But now I've changed my view. I like the idea, primarily for its practicality. Most of us are not Tim Challies. (I was listening to the Band of Bloggers audio from T4G12, and one of the panelists made this point...as the rest of us were saying, 'duh'.) I can't, and have neither reason nor desire, to put a full-length article on line at least once a day; one that people are interested in and want to read. (I suppose one would need to be an interesting person to be able to do this. I ain't.)
So the idea of combining forces with a few like-minded individuals seems like a good idea. The Pyromaniacs were on the cutting edge of this philosophy, and have done a great job of it. A predecessor to the Pyro guys, perhaps, was the radio program White Horse Inn. There, four pastors from different denominational backgrounds get together weekly to discuss gospel-related issues. They've done extremely well at it.
The hard part is, where do you find a couple of like-minded folks to share in your blog? Beyond that, what about the personal side to the blog? Do you still post family pictures, or videos of your kids playing baseball? (I don't see much of that on Pyro or GC, for example.) What about the days where you just don't have anything to say?
And perhaps the bigger question- how do you deal with the fact that you may not be a writer on par with your colleagues? If I were asked to be a contributor to an established blog with a large readership, I'm not sure I'd have the guts to say 'yes'. After all, I can't write like those folks can. So how does one deal with the skill inadequacies?
Lots of good questions. For now, I'll keep posting here-and-there when I have something to say. Maybe someday I'll get good enough at this to command some peer involvement!
Semi related: I have a pet peeve when these high traffic blogs constantly post each other's articles. TGC has been posting links to Challies lately, and vice-versa. I already read both blogs, so it is both redundant and a bit lazy.
ReplyDeleteI've notice this too, Aimee. It doesn't bother me as much; probably simply due to expectations (i.e., mine are too low!).
ReplyDeleteThe blogosphere has been described as a giant echo chamber, and the reformed blogosphere is no different. I guess many bloggers are like me in one sense...we'd be lost without the echo chamber. We have too much trouble with original thought, and we'd rather react to something someone else has said or done!