In fact… no answers… just three questions about Dave’s semi-annual “what is a blog” rant:
It’s no different from other media, all they ever talk about is what they are.
Umm… I watched the evening news tonight. They didn’t talk about themselves OR other evening news shows. I can’t remember the last time I read a newspaper article that did as much navel-gazing as bloggers tend to do. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but let’s own it instead of acting like everyone else does it. The navel-gazing is part and parcel of blogging.
Comments are very much mail-list-like things. A few voices can drown out all others. The cool thing about blogs is that while they may be quiet, and it may be hard to find what you’re looking for, at least you can say what you think without being shouted down.
I have yet to see a commenter shout-down a blogger. Commenter-on-commenter violence is common, but you don’t solve that problem by getting rid of comments. Comments do not, at least directly, impact what the blogger writes (unless he lets it). Dave got rid of his comments on Scripting News because there are folks out there who like to call him on his BS and his signal (Dave Winer Party Line) to noise (any conflicting opinion) ratio was getting a little low for him.
Once I did that, there was no turning back. The idea was out there, with my name on it.
To quote the kids in the forums… “O RLY?” Is that why he has such a reputation for revisionist blogging? Release an idea, coax someone into a retaliatory position, then inoculate the post and make the other guy look like a blithering idiot? Hmmm…