Stall The Ball

Nicholas Carr writes an intersting piece on the loneliness of blogging and the naturally occuring caste sytem in blog links. The royalty of blogging versus the mere peasants and the self perpetuating lies we tell our selves referred to as innocent fraud.

An innocent fraud is a lie, but it's a lie that's more white than black. It's a lie that makes most everyone happy. It suits the purposes of the powerful because it masks the full extent of their power, and it suits the purposes of the powerless because it masks the full extent of their powerlessness.

Follow up:

The best way, by far, to get a link from an A List blogger is to provide a link to the A List blogger. As the blogophere has become more rigidly hierarchical, not by design but as a natural consequence of hyperlinking patterns, filtering algorithms, aggregation engines, and subscription and syndication technologies, not to mention human nature, it has turned into a grand system of patronage operated - with the best of intentions, mind you - by a tiny, self-perpetuating elite.

I particularly like his analogy of the newbie blogger arriving at the castle wall.

A blog-peasant, one of the Great Unread, comes to the wall of the castle to offer a tribute to a royal, and the royal drops a couple of coins of attention into the peasant's little purse. The peasant is happy, and the royal's hold over his position in the castle is a little bit stronger.

Meanwhile Michael Arrington goes on the offensive (pun intended) by windering if Carr is “Is Nick Carr the new Robin Hood, or just an Asshole?” But he does raise some good counterpoints.

Blogging is not about the individual. It’s about the power of the blogosphere as an entity.

If you find that you are blogging just to get influence and attention, you should stop because you are going to be dissapointed.

All good stuff and I can sympathise with both sides of the argument. More food for thought I think. It begs the question who in Ireland is the blogging royalty. Maybe we should give out crowns at the next blog awards ceremony?