It’s no secret… I haven’t blogged in a month!?
Blogging as a personal tool for expression has waned in the shadow of Facebook, Twitter, and any number of new digital tools of personal mass-communication. Unless someone can blog full-time as a profession or committed hobby it is difficult to maintain steady and meaningful content… making the maintenance of such a beast more trouble than it’s worth.
I have had this conversation with several blogging friends within the last few months. As more and more of our friends and family get on Facebook, for example, it’s much easier to maintain interactive and up-to-date communication with them within Facebook, rather than a blog. And since most folks I know started a blog to (mostly) broadcast happenings to family and friends… well, you can see the conundrum.
Infrequent posting can be minimized by emphasizing RSS feeds. Today, it’s impractical to keep up with more than a few blogs without subscribing to their feeds (for example: here’s mine). Once you have a site’s feed you can effectively “combine” them using tools such as Google Reader into a one-stop shop of all your favorite blogs’ latest posts.
Now, I’m not saying that blogging is gonna fade out very soon. Indeed, the number of blogs on the internet is still increasing. What I’m saying is that – with every medium – there is a natural cycle… and the “personal” blog is waning. The “topical” blog is still a strong format, and won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
As such, I may be turning Negative99 into a topical blog in the near future. I will first – probably – set up my personal website, SteveMooradian.com, to be more of a personal “portal” that will contain a aggregated blog feed, Twitter feed, Facebook feed, Flickr feed, and other details. Whereas my blog, Negative99, will host content directly related to what I’m most passionate about… being a Christ-follower who’s conservative, unashamed, and too discerning for his own patience. 
I’m not sure exactly when this change will occur… but if you SUBSCRIBE then you’ll be the first to know!
UPDATE: Yes, yes… I figure I’ll keep the flash games up…
I'm a Christ-follower, compelled by my faith toward reason, which points directly toward conservatism. This world's daily onslaught of lunacy offends my intellect and senses, so this is my venue to blow off steam.
From day one my blog was intended to be a showcase for my writing and hopefully a springboard for paid freelance work. I don’t put a whole lot of personal stuff on my blog. I only mention if it is relevant to whatever my topic o’ the day is…
I also have a myspace and that is pretty impersonal too because I have the privacy settings wide open as yet another way of publicizing my writing. My blog over there isn’t terribly personal either. I haven’t updated it for awhile because I am hating myspace more and more by the day. Most of the stuff I did over there was posting stupid videos and funny stories and stuff.
I do more personal stuff on FB precisely because of the privacy factor.
I use twitter more as a networking tool and to put up notices of new blog posts. I also stick up interesting links, news items and am tied in with blip.fm so if all else fails, I can post a song.
Great to hear that you’re going to keep going with the flash games, I’ve missed your posts!
By the way, I have to add that your header looks absolutely amazing! I’m going to add (stalk) you on Twitter now!
- John
Nice work man. Keep up the great effort. I like your work very much.
Great work dude. I think Twitter rocks!