From bogusgold at lists.powerblogs.com  Mon Aug  3 07:01:37 2009
From: bogusgold at lists.powerblogs.com (Email subscription to blog articles)
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 07:01:37 -0400
Subject: [bogusgold] Doug Williams: Bogusly Golden Sunsets
Message-ID: <20090803110137.408B2560473@server2.servers.powerblogs.com>

Posted by Doug Williams:
Bogusly Golden Sunsets
http://bogusgold.powerblogs.com/posts/1249271040.shtml


   I started this blog in July of 2004. When I look at that date on paper
   it doesn't seem all that long ago. I was hardly at the ?dawn of
   blogging? or anything. I was definitely a second or even third wave
   adopter of this new "blog" stuff. But still, looking back now it feels
   almost like another era. It's strange to think how much has changed in
   the blogging world since then.
   Back then most of the major media held the very notion of "blogging"
   in contempt. Bloggers weren't ?real journalists? with careful fact
   checkers and editors, you see. This blogging thing was a stupid fad
   which would never catch on. All the best newspapers and glossy
   magazines said so. To the extent they acknowledged blogs at all it was
   only to sneer.
   This created the feeling of a counter-culture within the blogosphere.
   Blogging seemed cutting edge and vaguely transgressive. New blogs were
   popping up all the time. We read each others stuff, commented on it,
   linked to it. It seemed fun, dynamic, and new. Where it all would
   lead, none of us really knew though we sometimes liked to think we
   did.
   How quickly things change in the information age.
   Just five years later almost all the mainstream media has integrated
   blogging into their own practices in a frantic scramble to remain
   relevant. Some formerly amateur blogs evolved to become so
   professional they're more like online magazines now, with full time
   paid employees and advertising clients and all the rest. Some bloggers
   went away when they didn?t strike that kind of gold, and it became
   clear that blogging for them was likely to remain a labor of love
   rather than one for profit. More commonly, a lot of former bloggers
   realized they didn't get much satisfaction in writing for free for an
   often fickle audience and eventually quit.
   Surveying the scene now it's a lot different than it was. It looks to
   me like the era of the small personality driven "boutique" blog,
   covering all the topics that may interest an individual blogger of no
   particular celebrity, is coming to an end.
   This may not be an entirely bad thing. The ending of this particular
   blog era seems to stem from the availability of so many more options
   for doing that sort of thing than used to exist. You no longer need to
   set up your own personal blog to share all your interests and thoughts
   with the world. There's Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other new
   social media which are better designed around individual
   personalities, and do a much better job connecting you to people who
   may care about what you have to say. I?ve tried them out myself, and
   while they don?t seem to suit me as well as a good old blog, I can
   definitely see their appeal and suitability for the things they?re
   made for.
   This is a long way of saying I've decided to shut down this blog.
   But the end of an era is also the dawn of a new one. This blog may be
   going away, but I'm not. I love doing the blogging thing. I like
   having a place where I can post opinion pieces and analyses and random
   thoughts and American Idol recaps all in one place where I have a fair
   chance of engaging a few readers.
   That?s why I've accepted an invitation from Mitch Berg to move my
   blogging over to [1]Shot in the Dark.
   At Shot in the Dark I will be a contributor, rather than THE voice of
   the blog. That suits my current situation a lot better than trying to
   provide all the content myself.
   I?ve identified Mitch a couple of times as my ?blog father? ? meaning
   it was reading Shot In The Dark that made me decide to start my own
   blog in the first place. There would have been no Bogus Gold had there
   not been a Shot In The Dark first. Mitch?s blend of conservative
   political opinion, sense of humor, sharing of his own life
   experiences, devotion to some quirky personal passions (e.g. Bruce
   Springsteen, bagpipes, bicycling, etc.), and engagement with his
   readers and other bloggers has always been the kind of thing I like
   about blogs. I?ll do my best not to ruin the place when I move in.
   Anyway, thanks to everyone who read, commented, linked, e-mailed, or
   otherwise encouraged over the years. Hope to see you all at [2]Shot in
   the Dark soon!

References

   Visible links
   1. http://www.shotinthedark.info/
   2. http://www.shotinthedark.info/

   Hidden links:
   3. file://localhost/files/bogusgold-golden_sunset.jpg