The Internet is whatever you want it to be.

Über Meta Nerds

Posted: March 2nd, 2005 | Author: dave m. | Filed under: interwebby | 2 Comments »

Now that “blogs” have been driven to the forefront of the national conscience (to a certain degree), one remarkable trend I am seeing more of is the inconsistent idea of Blog Rules. Everyone seems to have their own (mis)conceptions about what a blog should be and what criteria makes a given blog “good” or “bad.” The key is to not stifle or restrict a vibrant technology & publishing format before it even blossoms into adolescence by imposing your personal convictions. Who is to say which direction this online dabbling will ultimately take? Or which way to proceed is best? Also, it would be only to your disadvantage to let certain guidelines color your experiences with (or opinion of) other folk’s blogs. Blogging is very personal, thus it is nearly impossible to draw up rules to corral such diversity.

There are Blog Rules for Corporations, Blog Rules for the Sake of Parody and Blog Rules that are downright confusing and overly bureaucratic. There are also cases of experienced bloggers being asked for suggestions and advice on how to have a successful blog. Alex King posted a fairly good set last May. However, most of the lists I come across are on personal sites. The feeling I often get is that the author is dictating to me exactly what I can use this space for (if I ever intend on getting into their über-cool blog clique). Not to pick on Justin, but his was the most recent list I reviewed and perhaps the one which sparked this post. (Plus, he has a caveat at the bottom which falls within basic agreement of my message).

Don’t blog about blogging?* You just broke the first two rules of Blog Club. How can one “blog about blogging” by posting their Blog Rules, yet request that others refrain from such pedestrian activity? I think it all comes down to the semantic dissonance of “guidelines” vs. “rules.” Perhaps we should kick back and watch the scene play out before we call the ending.

If I had to sit down and describe such a thing, my only two “rules” would look something like this:

  1. Get a blog up and running.
  2. Begin posting words, images, sounds, whatever you’d like.

Beyond that, the site owner should be able to take the tool in any direction they choose.

[*] This rule appears on nearly all Blog Rules posts I’ve found. So blogging about blogging must be really bad form.