Blog Fatigue

Twanny (Triq il-Maqluba fame) is currently visiting the Grand Duchy as part of his tour of the heart of Europe. We have been hitting the streets of the wildest town this side of Nairobi almost every night in the company of Mark Vella (the wankellectual) and the discussion inevitably turns to Blogs and Blogging every other minute.

Yesterday, between one highly intellectual discussion about obscure bands like the Smiths and another about the Kuwait-France match of the 1982 World Cup, we discussed the recent dearth of blogging activity after the hurricane of hits and comments that hit us following the articles about the blogsofera on the MSM. Twanny mentioned a possible "Blog Fatigue". I like it. Blog Fatigue. I get Blog Fatigue when like arcibald I cannot stop bouncing from one blog to another in search of the latest posts. When like a blogoholic I search for new bloggers with interesting content.

More interesting is the question � who is reading our blogs? Are we reading ourselves? Is the blogsofera an exercise of collective navel-gazing by a restricted group or will the blogolution we have all been anticipating really happen? The statistics at hand paint a reassuring picture. Over the last 1,100 hits on J'Accuse 49% were from Malta. Belgium, the UK and Luxembourg also feature high on the list. I would say that around 55% of the hits would come from other bloggers� the ring clicking itself. This is intrinsically a good thing since it encourages debate and, through debate, improvement. However I continue to believe in the need to plug the blogosfera as much as possible and for this we need a portal. (click on The Good, the Blog and the Ugly for the beginning of an open project in this regard and place your comments there).

You may be asking what is my interest in all this? What do I expect to gain? Honestly, I am not sure� maybe a bit less unsure than in my first blog� the hunch is always there� something is happening and it is just round the corner� and I want to be there when it happens.

Meanwhile happy blogging over an eventful weekend and happy HTML, XML, RSS, SQL and whatever else has become common parlance in this day and age.

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The Sound Race has been won by J'Accuse. In a private head-to-head race with Xifer, J'Accuse was the first to have streaming music on the site (Chi � lo Re?). (Strictly speaking music was first heard on Tgedwid). The first tune to be heard on J'Accuse was a midi file of "Bandiera Gialla" that was swiftly replaced by the Gozitan band The Tramps � "Inti Djamant". Childish games between wankellectuals and arrogant avvikoti. Isn't it another fun aspect of blog? Incidentally� has anyone seen Richard Marlowe?

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Thermidor is down (or rather the host's pc). We wish Fausto a quick recovery. Throw away your PC and get on the MacWagon! Meanwhile Hazevi has gone rather serious. I was beginning to enjoy my companion in sarcasm� now I understand wwwitchie more when she says she misses the humorous bloggati.