the j. botter weblog

Chris Pirillo says there’s no such thing as an A-list when it comes to the blogosphere.  He also makes a valid point that “the scoop” no longer exists, because no matter who breaks a story, there’s going to be 20,000 other bloggers reporting it within minutes of the item being discovered, and 75% of them aren’t going to give any sort of credit to the person who broke the news in the first place.

Chris has a valid point, to an extent.  There are so many people trying to make a name for themselves that there’s no possible way to ensure proper atrribution.  For every Robert Scoble or Tara Hunt, there’s a thousand other bloggers who would love to be in their shoes.  Scoble and Tara are always generous with links, and I’ve never seen either of them put something in the blogosphere without giving proper credit.  Not everyone is like Robert and Tara, though.  Memeorandum has introduced a whole new layer of competitiveness in the blogosphere; it’s seen as the hip tech site where the real Geek Stars are congregating, and so everyone wants a piece of the action.  I’m guilty of it, too.  Since my posts started getting indexed in Memeorandum, there’s been times when I’ll weigh in on a subject simply because I know it will get posted on the site and people will check it out.

Is this a good practice?  Probably not.  I’ll tell you one thing, however — I’m a lot more active as a blogger since I became a part of the tech community.  I used to burn out on writing because nobody was reading what I wrote, and I can’t say I blame them. With very few exceptions, nobody wants to read about my day.  Nobody cares if work sucked today.  For a long time, I blogged about personal stuff, and I took it personally when nobody would read or interact.  Since I’ve gotten involved in the tech community, however, I’ve had people reading my stuff, dropping me emails, leaving comments and actively engaging me in the things that I’m passionate about.  I repressed my inner geek for a long time, but I’ve recently realized that I’m sick of doing that.  I love geeky things.  And you know what?  That’s not a bad thing.  Memeorandum keeps me creative, it keeps me writing, and more importantly, it opens up conversations with people who I’d never otherwise have met, whether it’s online or in real life.

So yes, maybe the scoop doesn’t exist anymore.  But who cares? The best writing will rise to the surface, and the rest will fade away, just like it always has.