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Time on Blogs...

Sun, 06/13/2004 - 19:32 — kebernet

Time's big story on blogs is really kinda trite. While I don't disagree, really...

nd the little guy is a lot smarter than big media might have you think. Blogs showcase some of the smartest, sharpest writing being published. Bloggers are unconstrained by such journalistic conventions as good taste, accountability and objectivity � and that can be a good thing. Accusations of media bias are thick on the ground these days, and Americans are tired of it. Blogs don't pretend to be neutral: they're gleefully, unabashedly biased, and that makes them a lot more fun. "Because we're not trying to sell magazines or papers, we can afford to assail our readers," says Andrew Sullivan, a contributor to TIME and the editor of andrewsullivan.com. "I don't have the pressure of an advertising executive telling me to lay off. It's incredibly liberating."

.. is just a little too effusive to take seriously.

I also think its a little myopic to talk about weblogs and not mention /.. For all its failings, it spawned a thousand sites, including this one. I guess the political press is more tuned in to the political blogs, but I think to not give credit to the more geeky origins of the medium does a disservice to the people who actually started the whole thing.

Comments

Sun, 06/13/2004 - 22:21 — atrox (not verified)

RE: Time on Blogs...

agreed on the article and that slashdot launched a hundred thousand sites, but honestly, back when we started discussing setting this up it was about sharing information and about excitement over linux. i dont recall even knowing what slashot was myself.

you did the original database/articles thing with a crude admin (yes its possible to be more crude than even the present day tool) and i thought that was cool as hell and ran with it. maybe that original rev was slashdot inspired but i didnt really realize it.

back when we started this thing (mid/late 97 i think) was a time when truly only technical people even used the "Internet", much less linux. i know that in 97 i worked for a major company (as a Microsoft/Novell/Network admin) that was just barely getting around to thinking about a website of their own and did not provide internet access at the office (its true, in the "olden" days this was not done, and people got up to change the channels on televisions!).

it was mid/late 97 i think when we launched this thing, a time when many had never heard of linux, even though it was then already years old, and those that had were trying to express to people just what it was and why it was important, why it mattered and why it was a viable alternative to other commercial operating systems. VERY FEW believed linux would last back then and no manager at the major company i worked for understood it either, they now offer it on their servers and fully support it.

i give props to slashdot, its a great site (although i cant stand to read the damn comments there anymore, its so overwhelmed now and the mod system doesnt really seem to work, the comments there are just asinine 95% of the time) but i dont know that i would call it the inspiration for totsp?

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