Comments on: The narrowing of the blogosphere

By: Lead and Gold

Lead and Gold — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:16:58 +0000

The future of blogging…

…

By: jms

jms — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 04:02:58 +0000

I understand why Steven Den Beste stopped blogging, and I have sympathy for his situation.

His retirement left a void in online conservative blogging that has not been filled. From his political philosophy to his mammoth debunking of “alternative energy”, he was doing an absolutely incredible amount of heavy lifting.

I can only wonder how the world would be different if he had been able to continue what he was doing. Some say that no man is that important, but some are. Were.

By: Sam L.

Sam L. — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:42:35 +0000

I like the long form, and really miss den Beste, because he really was de BEST.

By: Michael F

Michael F — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:18:02 +0000

Neocon and all;
I don’t think that we dedicated bloggers and loyal commentariat realize the significance of what we do. Let me elaborate.
When I moved to this apartment five years ago, I failed to hook up the television, pick up newspapers, or turn on the radio. Just as thoughtlessly, I dropped a few other mild compulsions or obsessions. I’d entirely lost interest in what was being promoted, like shedding a skin of acquisitive personality. This home-sanctuary and its silence became and remain blessings.
In late 2008 emphysema and the doctors ended my twenty-year run with a local heavy construction contractor, leaving me with twelve-hour days once filled with the busyness of people, places and events. With nothing to be done, I took to the computer and Internet. “You’re married to your computer!” a woman claimed. ‘Better my CyberBeast than thee, dear!’ I thought.
About that time, the Conservatives in Canada and the Democrats in the USA were rising toward their present heights (like the blue-green algae in the pond analogy). I rather hoped for the former while vehemently deploring the latter. I’d seen enough before of socialism aka communism-lite.
In trying to understand the politics of these two contrastive movements (the two faces of politics), I discovered the political blogs, dared to comment when aroused, pegged about fourteen blogs to Favorites for regular review, and actively participated in the second rise and nasty decline of a site called HillBuzz. As a consequence of that meltdown, about a dozen of us fled from that MPDed charlatan to regroup, and regroup again, elsewhere (much wiser but happier).
Now like SteveH here, I much like that in 3.8 million square miles or more I “can find a kindred soul who speaks my language.” Exactly. On the blog I consider to be home base, I’ve stressed that what we are building is a type of community — a collective of ‘assorted misfits’ of like mind — and it simply does not matter that as individuals with very different lives we live as far apart as eastern Canada and southern California, Florida and Oregon, or Switzerland and western Canada. Today we are of one collective mind on most issues (and circumspect where we disagree); and I suspect this is the point, the reason, for our coming together: to ‘learn community’.
In this anomic society an individual is virtually powerless politically, and is certainly frustrated. But a dedicated group is able to move to change matters, while coincidently offering essential support for the individual who wants to make a difference. Two among outstanding communities of bloggers-and-commenters are The Tea Party Movement and C4P. The smaller blogs are no less significant as home bases.
Our Internet blogging communities are changing the way that the political world works, obviously. And it is only one step further to work as collective units to change our culture and society to something better than the current disastrous state.

By: Darrell

Darrell — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:12:47 +0000

I think the rise of Facebook has a lot to do with it, a lot of people are getting most of their content through people they know on Facebook, perhaps you should get a neoneocon Facebook page Neo, could drive more traffic and we could all “like” you 🙂

By: uncleFred

uncleFred — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:55:28 +0000

Since their beginnings, bloggers have challenged the dominance of the main media for the hearts and minds of their audience. Because of the overwhelming concentration of the left in traditional media, we see this more clearly in the spectrum of conservative thought than any other. While it may be less blatant, the battle goes on in all other areas of the media.

The drop in blog traffic is a transient phenomenon, which as others point out will pass as the political season of 2012 moves center stage.

The “narrowing” of blogs is not a transient. Being on the front lines of a massive cultural change is demanding. The fact that readers may directly provide feedback to writers in the very forum which they write, makes this a more demanding space than prior media. Once old media realized that bloggers were successfully competing with them for their audience and advertisers the battle was fully joined. So bloggers burn out. I remember with great sadness the day that Den Beste announced that there after he would only blog anime.

It is harder for good blogs to “break out” and get noticed. Certainly, but as you say Neo – you write for yourself as much as anything else. The blogosphere has another aspect. Quality blogs eventually get found, and when they do they prosper.

Among quality blogs, long form blogs have an advantage. They do not depend on transient topics or daily contexts, rather they tend to speak to lasting issues. The value of their discussions and knowledge tend to remain over time. They don’t get old. People who discover Den Beste today, find that their time is as well served and their interest as captured today, as ours was seven years ago when reading him was a daily pleasure.

When I said that the narrowing of blogs is not transient, I did not mean that inevitably there will be only a handful of “large” blogs. There is a winnowing process that is going on. Quality blogs will survive and eventually they will thrive again. The nature of the net, prevents it from being dominated by a few voices. While the path to emergence may be more difficult, the quality voices with staying power, whether old or new, will rise to prominence.

Yours is a quality blog, which I enjoy quite a lot. I hope that you continue to write.

By: JohnC

JohnC — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:18:20 +0000

Personally, I like the rundowns on candy corn and jello.

Thanks for everything you do Neo! You help me sort out key political issues and personalities and you lead me to think about and appreciate other things in the world. I like the forum you’ve created. It’s nice to have you here. So, please don’t leave. When will we be able to buy your book??

By: MaryinOh

MaryinOh — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:15:57 +0000

To this day, i can’t remember how I found you Neo.
But like many who comment here, I was searching for the other side. Not just the side that the lame stream was giving. I wanted to become informed. I started to educate myself. I’ve read many of the books you have suggested. So this has become my classroom of sorts. I’m so much a newbie to all of this, but I trust what I read from you and you make it all make sense.
Thank you.

By: DHZw

DHZw — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:04:47 +0000

Tony Bennett has said that he just kept doing the same classic songs until he came back into fashion.

By: rickl

rickl — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 04:58:37 +0000

I remember Den Beste predicting years ago that a few large blogs would end up getting most of the traffic, while many small blogs would fall by the wayside. As for "narrowing": I have scores of blogs in my bookmarks folder, but there probably less than a dozen that I visit regularly. Ironically, Right Wing News is one that I used to read, but haven't lately. I never had a problem with them; it's just that there are lots of good blogs and only so many hours in the day. Besides blogs, there are are also "forums". Some examples are AR15.com, NASASpaceflight.com, and Market Ticker Forum. The nice thing about the forum structure is that it allows members to post their own original content, or link to other articles and sites that interest them. Other members can then offer their comments. The three I mentioned above are pretty large forums, which are focused on guns, spaceflight, and economics respectively. There are also smaller ones. I have no idea how many of those there are. One that I frequent is It's About Liberty. There are only about 20 or so active members. It's sort of my "home base" on the internet. If I'm surfing and find something interesting, I'll go back and start a thread linking the article or blog post. There are categories for politics, economics, science & technology, entertainment, recipes, etc. I like the forums because it allows me to play at being a blogger without the bother of running my own blog. Recently, a commenter here linked to this XKCD map of the internet. It is kind of disconcerting to find that not one of the sites I frequent is even mentioned on it. Both blogs and forums are very small portions, and are dwarfed by Facebook, which I'm not involved with. It's distressing to see how small the "conservative blogosphere" is. But maybe the small blogs and forums, with only a few dozen readers each, can still play a role in spreading information and knowledge. Their cumulative effect may turn out to be important. At least I hope so. Dan Riehl also offers his thoughts on this topic.