Xeni On Blogging

I love what Xeni has to say on this "best blogs" subject. Here's her email she agreed to let me share.

I totally love her concept of "ONLINE MOOD RINGS" -- what a great thing to say!

> Over time, I've adopted my blog-mentor Cory's
> philosophy of "my blog is my
> scrapbook, whether or not its contents interest
> you." And in attempting to
> emulate his "shorter-is-sweeter" style, I've grown
> to appreciate the beauty
> of brevity on blogs. When a blog is a
> pointer-scrapbook, it makes sense to
> point as efficiently as possible.
>
> But I've also developed an appreciation for
> longer-winded blogs that serve a
> different purpose. Take Kevin Site's blog
> <kevinsites.net>, for example.
> Kevin's blog is mostly a collection of first-person
> essays, usually over 400
> words or so each. Completely different style from
> BoingBoing. Completely
> different purpose.
>
> Some weblogs are subjective accounts of the
> blogger's experience moving
> through the world, others are shorthand lists of
> things the blogger
> encounters, others are navelgazing cul-de sacs,
> amounting to little more
> than online mood rings that chronicle self-involved
> minutiae.
>
> But in the end, this is what matters for all of
> them:
>
> Best blogs follow the same form as best writing in a
> magazine or novel.
> Whether the posts are brief, a la Cory, or
> long-winded, a la Kevin,
> they use only as many words as are absolutely
> neccesary for the task at
> hand.
>
> It's not about whether posts are short or long. It's
> about the fact that
> wasted words are obstacles.
>

And btw, I hate to make a big deal about it -- but read what this brilliant babe said one more time:


> Best blogs follow the same form as best writing in a
> magazine or novel ...
> they use only as many words as are absolutely
> neccesary for the task at
> hand.
>