Let’s see how cool I am according to the Eight Rules of Good Blogging.
1. Attitude: Shoot, I like my job.
2. Community: Umm. Hmm. I’d like to make fun of this one, but I think community is a good thing. I like feeling connected.
3. Humility: You people aren’t here on the weekends… why the hell would I be?
4. Rich language: Actually, I’ve got an observation I’ve meant to post about the evolution of cursing, but that’s not for this post — note to self.
5. Jargon: I say ‘mem’ instead of ‘meem’… I still don’t know what “0\/\/xx0r” is supposed to BE. Oh well.
6. Controversy: Hmm. You don’t have a link to me? Whatever. I still love yah.
7. Humor: Maybe a new “Beating John Dvorak to death with a heavy Blog.” tagline…
8. Specialize: Specialization is for insects.
~
I guess I’m just a bad blogger.
Or maybe…
Maybe, Dvorak is a frightened, pompous, traditional-publisher jackass who doesn’t know what he’s talking about or is just trying to bump his hit-count for one more month — frantically poking fun at weblogging while his relative importance as an Internet-published Op-Ed writer dwindles to the vanishing point.
Maybe.
I’m sick of the precious balance that ‘professionals’ are so adamantly defending in their publications — the illusion that only the elite are entitled to express an opinion in a way that can be shared with others.
If more people read a blog than those that read a “Pro” site… who’s the Pro?
Maybe there’s some other things a Good Blog can do:
Reflect your life: Okay, in the celestial heirarchy of Advice, lawn-care info and news on how to keep Yahoo from sending you spam are poor examples, but they’re the most recent ones I have.
But it doesn’t have to be advice or news — all we have to do is write. We are, each of us, made of the same stuff. One person reads my page (or your page) and realizes they aren’t the only person with a problem, or an idea, or a question, and that person feels better — that’s a good thing.
Forget the hows or whys and just do it. Keep a slovenly, decadent, indulgent journal. Write in it every day. Pour the elements of your life into it. Yes, only a small percentage of who you really are will show up on the page, but that small snapshot of you will touch other people — it’s not always a two-way street of communication, but how much does that matter?
(via Sekimori, part of my personal community — sod off, Dvorak, for trying to make that a bad thing)
