This post began its life as a comment in this post on one of the consistently most entertaining blogs in the blogosphere Electric Venom. The subject of the post is blogging advice and since I was just beginning to seek out advice on making my blog better I found it and the link chain from it extremely useful. Perhaps the most useful link was Kate’s own.
There are a variety of different styles and different skills that different bloggers bring to the party. Both Kate and Dean Esmay’s posts on the subject refer to the “thinker” and “linker” blog styles. Steven Den Beste also writes about “writers” vs. “editors”. I think there’s another way of looking at this same subject: talkers and listeners.
What I hope to do in my own blogging is not merely soliloquizing (although I do quite a bit of that) or lurking (who doesn’t do a lot of that?) but engaging in a conversation. And in a good conversation everyone plays both roles: they talk and they listen.
Watch out—you’re close to my better half’s pet peeve—“talking about talking (and listening)”.
This points out the great heritage of conversation-devotee which is in your genes (I should know because I’m your sister). Only those interested in carrying this torch (the conversation-devotee torch)are interested in keeping the flame lit.
Interestingly enough, there is more good conversation on the web than I ever knew, and thanks for being part of the corp. Being a Schuler, I’m of the belief that you can never converse (talk and listen) enough. Luv, Ann