31 December 2008

Proud to be Lesser

Matt has some thoughts on blogs - including this one:

my primary interest is in digging up what's not already "popular." Unfortunately, I'm as guilty as anyone of recycling "news," but real traffic comes from breaking new ground, and I find that by scouring Digg and much lesser-known blogs.

...

no Drudge Report for me. Instead I'll be reading OpenDotDotDot and other "lesser" blogs. Hopefully this will keep translating into rising Open Road readership in 2009. Maybe we'll break the top-5,000,000 by 2012. One can dream....

Thanks, Matt...I think.

Actually, I feel exactly the same way: I'd much rather read Matt's informed writing on The Open Road - born of real analytical intelligence *and* hands-on experience - than the frothy nonsense served up by "leading" blogs.

The latter are most interested in traffic and in maintaining their position as blogosphere personalities: famous for being famous. They rarely contribute a deeper understanding of the world they write about.

That's what we "lesser" blogs are for.

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:14 pm

    Yes, and RSS subscriptions should be biased toward the long tail of blogs. The blogs in the fat head get lots of links, so chances are you'll see references to them without having to subscribe.

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  2. Don't feel too bad about Matt's comment. It was how I found your blog, and now I've got you on RSS, so it earned you another reader.

    Perry
    http://delta3d.org

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  3. It was very much a compliment. I love your blog, and I read stuff on Open... that I don't find anywhere else (the mark of a great blog).

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  4. Great - thanks and welcome. It also means I've learned about your project, which looks very interesting.

    In fact, I'm delighted by Matt's comment, since he knows whereof he speaks....

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  5. @Matt - I never doubted that it was a compliment for a moment...the Brit humour in my riposte was obviously a little too dry this time....(and thanks again).

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  6. OpenDotDotDot and Open Road are unique, so I love them both.

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  7. No trouble, I'm glad you liked our project.

    Actually, when I saw the title of this post, I first thought it was going to be a defense of my favorite OSS license, the LGPL.

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  8. @Roy: what I like about our three blogs is how they are complementary. We all cover similar areas but in different ways. That's a real strength of blogging in this area.

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  9. @Perry: if only I could aspire to such giddy heights (an ex-Fortran programmer writes....)

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