stii.za.net » Blog Archive » How healthy is the SA blogging community?

How healthy is the SA blogging community?

Mar 26

Much has been said in recent times about the state of health of the South African Blogging community. Most people complained that everyone is talking about the same crap. Capitalizing on a hot topic to get exposure. It was obvious when the SA Blog Award debate happened. Every second blog you visited had a post on the debate. Irretating, yes. I’ve also complained about it. I have also said they are flogging a dead horse. I was wrong…

At least when you got to a blog with the topic like “SA Blog Awards controversy” you were bound to read the opinion of the blogger. Is that not a primary reason for blogging? To express and give your opinion? Is it not a GOOD thing to see that everyone at least had a opinion about it?

Lets look at Technorati. Go to Technorati and click on one of the Top 10 hot searches. I clicked on Twitter, which is the hottest at the moment. You are bound to find one or more blogs that say: “Just checking it out!” with a pingback to another blog post (although not exactly in this example. No pingback here, but it does happen often). Now THAT is a blatent “blog camper”. Spamming in its worst form. What people do is they want to be part of the hot topic, but do not even have an opinion on it! So they simply “leech” onto someone that may have an opinion and in return they get some Technorati exposure.

If you go onto Amatomu, you will see that whatever SA blog you visit from there has got some opinion. If not opinion, then at least some form of originality. I’ve never seen such spamming happening yet in the SA blogosphere. (Apart from the lovely daily links that seems to be soooo popular! At least even there opinions about the links are given in the form of a one-liner.) When this does happen (hopefully never, although that might be wishful thinking) we will have bigger problems. Crap like that detracts from a blogging community in more ways than one. There is nothing more appalling than hitting a blog that only offers you a link to another… PUKE!

We advocate that blogs allow you to express your opinion. So I think it would be appropriate if we swallow our own words and bear with all the opinions, however good or bad, since they are a lot better than leeching off or simply linking to other’s opinions! I woe the day that starts happening…

technorati tags:blogging, spamming, sablogs, technorati

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8 Comments to "How healthy is the SA blogging community?"

Andre SC said: On 03/26/2007 at 10:48 am
Good !original! points Stii.

Would be nice to customise one’s view of amatomu lists, e.g. show olny posts with higher than 60:40 content to links ratio, except posts that break a certain ‘popularity’ or ‘authority’ index - what do you think?
Stii said: On 03/26/2007 at 10:54 am
I totally agree, Andre! Would be a great feature.
A simple suggestion for Amatomu said: On 03/26/2007 at 10:22 pm
[...] I think this might also become quite useful, if local micro-blogging a la twitter takes off - NO I DO NOT, want to know what you are having for dinner but thanks for the thought :-), to be able to see some basic stats on blogs, e.g. average post length and average content to links ratio. Last especially if or rather when spamdexing (using keywords a little too opportunistically) & splogging (spam-blogging) starts targeting amatomu as Stii considers in his post on our blogging community’s health. [...]
Godsgimp said: On 03/27/2007 at 9:14 am
Opinion on the same topic should be a way of working together on the blogger community. There is very little cross blog communication in the SA blogging community, a line of thought which works it way thru, an interactivity if you will. A growing conversation, in a way a grander version of a wiki. Besides the flow of information and the growth of a topic, there comes also a flow of traffic. Which is after-all what spammers are after.
links for 2007-03-28 at Wired Gecko said: On 03/28/2007 at 5:29 am
[...] stii.za.net » Blog Archive » How healthy is the SA blogging community? (tags: sablogcommunity sablogs spam) [...]
Global Voices Online » Amatomu: The South African blogosphere, sorted said: On 04/11/2007 at 12:46 am
[...] uses Amatomu to find out how healthy the South African blogging community is: If you go onto Amatomu, you will see that whatever SA blog you visit from there has got some [...]
robert said: On 06/04/2007 at 5:46 pm
I’ve come to realise that SA Blogging is still at a stage between embryonic and stillborn.

There is a big learning curve out there which most bloggers in South Africa appear to still be riding. How many new SAFFER blogs are created a day, week or each month? Having those stats could provide quite an insight into why some of the bad behaviours levelled at bloggers occurs and lend support to your theories. And mine. Everything you say Stii, is applicable to a degree while not necessarily encompassing everthing bad about local blogging. Neither is what you say necessarily exclusive to Southern African bloggers.

It is my opinion that I cannot escape the sense that there is a shallow attempt by too many South African bloggers to copycat geek/marketing/tekkie entrepreneurs. Tragic because so much originality at the hands of the creators gets lost in a background of resultant tailback noise from those who want to hang onto the coattails of originality. I should know, I was one until I found my own voice.

I kept telling myself to ignore everyone. I ranted at Technorati and Muti. I think I was the first deserter Muti had. But now I am back with them. Why, I learnt to accept that nobody can best me when I write my story and a rank just does not matter at all. Just like nobody can best Seth, Hugh and Guy and what they create which is of themselves. Not copycatting.

South African bloggers are good. There are some great blogs. Like Max, ChampagneHeathen, Dave Duarte, Kyknoord and a lot more who have found their uniqueness, their voice in the blogosphere and are pulling the readers in hand over fist.

Luckily the SA blogging scene is so young. A load more bloggers need to find their niche quickly to retain the traction SA blogging is gaining. We need more originality to stop South African blogging from being a stillborn event.
Ann said: On 06/05/2007 at 5:48 am
Nice observation, thanks.