Steve Rubel is a smart man - there is no denying that but sometimes I think he spends too much time up in that rarified ivory tower of popularity working on his next missive that is sure to generate enough conversation to keep those inbound links coming. Much like his post today about bringing to an end something he calls The Lazysphere. Which by Steve’s definition are those who rather than create new ideas or interesting essays would jump on a meme-wagon and dash off a paragraph with some snappy headline.
Although Steve doesn’t point to any specific blogger or group of bloggers it doesn’t take much in the brains department to see where these comments are being directed. Any comparison of the Technorati Top 100; otherwise known as the A-List of bloggers, and the hottest stories on Techmeme will give you a good starting point of where to look. When you start drilling down using those two reference point you begin to see that much of the fluff that is permeating the tech blogosphere is coming from those A-Listers who are spending more time living off of their laurels than they are contributing anything new and interesting on a regular basis.
At this point all I can say to Mr. Rubel is that you are looking in the wrong places. While lazy writers abound on all levels it is really only the A-Listers that benefit because of their popularity and the natural inclination of just about everyone to link to them regardless of whether they write one sentence or a paragraph. However if you ever took the time Mr. Rubel to look past you comrades in the A-List I think you would be incredibly surprised to find some of the best writing right there under your nose.
To help you out since you are such a busy man here’s a list of bloggers I think far outshine just about anyone in the A-List:
Matthew K. Tabor (Education)
Threat Level (Security)
Techdirt (Technology)
Alfred Thompson (Technology)
Jeffro2pt0 (Technology and budding Wordpress resource)
Louis Gray (Technology - one of my go to folks for Apple)
Nordquist Blog (Technology)
Paul O’Flaherty Blog (Technology)
ParisLemon (Technology #2 go to guy for Apple)
Rick Mahn (Technology)
The Marketing Technology Blog (Technology and Marketing)
Webomatica (Technology #3 go to guy for Apple)
On any given day Mr. Rubel anyone of those blogs listed will give you more bang for your buck than most of the so-called A-List blogs that hang off of Techmeme or pimp their readers to get on digg.com. It is blogs like those that I go to first when I want to feel engaged in a serious conversation - the A-List I leave for fluff pieces for easy reading and brownie points.
So why don’t you step down from your ivory tower and joins us hard working tough talking bloggers who actually put effort into what they write. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover your blogging mojo once more as you rub shoulders with us non A-List bloggers.
Listening to: Fatboy Slim/Macy Gray - Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars - Demons
Conversation Tags: blogs, blogging, bloggers, lazysphere, A-List
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But what I've loved about the blogosphere that is far below the A-List radar is the fact that most of these individuals are writing from the heart. They tell it like it is and they really give you a piece of their mind. I find that aspect of the blogosphere to be invaluable.
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I did enjoy Steve Rubel's post, and think the underlying theme is true - especially in this day of social media attention sinks, where it's more work to blog than to tweet or poke. However, he does indeed link back to some of the same A-Listers that always get the attention of other A-Listers. The cycle repeats itself.
However, with posts like the one above, you've proven that the blogosphere is alive and well. While I've been a bit lazy myself, spending a bit of time with Twitter, I too want to keep up an intelligent, helpful blogging routine - it's rewarding to me just to write. I hope it's rewarding to those who read.
Also, thank you for the links to even more great bloggers to read. Some I've found previously, but there are several I hadn't. I'm looking forward to getting to know these bloggers!
Regards,
Rick
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It's difficult to read lots of education blogs because it's definitely an echo chamber - I think that effect is what Rubel was getting at. The great irony here for Rubel is that his post about "The Lazysphere" is just another echo. It's been said 100 times before and his post adds nothing new to the debate aside from veiled insult and snobbery.
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I mean, some folks will always just regurgitate material due to lack of motivation, skill or ability. There is no changing the fact that a "Lazysphere" exists, especially and the entrance barrier to creating online media gets lower and lower,
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One of the things with some of the people on the blogging A-list is that while they actually have good minds and lots of ideas they spend too much time just pointing to other people and not enough talking about their own ideas. The blogs I follow the most are the ones with new and often unique ideas. That is the real value of blogging to me.
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Wow, I'm humbled you mentioned my blog as one you recommend to your readers. I've been going through your list and have added most of them to RSS feed. I too get a little tired of the A-List, and it's great to come across interesting blogs from those who have a lot of passion, if not name recognition.
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We appreciate your often unique view and insight, and have you in our personal A+ List as well.
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Thank you for the kind word and I truly hope that if I ever stray into the realm of becoming a pointless blogger that you and my other regular readers will give me the good old slap upside the head.
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My new attitude when blogging is to "fight for every reader". That means making every post count, and bringing a different angle and voice to the table. Hopefully, the list of readers will grow. But there are those times when you wonder if you are a tree falling in the woods ...
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