Sure, it has been quiet from the "top" down, but is this forum the functional death of dvorak.org/blog?  Since it pointed here, there's no more "there" there.

How do you figure?  I see blogs and forums as completely different things.

A blog is basically one-way with some feedback allowed.  You can say what you want in comments, but have no control over what topics are posted.  The good thing about a blog like dvorak.org is that the entries are excellent (funny, original, etc.)

A forum is level playing field where you can come up with your own topics, debate issues, etc.

No, not death to BLOGS...I meant (and not much more) that the Dvorak.org/blog had dropped off in activity...I didn't mean anything more global or long-lasting than that!

 

And I was answering your question, but in case I wasn't clear    ... No.  I do not think that this forum will negatively impact the dvorak blog.

I bet that if there's a drop-off of traffic on the dvorak blog it's because it's become a forum for ridiculous debates on creationsm, religion, liberals vs. conservatives, abortion, blah blah. Those debates are making me ill and taking the fun out of the blog. It's disheartening to think so many technofiles out there can engage in such shallow debates about important subjects.  Actually I liked the political debates somewhat, those were useful.

Maybe this forum will bleed off the BS from the blog?

I'm not sure I get your post.  You say that the debates on liberals vs conservatives, etc. made you feel ill, but then you say that you actually like the political debates somewhat. 

Are you saying that you wish dvorak.com was strictly tech or that you like some political debates and not others? 

To add to this, may I point out that technology is completely political. Those who have the best tech win on the battlefield, the boardroom, and the marketplace. Cell phones, blogs, this forum, and everything else that  changes the way people communicate change politics.

You cannot separate politics and technology. Abortion is not an issue without the capability; nor is government surveillance, living wills, nuclear power, or any other hot-button topic in the news.

From my point-of-view, the blog as a tool of discussion is dead (past tense - already happened). The blog as a tool of thought/opinion transfer is alive and well.

I originally went to Dvorak.org/blog to get more of JCD's opinions. I enjoy his columns, and have enjoyed them for some time. I always get a kick out of people who bitch about his accuracy, because that's not what an opinion column is about. It's about being in the right place at the right time with an interesting point of view.

The question becomes what does JCD want out of this? My impression is that he wants discussion. Hence, he wants a message board, and not an attempt at discussion done by others posting stories under his name.

James Hill

(Note: Any story posted on a blog that is presented as a specific person's blog will have the aura of being posted by that specific person. I think we've all learned that from the weekly "Nice post JCD!" replies to Eidrach's posts.)

HEY..there is zero drop off in activity on the blog -- everyone just pulls their posts over the weekend when people are not at work.

Numbers are in fact up. Catherine is right. The connection between a blog and a message board is a weak link. The blog has 10,000-20,000 unique readers a day. The board here has about 500 or so and I don't expect it to get much past 5000 when it will become messy. And I wouldn't be surprised if it never got to 5000.

Actually, John, I have a complaint related to your observation of high activity on the weekend.  Your site now has so many articles being posted that the window for comment on any thread is around 12 hours.   After that, the topic is at the bottom of the page and any comment added at that point yields no response before the topic heads to archives.  This may have some bearing on why activity is down during the week; by the time one gets home and can now post without fear of the IT Gestapo, you feel like you arrived at the party just as everyone else is heading for the exit.

I offer no suggestions on how this can be fixed -- my expertise is in other areas.

Actually, John, I have a complaint related to your observation of high activity on the weekend.  Your site now has so many articles being posted that the window for comment on any thread is around 12 hours.   

My thoughts exactly. Maybe fewer topics or the moving "Hot" topics back to the top.

PS. Thanks for the spell check here. Believe me, it comes in handy.

My thoughts exactly. Maybe fewer topics or the moving "Hot" topics back to the top.

PS. Thanks for the spell check here. Believe me, it comes in handy.

That's just what I was thinking.  I don't want fewer post, but perhaps a way to keep interesting articles around a bit longer.

I could probably create a WordPress plugin that keeps popular articles from sinking as fast.  I wouldn't really want to make them sticky, because then the front page would have the same articles day after day. Just have them moved to the archives slower.

Or even a plugin that provides a link where articles are ordered by popularity, instead of the date they were posted.

- Sean

When you post the blog, what if you post 1 copy in the front page and another copy here as a thread. Then instead of commenting in the front page, you comment under the thread.

When you post the blog, what if you post 1 copy in the front page and another copy here as a thread. Then instead of commenting in the front page, you comment under the thread.

That also crossed my mind, but I imagine it would be wasteful.  Some, if not many, of the comments on the blog receive little or no comments at all.  No sense mucking up the message board with hundreds of empty threads.

I still think the blog could benefit from a popularity page.  It would work the same way as the archive page, but instead of ordering by date, it would order by popularity.  And popularity could be derived from number of page views, and number of comments.

- Sean