The John Dvorakification of the blogosphere (I’m signing off of Memeorandum)

March 5, 2006 By

I’m unsubscribing from Memeorandum.

Reading Dave Winer this morning made me realize I’m just falling down a dark hole. It’s the same hole I was in in the 1990s when I posted about 100,000 items on various newsgroups: in a group the writer is in control, not the reader.

I miss my RSS reading. Reading RSS makes me smarter, not snarkier. Why? Cause I choose who I’m going to read. Pick smart people to read and you’ll get smarter.

Hint, the smartest people in my RSS are usually the least snarky. Why? Cause they could give a f**k about all the traffic.

Why is all the snark going on? Cause everyone wants traffic. Why did I call this the John Dvorakification? Cause he figured out in the 1980s (yes, he’s been at this so long) that if you attack a community (particularly the Apple one) that everyone will get all up in arms and will start talking about the attack. That translates into traffic. Traffic = advertising dollars.

Last night I spent a couple of hours in Second Life and found myself getting smarter again. Why? Cause I was hanging around with smart people and discovering a new world together with them. I was discovering new music in a record store there. I was learning new things. Experiencing new things. And there wasn’t any snark. And no one was begging me for a link. I’m so tired of that.

So, what do I mean by this?

Let’s go look at my feeds. What’s the first post I see? How about this one from Alex Feldstein. He links to images from the Hubble space telescope. S**t. One post and I’m already getting smarter.

Let’s keep going. Bob Lewis teaches me how to deal with a backstabber. Two-for-two. Neither of these got on Memeorandum.

Next. 43 folders has a post on 2 ways to make RSS readers smarter. Hey, you RSS guys paying attention?

Brian Noyes writes that .NET Rocks is talking about data binding and other geeky stuff (and that there’s a new .NET Rocks TV show too). On Memeorandum? Nope.

The Agile Management blog links to Brad Appleton who has great articles on Feature Driven Development and UML in Color Domain Modeling. I’m reading those two now and they are teaching me a lot more than Memeorandum has.

Over on the Software Marketing Resource blog I learn that Krugle is a new source-code search engine and that Windows Marketplace will help software developers market their software.

Andy Lark says that PR legend Harold Burson is blogging. I didn’t see that on Memeorandum either.

John Ludwig praises a football fan’s blog (hint, it’s very geeky). John’s a VC. Listening to VCs typically makes one smarter, if not richer despite the belief that VCs aren’t very smart.

Rob Fahrni, a software developer, has links to the operating manual for the Haunted Mansion at DisneyLand.

Anyway, it’s the little things in life that make you smarter. The little things don’t show up on Memeorandum. They do show up on RSS. Which is why I’m still subscribed to 847 smart people’s feeds.

Sorry Gabe, I’m not gonna look at Memeorandum for at least a week. The Sunday Snark just pushed me over the edge.

Filed Under: 1, memetracker, memory, Russia
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  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Wil: my RSS subs are shared on the right side of my blog. (Use the NewsGator one, it’s more up to date).

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  • http://hypersnark.org/ Robert W. Anderson

    Robert — I’ve come up with the HypterText Snarkup Language (HTSL) to both help publishers be more snarky and readers to avoid unwanted snarkiness.
    ;)

  • http://hypersnark.org Robert W. Anderson

    Robert — I’ve come up with the HypterText Snarkup Language (HTSL) to both help publishers be more snarky and readers to avoid unwanted snarkiness.
    ;)

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  • http://headlemur.wordpress.com/ the head lemur

    Robert,

    You need help! You really seriously need help.
    http://theheadlemur.typepad.com/ravinglunacy/2006/03/robert_scoble_n.html

    Get some help Robert! Step away from the computer and find a treatment program where you can return to sanity. Take all the time you need. We will be here when you get back.

  • http://headlemur.wordpress.com/ the head lemur

    Robert,

    You need help! You really seriously need help.
    http://theheadlemur.typepad.com/ravinglunacy/2006/03/robert_scoble_n.html

    Get some help Robert! Step away from the computer and find a treatment program where you can return to sanity. Take all the time you need. We will be here when you get back.

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  • Goebbels

    Duh. Some of us have said this for a very long time now. You were just hyping it 5 days ago. If only it didn’t take you a year to figure out crap that must of us see on first viewing, maybe you’d deserve your reputation.

  • Goebbels

    Duh. Some of us have said this for a very long time now. You were just hyping it 5 days ago. If only it didn’t take you a year to figure out crap that must of us see on first viewing, maybe you’d deserve your reputation.

  • http://tech.memeorandum.com/ Gabe

    Me again. In Trackback #54, Jake Ludington infers that this post was manually blocked from appearing on memeorandum. The problem with this conclusion is that it DID show up on memeorandum. I’m not sure why Jake didn’t bother to check the archives. Just thought I would respond here.

  • http://tech.memeorandum.com/ Gabe

    Me again. In Trackback #54, Jake Ludington infers that this post was manually blocked from appearing on memeorandum. The problem with this conclusion is that it DID show up on memeorandum. I’m not sure why Jake didn’t bother to check the archives. Just thought I would respond here.

  • http://tinfinger.blogspot.com/ Paul Montgomery

    Gabe, if you had implemented permalinked memes like I asked then Jake’s search would be much easier. :D

  • http://tinfinger.blogspot.com Paul Montgomery

    Gabe, if you had implemented permalinked memes like I asked then Jake’s search would be much easier. :D

  • http://www.net.typepad.com/ Net

    Hey, you need a life (outside Tech), you know there is a whole beutiful world out there without trackbacks, pings and links: go fishing, pick up bird watching, read a REAL book (not tech or business related),play with kids or listen to old peoples stories…and it comes without RSS, OPML and all that scary stuff.

  • http://www.net.typepad.com Net

    Hey, you need a life (outside Tech), you know there is a whole beutiful world out there without trackbacks, pings and links: go fishing, pick up bird watching, read a REAL book (not tech or business related),play with kids or listen to old peoples stories…and it comes without RSS, OPML and all that scary stuff.

  • http://thevolestrangler.blogspot.com/ The Vole Strangler

    People like David Aaranovich are the John Dvoraks of MSM. This is not a new phenomenon, but you are right we must strangle the voles. When you strange a vole you cut of the oxygen supply and they die. Come to my blogsite and discuss the best way to strangle voles.

  • http://thevolestrangler.blogspot.com/ The Vole Strangler

    People like David Aaranovich are the John Dvoraks of MSM. This is not a new phenomenon, but you are right we must strangle the voles. When you strange a vole you cut of the oxygen supply and they die. Come to my blogsite and discuss the best way to strangle voles.

  • http://www.dahowlett.com dahowlett

    Speaking of good stuff for your RSS reader – seen this? JP is blogging – JP Rangaswami, CIO of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and it is very, very good.

    While I’m here, thanks for the Feed43 tip – solved a mega problem for me on a non-RSS’d site. (no advertising required)

  • http://www.accmanpro.com Dennis Howlett

    Speaking of good stuff for your RSS reader – seen this? JP is blogging – JP Rangaswami, CIO of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and it is very, very good.

    While I’m here, thanks for the Feed43 tip – solved a mega problem for me on a non-RSS’d site. (no advertising required)

  • http://www.floatingatoll.nu/ Richard Soderberg

    The 43folders RSS improvements article came up in the context of my newsreader recently; it sparked good discussion. I’m cheered to see it highlighted here; both points are valid. Feed expiration based on lack of attention would have useful implications for bookmark ordering as well.

  • http://www.floatingatoll.nu/ Richard Soderberg

    The 43folders RSS improvements article came up in the context of my newsreader recently; it sparked good discussion. I’m cheered to see it highlighted here; both points are valid. Feed expiration based on lack of attention would have useful implications for bookmark ordering as well.

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  • http://jackyan.com Jack Yan

    Good point. With smart people, we can make the world better. With snarky people, we just add to the clutter.

  • http://www.jackyan.com/blog Jack Yan

    Good point. With smart people, we can make the world better. With snarky people, we just add to the clutter.

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