Just what the hell is a blog anyway? I mean, this is just a personal site, where I can put stuff that I’ve done or thought or created or find interesting. And it’s no different from the day-book of an 18th century scholar, the diary of a 1950s teenager, or the 1997 personal website of an early(ish) internet adopter.Yet suddenly, everything’s a damn blog. Well, this isn’t. It’s a personal site. I’m suspicious of trends at the best of times, especially when the media grab them so enthusiastically by the throat and wave them about until they asphyxiate. I’m even more dubious when a trend involves making up stupid new words which are, it turns out, the only truly new thing about the whole phenomenon.

So, this is not a blog. Just so we’re clear on that.

I must point out that there are blogs which contain very interesting, thought-provoking content. But invariably, it just happens to be good content that’s been wedged into a blog. Often it looks out of place, shoved amongst several entries on a page, when it is in fact an article in its own right.

Blogs don’t represent a new personal publishing phenomenon. Private presses that you can print directly to from your desktop, and receive a real, bound book in return, do. They finally bring within reach the culture and technology that literary elites were so excited about in the 1920s and 30s.

Take a look at upsideclown’s Whelk, a beautiful book printed on demand by Instant Publisher. That, my friends, is a revolution.

Blogs are fundamentally no different to the personal websites that have been made so easy by the likes of Geocities since 1996 or so. They have a more rigid framework, sure, but who does that benefit besides the lazy writer, who can now fill their site with uninteresting drivel at the click of a button, rather than consider if their content is really worth sharing?

Blogs suck, people. Start sharing truly good content, and do it any way you like. Take a look at one of the best web writers I know, and see how each individual piece he writes takes on its own shape. He codes the pages by hand. He laughs in the face of Movable Type.

Unfortunately the lollipops and balloons are still on order, but I do have some lovely little badges for anyone who decides that yes, their site isn’t a blog either. There’s one for the coy amongst us, and one for the profane.

This article first arrived on the interwebnet on Thursday, August 1st, 2002 at 6:15 pm .
It's arbitrarily categorised as being about: Geeking, Trends and culture.
Supernerds with RSS readers will probably wet their pants over the RSS 2.0 feed.
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You know, this article used to be 4000 words longer, but right before I pressed 'Save', the dog ate it. Honest.