Broadcasting Brain - Latest Comments in Opinions have equal airtime but unequal credibility

Re: Opinions have equal airtime but unequal credibility

Mark Dykeman — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:38:00 -0000

Hi Bill. That's a very thoughtful way to approach comments.

Re: Opinions have equal airtime but unequal credibility

Bill K. — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:17:03 -0000

Hello Mark,

Greetings from the world of triiibes. I really like Carpenter's observation about strong narratives, especially the notion of a shared narrative that develops over time. It makes for an interesting goal for developing a blog. Darren Rowse is definitely a good example of a blogger with a strong narrative, and it's a narrative that seems to extend beyond his authoritative voice on professional blogging.

As for comments, I'm generally guilty of spending too much time on them. I tend to think through what I'm going to say and edit frequently in notepad before pasting into the comment box. Don't know if it makes my comments any better, but I do try to avoid being a comment spammer.

Re: Opinions have equal airtime but unequal credibility

Mark Dykeman — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:50:53 -0000

Yes, I agree with what you are saying. Your opinion is reasoned AND you've been doing this quite awhile as well.

Re: Opinions have equal airtime but unequal credibility

Robert Seidman — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:33:27 -0000

I wasn't (and am not) worried about you, Mark I just like early 1980s pop culture references, liked the song lyric myself and wanted to send some link love ;-)

My comment on your piece in general here is if you want to breakout of the echo chamber and rise above it to have a bigger audience, it's a challenge. I mean you're focused on a niche not that many people care about in general (relatively speaking) and though Louis' is a remarkable story, even with all his growth on a page view basis his blog is teeny tiny.

It's very hard to differentiate yourself when there are dozens (or hundreds) doing the same thing. This doesn't mean it can't be done, but increases the level of difficult substantially. It's not always clear to me that most of the people gazing their navels on this topic really are interested, motivated or willing to do the work involved with rising above to stand out from the crowd. In fact, in most cases it seems clear they are not.

It's hard to stand out even if you are motivated and interested, but it's a lot harder when you're not. Many seem to wish to externalize this and make it a function of something other than themselves. I believe that's folly, but that's just my opinion. It's not knee-jerk reaction, but it is just an opinion nonetheless.

Re: Opinions have equal airtime but unequal credibility

Mark Dykeman — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:57:18 -0000

What can I say, I'm talented. Oh, and don't eat the fish at the next restaurant that you visit - it'll be bad. ;)

Re: Opinions have equal airtime but unequal credibility

hawksdomain — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:10:15 -0000

OK, this is just too weird. It is as if you have some sort of crystal ball to see what is going on in my world! ;)

I had pretty much stopped commenting on any blogs with my opinions because although I had read the post, it seemed I was not getting the author's intentions most of the time. I am a fairly well educated person and I tend to pick up on things rather quickly, but I think my problem was reading too much too quickly. After enough embarrassment, I have slowed myself down and have forced myself to re-read any posts that I want to comment on, to make sure that my opinion is even related to what the author has written.

There are those who are just out there to spam the comments to add their links to a site or just to get their name to be recognized, but it's nice to see that you are also recognizing that there are those of us who are just moving way too fast for our own good.

Re: Opinions have equal airtime but unequal credibility

vanelsas — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:36:16 -0000

Agree ;-)

Re: Opinions have equal airtime but unequal credibility

Mark Dykeman — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:07:39 -0000

To your point, if the writer makes it clear that his or her comment is just that, a knee-jerk reaction or opinion, then I don't have a problem with that. However, if you're just echoing common knowledge or else spitting in the face of generally accepted practices just to self-promote, I'd have to question the value of doing that.

Re: Opinions have equal airtime but unequal credibility

vanelsas — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:43:29 -0000

It isn't necessarily a bad thing to ventilate an opinion without having done research. That is what an opinion is, a personal view about a subject. Having said that I have noticed and noted before that people often enter on-line discussions without actually having read the post where it all started with. Often bold statements are provided as truths without some sort of indication that it is an opinion. As a result discussions on Friendfeed for example sometimes seem to have become a long list of bold statements where people aren't really discussing anything, or wander off from the intent of the blog post itself (it gets hijacked).
I'm not sure if it is a bad thing. Sometimes it helps to be bold and it leads to more interesting interactions. But as a reader you will always need to make your own judgment about the trustworthiness of any statement, including the blog post that is written ;-)