The title of this post is kind surly however, this is not an attack on the folks over at b5media. In fact, I actually am quite impressed with that they have accomplished in such a short time. That being said, guys, you have to be a bit more tactful when it comes speaking out on behalf of your network. I was quite shocked when Duncan Riley called some of his own bloggers totally boring.
Dude, I am new to blogging but I have been dealing with people for a long time. Trust me, even if some of the blogs that b5 has accepted into the network are the most boring blogs on the Internet and you shutter at the thought of reading them, you cannot say that they are boring in public. As an owner of b5media, the content that you put forward via your network is your content. It doesn’t matter if you think that content is boring or not. At the very least you need to be indifferent to it or defer to someone else on your management team who loves it. Anything less makes you sound like your are in it just for the money.
Robb, Duncan can speak for himself, but I can think of lots of worthy blogs that I would find boring. Blogs about undertaking, sewage disposal, keeping rats, brain surgery, habeus corpus, to name but a few. Just because they’re “boring” doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be published.
As a b5 blogger, and owner of Syntagma Media, I’m also aware of boring blogs all around. But there’s boring-but-good and BORING PERIOD.
It’s the long tail, baby!
Focus on an area and give people who are interested in it what they want.
John,
I agree that there are excellent blogs out their that I would find boring, as well as blogs that I love that others would find boring. All that I am saying that it is probably not in your best interest as a blog network owner to call your own blogs and bloggers totally boring.
Don’t get me wrong, Duncan is totally entitled with his opinion and I am not faulting him for that. I am just saying the in a position of blog network owner, one needs to be a bit more tactful with the message that they convey. He could have said something like “we have a large network with dozens of blogs and I definately have my favorites but the purpose of the network is to reach a broader audience.”
Hey, shouldn’t ReveNews be on that list on the right of this page? Corante is on there. So should we!
It’s more like the President saying he doesn’t like some of his Cabinet members? The President should fire ‘em and get new ones he likes.
If we only had blogs on topics Duncan enjoyed we’d end up with a very wierd mix of blogs. You should see his CD collection and hear what he watching on TV!
Point is – we’re trying to develop a network of blogs that has individual blogs that appeal to all kinds of tastes and people – even people like Duncan!
Darren’s hit it on the head, if it reflected my tastes we’d be losing money hand over fist
The point I was trying to make is that when people criticise some of our sites they are doing so from their own personal perspectives and likes, and in particular I can remember a few people picking out the entertainment channel blogs. Now I’m TOTALLY not into the whole celebrity scene thing, so the content is boring to me personally, but to people who are interested in this stuff its bloody brilliant. I also acknowledged that the writing style of those writing the blogs were first rate, even if I wasn’t personally interested in the content, as others have obviously said they aren’t, but in a way that totally puts these blogs down.
I’d also note on the money side that we are a partnership of 4 people with totally varied tastes and interests, and I would suggest that this is one of our biggest strengths as well, we are not a monocultural blogging network but a broadchurch targeting the long tail of the blogosphere.
That’s certainly true. The b5 setup is about as wide-ranging as you could get. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for the “monoculture” though. My own Syntagma Media tends to reflect my own tastes, ranging from Google and Microsoft to Spiritual Nirvana and Tertiary Blogging. The one thing it doesn’t contain is anything divisive, like politics, although I’m fascinated by aspects of politics. I nearly started a blog on David Cameron, the new Tory leader here in the UK, who’s the hottest topic around now. But the “divisive” block stopped it. Vive le difference, I say.
I guess it’s really hard to draw the line between:
a) you being a blogger and voicing out your personal “opinions” about certain blogs you own/run
b) you being the blog network owner which is always expected to promote and patronize ALL of your blogs whatever you personal feel about any one of them.
I guess what Robb was pointing out is that if it’s a personal opinion and it alienates a blog you own or a blogger under you, then it is best kept private.
My apologies for the mistype and wrong grammar.