Fookin’ Threadwatch is closing. That’s a shame. We need more edgy voices that aren’t beholden to advertisers.

When the blogshere started, it was all edgy. Why? There was no money in it, so it might as well be fun. Actually, there’s still no money in it, unless a blog takes the shape of conventional old-media, or pimps something.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

However, its one thing to lose the edge, but quite another to lack transparency.

Take the FM writers. They got in serious hot water with their audiences recently when ValleyWag called them out for failing to separate church and state.

“In the ads, and the companion site built by Federated Media, Michael Arrington explains how his Techcrunch site became “people-ready”. “When is a business people ready?” asks Gigaom’s Om Malik. “The minute you decide to strike out on your own…” Other writers who’ve been paid to repeat Microsoft’s slogan include Paul Kedrosky and Matt Marshall of Venture Beat, as well as Fred Wilson, the blogger-investor.”

Some of the writers, like Malik, apologised. Other writers saw nothing wrong in it, whilst a few went on the warpath against those who dared suggest the writers might be beholden to a few rules.

But they are subject to rules, whether they like it or not.

Social rules of engagement don’t just stop because a marketing push is (disingenuously) relabeled “conversation marketing”. The “conversation” is devalued if the nature of that conversation isn’t transparent. Who wants to find out, in the midst of what they thought was a personal conversation, that the conversation is in fact a slick branding exercise?

I, like many, would find that dishonest. It’s not a true voice, and the writers deservedly got hammered for it.

If they’re going to push product, they need to be a lot more upfront about doing so. Even more so, if their existing modus operandi is to use a personal voice, because it is more likely confusion will arise if the mode remains the same, but the message changes mid flight.

Only 80%?

“The Internet’s blog sites have become overgrown with a variety of unpleasant content, including porn, offensive language, hate posting, and malware, a new threat analysis has suggested.“

People clearly aren’t trying hard enough. Surely we can push that figure a little higher.

For example, I hate those shite (that’s an English spelling, BTW) sites that are “infested” with those annoying floating banners asking you to participate in some survey where you give them all your information and, in return, they give you the opportunity to win a coffee machine. Or something. What a load of arse (more English spelling).

Or web security experts trying to pump their services using alarmist scare stories.

“To be added to the list of those deemed potentially offensive within a business context, a site merely had to contain a single post containing profanity, or worse.”

Feckers

I liked this so much, I’m just going to repeat it:

” Know what’s bad about paper? Paper’s slow. Paper can’t tell you that OMG Steve Jobs is pulling out the long-awaited iPhone on stage right this second. Hell, even TV couldn’t bring a bulky setup into Jobs’s Macworld keynote to tell you that. Yes, I’m one of those jackasses who believes blogging is The Future Of Journalism. Not because we write any better (we’re even worse) or because we’re any more honest (we’re liars). But there are enough of us to refute each other, point out the good bits, and throw the winners onto Digg.

We’re not any closer to the truth. We’re just closer to the facts.“

First class rant.

Here’s one of those blog tag games again. I’ll bite.

Five reasons why I blog:

1. I get paid to do so.
2. Writing is a good habit to get into.
3. So is research.
4. So is sharing.
5. Why not?

I need to tag five people:

• John Scott
• Sophie Wegat
• Barry Schwartz
• Michael Gray
• Nick Wilson

There is more than one search blog. Many search blogs repeat the same stories. Many search blogs add very little to the conversation. Is cutting and pasting a search story of interest to anyone, including the person who is doing it?

There is more than one forum. Many forum posts repeat the same stories. Many forums add very little to the conversation. Is cutting and pasting a search story of interest to anyone, including the person who is doing it?

I read over 50 blogs a day, sometimes more.

I like the blogs I read for the same reason I like certain forum posters. It’s what they say and how they’re saying it. Some people are good at getting to the point. Some people say in things in such a way as to make me think in a new way about an old topic. Some write with clarity. Some are funny. Witty. Confrontational.

Glad we’ve got a big pool to choose from, really.

This is just wrong. Kathy Sierra, who writes the excellent “Creating Passionate Users” blog claims to have received death threats, on her own blog, and others:

“As I type this, I am supposed to be in San Diego, delivering a workshop at the ETech conference. But I’m not. I’m at home, with the doors locked, terrified. For the last four weeks, I’ve been getting death threat comments on this blog. But that’s not what pushed me over the edge. What finally did it was some disturbing threats of violence and sex posted on two other blogs… blogs authored and/or owned by a group that includes prominent bloggers… “

Freedom of speech is one thing. Threats of violence - if that’s what this turns out to be - are something else - and certainly illegal, although some of the comments may shine a different light on events.

Hopefully Kathy will keep posting.

Interesting thread on Threadwatch about what makes a person continue to read a blog, or unsubscribe.

“Ad Age and Vizu Answers conducted a new study on blog readership. 67.3% of the respondents follow links to learn about new blogs. What is more blog readers rely upon recommendations on blogs (22.9%) more highly than simply finding a blog via a search engine (19.9%)“.

Hmmm…..

I like:

• Timely, relevant news
• Wit
• Drama/Fights/Action, and all other amusing human traits
• Unique perspective
• Brevity
• Clever Analysis

I dislike:

• Long posts that should have been short posts
• Posts that use the term “I” a lot, especially when I do it
• Bullet points
• Opps

Where is everyone going?

First, Nick leaves Performancing.

Andy is leaving Text Link Ads & ReviewMe.

Next thing you know, Danny Sullivan will leave SearchEngineWatch!
As if…

Top search stories linked to by search bloggers this week.

• WikiSeek launches. Opinion is damning.
• Google change Adsense policies. Putting the squeeze on contextual competition.
• How Yahoo Blew It. How the multi-colored Google monster stomped Yahoo underfoot.
• Google offer $10 bonus for Google Checkout signup. PayPal still miles ahead.
• Google looking for more ad-space offline. Coming to a forehead near you.

Interesting interview with Techmeme creator Gabe Rivera by Danny Sullivan.

I’m also addicted to TechMeme. It does its’ job so well. Whilst Digg consists mostly of tedious trivia, Techmeme does a great job of finding serious tech stories. They use a mix of technology and human evaluation (i.e. link analysis).

Gabe has an interesting response to the echo-chamber effect:

“Clearly Techmeme creates superficial incentives for “echo chamber” participation, yet I don’t see clear evidence that this makes things noticeably worse. I still like to trot out the example of the day my site launched. eBay’s acquisition of Skype became one of those huge story clusters, and this was hours before Techmeme [then tech.memeorandum] was publicly launched, i.e. before anyone believed they could get on the site by linking to stories. I’d also point out the idea of many headlines on a single major story is not a problem in and of itself. Consider that the iPhone unveiling will probably be one of the major stories for all of 2007. So on one day for it to account for 40 percent of the headlines on Techmeme is not all that out of whack“.

I’ve never thought the so-called echo-chamber was a problem either, so long as each blogger adds something to the story. An opinion. A context. Spin. Whatever.

That’s how the conversation develops the story, without being moderated or censored, which is what often happens in forums.