/blog

I am in two minds while reading The Weblog Handbook by Rebecca Blood. Some of it is still relevant but a lot seems horribly old fashioned, maybe even quaint. It is written with, what seems now as, a real naivety.

There is an over-exuberent sense of optimism and (so far in the book) the feeling that bloggers can do no wrong. This is all in direct contrast to the toxic narcissism displayed by many online these days.

It leaves a saccharin taste in the mouth, artificial, but maybe that's more a reflection on the modern web. To poorly paraphrase the tag line of Platoon: the first casualty of the web is innocence. Sadly, it's something we will never get back, not even in part. No matter how hard we try to recreate 'the good old days' or rekindle the spirit of the early web we live in a different world now.

One passage, however, stood out to me:

Random observations, selected links, extended diatribes – accumulated, these elements resolve into a mosaic revealing a personality, a self. The effect is more profound for the weblogger herself. The weblogger is privy to the entries she posts and those that she does not: I think I'Il blog that! followed a moment later by No. . . . Acutely aware of what she does not type, the weblogger more clearly defines her own boundaries. Reviewing what she has written, she catches glimpses of her less-conscious self.

(Bolded text mine.)

This idea of being actively and mindfully aware of what isn't posted intrigues me. More specifically, why.

There are times when I start writing but realise I don't have much to say so scrap it. Other times I'll stop because I (or someone else) have written essentially the same thing before and don't feel the need to retread worn ground. Sometimes I'll restrain myself for fear of appearing too blunt, controversial or, perhaps, insensitive. The list of reasons is long and varied but a lot are likely due to that "underlying fear that now pervades the web".

For whatever reason, things don't get posted and the boundaries are, indeed, defined.

It would be interesting to see lists of "posts that never were" ¹ or to at least keep track of those things that didn't get written – maybe with some kind of passing mention. I feel it would be educational to look back on these items with the benefit of hindsight, to examine them with fresh eyes and context; to see if the reticence to post was justified and whether I still felt I made the right decision. If not why not and would that inform future decisions?

With this in mind I am contemplating some kind of mechanism to enable this. Whether it is a brief note at the time or a "Posts I didn't write" page. If anyone already does this please point me in the right direction.

I need to think on it further to find the best approach.