Avalanche to come. Backlash to follow.
: It’s being reported again that AOL is getting ready to hand out blogging tools. I’ve seen rumblings that Yahoo at least should do likewise. Lots of new tools are popping up in Europe. Blogging will explode. And that will be a good thing: more power to more people. But then everyone will have a blog and no one will have one. What makes a blogs special — nay, better — is the quality; somebody cares about it; somebody (Atrios excepted) puts his name behind it; the best ones get the links; the cream rises. But when everyone blogs, no one will feel special. Then the old-timers will complain (as the original tech bloggers did) about the invasion. Then blogging will get on all the “out” lists. The backlash will take hold. Heavens to Mergatroid, is this the death of blogging?
No.
That quality thing will take hold. Only the good blogs — whether from the loin of Blogger or MT or AOL or old-fashioned hand-cranked code — will get the links; only the cream will rise; only the best survive. (And blogs can’t be ruined the way Usenet was because they can’t be spammed… well, except by lone certain bozo pestering certain sites’ comments).
You see, I’m a populist and a snob at the same time in the same brain. I have faith in the taste of the audience.
