To Blog or Not To Blog

Unicorn
I think I can, I think I can...

Back not long ago from Savannah, and now off to grab some work in NYC. Next month it’s another airport, another city, another hope that the little TV in the seat in front of me works. I hope the flight attendants don’t get snarky, and I wish one would give me the whole damned bottle of water rather than offering a little cup. I also hope the TSA doesn’t rifle through my bags and take things. So before I make friends with the seat tray table on Jet Blue, I wanted to mention my thoughts on Councilwoman Keller’s suggestion of a city blog.

If the city wants to blog, fine. There’s always room for more blogs in the blogosphere and there’s nothing anyone can do to prevent it. Doesn’t matter to me what format they take, but a blog without comments really isn’t a blog at all. What she describes is a Q&A page tacked onto their existing website.

After all, what makes blogging relevant and exciting is the participation of commenters who can add to a given topic.

For a very long time, it seems there was one primary means of public communication in this town. Whether or not you agreed with The Fullerton Observer, it was pretty much the only deal out there. There wasn’t a regular outlet for the mass dispersal of a differing viewpoint, so then it seems the slogan of Fullerton becomes, “More, more of the same!”  But one day,  along comes the blogosphere. Suddenly there’s a free and easy way to express oneself.  So the Admin starts it. He’s just a basic blogger, not a techie, but it doesn’t matter. He has about 3 decades worth of stuff to say.  More writers join. The sucker takes off. FFFF is horse with wings. It’s linking to other blogs and soon more and more people know about it and people can’t stop clicking on it because it’s saying so many things that people have felt  for a long time.

It’s like someone said, “Okay, you can talk now,” and a torrent came pouring forth. At times it’s articulate, other times it veers into the lunacy of The Three Stooges. It’s not always a happy, jolly place where the birds sing and everyone holds hands in a permanent Stepford trance. No, there are rants, pouts, and the occasional barfing onto the screen. In other words: welcome to the blogosphere. Once you start, there’s no way of stopping.

The lessons for everyone to remember, but most especially those who detract from the blogosphere, are that it’s incorrect to think blogs have less importance and impact than publications in print. It’s also faulty to believe that blogs exist separate from the rest of the world. In fact, they are a reflection of it. All blogs, including FFFF are a vital part of the community. Their voice is as valid  as any other.

10 Replies to “To Blog or Not To Blog”

  1. Right. It ain’t always pretty. But hopefully it’s always informative. Or at least entertaining.

    Keller wants to be hip by nipping around the edges of bloggery but her basic instinct is not to trust wide-open debate, opinion, occasional insult made palatable by clever literary device, and sometime a little crudity. And so she opened herself up to some well-deserved scorn and ridicule.

    Why can’t they at least learn just to keep their mouths shut?

  2. Even if the city decided to put up a “bloggette,” there’s no saying that they won’t get questions of the obnoxious variety that will make them squirm.

    They may not print them, but certainly, they’ll have to read them.

  3. That’s the problem, as Travis pointed out. You have a taxpayer blog where taxpayers embarrassing questions would no doubt be ignored.

    One could very plausibly imagine question by a minority member of the Council even being ignored – somebody that thousands of people voted for. No, it’s just a really, really rotten idea. And I’d love to see them do it – what fun!

    BTW, how come your Pegasus says “unicorn”?

  4. How would they decide what questions get cyberink, and how would they shut up a cyberpunk and not infringe on the 1st Amendment?

  5. admin, and what about cyberbully’s, they have rights too! MissK is right, “What she describes is a Q&A page tacked onto their existing website.”

  6. Welcome back, Miss K!

    Anyone else wondering why the Observer doesn’t have a blog? Perhaps they couldn’t bear to relinquish editorial control to the wild world of commentators…

  7. Can’t make any guesses as to the Observer.

    Blogs are labor intensive. To lay it on the staff is shortsighted. A Q&A page would accomplish easily what Keller suggests.
    But then again, I think the site is fine as it is.
    Let there be dialog on various blogs. Learn from them. Then proceed.

    Unicorn? I have no idea.
    But I have to get packing….so later gators! Be nice in the moshpit, or at least make sure your knives are strapped securely to your thigh.

  8. The Fullerton Harpoon :

    BTW, how come your Pegasus says “unicorn”?

    Harpoon, I selected the Pagasus image for the post not MissK, but somehow google had it titled a “unicorn”, my bad for not changing the title prior to posting.

  9. freedom of speech via the blogosphere intimidates the ethically challenged politician. nasty or mean blogs about fullerton’s city council and its byzantium aspirations are disturbing reminders to some that people see through their nasty or mean motives

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