Kent Newsome on technology, music and life

5/04/2006


Blogs Without Links Are Not Blogs

They are the creations of arrogance and vanity.

There seems to be a movement among the self-impressed in the blogosphere to toss up walls around themselves to avoid having to interact with the unwashed masses. I don't know who came up with this brilliant plan, but if it gets legs, it will set the blogosphere back by years.

First we have Steve Gillmor saying that bloggers shouldn't link.

Now I read via Richard Querin's blog that Seth Goldstein says:

Strong web bloggers no longer link.

Somebody please tell me this is a joke. Or satire that I'm too tired to detect. I simply cannot believe that anyone who can type words on a keyboard could write something that ludicrous.

This is the sort of arrogant bullshit that makes me want to stop blogging altogether. I am 100% certain that I wouldn't spend a nanosecond hanging out with anyone arrogant and naive enough to believe that they are the only ones with anything useful to say in the real world, so why would I want to do it in the blogosphere?

Just because a few curious onlookers read your online diary does not mean you are in any position "to shape thought." Take away the conversations that are engendered by right-thinking bloggers and the only thoughts that we are shaping is the thought that we are a bunch of geeks who ought to step away from the computer and go outside.

Have some of these bloggers really convinced themselves that they are rock stars? Are they about to start showing up in People Magazine? Anyone who has anything resembling a life would laugh their heads off at the prospect of some nerd trying to claim that because his online diary is read by a a few thousand out of the 6.5 billion people on earth, he has somehow arrived to the point where he can sit atop his pile of slide rules and pocket protectors and preach to the masses, without the need to join in anything resembling a conversation.

I am utterly blown away by the absurdity of what I am reading these days.

If this is where the blogosphere is going, count me out.

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Posted by Kent @ 5/04/2006 09:38:00 PM | Permalink

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6 Comment(s):

Hi Kent,

Blogs without links are... magazine articles. I think that some of these guys are hoping that the environment around blogging coalesces into another version of the print industry. Wannabe magazine columnists I guess. Aren't they missing the point/power of linking entirely?

By Blogger RichardQuerin, at 5/04/2006 10:16 PM  
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Totally right, Kent. If a blog without comments isn't really a blog (as I've argued) then a blog without links is even less of a blog. As your other commenter implies, doing this reflects the same sort of arrogant attitude that many people get from mainstream media -- the "I know everything there is to know about this" attitude. Except print media have an excuse -- they can't link. Bloggers have no excuse but their own vanity or laziness.

By Anonymous Mathew Ingram, at 5/04/2006 10:30 PM  
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Heck, Kent, don't let Big Bloviating Egos like that determine whether you're going to blog or not--because then you're letting them determine just what "blogging" is, and it becomes a self-determining prophecy...a blogging net filled with lonely islands populated by BBEs.

And I still wonder just how these folks think people find *them*? By just randomly typing things into their address bars? What they're implying is that it's okay for others to link to *them*, but They Are Above It All.

Piffle.

By Blogger Kate, at 5/04/2006 10:38 PM  
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Wow, I had no idea this was becoming an issue with the self-proclaimed "A-List" bloggers. I wonder how that will play out in the long run if they actually sort to this type of buffoonary.

By Blogger Mojotek, at 5/05/2006 10:51 AM  
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My favorite part about Seth's post about how strong bloggers don't link is that he not only links, but then pastes an entire article written by someone else.

What does that mean that we can assume about Seth?

By Anonymous kalbzayn, at 5/05/2006 4:42 PM  
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I think the Who said it best:

"Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss."

The revolution will be assimilated, and the new guard starts behaving like the old guard.

Couldn't you see this coming?

By Anonymous Dwight Silverman, at 5/07/2006 12:56 PM  
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