This goes to the question of why people "blog" instead of simple Facebook entries or Tweats. They are all the same actually....but a matter or seriousness perhaps separating one from the other but then again there are serious Tweats and with momma grizzly around, Facebook and for that matter YouTube take on new life.
Some people blog to make money. They have the distant hope, as most gold miners do, that something they write will tickle a lot of fancies and their blog entry will be passed like a hot potato to the ends of the earth and everyone will click on the little adwords Google ads on the side and a fortune will be made. Others don't care if there is money in the end or not and write because what they are thinking needs writing. Others still simple like to write and view this as a harmless diversion and perhaps an innocent skill sharpening.
I feel more like the later. I will admit that it is nice when 400-500 people show up to read me on a day and that I lull them in with something that has some fire to it so I can perhaps get them to listen to some music or watch a ballet scene...and that works...(baby baby steps). Some have described me as left of center and I can't deny it. Ann Coulter banned me from commenting on her blog because I wasn't concentric with her thinking (whatever that is) and I just quit Ann Althouse's blog and frankly that is why I am writing this.
If you Google "hdhouse" and "althouse" or "blog" and a lot of stuff of mine pops up...about 5 years worth at least so it is a bit of a separation anxiety thing. Ms. Althouse, a law professor in Wisconsin, wrote an Op-Ed in the NYTimes years back and I didn't much care for it but went to her blog and read and commented and the back and forth in the readership/community was pretty brisk. It had a nice mix of liberals and conservatives, some very gifted writers and so crazies...so it was society in electrons. Someone however educated the extreme right wing that blogs came up in topic searches and you could get some traction no matter what you said if you said it often enough and enough people agreed with you.
Ms. Althouse came to some conclusion that if she tossed enough red meat out ti would attract more and more of these folks and her page views would skyrocket. It was that critical moment when a writer finds out that if he dumbs stuff down a bit and tosses in some sex and violence he can morph from being idealistic to capitalistic and augment the take home pay. I suspect that is what happened with her and the quality of the debate sank like the Titanic.
I further suspect I was right in my assessment that she, when called on it, drew up the Sarah Palin "woe is me" stuff. Anyway, I'm happy people read what I write but if they didn't, I would write anyway for the pure pleasure of writing. I'll continue to comment on blogs but not make the mistake of being part of their community (I wouldn't join any group that would have me as a member)...I'll just come and go.
I do promise not to let the vanity of believing I have a mission and that I can play with an audience like a 7th grader with an ant farm and tweezers. ..also promising to never try and make this for profit and be forced to make the choice between pleasure and a purse string.