Monthly Archives: February 2006

On Attracting Readers

This entry was posted in Blogging on by

While discussing why he blogs and the relation of blogging to traditional media Dave Neiwert says:

Actually, the function in the old communications model that bloggers come closest to replicating is that of the editor — not in the sense of being an overseer of writing and reportorial quality, but in setting priorities: deciding which stories are important and deserve greater attention, ascertaining which stories are reported upon.
A good blogger is not so much a journalist as a good editor (and remember, most editors are writers too). A blog is thus a kind of publication, and it attracts readers according to the quality of insight its editor brings to it.

My first reaction was to think in terms of quantity of readers. Then I relealized there was more to it than quantity. Some attract readers based on the quality of insight alone; others based on a combination of quality and quantity of content and still others based on quantity and a quality of insight calculated to attract various sects of true believers.
All of which leads to realizing that the quality of a blogs readers are directly related to the quality of the editorial insight and the editorial goal. We can all point out blogs that attract lots of readers because the editor had the insight to focus the content on a particular ideological orientation, sport or hobby. Nothing wrong with this but it seems to be something more than what Neiwert is suggesting.

Do read the rest of his interesting post.

Friday Ark #73

This entry was posted in Bird Blogging Cat Blogging Dog Blogging Entymology Friday Ark Invertebrate Blogging Pet Blogging Pets Weekend Cat Blogging Weekend Dog Blogging on by

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

We will add your post to the list if you do one of the following:

  • Leave a comment or trackback to this post,

  • Use the Carnival Submission Form,
  • Email Modulator or
  • Our extensive staff finds it during our weekly search of the web

Of course, if our staff goes on strike then we will link only those posts someone tells us about. Time permitting we will continue boardings until the Carnival of the Cats goes up on Sunday.

Do link to the Friday Ark whether you use trackbacks or not.

Visit each border and come back regularly Friday-Sunday to visit new boarders.

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (48 shouts as of 02/09)

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 99th edition will be hosted this week by Watermark. There are more weekly cats at eatstuff’s Weekend Cat Blogging which has many participants who may not be familiar to Ark or Carnival participants.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 16th edition edition is up and hosted by the Dharma Bums.

New for the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The fifth edition is up at Pharyngula. The 6th edition is scheduled for February 28 and will be hosted by Science and Politics.

Arkive editions of the Friday Ark.
Cats

InvertebratesDogsBirdsOther VertebratesIn MemoriamDidn’t Make It
Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat’s Carnival Page and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users: Haloscan started (the end of July) rejecting trackbacks if they were submitted “too rapidly” by the same host. I don’t know what the timer is but it is long enough so that it was very difficult to ping everyone that is using Haloscan for trackbacks. I’m sure that they are doing this to try to hold back the tide of trackback spam but it makes the service pretty useless for carnival type posts. Perhaps you can contact them and urge some different solution. Update: Typepad appears to be doing the same thing. Everytime I update the Ark it appears the timers are reset and the long list of MT autogenerated pings fail. Yecchhhh….

Candidates for NSA Surveillance

This entry was posted in War on Terrorism on by

These folks want to end the world and don’t seem bashful about saying so (reg):

Pastors of some of the largest evangelical churches in America met Tuesday in Inglewood to polish strategies for starting 5 million new churches worldwide in 10 years — an effort they hope will hasten the End Time.

Just what are the bushies doing to stop this conspiracy?

In an interview at Faith Central Bible Church in Inglewood, James Davis, president of the campaign, said, “Jesus Christ commissioned his disciples to go to the ends of the Earth and tell everyone how they could achieve eternal life.
“As we advance around the world, we’ll be shortening the time needed to fulfill that great commission,” he said. “Then, the Bible says, the end will come.”

They would do better to donate their money to this effort to achieve eternal life.