A third blog in the IntegroBuddhoblogosphere has been tredding in Blogmandu’s roundup business. Sheesh. I am coming to know how General Motors felt when suddenly competition came from Mercedes Benz, Rolls Royce and Infiniti.
First there was tinythinker with terrific, full-bodied roundups in peaceful turmoil on June 15 and again on June 22.
Then came Justin with his “Blogmandu-inspired weekly Roundup” in American Buddhist Perspective on July 15.
And now there is Bill of Integral Options Café doing daily “Speedlinking” at, something like 4am since Saturday. [July 22, July 23, July 24 & July 25.] [By the way, I deeply thank Bill for his links in Speedlinking to the new group blog Nagarjuna, who solo-blogs Naked Reflections <q.v.>, and I have started, the revamped Thoughts Chase Thoughts <q.v.>.]
Tinythinker, Justin and Bill all do a terrific job and are giving me ideas about how to better do Blogmandu’s Roundups when it comes back full-tilt in September. I very much like the idea of doing shorter daily roundup, rather than the weekly ones I had been doing. There is something, still, about blogging that – rightly or wrongly – demands that the freshest stuff is what we are interested in.
“Old” posts – and by this it can mean something just three days old –- drift down the home page of a blog. The comment thread for a post, vibrant at first, quickly loses its vigor.
Nacho of WoodMoor Village has an old post [five days old!] that digs into the issue of sustaining a conversation in blogging. It seems certainly true, as Nacho notes, quoting an essay, that blogging is set up to be too much a “friend of information but the enemy of thought.” So, Nacho is using a tool that his blogging software provides to create a 'featured post' at his blogspace.
Possibly, there are other new tools and ideas coming along to sustain posts and conversations in blogging. Will of thinkBuddha, always at the forefront of Blogging technology, has coComments tied in with his blog. CoComments has features that allow a blogger to stay abreast of comment-thread conversations he is engaged in. In addition, I noticed there are other clever ideas that coComments is spearheading that have promise in ‘sustaining’ blog conversations.
Possibly, Blogmandu can help out by following along, on a daily basis, some of the conversations that have ‘buzz.’ And, perhaps, on a weekly basis, Blogmandu can announce a Topic for the Week that Nacho or Will or someone chooses that the Buddhoblogosphere can chew on in a flurry of interlaced posts.
Anyway, when the Roundups in Blogmandu come back, I am hopeful that two seeming contradictory issues are addressed to make the roundups more relevant: 1) that the material covered is fresher and 2) that B’du helps in the noble effort of sustaining the goodness of posts and comment threads that have been around a while.
I would welcome comments, y'all, about the general topic of sustainability of blog posts.
Technorati tags: speedlink, speedlinking, roundups, Buddhoblogosphere, blangha, Buddhism, Buddhism buzz, cocomments
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Monday, July 17, 2006
Good news; Bad news
A few items, just so people know that Blogmandu is still alive and will be back in its usual role this fall, posting weekly roundups. AND because there is some Buddhoblogospheric news.
Good News and Bad News: Our friend Cliff Jones's This is This blog post "Vesak and the Art of Changing Tyres" is indeed in Mandala magazine. Here’s proof: The magazine’s Aug/Sep Table of Contents. Get yourselves a copy of that magazine, kind readers! The bad news [and terrible it is] is that Kit is threatening to shutdown the venerable Buddhist weblog PaperFrog. Don’t do it Kit! Oh dear, it looks like Kit is moving on to other adventures, so though Kit has a history of practical jokes [e.g., here & here], the betting is that PF is really going to close. Bummer. Go to the FrogBlog NOW to say your goodbyes, and perhaps to talk Kit out of boiling the frog.
tinythinker or peaceful turmoil started it, but now Justin Whitaker is blogmandoing something in his journal that apes B’du’s role in the world. Yes, while I have been sitting back, drinking vodka martinis, Justin has posted a Roundup in American Buddhist Perspective. J’s roundup is mostly about HIM and HIS busy extroverted life of high adventures than the doings of the fitful Integro-Buddhoblogosphere, but it is certainly full of interesting stuff and tasty links. One thing of Interest: Young Justin will be teaching a class on Introductory Buddhism and one on Meditation at the University of Montana, aka the U of MTness. There are still some opennings in the Intro class, as I write. Sign up and learn something. [Buddha’s that guy who was a lot like Jesus only he didn't have Christ’s blonde hair and blue eyes, instead looking just like Keanu Reeves.]
Other bad news: Jeff’s ZenDiary seems to have sunk beneath a wave of electrons. BUT, there’s some good news: Kim’s this life has come back to life with Kim, now called Beth, up and blogging. Too, Gareth posted a long, interesting post in Green Clouds after having been away for a couple of weeks and done light blogging for the past few months. Tom says check it out.
[Correction: An earlier version of this post chided Cliff for taking down his Vesak post. Not so, it turns out. "Vesak and the Art of Changing Tyres" was never taken down. It is online for our reading pleasure. Hurrah! See comments.]
Good News and Bad News: Our friend Cliff Jones's This is This blog post "Vesak and the Art of Changing Tyres" is indeed in Mandala magazine. Here’s proof: The magazine’s Aug/Sep Table of Contents. Get yourselves a copy of that magazine, kind readers! The bad news [and terrible it is] is that Kit is threatening to shutdown the venerable Buddhist weblog PaperFrog. Don’t do it Kit! Oh dear, it looks like Kit is moving on to other adventures, so though Kit has a history of practical jokes [e.g., here & here], the betting is that PF is really going to close. Bummer. Go to the FrogBlog NOW to say your goodbyes, and perhaps to talk Kit out of boiling the frog.
tinythinker or peaceful turmoil started it, but now Justin Whitaker is blogmandoing something in his journal that apes B’du’s role in the world. Yes, while I have been sitting back, drinking vodka martinis, Justin has posted a Roundup in American Buddhist Perspective. J’s roundup is mostly about HIM and HIS busy extroverted life of high adventures than the doings of the fitful Integro-Buddhoblogosphere, but it is certainly full of interesting stuff and tasty links. One thing of Interest: Young Justin will be teaching a class on Introductory Buddhism and one on Meditation at the University of Montana, aka the U of MTness. There are still some opennings in the Intro class, as I write. Sign up and learn something. [Buddha’s that guy who was a lot like Jesus only he didn't have Christ’s blonde hair and blue eyes, instead looking just like Keanu Reeves.]
Other bad news: Jeff’s ZenDiary seems to have sunk beneath a wave of electrons. BUT, there’s some good news: Kim’s this life has come back to life with Kim, now called Beth, up and blogging. Too, Gareth posted a long, interesting post in Green Clouds after having been away for a couple of weeks and done light blogging for the past few months. Tom says check it out.
[Correction: An earlier version of this post chided Cliff for taking down his Vesak post. Not so, it turns out. "Vesak and the Art of Changing Tyres" was never taken down. It is online for our reading pleasure. Hurrah! See comments.]
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