Who are you when you blog?

Blogging names still appear to be a hot topic. In the earlier days of the net screen names that had nothing to do with your real name were common place. Unless someone was publishing for their company or in forums for technical support, hardly anyone used real names. Now that the internet population is varied more than it used to be (rather than just a majority of geeks) what name you go by seems to be a more important issue than it used to be.

I still use the name Linuxchic because it is one I have used since the 90's. I like it because it reflects my personality. I have associated my "real name" with my internet name in the last few years because I am not as worried as I used to be about who I am. Maybe I am just getting old or mainstream. Blogging under an assumed name or screen name is still very much an option and is especially attractive for women on the net. Unfortunately online and offline harassment, threats, and stalking (re: the Kathy Sierra case) are still a big concern for many.

I was recently reading an interesting post by Penelope Trunk on her blog Brazen Careerist. The post was dated July 19, 2007 and titled Blog under your real name and ignore the harassment. An excellent point she makes is that blogging can be good for your career. If you write a technology blog for example, it could be a very good addition to your resume or may even turn out to give you leads. This could be a problem if you aren't blogging under your real name. When employers look over your resume and your blog and see two different names you might never have the chance to explain it before your resume is set aside.

Another excellent point made is that women using an assumed name online, unless it is a name of the opposite sex, won't protect them from receiving harassing or insulting comments or emails. As Penelope Trunk points out:

Online men pick on women because they are women . For example, Mike Arrington, a highly influential technology journalist, inexplicably insulted, the topic (knitting) of a very successful web site aimed at women. And each week I receive many comments on Yahoo Finance rife with misogynist accusations about sex and intelligence that the male columnists at Yahoo Fiance do not endure nearly as often.

But is this a reason to hide? There is a 70% chance that a knowlege worker will be harassed on the job. Women are more likely to be harassed in their office than online. Does it mean women shouldn’t show up to the office? No. Women have gotten good at dealing with harassment. Probably because it’s a fact of life. It starts when we are twelve years old and a guy whistles from a car as he drives by. And it looks to me like it never ends. We cannot stop this. At lest not today.

I am going to continue to blog and social network under the name linuxchic and associate it with my real name. It is working for me and gives people a little insight to my interests just by seeing my screen name. What do you think? Are you using a screen name or throwing it all out there with your real name?

Why do you blog?

Are you blogging? If so, why are you blogging? Are you looking for fame? Fortune? Notoriety?

Why do I blog? Because I enjoy writing. I recently was told that blogging is only 20% about writing. Says who? What is driving me absolutely nuts lately is all these "experts" that are coming at me to tell me how blogging is about marketing and advertising and brands. My blogs aren't. My blogs are about the information. The blog is the medium that I use to distribute my information. This isn't the internet reinvented, it is just another publishing medium. Blogs made publishing easy for non-technical people.

Now we have some of those non-technical people are running wild and ruining the freedom and information sharing that the internet should be by telling people what blogs should mean to them. Those are the people busy cashing in on everything they can. These are the majority of people in attendance at BlogWorld... what you use a blog for is as personal as how you wear your hair. There are personal blogs, there are professional blogs, there are corporate blogs... mine is personal and frankly I want to keep it that way. Don't tell me what to do, don't tell me how to do it, just help me do what I want to do better.

Why do you blog?

Blog for ZDNet

ZDNet is looking for a few good bloggers, do you have what it takes? While several of their topics appear to be an experiment in user generated content, two of the topics (Web 2.0 Explorer, which examines Web 2.0 technologies, and Office Evolution, which is focused on next-generation productivity software) have blogger vacancies.

Whether you are looking for a permanent blogging gig at ZDNet or just looking to drive more traffic to your blog by writing a post or two for their topics, visit the Post your blog to ZDNet to find out how to get included.

Same old voices syndrome?

Robert Scoble has stated that he isn't going to BlogWorld Expo because he hangs out with those speakers all the time anyway. You guessed it, I have several responses to that.

It's ugly.
What about all the new people coming up in blogging and new media? Sure, blogs have been around since the 90's but blogging is still moving mainstream. Growth isn't stagnant yet so why are we treating it as if it has jumped the shark? New media, like it's name, is still pretty new. Perhaps the technologies or ideas aren't new but it is only recently getting mainstream recognition. Blogging and new media hasn't peaked yet, and there are many voices yet to be heard. The ones that have been at the forefront and the spotlight thus far should recognize that they are both role models and resources that others can learn from. I would think that the speakers could use the fact that they all know each other already as an opportunity to mingle with all the newcomers and up and coming. Just because we aren't well known, doesn't mean we aren't worth spending time with. Snub your fans, lose your audience.

It's proof that we need new voices and new content.
The most frustrating thing I found when choosing my BlogWorld sessions was that I thought it was all too primary. There is an advanced track, but it really isn't so advanced in my opinion. The theme of the sessions seems to be either 1)you are brand spanking new to blogging 2)all you care about is making fat sacks of cash from a blog site and/or 3)you can't wait to be graced by the presence of the "a-list", no matter what they talk about. (I will add the disclaimer that I am making these judgments on session titles alone. I have not seen any session descriptions.)

Where is the content, the ethics, the community? I do see a few sessions that look like they might almost discuss one or two of these topics but overall all these topics that have been "in your face" as a blogger this year are mysteriously absent. So many blogs have the potential to be really great blogs if only the owner knew more about comments, dealing with trolls, design, and how to format a post. Blogging is about the content. Blogs brought the technology to those who had something to say and gave them a voice. Blogging is about the content + the mechanics + the technology. We need to address these most important things before we start dreaming about sleeping on a bed of money. Without content, an eye pleasing design, and engaging our audience there won't be any money to be had.

We need fresh content. Maybe it isn't the speakers or a-list bloggers that are stuck on repeat (or just regurgitating each other's main points), maybe it is the planners that are pushing the topics. Let's get some sysadmins, web developers, web designers, authors, professors and so on in there to talk about the full cycle of blogging. No matter whose fault it is the blogging community needs to step up, stop being awe inspired and nicey-nicey to the a-listers and give some feedback. Let's get back on track.

Kansas City Blogger Meetup

What is this? Kansas City Area Blogger Meetup (if you aren't in the KC area you can still come)
Date: Saturday, November 17, 2007
Time: 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Where: Buffalo Wild Wings
1806 N.W. Chipman Road
Lee's Summit, MO 64081
816.246.WILD (9453)

RSVP: bloggermeetup@alternageek.com or use Eventful or Upcoming. Not required but it would be helpful to get a headcount.

Who is this for? Bloggers, blog readers, microbloggers (Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku...), Tumbleloggers, videobloggers, audiobloggers (podcasters welcome too), mobloggers (Flickr, SnapFoo, Radar), and any other type of blogger.

What is planned? Get to know others in your community; talk about what you are working on, what inspires you, what technology/equipment you use and prefer, tips and tricks, and just general blogger social time.

Use Eventful? Join the group on Eventful or check out the event.
Perfer Upcoming? The event is listed there too!

Inspiration

I have owned this domain (blogagory.com) for over a year. I have had many thoughts about what it should be used for and built development sites around those. First I planned on turning it into a free blog hosting. You know like Blog a (cate)gory. Remember Geocities? Everything was organized with some type of neighborhood categorization. I liked that. I started building it with the first release of WordPress Mu and did lots of custom PHP. WordPress mu was still pretty rough back then and life got busy and I gave up. Next idea was to make it a blog site listing, once again organized by categories. That idea never got off the idea mat. I wasn't inspired enough to actually get it off the ground.

Last week I decided to do more with my namesake domain and rather just leaving it all about me I would post blog related topics to it. Then I ran into WordPress issues and lost some absolutely brilliant posts (don't argue with me, you will never see them so you don't know if they were brilliant or not :P). I already run two blogs; linuxchic.net and alternageek.com. Linuxchic.net is really supposed to be my linuxy girl blog and alternageek.com is my podcast. Oh wait, I also have my Vox blog which is my personal, this-doesn't-fit-into-the-other-two, blog.

Fast forward to this morning, sitting in a meeting I had an epiphany to use blogagory.com as a blog (no way! you are thinking) about blogging. I really have a lot to say about blogging so why not write it down somewhere. W00t! So here you are, my blog about blogs and blogging.