Blogging is experiencing (yet another) resurgence it seems. However, this time, it looks like the very sites that were accused of killing blogs, are now responsible for making them more popular than ever.
I wrote recently about how the sale of Friendfeed to Facebook, has caused people to reconsider where to put their online content. A number of Friendfeed users are concerned because of Facebook’s reputation for privacy and their angst was widely reported across the ‘net. Users of other sites are now wondering how to secure their online content; if their current providers either go broke or get swallowed up by a company they don’t want to be involved with.
On This Week In Tech (TWiT) respected industry commentators, John C Dvorak, Om Malik and Leo Laporte recently said that the obvious solution to this problem, is a self-hosted blog. I agree. However, whilst blogs make it easy to share content, they lack the power of Twitter or Facebook, when it comes to communicating/messaging people. That’s because blog comments lack the fluidity required for conversation.
NOTE: I’m currently researching some open source options, which ‘could’ make it possible for you to not only share your content via your own blog, but to message in real-time with your online network. I will be telling you more about this soon.
The comment gathering trend
In an effort to make their blogs a more central part of their online presence, many bloggers have started to use comment gathering plugins. Services like the excellent Disqus and Echo are proving to be extremely popular, because of their ability to gather content from various social networking sites, and deliver them to the user’s own blog.
Whilst these plugins offer a useful step in the right direction, the obvious problem, is that once these plugins have been uninstalled, the content they had pulled into your blog will disappear. You only keep the comments actually left on your blog. In other words you become dependant on them and are kind of ‘locked in’ to using them.
If the content could be pulled in an then permanently stored on the blog, it would be an additional step in the right direction. By the way, if you know a way of doing this, please let me know.
Your feedback please
I would like to know what you think, about sharing and storing your content with 3rd party providers. Also, what solutions do you have for people, who want to safeguard their network of followers on services like Twitter / Facebook / Friendfeed. Let me know!
Related posts:
Excellent post. I had my twitter account suspended once and lost everyone I had connected with. Currently looking for an alternative network.
The safest place has to be your own site.
Glad you like it.
Regarding the use of a blog as a central hub, for me, the missing ingredient is the ability to chat with people in real-time. Of course, you ALSO need to know how to alert people that you are actually chatting on your blog so they can join in.
“If the content could be pulled in an then permanently stored on the blog, it would be an additional step in the right direction.”
I’m sure it can be done but isn’t there a copyright issue there? Whoever leaves a comment on a certain site, may not want it to be copied to another site or blog.
But, I don’t get what the big deal is anyway. If everyone just wisened up and avoided putting up sensitive information on social sites then none of this would be considered a problem. Facebook, friendfeed they are all fine. Even if facebook had better security now, who would guarantee that there wouldn’t be a problem sometime in the future?
Moreover, blogs can never replace social web sites. No matter how jazzed up and interactive it is. They are just a completely different kind of entity.
Another point is, why are we (not me personally!) so involved in this time-wasting online socializing that really goes nowhere? Leave twitter, ff, facebook and all that and get outside, live healthier and interact for REAL! In this internet age, people have become so lazy, dormant and unmotivated that it has become a real crisis.
Bottom line is: keep your details to a minimum and don’t help the creeps track you down. Then you will be fine on any website on this ever insecure, ever changing world of internet.
Moreover, blogs can never replace social web sites. No matter how jazzed up and interactive it is. They are just a completely different kind of entity.
can i just say that this is one of the best written posts i have seen on the social media problem.
Not only CAN you say it, I have a good mind to put your comment in BIGGER letters!
Seriously, thanks Evie!