Comments on: Is ALT.NET Becoming Incestuous?

By: Don Demsak

Don Demsak — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:05:48 +0000

From my experience, Twitter is scratching my blog itch, for now.

But, yes, we do need better content on our blogs.

By: Chris Patterson

Chris Patterson — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:29:02 +0000

I agree Max, I haven’t seen nearly as many good posts lately on CodeBetter.

They need to bubble up the good stuff.

By: Jeremy N

Jeremy N — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:31:11 +0000

Two quick points.

1. Unfortunately forums seem to be following the same trend that Max has pointed out in the blogosphere. Beyond both the readability point that Russell commented about, and the head nodding Max posted about, we lose the almighty “Google” it to find answers when we have problems. The search-ability and being able to read the discussion of why people made their decisions is one of the great benefits the Internet has offered us. Why make the same mistake other developers have rather then being able to learn from those mistakes with a quick search and reading session.

2. It might be a bit easier to put an option out there if people will all react by patting your back, but if your view stands the heat of a few people questioning it that view seems that it holds a lot more validity to it. If the option seems to crumble under a little pressure, maybe you should have been questioning the viewpoint in the first place.

By: Russell Ball

Russell Ball — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:13:28 +0000

Good point. I’ve noticed the same trend. Besides being a better at reaching a wider audience, I also think that blogs are a better format for discussions. I’ve noticed that the author tends to put more time into thinking out and communicating their thoughts in a blog post than they do in an email. I also think that the comment section of a blog is also much easier to read than a ton of email replies filled that consist of 90% copied text that you have to mentally filter out.

Down with incestuous news groups!

But I’m just old fashioned that way…:-)