What Brings Users to Blogs? 143
Billosaur writes "The Center for Citizen Media Blog has an interesting overview of the Collaborative News Survey 'Hype versus Reality', detailing the results of a study done by Hsing Wei from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government on why users are attracted to collaborative news, commenting and blogging sites. Among the conclusions of the study are that people who use these sites are 'mostly young and male, especially those who visit technology-related sites, looking for 'a fix of unique, informative fun,' and 'filling in the blanks' left by traditional news sources. Or is it just because it beats working?"
Because. You can always find an audience. (Score:5, Funny)
Kill my landlord. Kill my landlord.
Watchdog barking. Do he bite?
Kill my landlord. Kill my landlord.
Slip in his window. Break his neck.
Then his house I start to wreck.
Got no reason. What the heck?
Kill my landlord. Kill my landlord.
C-I-L my land lord!
-Tyrone Green
Re:Because. You can always find an audience. (Score:2)
detailed analysis (Score:2)
continued at my blog [insert random blog].. please visit for the remaining (insightful) post
kthnxServes the desire to be important (Score:2, Flamebait)
Bloggers & podcasters get seriously up themselves and eachother about this.
Who Responds? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Because. You can always find an audience. (Score:2)
Re:Because. You can always find an audience. (Score:2)
Oh no, Syd Barrett died!
Speaking personally, this is why I read slashdot everday. And why I always pay careful attention to sigs.
Hey, quick joke: what's the difference between slashdot comments and your blog?
People read slashdot comments.
Thank you, thank you- I'll be here all night (like always).
Re:Because. You can always find an audience. (Score:2)
I even mentioned this in a talk I gave
http://www.jrock.us/yapc/slides/img69.html [jrock.us]
Visiting Slashdot... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:1)
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:1)
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:4, Funny)
Stupid git!! (Score:3, Funny)
I'm sorry, but this is abuse. You want room 12A, Just along the corridor.
Stupid git!!
Re:Stupid git!! (Score:2)
P.S. This has been my sig for years
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:2)
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:2)
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:2)
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:2)
Funnily enough, I just published an article in my blog that shows that only 3% of Japanese blog readers like watching threads crash and burn [whatjapanthinks.com].
Oh, and my host seems to be down, so don't be surprised if that link doesn't take you anywhere.
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:1)
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:2)
Only if you are not required by your company to do it.
Here, company policy requires reading slashdot at least once a day.
And no, I'm not joking.
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:2)
Re:Visiting Slashdot... (Score:2)
Not just argue - which I do have to admit that I like to do - but I feel compelled to share my two cents. That's the best thing about the blogging phenomenon - lots of mainstream news outlets have taken to providing comments sections on occasional stories. I'd like to see them provide it on all of them, which incidentally is the best way to stop bloggers from reposting your content and getting all your page views. If the discussion is on your page, people will come to comment.
Make your voice heard. (Score:4, Insightful)
If they're wrong (in your opinion) or leave out important facts - too bad, they don't care about you. In a blog/comment arena you can interface directly with the author and flesh out the details, inaccuracies, or corroborate their work.
Community = Good.
Re:Make your voice heard. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Make your voice heard. (Score:3, Funny)
It had to be done... (Score:2)
Re:It had to be done... (Score:1)
Re:Make your voice heard. (Score:3, Interesting)
Communities are just a thing that can be manipulated by people with an agenda.
Re:Make your voice heard. (Score:2)
Re:Make your voice heard. (Score:1)
I am SICK of hearing about blogs being a news source. SICK SICK SICK.
It is not going to happen. Sorry. There will never be some golden age where an Internet fucking diary is the world's favourite news source. The idea, in my mind, is fundamentally retarded in so many different ways. I would really love to hear some decent reasons as to why the filtering of CNN through some 20-year-old's head like some shitty drip coffee (a.k.a. "the media of the people") is better than the BBC, who are at
Re:Make your voice heard. (Score:2)
Re:Make your voice heard. (Score:2)
Re:Make your voice heard. (Score:2)
What is it about tech-savvy people that gives the overpowering urge to correct the author's mistakes.
(I believe if it's mostly male tech-savvy, it's safe to assume it's equally female tech-savvy.)
Some people speak merely to hear themselves talk (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Some people speak merely to hear themselves tal (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Some people speak merely to hear themselves tal (Score:5, Interesting)
All in all I would say that the benefits of keeping a blog have exceeded the costs and if you maintain that friends do not let friends blog, then perhaps you are hanging out with the wrong crowd. I for one would not want to keep company with folks that prevent one from succeeding, but would rather have friends that encourage success.
Re:Some people speak merely to hear themselves tal (Score:1)
Re:Some people speak merely to hear themselves tal (Score:1)
Not that it's any good, but still . . . got to practise.
Unfortunate (Score:1)
Posting it on Slashdot!!! (Score:1, Offtopic)
Thank you very much, I'm here all week.
Re:Posting it on Slashdot!!! (Score:2)
Re:Posting it on Slashdot!!! (Score:2)
Re:Posting it on Slashdot!!! (Score:2)
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Re:Posting it on Slashdot!!! (Score:1)
Re:Posting it on Slashdot!!! (Score:2)
Slashdot (Score:3, Insightful)
After all, who needs reliable news outlets when you can get all your news pre-filtered by people just like you?
Re:Slashdot (Score:2)
B: The "reliable" news outfits have become terrible lackeys for whoever it is that is hand-feeding them the story. ABC running stories about how great Pirates of the Carribean is. USA Today parroting lines about weapons of mass destruction without doing any actual investigation. CNN running company-sponsored fluff pieces about how great Enron is, shortly before it crashes and burns. Fox news reporting anti-war protests as "five or six thousand" people when the official estimates wer
Interesting Study (Score:2, Insightful)
However, it could be that they are classifying blogs differently, ie. tech journals as blogs, or personal blogs, when they do their study.
Re:Interesting Study (Score:2)
Re:Interesting Study (Score:1)
Re:Interesting Study (Score:2)
It's about the commenting (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's about the commenting (Score:1)
To be labeled "Insightful" is just plain tittilating : )
-young, male, geek
Re:It's about the commenting (Score:2)
I cast... magic missile!
Re:It's about the commenting (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It's about the commenting (Score:2)
Wow, excellent and interesting post. +1 karma for you.
Comments AND story selection (Score:2)
I launched slashgeo.org 9 months ago. Since we don't have enough participating users yet (even after over 1 million hits), geospatial professionals don't come to see us for the comments, but also for the story selection done by the "editors". Of course you can browse RSS feeds, but it's less time consuming when a bunch of folks decides for you what's worthed to b
Re: Comments AND story selection (Score:1)
Consider starting a Slashdot Journal if you want a blog that will be noticed here. I hope that increases my score.
The Huffington Post blog [huffingtonpost.com] has good story selection but comments are moderated. The moderators will not publish comments that they find unacceptable.
Oddly, each and every comment that's published there is flagged abusive. Hundreds and hundreds of 'em. I don't know why. A bug, maybe. So there's a stigma even if your comment gets past the moderators.
Slashdot could teach the Huffington Post a thin
Re:It's about the commenting...for me at least (Score:1)
It's not to bask in the public spotlight, not to build an online reputation (I would hate that), it's not even that I think the true insights are in the comments.
I like the comments because I like to know what people think. I think it's far more interesting than most of the news. Opinions tend to cover a far greater field than media do. People's thoughts and opinions ult
Isn't it simple? (Score:5, Funny)
And for everything else there's Slashdot.
obvious really (Score:1)
My milkshake... (Score:1)
Young males (Score:2)
There are some good points here...... (Score:4, Funny)
Depends on which blog (Score:4, Funny)
The Only Blog (Score:1)
Celebrities and such (Score:1)
Reminds me of.. (Score:1)
Adding your two cents (Score:4, Interesting)
beats working (Score:3, Interesting)
speaking of beating working... it's time to go home. an hour early, since there's nothing to do and i'm hungry. i love taking a 90 hour paycheck for 10-15 hours of work.
Re:beats working (Score:2, Insightful)
That's why they pay you at 1/10 rate.
KFG
Re:beats working (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:beats working (Score:1)
For the record my last role was as network manager for those "phone switches" you so casually mentioned. Not that you don't have plenty of spare time to get up to speed, why, being in a call centre and all where the most important component is... er... the phone switch
Say hi to those Bangaloreans on your way out
Re:beats working (Score:1)
Slashdot is better than a blog (Score:3, Insightful)
And it serves exactly the same purpose: The need to SAY something and have people read it, write lengthy diatribes about something nobody really cares about but still, people will read it.
And unlike conventional blogs, I know people read that junk I write. They mod me down.
Re:Slashdot is better than a blog (Score:1)
Simple (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Simple (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Simple (Score:1)
Re:Simple (Score:1)
Blogs make us feel like someone out there cares... (Score:1)
I remember the daze... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I remember the daze... (Score:2)
Absolutely. They're just web-based now.
I certainly wouldn't consider blogs that type of place, but industry-specific portas seem to be where it's at right now.
There are a couple decent ones in my industry - translation and interpretation. I'm sure that it's this way for the majority of industries where its workers at least feel that they work at a professional level, if not truly represented as such.
friggin n00bs (Score:1)
why visit a blog? (Score:2, Insightful)
2: Because it's run/written by someone I know personally or respect.
Those reasons are, although (2) is evolved a bit, the exact same reasons why I would read a newspaper, a book, or a leaflet.
The medium has changed, and analysts feel they need to redefine the same old impulses using new terminology. People don't change that fast. They barely change at all. All that changes is the world they live in.
People like a constant supply of new 'content'. Not everyone r
Daily Kos statistics (Score:5, Informative)
The other political blogs I'm on seem to have the same skew, if they report it at all. Technical blogs skew younger, but IIRC even slashdot has a sizeable over-30 and over-40 crowd.
Re:Daily Kos statistics (Score:2)
easy answer! (Score:2)
-Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/ [digitalelite.com]
Kudos and charts (Score:2)
One minor gripe, though: Why can't anyone--not even Harvard--teach social scientists that if you rank averages from responses that range from 1 (agree strongly) to 7 (disagree strongly) by "best", 1 should be on the freaking top of the charts?
Or even better, teach them to put the x-axes on the neutral answer and
like minded (Score:2)
My theories (Score:3, Insightful)
2) Some think they are good writers (and aren't) and enjoy writing.
3) Some like to read and can differentiate between 1 and 2.
4) Some who like to read can't differentiate between 1 and 2.
5) Some enjoy the interraction.
6) Some like to get obnoxious and argue with everyone. See 2.
7) Some can learn something.
8) Some think they know everything. See 6.
The Dilbert Blog (Score:1)
Google Analytics shows that (Score:1)
49.19% came for History of the Word Fuck
(source [sigg3.net])
Nuff said?
Slashdot (Score:2)
I know why! (Score:1)
for me? (Score:2)
Re:Lot's of things. (Score:1)
I've got to ask, as I can't tell whether you meant
a) they'd tell me to shut up, and then they would kick my genitals OR
b) they'd tell me "shut up, and kick my genitals"
Just curious, not judging anyone.
Or more generally... (Score:1)