Ensight - Jeremy Wright

Okay everyone, it is now time to take a deep breath.

There has been a “brooding discontent” growing in the blogosphere over the last couple of months. I’ve mainly ignored it, because the minor indicators weren’t enough for me to call it a “trend”. First there was “anti-blogging”, then there was the outing of bloggers for all kinds of reasons, then there were blog feuds and now there is the “blogging isn’t growing so fast so it must be dying”.

And a surprising number of people are beginning to take some of these things to heart. The blogosphere’s current situation reminds me of Microsoft’s stock price:

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Any good trend has ups and downs. Any great trend has a lot of steady ups, mixed with a handful of minor “downs”. How the people at the helm of the trend handle the downs is often what determines how well the trend survives. Panic is bad. A time of reflection, followed by a measured response is good.

This, right here, right now, is an inflection point for blogging. Growth has slowed. But we are mainstream (there are 10 times as many people blogging as own iPods, there are 50 times as many people reading blogs as purchasers at all online music stores combined). Mainstream, if there is such a thing, is here and now. But, we’ve had some scandals. People have accepted payouts, bloggers have needlessly attacked character blogs, companies haven’t appreciated the true nature of blogging…

All kinds of things have happened in the last 6 months that are ultimately shaping what blogging will become.

Now is the time to stop. It is time to ask yourself a few questions:

1. Why did I get into blogging?
2. Am I still blogging for the same reason as when I started?
3. What do I want blogging to become?
4. Are my current attitudes and actions the kinds of things likely to bring about my goal for blogging?

I think it was the furor over character blogs which first kicked this train of thought into high gear. The common argument against character blogs is that they are fake and that they aren’t “authentic”.

I’m not going to argue the merits or whatnot of character blogs. That’s for another discussion.

But, was the reaction to character blogs really the kind of thing we want to be known for? Isn’t the blogosphere you want more accepting than that? Can’t we let companies push the envelope without feeling personally threatened?

Some of the words from some of the top bloggers on this were disgraceful and not the kind of thing they would say to anyone in person.

Is this really what we want the blogosphere to become?

This is an inflection point.

I’ve spent the last hour reading through my archives and various comments around the web to see if what I’m saying matches up with where I want blogging to go. I’m evaluating if I’m helping us get there or if I’m hindering it. I’m doing a status check on how much I’m actually contributing to the community.

It is nearly impossible to do this during a growth spurt. The downtime is when you get your true opportunity to re-evaluate yourself, your blogging and blogging as a whole.

Don’t miss this opportunity.