Blogs and community

Blogs have become very popular in the past few years. People like to write about their thoughts on a variety of topics, but more importantly they like to share those thoughts within a community organically developed over time. Members of a blog's comment community recognize and respond to the comments of others and the discourse becomes the main purpose of commenting at the blog. Some blog's recognize this and some do not. Some bloggers are similar to journalists and editorialists, meaning they want to control the content and direction of the story, and do not want to share an analysis of it with anonymous commenters. These bloggers consider blog commenters to be either uninformed or poor writers and thinkers and more resemble editorialists than interlocutors, who would rather just preach than converse.

Blogging commenters initiate communities by repeatedly making comments about other comments. Over time this communal body of work develops into specific identities or personalities, becoming a community of known and unknown commenters who share their thoughts and responses to others' thoughts within the blog. This is the community, but it is not defined by membership or any other organizing principle, but is a rather loose group of people compelled to write and respond to each others opinions within the confines of the blog.

When bloggers change the location of their internet home, the change may disrupt or destroy the commenter community. Mr. Kevin Drum recently moved his blogging from the Washington Monthly blog, Political Animal, to his byline blog at Mother Jones. Many of the commenters at Political Animal followed him to his new location, keeping their same identities, and many have not, with some preferring to comment at the old site with another blogger making posts. Although still in the transition stage for both blogs, a noticeable change in the interactions of the blog commenters is discernible. There is noticeably less response to comments made by other commenters, and less comment conflict as a result. Perhaps that is why Mr. Drum wanted to leave the Washington Monthly. Over the past year the commenter community had become a bit predictable, and thus stale, while at the same time more intolerant of differences of opinion and hostile to them.

Whether the lack of sense of community will continue or, over time, will regain its sense remains to be seen. In the meantime this blog commenter has felt the sense of loss of the community once known as Political Animals, who were the main reason for responding to current events. In that spirit, Brojo's Madhouse has been created.