Meredith Farkas FTW - copystar

I think there are a number of reasons for the decline of blogging. First off, blogging is writing and writing is hard work. Secondly, you need two bits of technology in blogging: one to read "rss feeds" and one to write and host a blog. In both cases, Twitter, FB, & FF drop this work/reward ratio. But I think the main reason is the one that you highlighted - that the audience has moved on and much of the feedback is gone or moved elsewhere. But I'm still not sure whether the library blogosphere is dead.. .or if just smells bad ;) - copystar

Aside from taking time to address health issues, I just got burned out on reading/writing about librarianship. My job/profession is not my life. I am writing again, but it's for a local entertainment weekly newspaper, which is gratifying and terrifying. Another reason is that I'm finding it easier to focus on MY library's situation without so much external chatter about what we *should* be doing. I've also developed personal relationships with several others I met via the blogosphere. While we may help each other out during the work day, I'd rather hear about their families, dogs, new tattoos and personal passions. - rochelle rochelle

The fact that we are discussing this here, rather on IWTBF, is pretty telling, hmm? - rochelle rochelle

Rochelle, what Fiona said re commenting where. But, also, as of this moment there are as many or more comments at IWTBF as here. - Mar₭ Liŋdŋer

The comments on the blog also tend to be longer. :) That may actually be a good thing - the short, conversational comments move to twitter and friendfeed, and the more in depth comments stay on the blog. - Kårín Dalzĭel

Karin, I almost mentioned the difference in length, too, but I wanted to be shorter here. ;) - Mar₭ Liŋdŋer

If nothing else, microblogging has certainly fragmented the conversation. ;-) Yes, a lot of us have gone through life changes, but I do also think that Twitter and FriendFeed have moved the conversation elsewhere. It's so much easier to post an observation to FriendFeed or Twitter and get instant responses than it is to form a decent-sized blog post and wait for people to find it. And even if our lives/interests changed, it wouldn't explain why we're not seeing many great NEW libloggers out there. - Meredith

This is so weird. i had two blog posts percolating this morning and come here to find that they're both related to this post. Now, to write them or not... (In short, one was about shifting communities online, and the other was about why blogging is harder for me than it used to be.) I've also thought that blogging serves a slightly different purpose in the new social networking landscape, which I wrote about a while back: http://pegasuslibrarian.blogspot.com/2008... - lris

Anymore I use blogging as more of a personal meditation than anything else, or to wrap my brain around something that I had percolating but couldn't quite get out. Interesting post & comments... - ωαřмaiden ☆TidyTeamOtto☆

Do you think it's useful to look for ways to tie that conversation back together? Should blog posts and ff threads get connected in some way (I know there's some way to pull the comments from ff to post, but vice versa)? Should twitter search have a way to parse short URLs and have blog platforms automatically connect to discussions there? (just thinking out loud) - Rachel Walden

Great point, Rachel. The thing that bothers me most about microblogging is how ephemeral it is. I can look back at old blog posts/comments/trackbacks and see an entire conversation. Now, the conversations are much more fragmented and, especially with Twitter, it's more difficult to capture the conversation for the future. - Meredith

Meredith, I think it's true to a certain extent that blogs gathered conversations together in the comments and trackbacks, but I know that there was a whole lot of conversation that happened between posts that either never linked to each other or where trackbacks didn't work. This is definitely very fragmented, but I think the "good old days" of having conversations all in one place is also a bit of a myth. - lris

I have to admit I don't worry too much about the "decline in blogging." Ideas are just finding their most appropriate expression in terms of length which I think is a sign of maturity in the blogosphere. It's fine that there are fewer bloggers who write less often. After all, what do twitter and especially ff often aggregate their conversations around? Blog posts. As for the decline in the number of new rock star bloggers, that's fine by me as well. I think that we're probably seeing more niche communities with more people that are, as the saying goes, famous for fifteen people. - John Dupuis

I have thought about using one of those plugins to pull FF comments on my blog posts into the blog itself, but I wonder if those who see this as less formal, less findable space would resent it. - Your Neighbor Steve from iPod

I'm going to disagree with mita--liblogging is neither dead nor smelling bad. It's changing as new media provide alternatives--that's what typically happens with new developments. I think John, Dorothea, Fiona, Iris, etc. all have it about right. The conversations and media are complementary. That's OK. (Dorothea: I don't do demographics as such--that's Meredith's venue. Time for another survey, Meredith?) As to fragmenting: Maybe that's OK, too, for reasons several of you mention. - Walt Crawford

I don't think it has so much to do with people not wanting to write long posts. The key is usability: Twitter is pretty easy to use, you just need to install a client and you're set to go. In Friendfeed, you need a login and you can start to interact with the community. Blogs, on the other hand, require choosing the right platform, a theme, building an audience... if you go for a self-hosted Wordpress blog, it's a nightmare! (FTP, backups...) Too much work for regular people who just want to share! - Jordi Soler

Walt, I'd love to do another survey, but with baby, am way too busy. If anyone would like to take that on, I'd be glad to help/advise in any way I can. - Meredith

Yeah, well, it's been a long time since I had a Wordpress blog... ;P Anyway, maybe Posterous can provide the perfect mix of blogging and microblogging. I think it's a great platform for both! - Jordi Soler

I find that I tend to be a rather nostalgic person (and maybe that's why I dwell more on the "decline in blogging"), but I do think it's interesting to look at how the conversation has changed over time, now that there are these tools that make it so much easier to engage in conversations on equal footing. Blogging (and commenting on blogs) used to be the only way pretty much to be part of a conversation with passionate, like-minded folks. - Meredith

Oddly, I hate commenting on blogs (don't ask me why, but I'm always shy of doing it), but I love commenting here. On the flip side, I love receiving comments on my blog more than I like receiving comments here. </threadjack> - lris

Well blogging didn't "kill" the mailing list (Roy Tennant just tweeted about his favourite Code4Lib thread) and so no, I don't actually believe that blogging is "dead". But a blog is not a mailing list and I would contend that the closed garden nature of Facebook and FriendFeed and the abbreviated manner and ephemeral nature of FF and Twitter make them considerably different from blogs. So I would say that blogs are still great publishing tools but they are now weak socializing tools. Perhaps this is why group blogging is now become more popular. - copystar

Well put, Mita. We can think of Twitter & FF as providing a social layer to blogs. Still more disconnected than it should be, but it's a start. - John Dupuis

Like any communication format, I think one must consider what it is you are trying to do. If you want to interact with someone, then FF and Twitter are the right venues for that. If you want to get something off your chest or think more deeply about a topic/topic (as in blogging a book review or expressing a specific argument), then the blog is the correct venue. I really think its time to stop talking about these tools just as forms of technology or networks, and consider them as communication forms. Which means answering the question (1) What do I want to say and (2) Do I care who hears and/or responds to me on this. Inelegant phrasing there, perhaps, but real. - Jill O'Neill

Mita: I like your latest comments--ditto Jill. Different media serve different purposes, and the media and purposes continue to evolve. And maybe there's merit to the idea that FF/Twitter conversations *should* be more ephemeral than blog conversations. (So I won't be quoting this thread when/if I do another "thinking about blogging" episode, but will certainly be quoting comments on Meredith's post itself.) - Walt Crawford

yes, yes, and yes. I am blogging less, but what I blog is, I think, more thoughtful. Not incredibly relevant to LIS, but that never has been the exclusive focus (http://cogscilibrarian.blogspot.com). I definitely say things in (private) ff & Twitter that I wouldn't add to a blog post. Tho, like @iris, I prefer to get comments on my own blog. I do tweet more, but I still see a purpose to my blog. Gr8 discussion! - Stephanie•CogSciLibrarian

I never liked reading longer, more thoughtful posts, unless Meredith was the author. She gets a longer than average leash on that from me. And my blog was dead long before microblogging gave me a tidy explanation for abandoning it. (And I've largely abandoned microblogging too, except to see what other people are doing/saying.) Blogging was my primary way of participating in "the profession," showing that I had something to say and carving out my piece of the web rock. I no longer feel the need to do the first two and I don't need my own blog/site to accomplish the last. As for microblogging, I had a professor who said "Anything can be said more clearly with fewer words." Debatable, of course, but it's always resonated with me. So Twitter, FF and the like appeal to me on that level. Not that I know anything about using fewer words... - Greg Schwartz

D0r0th34 comment does seem fairly salient. The decline of good, informative blogs seems to have declined (infotangle was excellent). But with microblogging,ning, social web tools, the power of the blog seems to have dissapated(see walts view). As for Merediths idea of someone else doing the survey, i'd be interested, but i'm in the uk, and her stats seemed more UK based. But as meredith says there still are some really great libloggger (librarian in black, ilibrarian, in the library with lead pipe). Its just now I come back from my holidays with just 200 blog post to read, where previously it might have been 500. Actually, that might be a good thing ;) - les

I think I am enjoying the fact that, with the rise of Twitter et. al., I get less and less "Library Link of the Day" posts in my feed reader. I myself have always tended to long form entries, and they are the ones that inspire more thoughtful consideration and are more worthy of discussion. (Such as this post is getting.) - Steven Chabot

Also, does anyone lament the fact that the discussion on this post is so divided? Would we rather not hold in in a central place, like the post's page? Feels like people who are not on here often (like me) would miss out on this. - Steven Chabot

Meredith Farkas FTW -Sorry, coming late to the post.. I have no problem restarting conversations that have been chewed on thoroughly if I think I have something to add. (just saying) - Jason (not an Argonaut)