I find ironic the fact that I’m writing a post on Escamoteurettes to answer some of the remarks you made in a post on Magic Rants today dealing with whether or not to host\/field comments on blogs. Normally, in the blogosphere, these comments would be entered and hosted with the article on which I’m commenting. Wouldn’t you agree?<\/p>\n
First, I’ll restate something I’ve mentioned a number of times: I believe each blog author should run their railroad as he sees fit.<\/em> There isn’t a case or “right”<\/em> or “wrong”<\/em> — it just is as the author cares to have it. You have removed the ability for visitors to comment on your posts. That’s your choice, and I’m the last person to argue about it.<\/p>\n On the other hand, it is a point worthy of discussion. Other bloggers have discussed it. I’ve written about it. I didn’t see you complaining about it, and I don’t believe you would complain about it. I think you feel about the autonomy of authors’ decisions about the same as I do: to each his own. But sometimes people are moved to comment on something they’ve read. If it’s in a blog, it’s on the blog they’d like to comment.<\/p>\n But, here we are.<\/p>\n In response to my comment, “Conversations are very important in a community, “<\/em> you wrote:<\/p>\n That would be true IF one were trying to start a community. If I wanted to start a community, with discussions I would have started a new discussion board.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n By community, I meant more along the lines of a brotherhood (with more “brother”<\/em> than “hood.”<\/em>) A band of brethren who share a common interest: magic. I didn’t necessarily mean actively creating a digital community.<\/p>\n But I would like to point out your web site’s masthead includes the line: “The Evolution of Magic Discussion”<\/em>. With all due respect — and at the risk of seeming snarky — shouldn’t that either be deleted or at least changed to “Devolution”<\/em>?<\/p>\n In response to my writing, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A blog without comments is simply a web site; a one-way street where the writer writes and the reader reads and, if they interact at all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s likely in private email.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> you wrote:<\/p>\n A blog with comments is ALSO a website, where a very small percentage of visitors actually comment. But I think the bigger point is that this IS a one-way street. You either like what I have to say or you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to come back. Whereas on a discussion board, if you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like what I had to say, you would probably keep running into me on various threads.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In the purest sense of the word, sure a blog is also a web site. But we call them blogs — weblogs — and it has emerged that one of the distinctions between a web site and a blog is the interaction between author and visitor, especially via the comments section. Web sites, by their nature, have writers writing, readers reading, and that’s it. Hence my reference to a one-way street.<\/p>\n Sure, you could repurpose my one-way-street reference to mean “like it or not, read it or not” — and that’s fine by me — but you are answering something I did not say. I’ll stand by my comment that a blog that doesn’t afford visitors the ability to interact with the author is a one-way street and I consider a traditional web site.<\/p>\n Even though we both know a tiny percentage of visitors ever actually leave comments — on the blog or in private email — everyone is extended the offer equally. It’s like being invited to a party. You don’t necessarily attend every party to which you get an invitation, but it sure feels good to be asked, doesn’t it? It makes you feel welcomed.<\/p>\n You wrote:<\/p>\n \nRegarding the change in my attitude and how I seem to have a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kinder and gentler\u00e2\u20ac\u009d blog, well that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true. I thought I would try something different since every new blogger is pissed off at everything from The Magic Cafe to other magic blogs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I won’t argue that The Magic Cafe<\/a> is singularly responsible for many of the blogs currently in the magic corner of the blogosphere; it is. Magic blogging was late to the blogging revolution. It’s still trying to find its bearings. TMC just happened to be a rallying point, a reason to be. Which, absent any other, is as handy as any other.<\/p>\n You wrote:<\/p>\n Just because most of you guys are anonymous, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do posts on magic that you actually do or DVDs and effects that you like. I suspect that most of you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually perform and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a hobby. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cool, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in magic because you hate it so much. If that is the case, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for you to get a new hobby. We all know that every magic dealer sucks, and anyone who has ever put out a DVD or releases a new effect sucks, so I would like to be enlightened, because apparently I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been reading the wrong books, buying the wrong effects, shopping with the wrong dealers and watching the wrong DVDs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Some magic bloggers bitch and moan about other magic bloggers. Well, I agree it would be nice to more often see individual opinions on things other than what some magic blogger wrote, but the fact is I find that sort of train-wreck writing interesting, too. Sure, it gets tedious sometimes, but it has its place. I think there’s room for USAToday and the Washington Post and the National Enquirer.<\/p>\n One thing I’ve noticed in magic blogging over the last six months (especially) deserves mentioning. <\/p>\n Dave Winer has more years that anyone else on blogging proper. And, as Dave has transitioned from a blog I enjoyed (actually, truly loved) reading, into a blog today I don’t even care to visit any longer because of his often pissy, too-often politically-charged tone, some bloggers who launched their magic blog as a direct result of some perceived injustice they experienced at The Magic Cafe have actually morphed away from their roots and grown into something bigger. There’s hope still.<\/p>\n We all grow, we all change when we grow. I don’t think it’s necessarily good<\/em> or bad<\/em>, just different. Sometimes people don’t like change. I don’t like feeling that your blog is no more, that my comments are no longer welcomed. I don’t argue your reasons for it, but I don’t have to like it either. Obviously this is a point others have noticed. And commented on.<\/p>\n Your wrote:<\/p>\n So\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6yeah, there won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be too much ranting. A little, but to be honest, I am more interested in writing about other topics other than how Steve Brooks hates bloggers. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m starting to agree with him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I don’t have a problem with shoot-from-the-hip ranting. Everyone’s done it. I’ve done it. I just did it and I’m ready to do it again.<\/a> Venting one’s speen in a blog is no less healthy than the long and distinguished history of magic authors through the years doing it in the printed page. But even in The Jinx, Annemann printed letters to the editor unedited and gave equal time to others to dig their hole deeper. (Fact is, Annemann’s vents were what I sometimes enjoyed more than the other stuff.)<\/p>\n I know it’s popular to crack on Steve Brooks. I know it’s conventional wisdom that Steve hates blogs, but I don’t think that’s accurate. Steve has visited Escamoteurettes and even left complimentary comments. If he’s sensitive towards certain blogs that have been critical, or hypercritical of him personally, well..I find it hard to fault the man for feeling a bit put out by some of the bloggers out there.<\/p>\n Finally, isn’t it ironic that one people more critical of magic blogging joined the Dark Side and has one of the best magic blogs in the blogosphere<\/a>? He’s even opened up commenting on certain posts and, I suspect, it’s only a matter of time when he lets lose, throws caution to the wind, and allows commenting all over the place.<\/p>\n Baby steps<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I find ironic the fact that I’m writing a post on Escamoteurettes to answer some of the remarks you made in a post on Magic Rants today dealing with whether or not to host\/field comments on blogs. Normally, in the blogosphere, these comments would be entered and hosted with the article on which I’m commenting. 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