Thursday, April 24, 2003

Blogging About Blogging LVIII

Part of the promise -- and charm -- of blogs and LiveJournals, much less personal Web sites in general is that they're, well, personal. There are people behind the pages. And the best sites work well because of their publishers' personalities. Invisiblog is a new service that enables people to post to blogs using an anonymous remailer network.

While I understand the allure of anonymity, I'm not sure how I feel about Invisiblogs. Sure, the best blogs need to have solid content, but in many cases you can forgive a favorite blogger a less-than-necessary post because of who they are and what they normally do. Identity has currency as well as the content. Invisiblogs will need to stand solely on content... and the writing of the publisher. There will be less leeway.

That said, blogs such as Gizmodo, which I read daily, are already largely anonymous. What's the value of blogging via an anonymous remailer? And what does this mean for the interactive aspect of blogging? Sure, you will probably be able to comment on posts, but who are you commenting on?

Thanks to Slashdot.

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