Reminds me of this ‘new gaming journalism’ craze. A normal review is very comprehensive and gives people with differing tastes a good idea of if the game is for them or not. ‘new gaming journalism’ on the other hand is a story about how the reviewer played the game, including little brothers interrupting and other useless crap. It is very personal and generally utterly useless unless you have the same tastes as the author.
Thanks Jeff, you’re worth it too 
Did you count the number of times the word “Scoble” appeared in Robert’s post? I was having serious flashbacks to “malkovich, malkovich, malkovich.”
First computer building advice for soccer moms, now childish blog politics and bitch fighting. Can’t we please return to the kind of topics that are the reason for most of us to come here ? If I really cared about who insulted whom over what misunderstanding, I’d watch some Spanish daily soap.
Whatever.
I didn’t know who any of these folks (other than Steve McConnell) mentioned were before I read this post and after clicking on the links, I still don’t care who they are. I guess I’m supposed to know/care about Robert Scoble because he’s got a Wikipedia entry and that he’s evidently a successful guy of some sorts, but from down under the rock from which I must be living, he’s a non-issue in my life.
In the end, there are good blogs and bad ones. What I like about a blog writer might differ considerably from what others use to base such decisions. I suspect there are a fair number of folks who think Scoble’s blog is the bomb. Great. I think I’ll pass on it.
I like Coding Horror because (generally) the topics are relevant to my life. This one, well, isn’t. That’s OK - nobody bats 1000.
Please get back to writing something about code. I dont want to see this site being reffered to as “Karma Horror”
Jeff:
Looking at Nielsen’s home page, it’s pretty much the same thing. Granted, I know neither of them, but he and Scoble look like they’re made for each other.
I realize this is a rare lapse into meta-blogging, or “blogging about blogging”, but I think there’s a deeper lesson here.
If you’re going to spend time creating content that goes on the internet-- whether it’s a blog post, or something else-- make sure there’s something of value in it, something unique that YOU are adding.
Actually that was one of Scoble’s better articles lately, since it didnt involve iPhone or Facebook !
Most blogs around the web are just a sort of online diary. And people post whatever they want on it (which doesnt mean you have to read them ;)). Why are other people telling what to post and what not ? The articles about blogging might be valid if you’re goal is to make money and reach a large audience, but that’s probably about 0,01% of all blogs out there.
J. Stoever : “First computer building advice for soccer moms, now childish blog politics and bitch fighting. Can’t we please return to the kind of topics that are the reason for most of us to come here ? If I really cared about who insulted whom over what misunderstanding, I’d watch some Spanish daily soap.”
I just don’t understand people who visit a blog and think that they can tell the blog owner what to say.
If Jeff wants to write articles about the taste differences in different colors of Skittles or the best brand of dogfood for your Great Dane, so what? It’s his damned blog. If you don’t want to read what he writes today, don’t read it and try again tomorrow. Don’t like it every day? Stop visiting.
If you don’t like what’s being written here, start your own blog and use it to write whatever you want to read.
Jeff,
Maybe this title should be Blogging Horror? Scoble obviously has it in for Nielsen and Nielsen is against blogging even though he conducts it. He lost me at the statistics, I just don’t care enough. This subject is a big waste of time.
Can we please get back to the awesome content you usually deliver? Thanks!
Hey Carly Simon! Thanks for writing that song about me.
One of my favorite old pearls of wisdom:
Arguing on the Internet is like competing in the special Olympics, even if you win you’re still retarded.
Paul: “Scoble’s self-reference can also be seen as a rhetorical use of analogy - the title is a great hint in this direction “…like…”.”
HAHAHA Are you for real?
Weird how nobody seems to notice that Nielsen’s post is intended as a guideline for expert-level, commercial blogs for those who already have businesses. That renders the vast majority of the comments about it irrelevant, since those comments seem to be about personal blogs and their content, which has different drivers.
Doesn’t seem like a lot of commenters read the originating post in full…
I could give a rats ass about attracting paying customers. My blog is just that… MINE. It’s my online public journal of my thoughts and opinions. It’s not professional in any way and I don’t care. I don’t even care about how few of hits I get. Just the fact that it is there for people to see. Isn’t that what blogs are meant to be?
BTW about the comments on a blog/artical. You said it yourself in the first paragraph of a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000751.html"this/a and I would have to agree. Comments are a way for people to agree, disagree or hold a conversation in general. Maybe Jakob Nielsen doesn’t want to have comments because people will be able to challenge him. This might make him look bad or not appear so smart after all. Just an incite I think.
@Adam:
Or maybe Mr. Nielsen is afraid that the comments on his “articals” would not be all that “inciteful”
I would like to make some subtle changes to Jeff’s sentence:
“If you’re going to spend time creating content that goes on the internet-- whether it’s a blog post, or something else-- make sure there’s something of value in it, something unique that YOU are adding.”
Changing it to:
“If you’re going to spend time creating content that goes on TV-- whether it’s a news program, or something else-- make sure there’s something of value in it, something unique that YOU are adding.”
As you see, poor content is not an exclusive sin of bloggers. TV has much more history in showing decadence. Should I mention “bestsellers” books also?
Scoble’s self-reference can also be seen as a rhetorical use of analogy - the title is a great hint in this direction “…like…”.