Comments: "The People Formerly Known As The Audience" ... are STILL the audience

I'll have to click through to read the post you cite by Jay Rosen, but this part...

"The bogosphere really isn't good for me. And I miss Shelley Powers' BurningBird blog..."

Makes me feel a bit 'normal'. I mean, how long can one mourn a blog? Apparently, quite a while.

The blog landscape seems flat and lifeless now.

Posted by Sour Duck at June 30, 2006 09:44 PM

A big "me too" on Shelley. I miss BB bad.

But not so much on the criticism of Jay and Dan.

Unlike other technologists and media heads in the A-list, their points need to be heard in the context of where their audience is mainly from - the newspaper industry.

Power Laws will always exist - in any place three or more people start to communicate - irregardless of medium.

But at least now, you have more power then to simply send a letter to the editor. And a whole lot more influence whether it is realized or not.

Yes Seth - people read you :)

Posted by Karl at June 30, 2006 11:20 PM

Sour Duck: Yes, especially when there's nothing else which is occupying the same environmental niche :-(

Karl: No, I have almost exactly the same (nonexistent) power, send a letter to the editor, beg an A-lister for a link, same thing. Again, how many people heard Jay Rosen write a (run of the mill) personal attack on me, versus will hear *me*? It has to be thousands or even *tens of thousands* more. That's the objective mathematics of it.

Posted by Seth Finkelstein at July 2, 2006 12:16 AM

Who is Jay Rosen and why would I care what he has to say?

The technical term for what he is saying is bullshit.

If he doesn't think mass audience is what counts, then lets see him get his candidate (himself?) elected or legislation put through.

Blogs are useful and fun - hey mine has had one non-spam comment maybe I should post more - and putting a call to action can have results. But unless it is picked up by the big league no-one will care. Witness - the Sony Rootkit debacle - Russinovich posted and it was days before "anyone" noticed.

Posted by Ian at July 3, 2006 05:42 AM

This was warming note to read, though I'm not sure I could liven things up.

I have been fooling around at some sites, most reachable from words.einsteinslock.com. Still trying to figure it all out.

Still reading you all!

Seth your point is good, as always. More than that, I think that Jay Rosen sees what most people are seeing, cracks in the joy-joyness of the moment, and you're about as welcome right now as, well, toe fungus ;-)

And that's because you're not letting people fool themselves.

Whatever...all I know is I miss you guys. You and some others, I miss you.

Posted by Shelley at July 3, 2006 09:08 PM

Don't confuse vitamins with the main course, Seth ;-)


Posted by hugh macleod at July 5, 2006 04:54 AM

PS. "Top ten reasons why nobody reads your blog":

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/002173.html

In particular:

"4. A secret cabal of A-Listers got together and decided that you should be excluded from the conversation.

Yeah, they sit around sipping champagne, eating caviar and laughing about you..."


Posted by hugh macleod at July 5, 2006 10:21 AM

Hugh, much of what you do lately has a mean edge to it that you try to gloss over with humor. Half the time you don't reference the people who are the targets of your cartoons, you sneak about in comments writing what you won't in your post and generally, you've become that kid in the school yard who would trip you as you walked past, and then tell the teacher "They were being mean to me!"

Do you have a cartoon for that?

Posted by Shelley at July 5, 2006 12:07 PM

I have a cartoon for you, Shelley ;-)


Posted by Hugh MacLeod at July 5, 2006 12:29 PM

PS. Yes, Shelley, you're right. The KGB did kill Kennedy.

Posted by hugh macleod at July 5, 2006 12:47 PM

Shelly: Good to see you back! More later.

Hugh: Some of your stuff does indeed have a mean-spirited edge. Mocking "down" is different from mocking "up", because the context isn't the same. It's not that those lower down are immune to humor. But it takes some more thought and work to avoid crossing the line between satire and derision.


Posted by Seth Finkelstein at July 6, 2006 09:19 PM

You see what you want to see, Seth. Good luck to you.

Posted by hugh macleod at July 7, 2006 03:47 AM