cre8d design

A great quote on blogs from Trent Walton:

“There’s something sacred about reading a blog post on someone else’s site. It’s like visiting a friend’s house for a quick meal ‘round the breakfast table. It’s personal — you’re in their space, and the environment is uniquely suited for idea exchange and uninterrupted conversation. In many ways, we should be treating our blogs like our breakfast tables. Be welcoming & gracious when you host, and kind & respectful when visiting.”

A nice reminder to be good guests when visiting other’s blogs (and acknowledge your presence via a comment?).

A little over a year ago Chris Shiflett blogged that we need a blogging revival because conversation which was once on blogs has moved to Twitter and, in his opinion, there’s less quality discussion and debate on Twitter than there was on blogs.

He doesn’t think more blogging would hurt Twitter, indeed it would benefit it as Twitter is a natural way to share that content. So, the call to blog is not a backlash against Twitter, it’s a reminder of why both are needed.

Here’s his list of reasons why he thinks blogs are great:

• Posts can be as short or are long as you want.
• You don’t have to use broken language to fit a complete thought.
• Posts aren’t immediately lost in a sea of updates.
• Posts can be easily found later.
• You don’t have to know what’s trending among the riff-raff of the Internet.
• Posts tend to be more meaningful.
• All conversation related to a post is easy to find.

I’ve just read through all the responses I could find, and here’s a summary of some of the additional thoughts people had:

• Blogging requires more thought, reasoning for opinions, refining, details, deep expression and reflection than tweeting. Tweets are valuable for quick (incomplete) thoughts and light conversation but we often need more than that. Tweets are snacks between meals, signposts to feasts. The real banquets are blog posts. Drew McLellan, Sean Coates, Jon Tangerine
• Blogging helps you find like-minded people to talk to and work with and a sense of community (David Rhoden, Rian van der Merwe)
• Blog conversations don’t force you into an artificial relationship like “Facebook friend” or “Twitter follower” (David Rhoden)
• Blogs are in a database that you own and control – you can edit it or throw it away at any time. (David Rhoden, Anthony Killeen)
• Facebook and Twitter aren’t a replacement for your own personal history of things you want to say online. (David Rhoden)
• Comments and discussions are there in context. (Anthony Killeen)
• Blog posts are better indexed by search engines. When was the last time you Googled a question and got a Tweet or Facebook status update which answered it? (David Rhoden, Jeremy Cook)
• Blog posts are more educational, spread knowledge and are helpful to newbies. (Clive Walker, Rafael Dohms, Court Ewing)
• Blog posts are timeless: they don’t expire. (Rafael Dohms)
• Blog posts showcase your thinking as a professional and get your name out there. (Rafael Dohms)
• Blogging takes more courage: tweets are easier to correct. Blogging opens you up to real critique and criticism. Joe Leech)

Rather ironically, the hashtag #ideasofmarch now no longer brings up any of the tweets about the topic.

Reading through the numerous blog posts, I noticed that there was a collective sense of longing for the good old days of blogging before Twitter and Facebook came along.  Those days when we weren’t so lazy and made the time to write in long form because our thinking was refined during the process and we really did form deep connections and blogging communities. There was regret for neglecting our blogs for tweets and status updates (but not wanting to do away with the latter either), and a desire to blog more once again.

There was a sense that true blogging was (and still is) about honesty, learning, growth. It was about opening yourself up to critique and trolls but also finding cheerleaders, mentors and fellow journeyers. There was a sense that we’re missing out on good insightful blog posts being written, and a proliferation of “Top 10 ways to get people to link up to your blog”.

There was a sadness that blog comments aren’t so lively any more: the comments are disparate, brief and shallow.

I know that every time I blog, I feel rewarded: I’ve thought things through, I’ve learnt things and I’ve worried a teeny bit about what other people are thinking in response.

The best text information I find online is still via blog posts.
The best way I find out about deep thoughts friends or strangers have online is still via blog posts.
The best place to find tutorials, help and ideas is still via blog posts. I may get there via Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest, but they’re signposts to the real content.

Here in New Zealand, Trademe (similar to Ebay) has long been the most visited local website. It continues to be, but recently I’ve noticed that more and more of my friends are now buying and selling their second hand goods via local or special interest Facebook groups.

It makes sense for a number of reasons:

• Facebook (currently) does not charge for the service, whereas Trademe and Ebay do.
• It enables you to buy and sell very locally by joining a local group. Trademe only allows filtering by region of the country – which is not so great if you’re in a big region or large city and do not want to post large items or pay for postage.
• You’re already on Facebook for other reasons and get to exposed to items for sale mixed into your newsfeed.
• Facebook has a good reputation system: your real* name and photo. While Trademe and Ebay have very highly refined (and pretty reliable now) reputation systems, they’re done via personas/avatars/usernames, which feels slightly less human. In Facebook, you can see who you’re dealing with is friends with, and personal connections to people you know can help you feel more at ease with dealing with them.
• There’s a nice community spirit: using Facebook to buy/sale/swap in your local area helps you get to know people in your local area that you may not have otherwise. There’s serendipity when items pop up on your newsfeed that you decide you’d like.
• And of course, more New Zealanders are visiting Facebook than Trademe. It feels a natural way to buy and sell because that’s where people are hanging out, that’s where your friends are.

There’s quite a few problems with Facebook groups for buying and selling though, since Facebook wasn’t designed for buying and selling:

• You have to know what to look for to find local groups or interest groups which are buying and selling. There’s no central way to find them apart from searching, being given a link to one, or being added to a group by a friend
• It’s not easy to search for an item you’re wanting to buy. While you can search within a Facebook group, there’s none of the standard filters you’ll find on Trademe or Ebay or other ecommerce sites.
• It’s a rather messy way of handling transactions: items listed aren’t automatically removed when they’re sold or no longer for sale, there’s no way of handling payments between people**, and people can “bump” their items up to the top of the list at any time if they want to promote their items. Different groups have different guidelines, ‘rules’ and moderators. What may be OK in one group may not be in another.

People are pretty good at adapting tools for other purposes, and buying and selling seems to be the latest.

Should Ebay and Trademe be very worried if Facebook were to organize their site to better enable people to buy, sell and swap?

* Usually
** Yet

Of course, last year Facebook and Ebay have announced there will be closer links between the two. It will be interesting to see if Facebook decides to go it alone.