The Blog World Hits Puberty?
The blog world seems to be growing up a little bit. Or at least growing.
A few weeks ago, Ginger Stampley alluded to the growing divide between the "semi-pro" bloggers and the "hobby" bloggers. Ginger places herself firmly in the hobby camp, and that's where I would put myself (the day job pays me to write; this is my place to play). And for the most part, I think it's a fairly useful distinction, with so many of the "big" sites either being annexes or personal outlets for people who already write professionally (Sullivan, Reynolds, Welch, Layne, Jarvis come to mind immediately), or showcases those aspiring to write for public prints and the web (many of these folks have been tabbed for FoxNews.com, for example). Of course there are the outliers like Den Beste, who should be paid (well!) by someone to write professionally, but who has nonetheless built a "big" hobby site.
Lately, there's been a flurry of activity as some political bloggers move off of blogspot and blogger and onto real web servers. A fair number of those folks have even followed The Leader, making the leap to Movable Type (good move!) and replacing those old blogger templates with professionally designed sites (good move!) -- which has probably led to the emergence of a new subgroup: the "professional" hobby blogger. The Pro Hobby Bloggers are people who prefer to leave the html tinkering and script installation and htaccess fun stuff to the experts, and have a site that is functional and attractive. And then there are those of us who enjoy learning about the stuff in the background as well as blogging -- the low-rent tinkering hobby bloggers.
It's kind of interesting to watch it all shake out, and I'm not sure where it's heading. I'm happy enough to be in the tinkering/hobby-blogging camp, though, because I'm not entirely sure even where this site is leading (and so it's nice to be able to make changes on the fly). It started as one of those dreadful static sites (powered by Front Page, in 1997 -- woo!) with a few essays and a bio and such, and at some point gained a journal, and then a weblog (which eventually grew into a different project), and then the journal became more of a commentary weblog after 11 September, and now it's sort of back to a personal journal of sorts.
Anyway, this is one of those personal-journal types of entries -- intended for no particular reader (but myself). But if you've managed to stick around and read through all of the ramble, congratulations. And thanks. :)
[Posted at 21:52 CST on 06/03/02] [Link]
