinion on whatever without digressing and attacking the opinion carrier.
and hzv... am I right if I guess that you read alot of Terry Pratchett?
hazevi, cheers mate, kont ili ma nidhaq ftit hekk... i was hoping that jacques would fly the banner of the niggiezi himself but he seems to have abdicated humour in favour of the pulpit.
jacques, where the fuck are you? been looking out for you for ages. want to sound you out on something...
i'm here :)
bil mod kif zvoga dan hazevi jidher li ghandu bzonn jibbloggja aktar ta spiss.
"nittama li ghalik il-prezent u l-gejjieni jkunu battala minn qsim simili".
]:-)
Wow. G?alija dik kienet? Sfigha pura man. U ?a nifta? kumpanija tal-porog dal-waqt b'din ir-rata (x'inhi l-plural ta' porga?).
Apparti ?-?ajt hazevi... jien ?afna drabi ni??ajta nkun... ma ridtx li te?odha daqshekk bis-serjeta' kif ?adtha l-?a?a. U mer?ba g?all-blogosfera.
issa mbilli tghidli "i'm here" u toqghod tidhaqli dik in-nofs dahka, x'se naghmlu? how about a virtual date, sweetie? :) mme le directrice (u ftakar!)
nispera li mhux "bi" id-directirice! Mme LA directrice jew M LE directeure. Imma both too much. Meanwhile dwar rndzvs irrid insib hin... ahjar tikkorrispondili b'email!
Oh great, another blogger who is going to stretch my vocab... *goes off to Google "exiguous"*...
ex�ig�u�ous (?g-z?g'y?-?s, ?k-s?g'-) adj.: Extremely scanty; meagre.
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