Is blogging becoming too popular?
This subject definitely warrants a much more attention than this entry gives it, but I wouldn’t mind getting the ball rolling for others out there who are better than I at articulating this type of thing.
Blogging has grown substantially as wel all know. However, can it become too big? In a way, I think it can and already has. Currently I have well over 300+ feeds (mostly blogs) in NetNewsWire. Although I do not read every entry in full, I do try to skim each and every one. This takes up a good deal of time, especially when I miss a day.
By way of “cutting out the fat” I could easily go through and rip out a large portion of the feeds I am currently subscribed to, simply based on merit. However, what determines the worth of a particular blog. Surely it isn’t the amount that any one particular author writes, because if that were true we wouldn’t have the Grubers of the World in our feed-readers, and I pay for his feed. Surely it isn’t, or shouldn’t be, based on past articles the person has written. Because who is to say that the persons next article wouldn’t be worth your time?
Of course, there is one way to wade through the incredible amount of blogs out there, which is by topic. Blogs which focus on a particular topic are easy to make a decision on. If you are not into reading about movies, than you would not subscribe to any blogs which base almost every entry around that topic. However, personal blogs do not have a focused topic, so it is neigh impossible to know if you would be interested in keeping up-to-date with that site.
Perhaps in the future we will see feed readers, like NetNewsWire, which allow for specific options to be set per feed. Such as subscribing to only one category (or Tag eventually, since folksonomy will makes its way to the blog in short order), or one Author or the like. Sure, blog authors and site admins could create inventive ways of doing this type of thing, but perhaps its at the feed-reader level which would be much more powerful.
How do you keep up to date with your topics of choice, or your favorite blogs, without taking up an unreasonable amount of time? Do you think there is room for improvement? I do.
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