April 13, 2006

What makes a good blog?

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about blogging, and about how to do it better. I've come to the very obvious (in retrospect) conclusion that in order to have a good blog, you have two choices.

You either have to write interesting, deep commentary, or link to items that are interesting in their own right, no matter what you say about them.

So I wonder: which is better, and do you have to choose? Can a blog be effective with entries that are either one or the other, as long as each entry fits into one of these two categories?

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Posted by roadnick at April 13, 2006 08:32 AM | TrackBack

Comments

Just my opinion, but a blog without commentary is just a link farm. If all you post is links, you're basically filtering the internet for the people that read your blog, and the criteria to pass your filter are completely subjective. You aren't adding anything to the internet; in a way, you're only subtracting. Which is not to say that link filtering doesn't serve a purpose; you're subtracting, but ideally, what you're subtracting is crap (using your own definition of crap).

Where a blog really fulfills a real purpose and has real value is in its commentary. With commentary, you're (again, ideally) actually adding something to the internet: a new idea, a new perspective, or bit of new knowledge.

My favorite blogs are ones that do both links and commentary. For my money, though, you could eliminate the links and it would still be a worthwhile blog, if the commentary is good.

Posted by: Ryland at April 15, 2006 09:20 PM

Interesting. I never thought of it that way. Although, I suppose there is some value in filtering out the crap. I mean, I'm sure there are many amusing things that I would never find on my own. Plus, they are or lots of sites that I count on just to keep me up to date on various topics. I don't need heavy commentary from them, just pointers.

Posted by: Nick at April 17, 2006 08:55 AM
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