::scr Blogging

[alex]

On Fri, 23 Nov 2001, Simon Batistoni wrote:
> Eh. Possibly not HTML, but the general idea of markup, of how the
> content gets from their keyboard to a website visitor's screen.

how is that relevant when writing a diary?  does blogspot let you change
such things anyway?

> For the same reason, I would expect professional authors to have some
> grasp of the concepts of print typography - of what will work and what
> won't in terms of textual tricks.

yes, but we're not talking about professional authors who make money out
of what they do and need to appear experienced.

but for non-professionals, naivete can actually be a positive thing.
rawer, more honest products can result.

i've had my jv1080 synthesiser for a couple of years and the only tracks
i've produced with it that i liked were within a week of getting it.
once i'd learned it's features i lost the inspiration of the learning
process.  i had locked my way in to certain ways of doing things and lost
the ability to explore.

new order don't know how to play their instruments properly, and so
produce (i think) amazing results by having a more direct and human
relationship with their instruments.

naivete is good.  training too early can be bad.

if this isn't applicable to technology, if it's impossible to produce
results without adhering to strict rules, if we consider all serendipity
to be bad - then that's a bug, not a feature.

> I'm not really talking biographies, though. A good biography is
> generally done in retrospective, because hindsight allows you to edit
> everything down to the most meaningful points.

people publish their diaries in books too, and they can sell rather well.
i guess they are edited tho.

> Whereas in an online blog, our $subject will be talking about their
> hurt and anguish for *several paragraphs a day* for 2 years, and it
> will be the raw outpourings of a bleeding heart.

depends how indulgent they are :)

> Sorry. Should have explained before.

thanks for that :)


alex