Jimbo.Info: metro weekly article

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October 28, 2004

metro weekly article

Metro Weekly wrote an article about BlogJam. I was quoted a few times, but I've pasted my original answers to the reporter's questions in the extended entry:

What general impressions/comments do you have about Blogjam DC?

I was happy to see such a wide diversity of readings and talent, from poetry to politics, on subjects ranging from heartbreak to hairy bears. It was also a nice creative outlet that you don't get to experience much in D.C.

I understand it was your idea to have it, after your experience in New York. How did it compare -- in terms of the bloggers who read, and the crowd reaction? Did it meet your expectations? And do you have any thoughts about when or if you'll do Blogjam again?

The WYSIWYG Talent Shows in NYC featured bloggers reading about certain themes. In our case, it was gay male bloggers reading about various topics. Maybe in the future we'll put a theme to it, and may not limit the reader lineup to just gay men. We wanted it to be a venue for bloggers to read their stuff in a performance setting. I think the crowd in NYC wasn't as reserved as the DC audience, but that is to be expected. I was really happy that we got such a big crowd, and that people had fun reading and being entertained.

Briefly describe any thoughts you have about how the blogosphere has changed since you began three years ago. Obviously, back then Blogjam couldn't have happened. Any prognostications of how the blogosphere will look four years from now?

I started blogging in 1998. A few HTML-savvy friends of mine taught me how to make web pages, and I stole some code from USA Today's website and made my own online journal called Jimbo Today. That was before content management applications made blogging easier, so I'd have to change the journal's code the hard way, maybe on a weekly basis. Then a friend of mine said, "You need a weblog," and helped me set up my first blog in 1999. Back then, it was mostly techie geeks putting their journals online. Then journalists and writers like Andrew Sullivan started playing with the technology, but didn't really know where it would go at the time. I think it may have been 9/11 that set things off for Weblogs, as Internet users wanted to see how other people felt about the disaster, they wanted to read about other people's feelings. That, and bloggers can write about things without fear of being edited or fired by a corporate board, so a lot of recent events have been covered more truthfully on blogs than in the corporate media. Now when you hear about blogs in the news, it almost seems that political and topical blogs have overshadowed the personal blogs.

Personal blogs will survive only as long as their writers maintain interest in keeping them up. Some bloggers just burn out and lose interest after a while. I think it's the political blogs or journalistic ones that are really making an impact. Again, their authors are free to write without corporate restraint. While not all political bloggers are journalists, many of them are excellent writers, and I think that is making major media sources sweat a little. People are getting the real news, news they have been starving for, from blogs and not from the television or Washington Post.

On that score, do you anticipate still being a blogger then?
Why did you start blogging in the first place?

Before I started an online journal, I had my own personal journal which I still write in to this day. Not everything I go through in life goes on my blog, and the really personal stuff is written down by hand elsewhere. I have a bad long-term memory, and I'm actually surprised by the thoughts and things I wrote a year ago. Journals have always helped me see how I've grown (or not). From mistakes and conflicts from people reading my blog in the past, I've found there are certain things I shouldn't write about online, such as dates, friends, family or work. Blogging about work is now forbidden, and it's dangerous to talk about your friends or dates. But there's still plenty to write about, and blogging has really helped me with my writing skills. You can find a story in anything and make it interesting. I have to write press releases for work, and I've found that speed-writing short blog entries has enabled me to also write for work a lot faster.

My archives used to go back to 1998 or so, but due to a bad server accident during a content management system migration, we lost 2 years. :'( Now I'll never remember those 2 years.

I do not earn money from my blog, but it doesn't cost me anything either. It's hosted on my friend's server, and she manages the content management (blogging) software on it, so I'm virtually hands-free. Well, I do have a 'donate' button on there, and have received maybe $200 total over the years, which I've put to maintaining my home computer that in turn maintains the blog.

It looks like I get about 500 individual visits a day. On the average, I get 14,000 visits a month. But keep in mind some of those visits are multiple visits from the same (obsessive) readers.

Blogging full-time? Hmmm...I guess I would have to be more topical or focused on what I wrote about. I don't think there's enough interest in Jimbo alone to maintain a paid blogging position. I'm guessing I would have to do something specific like an enviro-politics blog for WWF or something, but that would take the fun out of blogging now, wouldn't it?

Posted by jimbo at October 28, 2004 9:59 AM

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So we're obsessive, huh? :P Actually, I prefer addicted to obsessive.

Posted by: Jason at October 28, 2004 12:20 PM

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October 28, 2004

metro weekly article

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