The closed blogosphere…

by on January 11, 2006

Squash rails on Memeorandum and the closed blogosphere. Squash’s theory? New people can’t get discovered because of sites like mine and Memeorandums.

Listen, it’s real easy to get discovered. If you’re interesting. Just leave your URL here and we’ll all go visit. I especially like blogs about technology. Are you a Java programmer? Leave a URL. C#’er? Leave a URL. Got some new Web site that you think is cool? Leave a URL.

By the way, how old is TechCrunch? PodTech? They didn’t exist in my mind a year ago and now they are must reads. Heck, even Memeorandum is less than a year old. I love how fast things turn “old school” around here.

Move over boys and girls and make room for some youngins! :-)

Me? I’m swamped today, so just go over to Memeorandum/Tech and read all about MacWorld, among other things.

  • Ok, I won't be shy. Have at it with the URL linked to my name!
  • Damn, that's a nice blog! Subscribed!
  • JL
    How about a peruvian geek who writes in spanish? hey, there's mi niche!
    ha ha

    ps: loved kevin's site too... subscribed!
  • Jay
    This is about a common platform for everybody within a neighborbood to blog, opine or discuss latest issues. Feedbacks invited.
  • JL: that looks like a nice blog, but I can't read Spanish.

    Jay: Cluckoo looks interesting!
  • palmit.commentary is Cale Bruckner's blog - a place for commentary on technology, world events, industry news, the future, and politics; it's a blog.

    You asked - not sure I meet the requirement (interesting), but I couldn't pass on the opportunity.
  • While it's not a blog, I'd love to get your feedback on my pure .NET-based/SQL Server product, Mentations: www.mentations.com. It is one part RSS reader, one part dashboard, one part web service aggregator - delivering information at a glance via 'dynamic pictures'. Still in beta and no help yet, but just right-click on stuff and you'll quickly discover the functionality!
  • FeedMail Now! needs your help. I'm building a new community using RSS feeds for communication and I need a lot of adventurous people -- http://www.feedmailnow.com -- You'll be able to say that you were there in the beginning...

    Kevin Tofel's blog shamed me. I was originally going to setup my blog on WordPress with all the bells and whistles, but ran into a database issue choosing between SQL Server and mySQL. Okay, time to ask my ISP for mySQL too.
  • Thanks Scoble! You are right, it is hard to break through. Here is a nice techie/music/link blog to look at.
  • What about beer?
  • I blog about java, ruby on rails, TDD, agile in general, ajax, and pretty much anything nerdy. Also the occasional politics and current affairs. And aqua teen hunger force (of course).
    - Rob
  • I blog about creating machines that think.

    ... occasionally.
  • I blog about technology and my ruminations on life. I also have a blog about my new venture available at http://blog.flurrymail.com.

    Keep up the good work Scoble.
  • Way to go Scoble - ever since you actually took the time to come and comment on my blog, I've kept reading - disagreements and all.

    I write about usability and design, and occasionally get into things over my head. :)
  • Robert, while you've made a gracious offer, you've also essentially proven Squash's point. People are only finding these blogs because you are linking to them.

    That said, with this one post you are certainly doing more than most people to help others discover new blogs.

    As far as Memeorandum goes, if I recall correctly, you have also pointed out its occasional circular self-referential nature.
  • Christopher Coulter
    Listen, it’s real easy to get discovered. If you’re interesting.

    No. Interesting only last a few days, then you morph back to the familiar, the one(s) you have relationships with (you said such yourself per the Jason network). What matters per discovery is traffic, and consistent traffic at that. It's the only fuel that the blogs run on. Don't kid yourself about "interesting", which is VERY subjective itself. And most of the real interesting stuff isn't techie, and no way in heck you are going to rope some literary blog into the mix.

    I don't think Dave has ever been even remotely interesting, just shrill rants and ego-claims of vast ownership and contradictory posts, nearly daily. But you will stick around, as he grants traffic and you do blogger meet-ups. Being "interesting" is only a fleeting novelty.

    But frankly the blogosphere, has routed around, not paying the tolls. And that's a good thing. Nation-states forming apart from the self-appointed toolmaker traffic-dictator overlords.
  • I blog about Delphi on occasion. Yeah, we Borlandians haven't all died out...
  • Christopher Coulter
    Robert, while you’ve made a gracious offer, you’ve also essentially proven Squash’s point.

    I saw that too. But then it would have been ironic. And irony seems something most bloggers can't process. But thanks for pointing it out. :)
  • Mike Warot has a tech blog, --Mike-- http://mikewarot.blogspot.com/ with a focus on security and is hoping to garner a little more attention. Security is not my interest, but I'm sure it is to much of this audience. Check it out.
  • One point of clarification. I started this recent talk of the closed blogosphere with this post, which was the one before the one Squash is talking about today:

    http://www.newsome.org/2006/01/why-its-impossib...

    And in that post I made a point to say:

    "Yes, there are exceptions. Scoble and JKOnTheRun being two that come to mind. Both seem to be really good guys and both seem to be doing the blog thing for reasons other than the prospect of a dollar."

    Scoble, you've done way more than your share to give exposure to new blogs, so I didn't want you to think I was talking about you.

    Peace,
    Kent
  • Here's my little corner of the world. It's a mixed bag of topics depending on what's on my mind.

    http://www.theportermethod.com/blog
  • Somisguided.com is me. It's about books and publishing mostly.

    I agree with Robert though, if you're interesting and know how to build an audience and have a conversation, then it doesn't matter if someone is talking louder than you. It's relevance that leads to popularity.

    By the way Robert, I used to get the full blog post in Bloglines but now with your switch to Wordpress I only get the first couple of lines. Not sure if that's specific to Bloglines or if others are having the same problem.
  • I think that Interesting does only last for a little while... Consistently interesting last quite a bit longer. I write what is interesting to me. Feel free to disagree...

    hmmm... Maybe I'm a poet as well?

    Keep up the good work Scoble.
  • The key thing is CONSISTENTLY new and interesting. What happens is that someone like kevin from http://www.kevintwodotoh.com/ gets a few links

    The question is why are you blogging ? It's the downside of the attention mechanism (hey look at me, hear my side of the story, here's my opinion). Its the geeks version of 14 year old teen angst (this is how I'd run Google, or MS or yahoo...)

    Time is the most limited of resources (I'll never see the time I spend on this entry again) and quite frankly, most of you (myself included) are not interesting enough for me to spend time bookmarking, let alone skimming or (heaven forbid!!) actually reading.
  • I wasn't going to comment, but I must have before because the comment fields were all filled in. =)

    I think getting discovered is hard, but have to ask why you want to be discovered? Usually, in my experience, the really interesting people are discovered when they aren't trying to be discovered. There are interesting people who work at getting noticed, but if you spend your time blogging to be noticed, are you really blogging what you want to say to the world? If so, hats off to you.

    If I write what's in my heart and mind day in, day out, I'm guessing Robert Scoble would probably not read my blog very often, if at all. Why? I don't know much about tech stuff and don't write about it (though I sometimes link to stuff about it). While it may be otherwise, I'd be surprised if he was interested in what I blog. I read Scoble and some others of similar theme because I like tech and hearing about what's out there.

    Someone commented earlier that interesting is subjective and they're right on the money there. Just because an A-list blog doesn't find you interesting enough to link to doesn't mean you aren't interesting, you just aren't interesting to them. You could have twice as many readers as an A-list blog who just don't blog themselves and not know it.

    But it also doesn't mean you can't participate in the conversation with the rest of the world. =)
  • Hey Sco,
    Do give my blog a look and gimme your comments, I'd love hearing them. Thanks
    http://chronotron.wordpress.com

    and It's better now that you have changed everything to size 2.

    ~ CC
  • My techie blog is at
    webservices-stuff.blogspot.com
    It's not just webservices stuff and it covers old-school technology like Crystal Reports and bread and butter account systems.
  • I blog about Business Intelligence Platforms as it's my lifeblood, passion, and (grin) employment. I also love talking about SOA, other Web 2.0 trends, and Identity. Come visit!
  • ka9dgx
    Wow... here I am, learning the ropes of effective blogging, checking out my referral logs (which aren't spammed to death yet) and here I am thanks to Dave.... cool! (Thanks Dave!)

    Robert... I want to see a completely secure OS demonstrated onstage, and on the Internet by January 2010. Something unbreakable, that doesn't need a virus scanner or firewalls to make it secure. Something that can run any random application without taking out the machine. I believe it's possible, just not with the current ACL security model.

    I'm willing to do what it takes to make it happen. I'd prefer Open source... but not if it gets in the way.

    --Mike--
  • Digg's not closed. Anyone can submit a story to Boing Boing or Slashdot, etc. etc. I don't buy the story that good writers can't be discovered. It may take a little work, but if the quality of your writing is good and you write interesting things you are not limited because of A list bloggers or things like Memeorandum.
  • Hi,

    My blog is primarily a documentation of my University final year. It focusses on my interest in mobile social technologies, and I'm doing a lot of work in Java (J2ME), personal networking, etc. for my final project, and other minor projects.

    One of these projects is transience, which is a very early prototype of some technologies I am working on for future use. Please feel free to take a look at the blog send any feedback!
  • Unpopular - The "D" List

    I'm going to take all of the sites that are mentioned in these comments and put them on The "D" List.

    http://www.voiceoftech.com/unpopular

    Feel free to submit more through the site. If I post your site and you don't want to be listed, shoot me an email at swhitley@voiceoftech.com and I'll take it off.

    :)
  • I blog about Windows grid computing, and software development, code samples, and business from a small company perspective. URL below. Thanks Robert.
  • If you're starting a micro-ISV (a self funded software startup) you might want to visit a brand new site: http://mymicroisv.com. It part blog, resources and home for some of the interviews and all of the files from my new Apress book, Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality.
  • Jeremy Sullivan
    I think one of the more interesting things I've come across lately, and which you'll find useful too Robert, is the OPod OPML-RSS widget. Its the only browser based tool I've seen so far which seamlessly moves between OPML and RSS browsing/reading.

    http://eurekaman.com/opod/
  • Okay, I'm late to the party but today I released Bleezer (www.bleezer.com), a multi-platform blogging client. Post to any blogging service from any platform. It's been tested on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and now on BlackBerry as well.

    Oh yeah, it's free too.

    Does that sound like something interesting?
  • Get your blog noticed at http://www.pageofeeds.com
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