Is blogging dead?

I will note, simply for the record, that the big “bloggers meetup” here in Charlottetown represented a watermark in the long slow slide of weblogs into irrelevance. Not even Will, who organized the meeting was in attendance. If the guys from silverorange hadn’t been at the Churchill Arms already anyway, it would have been just me and Johnboymorris. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but two bloggers does not a rallying cry make.

So it’s over now. Dan James thinks the Next Big Thing is cuisine.

Comments

Steven Garrity's picture
Steven Garrity on December 7, 2003 - 06:53 Permalink

I hear rock-and-roll is dead too.

Will's picture
Will on December 7, 2003 - 09:15 Permalink

Man, I don’t feel well for one afternoon and suddenly blogging is dead ;)

Everyone but the SO guys and I skipped out on one in the summer. Blogger meetings didn’t die, we just realised people had other things to do.

Good that you had it without me, btw. I’m not sure I really like being the sole organizer, it seems so pretentious.

Rob Paterson's picture
Rob Paterson on December 7, 2003 - 13:01 Permalink

Maybe I don’t visit Will enough as I had no idea there was a meeting — cant just be Will’s job to get us all together

Alan's picture
Alan on December 7, 2003 - 14:02 Permalink

Food is dead, too, Peter. Get with the times.

al o'neill's picture
al o'neill on December 7, 2003 - 14:31 Permalink

No longer beig an exciting novelty and being ‘dead’ are not the same thing. People don’t talk about how great the moving picture box is anymore, but only because it’s been assimilated into our lives. One can’t say that blogging hasn’t been overhyped, so naturally there will be a bit of a deflation of interest.

People don’t call each other on the phone to talk about telephones, for blogging to mature, the main subject of discussion on the vast majority of higher-profile blogs needs to move beyond the art and practice of blogging itself.

jarrod's picture
jarrod on December 7, 2003 - 16:09 Permalink

I think the turnout might be better if the meetings weren’t held in the middle of the day. Us poor 9-5 (or 10-6 in my case) working schlubs can’t always pry ourselves away for a few hours, regardless of how much we’d like to. I wanted to go to the last 3 or 4 meetings, but due to my day job, I’m stuck looking out over University Ave. in dismay.

Maybe if the next one was held at 6pm or later, the turnout would be better. Thoughts?

Cyn's picture
Cyn on December 7, 2003 - 17:31 Permalink

As it turns out, a middle of the day meeting is perfect for me. If I had known about it I would have been there. I must not be reading the ‘in-the-know’ blogs lately. Was it posted over on City Filter?

Cyn's picture
Cyn on December 7, 2003 - 17:32 Permalink

Nevermind, I just found it where Peter told me to look.

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on December 7, 2003 - 17:52 Permalink

Jarrod makes a good, if perhaps ultimately ignored point: I believe the assumption is that bloggers are effete freelancers living a life of leisure and thus able to pop out to social gatherings 24/7. I must say that I’m amazed by the degree to which this actually is true (witness the attendance at the previous blogger meeting at the Formosa Tea House). But it’s obviously not nearly as true as we’d like to thing: some people actually have to work for a living ;-) That all said, I think blogorgies after 6:00 p.m. might transport them from the realm of the “interesting distraction” into the realm of the “social event,” and this might scare off people who realize their eveningtime social life is based around meeting with people who type for fun.

Cyn's picture
Cyn on December 7, 2003 - 18:47 Permalink

Those ‘type for fun types’ as we know, are…
typing words of wisdom…Let it be, let it be.

Wait…did you say blogorgies? Let it be known that the thought of that makes me very afraid. At the Formosa, I was the only girl…not that I don’t love being the only girl, BUT, at night? After the sun go down?
Gawd, what to wear?

Will's picture
Will on December 8, 2003 - 00:51 Permalink

With this weather, I’d start with a parka, Cyn.

Good idea on holding them after business hours. I think we should make CityFilter the defacto place of organization. I guess I don’t have a big enough following in the local bloggers to bring ‘em stampedin’.

Nils Ling's picture
Nils Ling on December 9, 2003 - 05:31 Permalink

Or geez … somebody must know enough about computers to make a teensy e-mail list … “Bloggers’ meeting, Such and such a place, this time, this day” click-click done ..

I seldom read City Filter .. that’s not a “position” or anything, just a reflection of my interest — now that I’m a country boy. But I enjoyed the last meeting I went to, met some interesting folks, and would do it again if I’m around …

Mandy's picture
Mandy on December 9, 2003 - 09:17 Permalink

Agree.. no offence, but these blogger meetings seem directed at the SOBs, you Peter and others like you all who are able to wander off from time to time during the run of a day. And it also seems to me you all know one another on a day to day or personal basis… what about the rest of us? (maybe i should not ask that, I might not get an answer I want to hear)

While I don’t doubt that you all work your butts off in your given jobs, you all seem to have more freedom like schlubs like Jarrod and I. (sorry Jarrod, but you said it first)

And hey, there are stranger things one could be having a social gathering around in the evenings… Typing for fun in not one of the things that would personally scare me off. I think it’s an idea to consider.

I read many local blogs in the run of day, and have yet to meet a good chuck of you thrilling authors in person.. I would like to. One can only get to know a person so much when they are hidden behind type.. I long for tone of voice and body language when getting to know others… words on a screen just don’t always cut it.