Why Blogging Sucks

Blogging Sucks. And here's why.

Eventual Total Censorship

At first you blog only to the two or so friends you tell about the blog. That's ok. It means you can complain about just about anything, including your very annoying loudmouth neighbour, or perhaps your parents. You can also feel safe in writing about just about everything, including the very embarrassing thing that happened to you last night.

But, as your audience grows, you find the self-censorship creeping in. You very well can't complain about your job, because your co-workers read your blog. Nor can you complain about that very annoying loudmouth neighbour, seeing as he reads your blog weekly. Your parents? Well, they set your blog as their default start-up page. And do you really want to tell the world what happened last night?

And Google and the Go Back Machine? are great evils. Anything you do, write, or say gets forever immortalized, and easily found by those who may search upon your name in the future: future employers, flings, partners, buddies, members of clergy, psychiatrists and of course, adoring fans. That leaves discussing relationships, politics, religion, work, and mental health strictly out of the question. So much for free speech.

The only thing I find I can safely do still, on my blog, is make fun of myself. And that gets tired awfully fast.

Losing the Moment, or Making it Stale

I occasionally get a "I gotta blog that!" moment. Chances are this happens when I'm far away from a terminal with access to the Internet. When you get the computer, the moment's lost. Or, the idea is still just a half-thought. Whatever the reason, you decide not to post a half-baked blog entry. It'd probably not make any sense, and it's Just Not Right to go back and edit it (hey, the timestamp next to it is there for a reason). A few hours, or days, or weeks later, you get an idea of what you wanted to write, but it's kind of late. Now it's stale. Who starts off a entry with "Two weeks ago..."?

That's why I love wikis.