Blogging is a trend that has been around for several years. I have been blogging since 2004, although truth be told I did not begin to blog seriously since last year. Over the course of these few years, I have watched the blogosphere evolve and take on new forms, some more desirable, others less. As of late I have only been watching in muted horror as substandard blogs flood the blogosphere. I break this seal of silence today as I saw this new blog with a horribly messy template, overwhelming advertisements, blurred photos and extremely shallow content; this guy explicitly stated he was trying to project a mysterious aura. And for that, I give him an E for his pathetic attempt. This blog is typical of the sea of blogs which carry little, if any content; which serve little more than to lend some cheap glitter and glamour to their owners. While I deem myself unqualified to define the criteria one needs to meet before being worthy of the title "blogger", I personally feel that blogs should have an impact on their readers.
I find myself jumping around from blog to blog, feeling despaired by the shallowness. Many blogs simply scream "Look at me! Please say I'm cool, dude!". Messy templates and teeming advertising do little to mediate the situation. In fact, I'm linking this trend of substandard blogs with the recent fad of monetizing one's blog. I strongly suspect that it is the sole reason for the recent influx of blogs within this world. Capitalism, the bane that sucks human souls dry. It draws in people whom in real life would struggle to write a coherent sentence. Blogs nowadays truly lack the most important ingredient; it should reflect the soul of the blogger.
Fine, if some of these bloggers keep blogs as personal diaries or limited to within their private social circle, then I will refrain from judging those blogs. I have no rights to criticise another person if his blog was not intended for public viewing. You can't blast a person for decorating their private home according to their tastes right? However, with regards to the crappy blog I mentioned above, its owner was clearly seeking profit with no regards to his blog quality. He was trawling around forums and other such sites promoting his blog. That guy's actions are far from unique as so many people are out there trying to advertise their lousy blogs. People whom in real life would not have the guts to write a sentence for public viewing. And for that, I feel that he has granted the public a license to scrutinize his blog, and tear it apart, if they will.
Bloggers, don't just post "I went to *insert place* today... I had this for lunch with so-and-so. These are a few 'LaLa' photos of us". Rather, post your thoughts and insights on your life around you. "A picture is worth a thousand words". That cliche is a blatant lie. A photo provides nothing more than a superficial image of the person in question. A thousand words, on the other hand, colour his character, paints his personality, and breathes life into that person. When you get to know a person, you are not dissecting a skin bag of tissue and bones. You are connecting with the soul within, and you learn more about the complex engine of character and morality driving the person.
I've never discriminated blogs, but I feel that these recent events have forced me to reconsider my neutrality. Henceforth, I will be imposing higher quality control standards on this blog. My short fling with capitalism ends here. I will retain advertisements on my blog, but I will downgrade their commercial prominence. I declare myself an ardent blog critic from this point onwards. My blog hereby undergoes the following reforms:
1. No more photoblogging - Except photos of sufficient significance.
2. No more doing tags - Sorry guys, but I feel that its shallow. We have friendster and other such social networking sites for such banter.
3. Strict vetting of link-exchange
4. More intellectual and thought provoking posts
As some of you guys know, I have been hard at work in creating a new blog. I don't know if its possible, but I will strive to keep it a "quality blog". The Seven Seals will cease to be in the coming months.
I will not end this post by apologizing to anyone whom I have offended. Instead I will issue out a challenge to all bloggers who have read this post to give blogs back their rightful souls. That is if you are interested in reclaiming your blog back from that huge garbage heap out there.
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5 comments:
Ya, the more something is, the quality will degrade for sure.
A quality blogs differs from who your readers are but I am extremely pissed off with blogs doing "reviews" for some services but there are affiliate links inside...
Anyway, I think I've found your new blog as some of my friends has an incoming link from a blog which is not in your blog list but you are the author.
Blogs which are so commercialized seem so distasteful. People go to a blog primarily to read and enjoy its content, not be bombarded by spam. What is the difference from visiting a splog?
Yup, you have stumbled into my unlisted new blog. Its just a lab for me to mess around with templates for now. Your links are there since I've extracted out the "peekaboo" links code from your blog as mentioned in LYN but I've yet to modify it la. :)
Agree about the Quality Blogging points totally. Disagree about what you said about Capitalism though, please look at it from another vantage point for a second. See my Article #13 and 14 where I talk about it, relating to self interest and quality blogging.
Anyhow, I think it's important to agree and disagree in what we need to.
Sincerely,
- Michael Erik, MBA
Quality Blog Critic
www.qualityblogger.com
"The Best Things In Life Are Free"
Hey, I was blog hopping too, til I came accross your blog. I generally agree with what you said about quality blogging.
However, I think blogging is also about having fun with writing and expressing ourselves. If we impose our blogs and other blogs alike with too many guidelines and limits, we will have to live up to the standard we imposed. In turn, we will have to watch carefully what to post and what not to in our blog. In the end, it will ruin the true fun of blogging. Besides, it might even cause us to refrain ourselves from speaking out our true thoughts as we know our blogs are being scrutinized and judged by readers. For your case, however, I think you'll have no problem in living up to the standards you set, but really, won't you lose the fun in blogging?
For me, I think the most important thing about blogging is as you have mentioned, to stay true to ourselves, and that the posts should reflect the owner's thoughts and personality. I do think posers and wannabes' blogs are annoying. Besides, less annoying ads (pop ups) and messy templates that interrupt the reading experience also counts.
Also to be noted is that, a blog should also stay ethical. Judging from the pics you've posted in the above post, i'm guessing you're from intec? If so, you would have probably heard/read an intec student's blog that had recenly gained fame among intec students. I think that blog is a good example of unethical blog in which the blogger demeaned certain people publicly in his/her blog.
Lastly, I think photo blog rocks! It adds flavours to the blog. If a blog consist only of words, then it's subjected to the reader's imagination to imagine what the blogger is describing. Pictures help to give insight to what the blogger is describing. Plus, it's really more enjoyable to blog with pics and vids, both for the blogger and readers.
Hmm. Blogging. Everyone to his or her own, I guess. We can only comment but we can't control what people want to put in their blogs.
And I firmly believe that a picture paints a thousand words, but a thousand words paint a world. =)
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