Are we really having conversations or just talking amongst ourselves?
My October 2006 “nothing.but.net” column that I wrote for the ABA is a challenge of sorts. I was critical of the ABA’s closed publishing scheme and praised the open blog model. Here’s a chunk of what I wrote:
I miss you, my audience. I miss getting feedback, by email or otherwise. I miss the interaction. I miss the conversation. And since there are only two reasons to keep doing this, love and money, I can only say, “Show me the love!” Read this article. Steal this article before it disappears into the archives. Forward it to a friend. Visit my weblog. Leave me feedback. Link to me so that I can link to you. Let’s show everyone what a people-powered conversation machine the Internet can be. Then, in December 2006, when this article goes into the ABA archives, check back on my weblog to see the results, to see what’s more powerful, a dynamic open web 2.0 or a static closed web 1.0.
My experiment is now five weeks old (counting from the date the print publication was delivered) and I’ve received one comment – and that was from somebody with whom I’d spoke about the issue in person.
So are blogs dead? Are we really having conversations or just talking amongst ourselves? Was Jeremy Zawodny correct when he said that the implementation of “nofollow” tag in weblog comments did nothing to stop comment spam but eliminated a real incentive for bloggers to comment on other blogs <http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006800.html>? What would our friends at Freakonomics say?
I’m getting 100,000 page views per month to erikjheels.com. So somebody (or something) is reading this site. So here’s an open letter to y’all:
Dear Blog Readers:
If you want me to keep writing my “nothing.but.net” column for the ABA, then you’ve got only three weeks left to make the case that blogs are not, in fact, dead. Comments on “Steal This Article” are open.
Regards,
Erik
