I just stumbled upon this nice blog entry (what else!) entitled The Truth Is, Nobody Cares About Your Blog unless you give your readers at least some of the following:
- some useful information (e.g. howto guides, case studies…)
- an open discussion with no marketing bullshit
- your real-life experience and knowledge
- your passion
Of course, I blog less now. But I try to adhere to the above when writing posts.
(PS: I borrowed this nice drawing from Nathalie Lee)
first! X)
Well, your blog isn’t my homepage and i don’t visit it everyday. But it is always a real pleasure every time i do visit to see what you’ve been up to. So Keep up the good work sir, someone out there cares enough to read your blog. Your work is always appreciated.
Thanks for your encouragements, Jotish :-)
Do you have a blog? Or do you feel the various social networks (Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn…) are enough?
No i don’t have a blog. But i’m subscribed on last.fm ( http://www.last.fm/user/staticsk8erpunk ) and flickr ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/jotish_gopaul/ ).
I disabled my account on facebook about a couple of months back and i dont even know my password, long story…
So to begin with, i think that facebook has robbed its users of their privacy (most of the users don’t want to be private if they’re out there writing about their every action.), so i guess they’re fine with it.
One thing which really bothers me is the fact that when you ask someone (8ish to 30ish of age, who isn’t interested in the IT/Science world ) if he’s/she’s got internet(myT) at home, the answer is usually, “yes, i subscribed to myT so that i can access facebook 24/7!”. I’ve also noticed that everything is “facebook-dependent”(facebook-dependent is a little bit strong.) now, be it the movies (“Don’t forget to subscribe to our page on facebook for more goodies!”), or even on Asos (“Rare clearance items for facebook fans!”).
Sure, facebook has it’s advantages.
And i’ve never tried twitter, so i ‘can’t judge’ it but as i’ve observed from some friends who are twitter-addicts, it’s pretty much nonsense at all times. (“I just had a crap! My belly hurts so much!!” “‘Thumb-twister’ is now following this tweet….”) BUT, a good friend of mine assures me that twitter is a very good means of knowing what’s happening around the world, maybe the latest technological innovation out there or instant tweets on Steve Jobs’ latest keynote etc… So i guess, i’m neutral about twitter. And i might even give it a try in the future (far future). :P
And about linked-in, i think i’ll get to it in about a year! :)
Conclusion: i think that it depends on where you stand. Well for me, at the university all i hear is facebook and gossip………and the occasional ‘some boy stalking some girl using a fake profile…’ kind of thing. X)
How is it where YOU stand?
And what are your views about nearly everything on the web or the media becoming facebook-dependent?
Thanks for this very insightful comment.
I discovered the web before social networks existed. For some years, I only consumed information. Then, around 2004, I launched my blog which, over the years, has allowed me to (1) write on things that I like and (2) discover interesting people (like you!)
When Facebook came, I jumped on the bandwagon. Over the years, I’ve realised that Facebook is just a network of “friends” but with a very bizarre definition of “friend”. In fact, I only know a few of my “friends” on Facebook. The rest are all strangers with whom I don’t have anything in common. But that’s Facebook.
Twitter, on the other hand, is different. I’ve many “friends” there too and, of course, I only know a few of them. But, and this is a massive but, I’ve only added someone as a “friend” if he/she tweets about things that are relevant to me. For me, Twitter is much better than Facebook.
As for LinkedIn, I’m really getting into it now. Mostly for business. For instance, I’ve set up a Knowledge Seven page on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/company/knowledge-seven/) but I still don’t know how to use it properly…
I totally agree with you about facebook. I recall, back then when i was on facebook, i roughly deleted about 200 ‘friends’ out of 350ish during one hell of a massive cleaning. Amongst the 150 ‘friends’ that remained, maybe i knew 50 of them well and the remaining would just be (friends of friends)1 to (friends of friends)2 to …. (friends of friends)n with whom i barely had a chat. At first people will add up and you’ll accept, thinking ‘Well, what’s the harm??’. And then when they start POLLUTING your news feed, then you shout out loud, ‘THERE! THERE’S THE HARM!!’. :D
I guess i might check out Twitter sooner then. :)
Yeah, LinkedIn seems to be well suited for your purposes. And hey! I’ve noticed many ads of Knowledge Seven around on the web, be it when downloading files from sourceforge or when viewing search results of linux related FAQs or how-tos. They’re from the Google ads if i’m not mistaken? (So your ads really work! :D)
Well since we’re already talking about social networks and how it changed the way people socialise nowadays, i’ve a different view of instant messaging (WLM).
For me it’s like, you take all your friends and family and you put them in a room (contact list). Then you just show up there (sign in) and ignore everybody (set your status as busy with the personal message: “Please DND!” or talk to no one or to only one person)… It’s not the same anymore where you walk down the street and meet a good friend whom you haven’t met in ages and you’re like ‘HEY! What’s up man??’ and you two catch up over a beer and talk for hours (even if both of you had places to be at).
It happened to me a couple of times, walking down the street meet some ‘good’ friends who are just too busy to spare 5 minutes just to have a little chat but will say ‘I’m late for something! I’ll catch up on facebook or msn!’.
Time is our most precious commodity. And like my father always says, “You don’t ‘have’ time, nobody does! But that doesn’t mean you can’t ‘make’ time.” Nowadays people are always rushing around, taking for granted the occasions of meeting a special someone, a relative or just a friends, thinking ‘There’s always facebook or WLM! i’ll catch up!’…
Social networks has drastically changed our way of communicating, mostly in a very good way but at what cost? What are the side-effects? What are we really missing?
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To be fair, Facebook has profiles as well as pages. Profiles are supposed to represent a person and, as such, one should only accept “friend” requests from real friends (or family members).
Pages, on the other hand, are supposed to be used to connect with the maximum number of people (for business purposes for example).
Of course, because pages were introduced after the profiles, things have become a bit mixed up right now. But I guess people will either get this in the long run or move to other social networks (like Google+) where the concept of having different circles is central.
You’re right though that nothing beats meeting people for real :-)
What if the internet was real? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2P11pU3yo0&feature=feedu :)
Hi again, and still referring to our recent convo on FB.
You said it yourself nicely: “Then, around 2004, I launched my blog which, over the years, has allowed me to (1) write on things that I like and (2) discover interesting people (like you!)”
What keeps you from doing it (1)?
Just write for your own sake, and don’t expect the internauts to comment. If your readers feel attracted by your content, the probability of comments will be there.
I still blog.
On https://www.noulakaz.net/ and https://www.avinashmeetoo.com/ in case you didn’t notice (and that’s the point!)