Metablogging...

...that is, talking about blogging instead of actually doing it.

I've been visiting lots of blogs in the past few months, some of them repeatedly. It's fascinating to see the conventions emerging in the different genres.

The major genre might be called the introvert blog--it's all about the author's personal life. One of the striking aspects of this genre is the author's denigration of himself: the blog is purported to be "chaos," "random," "neurotic," and generally reflective of a failed life.

The content bears this out; posts are often highly self-critical, describing work not done, tests flunked, relationships failed. Even long gaps in the blogging record require mention and apology. Against this background, occasional highlights appear: a wonderful concert attended, a happy dinner with family, a new job. No need to single out any examples; they're all over the blogosphere.

The audience for such blogs consists, I'd guess, of the author and a small number of friends, who will sometimes post encouraging responses. The Book of Job somehow springs to mind.

Another kind of personal record is in the extrovert blog, in which the author pays more attention to the surroundings. A great example is Big White Guy in Hong Kong, a Canadian expat's funny and opinionated view of life in his adopted city.

Another genre is the job blog, in which the focus is on events at work. Depending on your interest in the job, this can be boring or fascinating. One of my favourites in this genre is Oh Jen Jen's It's a Zoo Out There. She's a medical officer at Changi General Hospital in Singapore. This spring her blog was a mesmerizing narrative of the hospital's struggle to contain SARS--a struggle that cost the lives of several admired colleagues. Dr. Oh's blog is clearly aimed at her colleagues, but during the height of the SARS outbreak she was being read around the world. Now she's back to routine emergency-room problems and talking about her favourite TV programs.

The specialist blog can be a variant of the job blog, but the specialty may be just one aspect of the job, or a hobby. The specialist is clearly speaking to colleagues, comfortable with a technical vocabulary that may baffle outsiders. Emphasis here is often more on the audience than on the author, with plenty of links to other specialist sites. This site and Writing Fiction are examples; I try to provide a convenient spot to get a lot of information on the subject. (Writing Fiction will, I hope, expand considerably over the next few weeks.)

A good example of a specialist blogger is Clay Shirky, who writes some very interesting and thoughtful material about Internet communications issues.

Here's one interesting difference between most blogs and introvert blogs: the introvert blogs tend to run long, long paragraphs, while the others tend to present short posts or at least long posts broken up into very short paragraphs.

I suspect that's because the non-introvert blogs are aimed more at the reader, and the author realizes (instinctively or not) that long paragraphs are hard to read on a computer screen. For the same reason, introvert blogs often have designs that make them hard to read--greyish text, for example, on a dark background. The readership is less important here than providing a blog that mirrors the author's feelings.

Advocacy blogs interest me a lot; I first got into blogging by visiting news and advocacy blogs in the run-up to the Iraq War. Advocacy blogs tend to be one-sided (here's my opinion and here are the blogs that agree with me), but a few do invite visitors to check out the evil blogs of the opposition. In any case, they offer a useful service by gathering news stories (and blog posts) from a host of sources and putting them all in one spot.

A good place to get a wide range of advocacy blogs is The Agonist, a Texas-based newsgathering site that offers frequent updates plus a long list of blogs ranging right across the (American) political spectrum.

I guess it's clear that my own tastes don't run to introvert blogs, but this is not to dismiss them as somehow inferior to other genres. If anything, it reflects poorly on me that I feel so little sympathy with the publicly unhappy folks who write them.

Whatever the genre, much of the writing in the blog world is pretty bad. But I hope and believe that it will improve as bloggers become more comfortable with the medium and with the conventions of their preferred genres. Bloggers will try to emulate the writers they admire, and to distance themselves from the bad writers. In science fiction, Sturgeon's Law decrees that "Ninety percent of science fiction (and everything else) is junk." We can strive to reduce blogjunk to a somewhat smaller percentage.

Comments

[Jen]

My current blog fits your definition of an introvert blog to a 'T'. I often lament my failings, ramble on in lunking paragraphs, and apologize for sparse posting. Oy. I also share it with only a small group of friends who seem to enjoy (or at least tolerate) my endless navelgazing. But I've always admired the extrovert bloggers. Maybe I'll be one when I grow up.

[Jen]

In all that rambling about myself, I forgot to tell you that I really enjoyed reading your post. You sum up the many styles of blogging quite nicely.

[Crawford Kilian]

Don't beat yourself up, Jen! I write myself some scathing letters about the lack of progress on my novels.

But I've found that writing letters about problems is often an effective way to find solutions. It's as if framing the problem in a coherent sentence will organize your mind into a more creative stance. You go right from moaning and groaning to: "Hey! How about...?"

And away you go.

[Crawford Kilian]

Oh, and by the way--

Superb photos of Rochester. I've never been there, but just as exercises in composition, light, and colour, these are excellent. Wish you'd been with me in Sao Paulo last year, when I was taking some truly dull photos of a megacity.

[Jen]

Thanks! I had fun taking those pictures.

I can't imagine how photos of Sao Paolo could be dull. That's a completely different world to me.

[Ed Bilodeau]

Frustrated with the lack of hosting options available at McGill (where the idea of weblogging as a form of scholarly communication is far from taking hold), I've been waiting for Typepad before putting a serious effort into a rejuvinated weblog.

I'm currently teaching at McGill (e-commerce), running the Centre's web site, and starting my Ph.D. research (e-learning and KM). After reading through your categories, I'm wondering if my weblog should be a blend of 'job' and 'specialist', or if I should really just stick to one type or the other.

In otherwords, would a hybrid blog be less effective then a focused blog?

[Crawford Kilian]

Don't take my categories too seriously. Introvert blogs are divisible into many subcategories, from the teen-angst version to the Travis Bickle extortion note.

Similarly, job blog and specialist blogs must split and blend in any number of ways. When I'm going on about my novels in "Fiction Writing," it's a mix of introvert and specialist: I'm talking to myself, but also trying to share some ideas with fellow-writers whether professionals or apprentices.

So rejuvenating your blog will result, I hope, in a blog that suits you and your colleagues and students by providing insights into your specialty--and a context created by links to others working in the same field.

The tag you give it, job, specialist, or whatever, should be the least of your concerns.

[kevin]

"In otherwords, would a hybrid blog be less effective then a focused blog?"

I think most blogs are hybrid blogs. Even advocacy blogs tend to include some posts on the writer's life and or work. And I have never run into a blog worth reading tha had a laser like focucs on only one subject.

[Vernieda]

*laughs* I've had an introvert blog since I first started in 2000. But I agree with Kevin, there's always room for overlap. I've been known to prattle on about my job and the random stupidity (but in a good way) that occurred on a daily basis. Granted, my posts lately have been about the absolutely stupidity in a bad way of my company. But a few weeks ago, I would talk in-depth about my writing processes or books or issues related to books, etc.

Of course, that's probably more a reflection of myself than anything else, which makes it an introvert blog. Still, I like recording those anecdotes because sometimes I get the desire to read where I was one year ago and it's all there in written. It's like a written chronicle of your growth and development, at least for me.

[xian]

Any more or less random survey of blogs will find that most are bad. It's Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crap). Fortunately, most of us follow the recommendations of higher quality, trusted sources and manage to avoid spending much time reading bad blogs (except for those by our friends and loved ones, of course, who are not to be judged by the same stadnards).

[Crawford Kilian]

Sturgeon's Law rules the universe, alas.

Still, fooling around with computers has taught me that mistakes teach us more than successes, so I read bad blogs to try to find out what makes them that way. Of course I like good ones, just as a physician should enjoy examining someone in excellent health--as a reminder of what we're shooting for.

But the bad ones tell us where evil lurks in the hearts of bloggers.

[Mel]

CK: check link above. It's a new breed of Spam. Blogger Joi Ito had a problem with these as well - they use a generic comment that links to a commerical site. I'd remove it unless you want to advertise Asian online casinos.

[Dominic Grima]

"I guess it's clear that my own tastes don't run to introvert blogs, but this is not to dismiss them as somehow inferior to other genres. If anything, it reflects poorly on me that I feel so little sympathy with the publicly unhappy folks who write them."

Sounds very much like introvert blogging to me

[Dominic Grima]

"I guess it's clear that my own tastes don't run to introvert blogs, but this is not to dismiss them as somehow inferior to other genres. If anything, it reflects poorly on me that I feel so little sympathy with the publicly unhappy folks who write them."

Sounds very much like introvert blogging to me