What is in Kelvin's Head?

Bloggers come and bloggers go

30/06/2012
It seems to me that the blogging world is changing at the moment. It seems as though there has been a slow down in the number of people starting new blogs and those who are keeping them may be keeping them slightly less often.

Twitter and Facebook updates (which are a form of micro-blogging) have superseded the one-line, one-thought blog post of yore and now people seem more likely to crank up their blog when they’ve got something significant to say rather than making posts morning, noon and night.

I think we are seeing some folk give up the habit too. That’s not really surprising. Bloggers come and bloggers go. The ones most likely to last seem often to be those who were early adopters – those who came to the blogging banquet early and have been sharing their wares for the longest time.

A lot of commenting has gone on to Facebook and twitter too. I’m so lucky to have people congregating around this blog who sometimes want to have a conversation. That’s often what keeps me going. I know that a blog works best when it stimulates a community though that does not stop it being a performance event.

I regret the move towards commenting on Facebook in some ways – often I post something here and post a link to in on Facebook to drive people to read it and then the conversation happens over there in semi-private rather than over here in public. I kind of understand why that happens but it is a sadness sometimes that people are not prepared to stand up and say good things out loud.

Trends I expect in blogging in the future –
- more blogs moving to longer blog posts
- more blogs moving to slightly less frequency
- better ways of linking the community element of blogging to Facebook and Twitter
- those who do make the effort to blog through this time will become even more influential in their sphere
- increasing attention being paid to quality of writing
I can’t quite make my mind up where we are going with video. I don’t think the videoblogging phenomena has much energy in it but suspect that being able to make and post video easily is increasingly a part of the story.

What do you think?
blogging

8 responses to “Bin Ladin”

Hermano David | Brother Dahâ€¢veed

02/05/2011

I agree with him entirely.

Then I think my friend that you join him in a conclusion that at this moment cannot be substantiated by fact. There is no evidence that bin Laden was executed. He died in a fire fight when the team tasked with his capture tried to do so. To claim more than the facts currently state is to jump to a conclusion based in personal prejudice.

Aside from that one discrepancy, I also agree with much of what he said.

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Agatha

02/05/2011

It did occur to me that the UK does public rejoicing (see Friday) better than the US (see this morning).

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Rosemary Hannah

03/05/2011

We have no room for complacency – remember ‘Gotcha’ in the Falklands war???

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1. kelvin
  
  04/05/2011
  
  Yes, that was vulgar too.
  
  Reply
David

04/05/2011

Irrespective of the terrible atrocities masterminded by individuals such as Osama Bin-Laden…and…regardless of the improbable scenario of his being captured alive and put on trial, the rejoicing that followed his death was both tacky and tactless. Comments (albeit by family members of 9/11 victims) alluding to …”God placing him in Hell to rot for eternity…” similarly did nobody any favours. If anything, the backlash from extremists eager to avenge his death (martyrdom?) will now cost further innocent lives. The phrase that jumps to mind is: ‘least said soonest mended…’

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ryan

04/05/2011

I’m not sure that pacifist prooftexting is any lbetter than the other kinds. It’s surely morally permissable to celebrate the death of a legitimate, significant military target. And much of the “fanning the flames” rhetoric is inane – people can argue over whether nominally Islamic terrorism can be appeased , but the idea of Al-Queda dialing back their actions or reforming their ethos because (say) the world didn’t overly celebrate killing Bin Laden is ridiculous. Wouldn’t capturing him alive and forcing him to endure infidel courts be even more provocative than a martyr’s bullet and burial at sea?

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1. kelvin
  
  04/05/2011
  
  I don’t think I like the idea of celebrating the death of anyone, Ryan.
  
  That’s the kind of thing we find too often in the Bible, isn’t it? And it is vulgar there too.
  
  I don’t like lynch mob mentality no matter who is on the receiving end.
  
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ryan

04/05/2011

Indeed – I agree that the “get it up ye!” response very much does not represent humankind at its best. But not celebrating *anyone’s* death is quite different, to me, to the most popular current arguments that largely emphasise that Bin Ladin personally is an inappropriate figure for Sic Semper Tyrannis triumphalism.

I found the Vatican’s reaction interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_the_death_of_Osama_bin_Laden#Europe

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