[Industrialblog,
April 6, 2005]
Considering a shutdown ...
I'm thinking of shutting down Industrial Blog and starting again with a new blog.
I've given this IndustrialBlog thing two full years ago and found that I've gotten sidetracked in political fights and stuff that's just not important to my life. Worse, it's distracted me from what's important and the blogosphere became a place for me to hide.
I've pissed off some people I care a lot about — people I never would've alienated if I hadn't had a politically based blog that they read. And some of them have gotten under my skin by saying hateful things back to me. Other bloggers handle a lot this stuff much better than I do, and realistically, I'm not really contributing to the political discussion, anyway.
I really wanted the blog to be about some personal writing, the kind of stuff I don't normally publish, and that's not where it went. I wanted to be more creative and more fun ... short plays/screenplays, scenes from life, maybe some memoir-ish pieces, and talk about spiritual journey and writing.
Instead it got repetitive about my political opinions, which is usually the least attractive side of anyone. Anyway I'm sick of political fights. There's more to me than politics.
I have a few loyal readers, but I don't know how many. There could be as few as 10 and as many as 30. I don't know. If you like to stop by and read my stuff, this might be a good time to give me some feedback at industrialblog at hotmail dot com. Or comment in the comments below. In any case, if you're a regular reader, I'd like to hear from you.
Do you like what I'm doing? What do you like about it? What do you hate about it? How do you feel after you read IndustrialBlog? Do you come here to get angry? Inspired? See how dumb I am? Do you ever get surprised by what I write?
If IndustrialBlog isn't generating some positive emotions — and let's face it, a lot times it doesn't — then it needs to change. I don't want this to become "pollyanna blog," but I don't want to be one more of those "hurray for our side" blogs or just another person contributing to the negativity / anger of the world. And too much that's what my blog has been.
I've given this IndustrialBlog thing two full years ago and found that I've gotten sidetracked in political fights and stuff that's just not important to my life. Worse, it's distracted me from what's important and the blogosphere became a place for me to hide.
I've pissed off some people I care a lot about — people I never would've alienated if I hadn't had a politically based blog that they read. And some of them have gotten under my skin by saying hateful things back to me. Other bloggers handle a lot this stuff much better than I do, and realistically, I'm not really contributing to the political discussion, anyway.
I really wanted the blog to be about some personal writing, the kind of stuff I don't normally publish, and that's not where it went. I wanted to be more creative and more fun ... short plays/screenplays, scenes from life, maybe some memoir-ish pieces, and talk about spiritual journey and writing.
Instead it got repetitive about my political opinions, which is usually the least attractive side of anyone. Anyway I'm sick of political fights. There's more to me than politics.
I have a few loyal readers, but I don't know how many. There could be as few as 10 and as many as 30. I don't know. If you like to stop by and read my stuff, this might be a good time to give me some feedback at industrialblog at hotmail dot com. Or comment in the comments below. In any case, if you're a regular reader, I'd like to hear from you.
Do you like what I'm doing? What do you like about it? What do you hate about it? How do you feel after you read IndustrialBlog? Do you come here to get angry? Inspired? See how dumb I am? Do you ever get surprised by what I write?
If IndustrialBlog isn't generating some positive emotions — and let's face it, a lot times it doesn't — then it needs to change. I don't want this to become "pollyanna blog," but I don't want to be one more of those "hurray for our side" blogs or just another person contributing to the negativity / anger of the world. And too much that's what my blog has been.
If you do start over, be sure to let me know where you've gone.
In any event, I wouldn't worry so much about starting a new blog; as much as blogs have archives, they're rarely read — what matters is what's going on, not what's happened.
The title you chose for your blog and then later regretted was in that way very prophetic. A blog is an industry, not a thing; it is action, not substance.
Kind of like people.
As far as politics goes - if you really are tired of it, then there's nothing wrong with putting it aside for a while. But for how long? You have strong opinions on many things. I don't think you're doing anyone a favor by not expressing them, especially not yourself. Hold them in and they're likely to burst out at an inappropriate time - like, when you're in a crowded movie theater, or walking past a playground. And then what?
I suppose you could always spin off the politics into another blog, and reserve another one for non-political topics. I think other people have done things like that.
As for the tendency of blogs to slide in the direction of "armor, anger, argue," my own view is that the blogosphere is a medium with great potential, but at the same time a medium that is intrinsically flawed. I suppose my thinking here more or less follows that of Marshall McLuhan, a thinker who deserves to be better known today than he is, and who deserves to be remembered for more than just his slogan, "The medium is the message."
Nonetheless, McLuhan's slogan is in this case very much to the point: for whatever reason, the blogosphere as a medium does not easily support subtlety or nuance. I mean, it can be done, but not easily, and it's usually an uphill battle. Especially when it comes to the back-and-forth of comments, discussions tend to degrade into arguments, and arguments into food fights, and any aspect of communication that calls for shading or finesse gets lost in the melee.
And it's gotten to the point where, when I see a thread on certain particular topics, I can tell in advance precisely which arguments, which talking points, which lines of patter, which word-for-word one-liners will be trotted out. Because I've seen it all a hundred times before. Talk about "deja vu all over again"!
"Armor, anger, argue." "Venom, vendettam, vindictum." Over and over and over again.
Over the two and a half years that I've been bouncing around and commenting in the blogosphere, I've become more and more discouraged with this (apparently inherent) limitation of the medium. I must confess, I now usually (not always, but usually) steer clear of any discussion thread which gives signs of degenerating into a free-for-all, no matter how strongly I want to comment on it.
And on my own blog, I stick mostly to topics which express my interests and personality, while almost always steering clear of the political. This has worked fairly well for me so far, probably in part because my traffic level is low. (Even so, I've already had one run-in with a self-appointed netcop, which almost led me to abandon my blog for good; but that's another story.)
At any rate, I hear where you're coming from. I'd miss your blogging if you shut down IndustrialBlog— if you do decide to start over, please let me know when and where.
I like a lot of the things you write and I'd miss your writing if you gave it up. I think it is tough to judge your interest by the number of comments you get. I usually only comment on political pieces because I don't feel qualified to comment on most of your other entries.
I would offer you these two things:
Even if you did not about political items, I'd still read your blog.
It's your blog and we (or at least I) think you should write for your own enjoyment.... so do as you will.
Thanks for the effort to date. I hope you keep your writing here and stick to topics you want to write about.