Perhaps I shan’t be the one to call the draw, but has anyone noticed the author rollback this year? Want me to yield good examples: Lawson and Garten… to blissmo and those Yukaners (glad it wasn’t a cult bunny.. well you know).
These matters cannot be helped, but it does grind the grade of the otakusphere.
Bloglomerates
Last month I wrote about the growing trend of “bloglomerate” (blogger absorbing blogs), and with the decay of infamous single-author blogs, this is revealing a defining moment here in the ’sphere. The notion of a single-author blog is fading into the dust, not in a sense that the blogs will disappear, but new bloggers coming to the scene are going to realize the competition is tough.
For a new blogger, it’s going to be more than hard work, it’s a lack in the web of support. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but if one is coming into this looking for a “break-out” year, the odds are extremely against them. tip: learn to write everywhere and learn to love various related interests.
The Commodity of Time
Reading takes time, the experience takes time, and time is what we request when we, as bloggers, write something intended for others to read1. It also takes time as a blogger to make decisions; layouts, colors, topics, writing, etc. I shouldn’t need to dive into the reasoning, and though Moore’s law is real, we find ourselves with more and more to do as life goes on. With time-constraints on both ends of the model, the single-core CPU author will not be as effective with today’s software readership.
It doesn’t matter how fast your technology is. We’re limited as humans, with a humanly ability of focus.
Question
What if the top 5 single-author blogs suddenly phased out?
2+ Years Ago… a new superstar would be born! Of course, most readers would likely divert attention towards another blog2. The group blog, while existing, wasn’t massive, hot, and blossomed at the time, and the sphere was easy going and cool just to write about anime. The things that mattered were being up to date, consistency, posting plenty of screens, and personality.
Today… I guarantee there’d be a large split of readers who would not immediately want to find another single-author reading source2, and they would likely turn to a group blog; more concise and less overwhelming than an aggregator. The requirement from 2+ years ago have not been shed, but there is now a greater level of expectancy; design, features, integration, meta, etc.
It could be argued that due to the rising number of group blogs, its natural for readers to have attention on them, but I’d venture to say it’s not proportional. Mathematically, the group blog has the advantage; regularity of posts, variety of perspective, and zero necessity for readers to read every author.
Onward
In the next entry on the subject, I will explore the possible fate we all may share as bloggers in our lovely community; should we feel threatened? Depends on who you are… for now, I rest the topic on the question above.
Note: I am not implying that Lawson or Garten are dead or anything, but it’s no secret they’ve not been them usual selves.
1) by readers, I do mean non-author readers, those who do not write in the same sphere.
2) these assumptions cannot be determined because more often than not readers subscribe to multiple blogs. It is possibly better to question where the reader’s “attention” would go. What is true is that the readership of group blogs is growing, and it’s likely to find readers of these over readers of a 1-author blog. Also, can there be a valid replacement for authors a reader has grown accustomed to?
Our global societies are heading towards more and more integration, collaboration and multiple points of access. (that doesnt make much sense but you might get my drift) The point being that as our lives increase in speed so does the amount of input we require. It’s an odd thing. 30 years ago we wouldn’t feel any need to be in constant connection with everybody we know through different forms. Today is different and I think we can see a demonstration of that in our blogs. We want constant info at a good standard and if we really want to be involved we like to evolve personalities which we either demonstrate through our posts, comics, twitter or IRC. All in all an interesting situation. Our present is changing so indeed our future is exciting.
And yet, much to Omni’s dissapointment, Random Curiosity keeps rolling back to a single-author blog! Fortunately, it still gets massive traffic.
Interesting read though. I suppose I don’t really have my finger on the pulse when it comes to the broader blogosphere, I just read a handful of blogs and that’s all. But I suppose it’s true that authors tend to merge to improve the service a single website can provide. Honestly though, with aggregator services I’m not sure that it’s neccesary for a blog to retain a regular audience or provide a massive variety and quantity of posts.
I mightn’t have put much thought into it because blogging for me is just a hobby more than anything else. The need for readership is secondary to my desire to blather at length about anime!
I have many group blogs on my Google Reader but for all their output, I maybe read 1 or 2 articles a day by the same group. Quantity =/= quality and I’d have to say that there are many single-author blogs that I enjoy far more.
I should probably address that this viewpoint isn’t about “now” as a snapshot in time, but “now” as a progressive state. Also, this is basically a small premise/overview of the present situation I see dawning as the blogosphere grows.
@mellow_bunny /connects
@washi, this is true. Omni is in a different state than most blogs. As I will continue next post, I find blogs to be in 3-4 “states”, RC is in the “well established” category, as is Memento, and various other single-author blogs (group blogs need not worry about their state, because of the manpower they possess more drive).
The need for readership is secondary to my desire to blather at length about anime!
Totally valid, and I’ve actually included this notion in proceeding post(s), and I will also try to focus on that idea, the hobby blogger. Though they don’t need to be pro, there is a way in which multiple-hobby bloggers can overpower such existences as a starry group-blog, just by continuing on as they wish (no pressure). Aggregators are a start, but we need something far more “exact” in yielding what subscribers to the sphere, in general, shouldn’t miss out on (there is a lot to sort through in the antenna/nano).
@Caitlin, that’s a good point. The thing is, if one author from each type to cut-back their posting habit, we see the single-author blog suffer much more than in a group. It’s called distributed computing, and it’s precisely why everyone can Google-search at the same time.
There really is too much to address, but the great thing is that other sphere genre have already been here done that, and that is why sites such as Engadget flourish so well.
The single author blog would suffer more in hits and comments, sure, but quality of post wouldn’t go down. For multi-author blogs, quality might actually go up. I guess it all depends on whether you want instant gratification or not. I view this more a reflection of society - people want recognition now, fast, without having to do the work to get it.
Of course, there are group anime blogs that are awesome. THAT comes to mind.
This is true for the blogger, but the readers are also at a loss. If a blog isn’t in its regular scheme of things, the readers have to deal with it… if we take a larger organization, say a newspaper, it could never be done by one person alone or at least with long term success. The consistency falls on the author(s) shoulders, but the readers are the ones who truly have to deal with it. Even blogs who only manage to post once a month can be successful, as long as it’s what the readers are accustomed to. If the number of posts rises but quality decreases, yes that is a turn-off for readers… so there’s valid trade-off all in this.
I was trying to take the perspective of a reader, or at least a for a bit…. ultimately this series will boil down to how the community is perceived externally [to readers] (out of the back-scratching circle).
Wasn’t the world supposed to be flat? Suddenly there is a flight to vertical integration, because only the big survive in tough times (and I don’t mean just blogs).
Aggregators and readers have not and will not kill the team blog. I try to articulate why in the above link. I’m not enthralled with this trend toward centralization, but without a revision of expectations on the part of both authors and audience, there’s no apparent way out.
I don’t know whether to call it regularity, or to call it trust, because that’s what it boils down to. The author fears that if they do not maintain a regular schedule, the audience will freak out and never visit again. The audience fears that if the author breaks schedule, then they have called it quits and will never post again.
There is a software solution to this problem though: feed readers. Loyalty is a subscription, the cost of polling is delegated to the reader and goes to zero. The author posts when they can/want, the audience tunes in when they’re notified, everyone’s happy.
Why there hasn’t be a mass embracement of readers and a return of trust around this community, I can’t say. It bothers me that writers post “Sorry for not posting,” “I’m not dead!” “Going on hiatus for a bit” “I’m back!” type entries that are utterly meaningless in a feed-centric production flow.
Ryan: Re- the last bit of your comment on THAT - this, at first glance, appears to be quite a good manifestation of the source of the AGRR.
Intro: The whole feeling of the necessity of “social awareness” is very interesting; as you put it, “I’m not haitus” alters are wholly irrelevant, given the status of feed readers (though re-reading usagi-jen’s post reveals that not everyone uses readers), so why do we need to constantly update our readers? Micro-blogging also poses an interesting site of latent social processes. Are they for notepadding? Really, I think larger questions of the reader/writer/author/audience (they are distinct terms, I think) are what a lot of this boils down to. Hopefully it will produce further, interesting discussion.
DAMN nevermind. 1) he’s a guy, 2) I read the rest of the post.
@intro
Aggregators and readers have not and will not kill the team blog.
I agree, there’s no need to kill the team blog, but it is about having equal grounds … in which, a team blog startup has no advantage over a single-author blog startup. I suppose it comes down to the readers, but they are a static variable; we cannot change them instantly, as they will ride habits and trends and readers are extremely diverse.
The author posts when they can/want, the audience tunes in when they’re notified, everyone’s happy.
This is nice, and works, but I’m shifting my perspective of a blogging community from something can/when/want, to that of “broadcast” publication, in which schedules are considered. At the same time, my conjuring idea does not eliminate or change anything about the blogosphere or blogs as a method of discussion. It is simply a meta-handle/wrapper. (Aggregators are similar, but they aren’t intelligent)
@lelangir
reader/writer/author/audience
Reader/audience is in my “future” view of the community, but I think we (not necessarily me and you as a pair) are starting to diverge into a various purposes we find in the community … for one, by community, I am excluding readers when I imply community. Also, I have a growing view of the blogosphere not as a forum/discussion/communication tool, but as a production (ie periodical).
In short, I do think professionalism can exist in our community, and if we take professional periodicals as as example, the producer-consumer communication aspect is at the core and a necessity (hence letters to the editor). I am not implying producers/authors need to be that segregated/disconnected from the audience, but until the audience picks up its keyboard and becomes an author, they are in two different worlds. imo
Perhaps that’s the wrong view, but I’m mixing what we have (otakusphere) with what we see exists [professionally], it’s not necessity, but I think its a strong future.
I have not finitely sorted these ideas in the coming post, so they may be different.
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Interesting…this is after writing the “optimizing reading” thing:
I think google reader’s selective folder feeds are, in a sense, intelligent aggregators.
What team blogs have is consistency. There are other writers to take over if one happens to fall behind in posting, quality doesn’t waver as much, and they can hit more topics. However, that doesn’t mean that solo blogs can’t do just as well or even better. If the author is persistent enough, then it doesn’t matter.
It all comes down to why an author blogs. If it’s for the self-gratification of hit counts/comments, then team blogs are better suited for them. If it’s for niche topics or heavy discussions, then solo blogs might be better. If just for fun, then it doesn’t matter.
@FFVIIKnight
I fully agree, but the chances of such a thing are no better than 1 in 100. I think it has to do with the blog states relating to the current blogosphere. Most of the “well-established” are in fact single-author blogs, and until the growth of provided content correlates to growth of external readership, we are likely to not have a sudden boom in well-established single-author blogs… it’s reader dependent.
I like your last few lines btw, very precise, I was thinking of touching on that in the 3rd post, but I’m unsure at this point.
Well, the chance is still there but I agree with you about how single-author blogs wouldn’t boom as much. They tend to take more time to get loyal readers. I could understand why a good number of them converted to team blogs. It’s just easier when the workload is shared.
My last few lines might be a tad harsh and most of us fall under the last category. There’s another that I was reminded of but I doubt there’s too many blogs that could incorporate business like Danny Choo’s. Anyways, it’s certainly going to be a touchy subject if you write about it.
I just hope we won’t all end up in group blogs someday. I probably won’t.
It’s a great post ^_^