A million and a half years ago—or THIRTEEN, to be precise—I wrote “Why Web Journals Suck,” which was about the explosion of what we then called Online Journals and we now call Blogs. Several people have asked me what happened to this essay, and I finally got my butt in gear and found it. I’ve edited it a little (very little…the bare minimum, in fact) and have posted it here.
A couple of things I learned from refinding the essay and editing it a bit before posting:
- Wow, does this current theme I’m using suck for quoting other people. I need a new theme on this site, and I need it NOW. And I need to be able to edit themes.
- The references… hahaha. If you don’t understand some of the references, I’m sorry about that. Yes, there was a time you had to design your own journal and handcode the HTML—there was no WordPress, no Movable Type, no Livejournal. Srsly. None of that. You did it yourself, or you went home. Also, you had to somehow get your own URL out there, because there was NO GOOGLE. We did have electricity and grocery stores though, so not all was lost.
- Wow, has so little changed in the intervening 13 years, despite the explosion of blogs, the commercialization of blogging, and the acceptance that blogs are just a way of life. Well, what can I say: good advice is still good advice.
I may or may not attempt to update the essay with more recent quotes. It seems pretty goshdarn perfect as it is, dangit. (And now I’m all nostalgic for the halcyon days where there were, like, 100 journals out there.)
Go. Read. Enjoy. Comment.
I really enjoyed the essay, thanks so much for posting it. It’s a tad more in your face and cynical that I roll, but you really hit on some valid points.
I started my online life running an online community and learned early on that if you don’t want someone to find you or repeat what you said, then either get offline or keep quiet. Otherwise, you’re right, you will be found and confronted.