An Experiment on Blog Connectivity: The Rancid, The Real and the Raw
I will admit to being slightly naive when it comes to all things blogosopheric. Indeed, my friends think I am naive when it comes to a lot of things. But I am also cynical and wonderous at the same time. For example, when I learned that after my friend Bill McGeveran posted something on his blog about the discussion board XOXOHTH, dozens of bloggers posted comments, many rude, scathing and mean (would you ever say these things to a person's face??). My cynical side said, people have too much time on their hands. What is the point of this kind of banter? Much of it doesn't even make sense. And what does it say about the future lawyers of our world (assuming most of these folks are law students, which I gather is debatable) that they are spending their time THIS way? My wonderous side thought another thing: is this a computer program spitting out this garble? Has some very bright person designed software to quickly connect to blogs that mention theirs, create links between the blogs in cyberspace and then post comments, however gruesome the contents of the links are? The impression is a whole community of people quickly converging on Bill's site to recuperate the reputation of those who spend time on XOXOHTH. But the overwhelming feeling I got was that this wasn't a diverse group of people (it wasn't a loud cry from the masses that support and celebrate community blogs like XOXOHTH) but instead just a few folks who want to fill up the comments space, who want to appear to be surrounded by comrades but who are really alone in front of a lap top. Smart as they may be (did they design a program or are they just very fast, very coordinated bloggers?), I wonder how many people are really paying attention. But perhaps I am just naive. As I said, this is an experiment.
