Here’s what I commented on GreyWulf’s article on the ApostropheCatastrophe. Having to put a copy here just goes to show how crappy this blogging stuff is. You can’t trust anyone to keep your stuff online. You can’t engage in any real conversations because blogs have such crappy RSS interfaces (comments separate from articles, no way to subscribe to comment threads where you have contributed, and so on).
Well, there are two things, here. There’s the part about typography. I enjoyed The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst. And then there’s journalistic integrity. Which I’d like to split up into two issues, one of which you have mentioned:
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
1. Terrible writing style be concatenating a bunch of quotes without offering any interpretation or background. That’s just the lousiest and laziest kind of interview post-processing. But it’s cheap. So our Zeitgeist supports it.
2. The misguided attempt to be impartial by listing every stakeholder’s opinion, no matter how lousy they are. That’s a very strange interpretation of neutrality and impartiality, but sometimes this is exactly the external form it assumes: Just give equal space to both sides of an issue, and ignore the fact that maybe there are more sides to the issue, or shades of gray between two extremes, or that one of the two sides is so seriously misguided that giving both sides equal space effectively supports an untennable position.
There a difference between having an opinion and reporting on somebody else having an opinion. I usually don’t see it as trying to avoid litigation, which is what you have claimed, because this only works if you clearly attribute it to somebody, and then issue #1 is more relevant: Bad style. No, I think the real reason is the kind of relativism explained by issue #2: Putting things in quotes takes away the ’sting’. It adds irony and undermines authority, supports the sceptic in us. Nothing bad about it, actually. It’s a ’rhetoric’ element. It can be ’used’ to good effect. Or it can be ’overdone’, if you see what I ’mean’. So it’s either bad style (#1) or a misguided attempt at being impartial (#2).
#Writing #Blogs
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You can’t engage in any real conversations because blogs have such crappy RSS interfaces (comments separate from articles, no way to subscribe to comment threads where you have contributed, and so on).
Agree entirely. I’m thinking about moving from usng OddMuse on my site as a wikiblog to using it as a straight wiki. It’ll involve a little education (ie, clear, simple instructions) for visitors, but will simplify the whole conversation style problem.
Thoughts, as ever, appreciated 😄
– GreyWulf 2006-09-22 10:49 UTC
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Maybe the simple RSS feed to all pages matching “Alex Schroeder” on your site would solve a big part of my problem, though. Who knows. ;)
– Alex Schroeder 2006-09-22 13:24 UTC
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Heh. That’s just *too* easy 😄
– GreyWulf 2006-09-22 22:39 UTC