The Gong Show

Does anyone actively participate in a bliki? Here’s Wikipedia’s definition of a bliki, so I can skip the basics and get straight to the point. I don’t participate in a bliki, and I don’t know anyone who does. Maybe digg is close to a bliki… but it doesn’t allow you to write posts of any significant size. So, as a small experiment to satiate my curiosity, I aim to change that.

I’m opening registration for contributors to my blog:

The registration URL is: http://blog.andrewparker.net/wp-register.php

Registration is pretty straight forward. Writing posts is pretty easy… just go to the “Write” tab once you login… Write your post… and then hit “Save.” Once the post is saved it will be stored for me to moderate and publish if I see fit.

My thoughts that lead to this decision:

Blogs are huge, and few would contest that point. Wikis are huge (less huge, and mainly driven by Wikipedia’s success, but still, they’re huge). Yet, there has been little-to-no traction in the middle ground between the two. There doesn’t seem to me to be a good reason for blogs and wikis to stay separate. I know that this experiment is not a TRUE bliki because there’s no collaboration in the authorship. My experiment is really a community authored blog. But, I don’t want to take the time to install a real bliki for an experiment I expect to get little traffic. Plus, even if I did install a real bliki, it wouldn’t have any traffic going to it because it would be at a new URL, so there wouldn’t be an incentive for anyone to post.

Speaking of traffic: Yesterday I had 60 pageviews (according to Google Analytics) and 101 Feed Subscribers (according to Feedburner). So, it’s not like I’m giving access to some major broadcasting channel. Heck, you could probably reach more people with a megaphone on a New York street corner.

If a blog I liked made the same opportunity available to me, I don’t think I would take it. Just because I read and enjoy a blog, doesn’t mean I want to start writing the posts on it. In fact, I probably read and enjoy blogs because I learn new things. If I wrote the posts then I wouldn’t be learning anything. The value that the blog offered me would be lost. Therefore, I’m curious to see if anyone picks up this opportunity and runs with it.

However, I think comments are pretty lame. They give the author of the blog all the feature space and the commenters get hidden behind a “comments” link in small real-estate at the bottom of the page. I like to think of blogging as a dialogue, not a monologue, but my current comment system is the dialogue equivalent of me shouting through a megaphone and my commenters whispering back in my ear. Hopefully, the “contributor” solution I am setting up will remedy this problem.

As a blog owner, I take some pride in the posts I write. I try to keep the ratio of tech-geek-opinions to personal-music-ponderings fairly even. So, I’m not sure this is a good idea. I might get too possessive, and just close it down. The type of registration I opened is called “Contributor” registration, so I get to monitor all posts before they go live. That helps me ensure that no one is being lame, spammy, racist, or otherwise unfit for my blog.

I think the most likely outcome is no one will take it up, and I’ll close the registration after awhile due to lack of interest. But, it’s an experiment, and I’m happy to see it fail because it’s better than not doing it at all.
Finally, if you write good stuff and I develop some trust, then I’ll upgrade you to “author” status so your posts will appear in real-time (in other words, I will not have the opportunity to moderate your posts before they go live).

Happy blogging.