Note: I will be on vacation with limited Internet access until later this evening.
In the narcissistic spirit of poets who spin verses about poetry, I’m going to blog about blogging.
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Last week, I promised to explain to OneSTDV why I had slotted his blog under the newly-formed “Hereditarianism” category on my roll. I figured I’d take the time to explain how I sort blogs on my huge link list. When it comes to categorizing links on my blogroll, I use two criteria:
1) What the blogger usually writes about
2) How the category will fit in with my existing site design
The first one is obvious, but the second needs a little explaining. Since my blogwhoring instincts require me to promote this thing as much as I can in as many ways as I can, I link to a lot of the sites I read on a regular basis. Hundreds of links makes for a sloppy, unorganized blogroll, unless I tidy it. Sticking each file link in its designated folder category de-clutters the site and makes it look nice and neat. In addition, breaking up the blogroll into smaller category chunks makes it MUCH easier for me to adjust the widget layout, as I don’t have to worry about wrecking the design every time I need to make a small change. It’s the difference between snipping a twig off a tree and sawing off a branch.
When it comes to classifying each blog, however, is where things get interesting. Some blogs are just hard to classify because they either cover a broad range of subjects or because their authors deliberately make them defy classification. As OneSTDV alluded to, his blog could go in either “New Right” or “Hereditarianism”. In these cases, I pick one of the subjects that the blogger is intensely interested in/identified with and run with it. In One’s case, he goes under “Hereditarianism” because of his focus on human biodiversity. Dalrock goes under “Sexuality” because he primarily writes on game and relations between the sexes. “Slice of Life” is where I put bloggers like An Unmarried Man and Dynishka who don’t really fit anywhere else. And so on. (Other bloggers link to In Mala Fide in the same way – this site gets described alternately as a game blog, a race realist blog, an MRA blog, or a right-wing political blog depending on the biases of the linker.)
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Some have wondered how I can read and find all the stuff I link to on a weekly basis (NSFW). While I have resolved to carry my secret formula for LIGFY posts to the grave, I have a big huge time-saving tip if you want to digest the amount of material I do on a daily basis. Two words: Google Reader.
I’m not kidding. I’ve been using Reader for years to follow blogs. Before I discovered RSS readers (or had a job that gave me insane amounts of free time to dick around on the Internet), going to individual sites meant I could read at most eight or ten sites a day. Now, with the click of a button, I can scan hundreds of updated blogs, find the posts I like and blow past the ones I don’t. Even better, if your workplace uses filtering software to block certain sites, Google Reader can bypass this by letting you get the posts in your Reader directly. Take that, HR Nazis!
And yet according to my statistics, maybe ten percent of my readers use the In Mala Fide RSS feeds. Why people would want to inconvenience themselves like that, I don’t know.
The one big drawback of Google Reader is that it’s made me too lazy to visit the handful of sites that don’t have RSS feeds on a regular basis. Also, many times I only visit a site when Reader shows me a new post, unless there’s a particularly juicy comment thread going. For those reasons, I’m usually behind the ball when it comes to updates at sites like ANUS or Fred on Everything. But overall, I’d say Google Reader is worth the time it takes to set up.
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Finally, I think I’ve stumbled across the opposite of writer’s block – writer’s rapids.
I don’t have any problem coming up with ideas for posts. The problem is that I have SO many ideas I oftentimes have difficulty picking one to go with. When it comes to riffing on stuff I find in the news, that’s easy. But I have ideas for more philosophical-type posts that I can’t muster up the energy or willpower to flesh out. When you have so many ideas you think are good, how can you decide which one to pound out without some sort of external stimuli (like an article to fisk)?
Any other bloggers have this problem?
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve experienced both writersblock and what you call writers rapid, so you are not alone! Writers rapid has been hassling me for a good 1-2 months right now, but I think it’s starting to wear off.
Yup, I have that problem. I constantly write down possible topics to write about. Out of every five ideas I have, I’d say that only one actually makes it to my blog, and evn then, sometimes I take that one down if I feel like it shouldn’t be up.
I have ideas for more philosophical-type posts that I can’t muster up the energy or willpower to flesh out.
I don’t really have a problem choosing between ideas, but it is damn hard writing things of substance while working for a living. It sucks the life out of you.
I pretty much use Google Reader for everything blog related. No feed and I don’t even bother returning to that blog ever unless I’m checking on particular comments.
The only downside of the readers as a blogger though is those that do read you in a reader don’t count towards page views/visits, and then sometimes they do visit anyway so it’s hard to know exactly how many followers you really have sometimes.
A bit off topic, and yes- I am trying to get the maximum possible numbers of responses to this poll.
More responses = more accurate guess.
—-
What do you think is the median numbers of sexual partners for a 30-year old woman who lives in an urban area of north-america or western europe?
http://dissention.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/what-is-their-real-number/
Too many studies on this area are outdated, lowball that number or inflate that number. What is your objective and educated guess, given what you NOW know about the true nature of women.
Yeah, writer’s rapids is pretty much par for the course… If only there were a neural implant to translate ideas instantly into blog posts as soon as they arose…
I, like Antagonisten, also have writers rapids and writer blocks. With the change of life I’m dealing with at the moment it is more a block time as I’m processing 8 million things at once. I think rapids will becoming as soon as I’m able to start putting words to the new things I’m seeing.
I might have to look at Google reader if it works that well. I haven’t ever heard much about it.
When I’m stumped for what to post, I typically try to insult or attack a blogger who’s more popular than I am. Surprisingly, this compels them to jump for the bait, driving traffic to my site and boosting my self-esteem in the process.
I’m thinking it might be time to pick a fight with Auster. I don’t really care for or regularly read his blog, but it seems like he’s the guy to go to if you have an antisemitic blog and you’re looking for traffic.
Having just started to blog solo, I’m terrified that I’ll get writer’s block, and am building up a stockpile of event-independent posts to drip-feed or stitch a current event onto at some future date.
Seasons of Tumult and Discord has been deleted or shut down!!!
Your answer makes sense.
Google Reader’s interface is too clinical and impersonal for me. I might be able to read more stuff but it’s too much like a newsletter.
Hey Guys Apparently I Heard Or Something That Seasons In Tumolt And Dischord Are No Longer Around. What Happened About That. Why Did Alkobobs And Tallaround Stop Writing.
I am glad to see I am not the only one that finds the actual writing hard work.
I recently decide to start writing “Random Thought” style posts that would be shorter and not necessarily fully developed. I am hoping the shorter form will mean that I post more (and develop at least some of those writing muscles).
For an RSS reader, I use the Sage add-on for Firefox. The problem it suffers is that, like all add-ons, it may stop working after a version change. Despite that I still like it.
A shame about Seasons. I wonder why they deleted it, instead of just not updating anymore.
A true alpha never has difficulty in categorizing stuff (HB 7, HB 8, alpha, omega,…). The key is MRA PUA unity amongst alpha male Game bloggers.
Brothers, we must all swoop together, united pimp-wing to pimp-wing – and so shall our alphaness explode across the Internet as commanded by The Great Book of Pterodactyl
See my new post with game demo video (the one at the lake), which has an appearance by Roissy. Can you spot the evil Easter Egg at the end?
Submit!
Sexy Pterodactyl
I’ve only just started blogging, and fortunately I’m paddling through writer’s rapids myself.
Like others have said above, I keep a list of ideas for future blog posts. Based on my current rate of two posts a week, my present list should keep me going for at least another month.
Like Ferdinand said, there are some ideas that can initially seem too big to tackle. Thus far, my best approach has been to use a smaller idea to write about – not only does it keep me writing and moving forward, but at the same time I can continue to mull over the big ideas at the back of my mind.
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