Dave5N
Über Member
- Location
- Outside The Little Nibble
Flying_Monkey said:
I can.
How does one start a blog?
- Thread starter Arch
- Start date
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I can.
Keith Oates
Janner
- Location
- Penarth, Wales
Fab Foodie said:They used to say that if you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters that eventually they'd create the works of Shakespeare... The internet is proving that this is bollocks...
beanzontoast
Guru
- Location
- South of The Peaks
Dave5N - I'm kind of with you on this. IMO, blogging isn't the same as journalism, and whereas I enjoy reading newspaper columns by people who've done their research, I don't feel any attraction towards reading blogs which to me seem little different to public diaries. To my way of thinking, diaries aren't meant for sharing.
Each to his/her own though. If it makes someone happy and does no harm, so be it!
Each to his/her own though. If it makes someone happy and does no harm, so be it!
Flying_Monkey
Recyclist
- Location
- Odawa
Blogs are not necessarily meant to be journalism (except where they is - like the Huffington Post, for example). They can be anything from whimsical nonsense through to new literature to analysis, to serious investigative work and excellent science communication (if you don't believe me, read www.realclimate.org). Blogging it not 'better' or worse than anything else, it is something different. A new method of communication. It is an addition not a replacement. People once argued that popular novels were not real writing, that jazz was not real music and that cinema was just brainless and had no artistic value. They were all wrong. We keep increasing the media available to us - it doesn't mean that every time some new form of communication develops that everything else is wiped out or we abandon our critical faculties.
I do find it a bit amusing people who think that this isn't how things 'are meant to be' - what, in the Nineteenth Century?
And as for people who assert some massive generalised opinion without any reasons - well sorry, Dave5N, that is simply ignorant. This was also a request for information from Arch, which some of us responded to in a constructive way, so your negative opinion was not really called for anyway...
I do find it a bit amusing people who think that this isn't how things 'are meant to be' - what, in the Nineteenth Century?
And as for people who assert some massive generalised opinion without any reasons - well sorry, Dave5N, that is simply ignorant. This was also a request for information from Arch, which some of us responded to in a constructive way, so your negative opinion was not really called for anyway...
BigonaBianchi
Yes I can, Yes I am, Yes I did...Repeat.
- Location
- Iskele TRNC & Mordor UK
cycle social offer a free blog...you can add pics and everything
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
Flying_Monkey said:Blogs are not necessarily meant to be journalism (except where they is - like the Huffington Post, for example). They can be anything from whimsical nonsense through to new literature to analysis, to serious investigative work and excellent science communication (if you don't believe me, read www.realclimate.org). Blogging it not 'better' or worse than anything else, it is something different. A new method of communication. It is an addition not a replacement. People once argued that popular novels were not real writing, that jazz was not real music and that cinema was just brainless and had no artistic value. They were all wrong. We keep increasing the media available to us - it doesn't mean that every time some new form of communication develops that everything else is wiped out or we abandon our critical faculties.
I do find it a bit amusing people who think that this isn't how things 'are meant to be' - what, in the Nineteenth Century?
And as for people who assert some massive generalised opinion without any reasons - well sorry, Dave5N, that is simply ignorant. This was also a request for information from Arch, which some of us responded to in a constructive way, so your negative opinion was not really called for anyway...
This is a really good way of explaining the concept FM - thanks! 10/10
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I'm not writing a blog out of vanity - I'm doing it to embarrass myself into losing weight! I don't expect people to get great pleasure out of reading about me getting sweaty on my exercise bike, or seeing photos of my hairy beer gut! 
(If they did, I'd start to get worried!)
I'm doing it for online peer pressure and it is working. There have been many times over the 2 months I've been writing it, that I've felt like slobbing out on front of the TV with yet another 6 pack of beer, but knowing that I'm going to have to own up to it on the blog makes me think twice about doing that. I'm losing weight and getting fitter much earlier in the year than I normally do.
I'm going to start documenting the road, mountain bike and walking routes I know in this area. I have a very good knowledge of over 2,000 square miles of West Yorkshire and Lancashire and I want to share that with people. I'll get a kick out of knowing that people have come here to follow in my tyre-tracks (or footsteps). Those routes alone will justify the existence of the blog.
Getting back to the vanity thing - what is the difference between "I think that I could write a good novel" and "I think I could write a good blog"? In both cases, the writer thinks that (s)he has something worthwhile to write about, and wants to do it. The thing about blogging is that there isn't an editor or a publisher between the writer and the readers so it is up to the readers to decide for themselves whether the material is worth reading.
I don't care if 99.999% of the online world never even finds my blog, and I don't care if 99.999% of those who do find it hate it, as long as somebody out there gets something from it, and I end up slimmer and fitter again, that'll be enough for me!
(If they did, I'd start to get worried!) I'm doing it for online peer pressure and it is working. There have been many times over the 2 months I've been writing it, that I've felt like slobbing out on front of the TV with yet another 6 pack of beer, but knowing that I'm going to have to own up to it on the blog makes me think twice about doing that. I'm losing weight and getting fitter much earlier in the year than I normally do.
I'm going to start documenting the road, mountain bike and walking routes I know in this area. I have a very good knowledge of over 2,000 square miles of West Yorkshire and Lancashire and I want to share that with people. I'll get a kick out of knowing that people have come here to follow in my tyre-tracks (or footsteps). Those routes alone will justify the existence of the blog.
Getting back to the vanity thing - what is the difference between "I think that I could write a good novel" and "I think I could write a good blog"? In both cases, the writer thinks that (s)he has something worthwhile to write about, and wants to do it. The thing about blogging is that there isn't an editor or a publisher between the writer and the readers so it is up to the readers to decide for themselves whether the material is worth reading.
I don't care if 99.999% of the online world never even finds my blog, and I don't care if 99.999% of those who do find it hate it, as long as somebody out there gets something from it, and I end up slimmer and fitter again, that'll be enough for me!
Cycling Naturalist
Guru
- Location
- Llangollen
Arch said:
Do you want me to spice it up a bit, eg.
"X a prominent politician visited me for a caning session this afternoon. He told me that one of the Cabinet is going to have a sex change, but the announcement has been delayed because one of the banks is going into liquidation and all the depositors will lose their money............"
The question maybe shouldn't be 'How can I blog?' but 'Why should I blog'.
Leaving aside the few (very few) interesting blog, and those which have some point (like assisted weight-loss, or whatever), there are millions of the most boring banging-on badly-written diaries now floating around the net.
Yes, the internet and blogging DID make self-publishing easy, and objectively anything that empowers ordinary people is a good thing.
In a similar way, digital photography liberated many millions of people from the tedium of carefully arranging and lighting each shot, waiting for film to be developed, choosing which negs to blow up, and so on.
Making it easy isn't a Good Thing in itself; think spray-on cheese.
A.
Trouble is, all you end up with both in the blog form and digital pics is countless millions of pointless words and dreadful photos, most of which would NEVER have seen the light of day had their perpetrators had to be disciplined and literate in their production.
Leaving aside the few (very few) interesting blog, and those which have some point (like assisted weight-loss, or whatever), there are millions of the most boring banging-on badly-written diaries now floating around the net.
Yes, the internet and blogging DID make self-publishing easy, and objectively anything that empowers ordinary people is a good thing.
In a similar way, digital photography liberated many millions of people from the tedium of carefully arranging and lighting each shot, waiting for film to be developed, choosing which negs to blow up, and so on.
Making it easy isn't a Good Thing in itself; think spray-on cheese.
A.
Trouble is, all you end up with both in the blog form and digital pics is countless millions of pointless words and dreadful photos, most of which would NEVER have seen the light of day had their perpetrators had to be disciplined and literate in their production.
swee'pea99
Legendary Member
Fab Foodie said:They used to say that if you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters that eventually they'd create the works of Shakespeare... The internet is proving that this is bollocks...
Bob Newhart had a sketch about the guys who had to go check on the monkeys to find out whether they'd come up with anything...
"Hey, Joe, I think we might have something.....To be, or not to be, that is the gzarnanplatz'
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
I can imagine spray on cheese being very difficult actually. Mind you, I wouldn't mind a new Gor-gonzola-Tex jacket!
Composing a photo? Not since the days of flashbangwallop and prohibitive cost methinks...
As for other people's offerings, we will all 'see' and 'understand' differently.
I would like to think that I might be among the 0001% that finds Colin's blog - and other people's too, giving me a choice of read or not - bit like this forum really...
Meanwhile I give you carte blanche Allen, to strike through any of the old rubbish you come across on your travels - just give Arch a chance to write a few paragraphs before doing the old cyber rip-up!
Composing a photo? Not since the days of flashbangwallop and prohibitive cost methinks...
As for other people's offerings, we will all 'see' and 'understand' differently.
I would like to think that I might be among the 0001% that finds Colin's blog - and other people's too, giving me a choice of read or not - bit like this forum really...
Meanwhile I give you carte blanche Allen, to strike through any of the old rubbish you come across on your travels - just give Arch a chance to write a few paragraphs before doing the old cyber rip-up!
OP
OP
Arch
Married to Night Train
- Location
- Salford, UK
Aperitif said:Meanwhile I give you carte blanche Allen, to strike through any of the old rubbish you come across on your travels - just give Arch a chance to write a few paragraphs before doing the old cyber rip-up!
I shan't be forcing anyone to read it, so I don't see the problem. I haven't even got round to composing anything yet. My initial idea was, like Colin, a way of recording something in order to motivate myself, but I've since thought of other stuff to add, all of which may be terribly tedious, but just might be funny or useful, so who knows?
As a matter of fact, I also have a few ideas for novels and a couple of travel type books (the old 'follow a journey with a theme' type), if I ever get round to them... But I shan't insist anyone reads them either.
OP
OP
Arch
Married to Night Train
- Location
- Salford, UK
Patrick Stevens said:
No thank you. I think I can add my own spice, if required...
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
Arch said:No thank you. I think I can add my own spice, if required...
I can see it now...a touch of the old Mystic
