I will be suing Jared Wilson. Get lawyered up.
All resemblance to any actual, existing blogs is purely coincidental. I couldn’t possibly be referring to you.
Seriously though, I do want to be helpful. I can work on many of these things myself, otherwise they wouldn’t be in my head to tell you.
1. It’s too personal. Personal is good. Too personal and I don’t care. I should know enough about your life to understand you. I shouldn’t know what you are doing with your homeschooled kids every day or how your sheets gave you a rash. Know what “TMI” stands for and blog accordingly.
2. You have no sense of humor. You can’t laugh at yourself. You don’t find normal things funny. Your blogging is too killer serious about religion, marriage, kids, church, politics, etc. You can’t tell jokes. You don’t post funny pics. You’re sour and easily offended. Blogging without humor disqualifies it from being edifying and helpful to my mental health.
You constantly tell us that your views perfectly reflect the mind of God, but you never laugh after saying it.
3. Your level of knowledge regarding the subjects you write about is so low that a discussion isn’t moved forward by what you write. This is why I don’t blog very much on baseball- which I love. I don’t know enough to make it worth someone’s time to read what I write. Many bloggers aspire to be pundits, theologians and culture commentators, but they simply haven’t done their homework. They don’t know the subject, they haven’t read the books. They don’t have a freshman major’s level of understanding. If you don’t believe me, read 95% of what’s written about philosophical topics like “postmodernism.” The blind leading the blind, to much applause. Unlike what appears to be the case with some famous bloggers, most bloggers don’t have a staff paid for by denominational funds to do their research.
Even though I am a seminary grad with post grad hours and extensive reading, and even though I teach Bible professionally, I know the difference between myself and Ben Witherington III, which some bloggers clearly do not. Reading some rookie blogger tear into a guy with three Ph.d’s is, at the least, unlikely to yield any real insights.
4. Your posts don’t have links that lead me to new, interesting and helpful sites I’ve not yet discovered. I tell this to beginning bloggers all the time, but usually to no avail. Season your posts with helpful links. Not too many and not everything with a site, but with the links that will lead your readers to discover what you’ve discovered that’s worth their time. The internet is a vast universe to be explored, and it is constantly changing. Helping one another gain usable information and tools from that universe makes the experience worthwhile.
5. Your blog is an echo chamber. A fan site. You’ve got your favorite preachers, teachers and authors. You repeatedly link them with an applause sign, or you copy and paste them with added accolades, or you repeat what they said in your own words. You do it every time they post, preach or publish. Your blog is nothing more than an audience for your heroes. Now we all know who you think is awesome. Wonderful.
6. Your finger wagging lectures make your readers feel stupid. There are very few people I read or listen to knowing they are going to make me feel stupid. In a learning environment, I’m willing to hear new points of view or examine my own in the light of new questions and critical engagements. I enjoy a person who challenges my way of thinking or acting WHEN they do it with truth, not guilt or manipulation. I don’t want to hear how amazing it is that I don’t agree with you, and if I’d only 1) read your post AGAIN, 2) read the Bible verses AGAIN or 3) admit my ignorance in comparison to your grasp of the subject, then all the answers would be obvious.
One of the worst blog posts I ever read took some guys at the BHT to task for having a discussion of God’s sovereignty in regard to natural disasters. The blogger was shocked: how could anyone not just read the verses and shut up? Whence cometh this unholy discussion? Socrates, drink this hemlock and be quiet.
7. Your blog wastes my time. After I come there, I’ve learned nothing, seen nothing, felt nothing and been moved toward nothing. It was just there. I want my five minutes back. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but is there anything real, human, truthful, beautiful or worthwhile there?
8. You keep telling me how much I need to read your blog posts. No one else tells me I need to read your posts. No one links them. No one seems to have noticed them. But you keep saying I really need to read them.
Call me cynical, but I believe that blogs build audiences the old fashioned way: People who find them decide to link to them, add them to feeds, bookmark them, write about them and tell others that this blog is saying something interesting. If that system doesn’t work, you aren’t interesting.
9. You keep playing with your site and it’s annoying. The fonts/colors/template change. The sidebars grow like some kind of lab culture. You’ve added every tie-in, java box and whirling dervish you can find, and then you redo the template. Some ADD people like this. I don’t. Change your site occasionally, please. I’m fine with that, but take it easy. Anyone who spends too much time redesigning the sidebar needs to go home and hug their children.
And don’t get me started on people who are fascinated with stats, awards, links, meters and graphs. Go find an aluminum foil ball, put it on a string and bat it around.
Number one change you can make to improve your blog: Better, larger, plainer fonts.
If your site isn’t working, you ought to know. Have someone unbiased and honest tell you. Then fix whatever is wrong so it works for you and your readers. Then leave it alone and let it work.
10. You think blogging is too important. You talk about the “blogosphere” like it’s the real world. You have teams assigned in the blog universe and you are willing to have galactic war over what you think is important. You would pay money to go see your favorite bloggers. You engage college students who write inane comments on your blog like they are Richard Dawkins. You believe the “Christian blogosphere” is being read by millions of non-Christians. You think your blog is like a church and you’re the pastor. You have delusions of celebrity because you once got linked by Adrian Warnock. You keep talking about wanting to “blog full time.” You have a “fund raising drive” for your blog. You went blogging on a date. You blogged your honeymoon. You take your laptop into the bathroom. You asked your pastor if you could liveblog his sermons. You bought an iPhone so you could keep up with your Twitter friends 24/7. You go to sleep thinking of your next blog post. You are offering a “livecam” to those who want to watch you blog live. You get out of bed in the middle of the night to check your moderated comments. You give yourself a superhero name like “Internet Monk.”………..forget about that last one.
In other words, you scare me.
Blog like you’ve turned it off and you really don’t need to turn it back on to be normal. Then it might be worth reading you.
Thanks–very helpful!
Dang. There goes that postmodernism/Cincinnati Reds/history of my children back to conception post I was writing.
As I have blogged, (http://gotpreaching.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/why-internet-monk-does-not-read-our-blogs/), you deserve a Warnie for this post.
that’s not what i take the laptop into the bathroom for…
GAMES! sometimes you are in there for a while and just need a diversion!
“You think blogging is too important”
Leave out the word “too” and you have defined the blog nation. Like professional wrestling, it is entertaining but not real.
TEN REASONS I READ YOUR BLOG
1. I’m going through a phase
2. Abject boredom
3. Too lazy to remove it from favorites
4. It’s humorous
5. I like pretending I’m intellectual
6. I have to fill my “shocked” reservoir
7. I get edified by the face picture
8. I can verbally criticize it by myself
9. I plan to join your order (monk)
10. I’m scouting for Silva!
Just a little humor, Michael, hope you don’t mind, after all, I got the idea from you. Many of your ten points apply to my blog and I am growing increasingly bitter. In a nice way, though…
So are you saying that my 87-page blog about the interesting things I’ve pulled out of my navel (including the high resolution close ups on flickr and the virtual scratch and sniff side bar) is probably not read by anyone . . . but my dear mother? Oh, crap! I feel my universe slowly collapsing around me.
I like this post but wish you weren’t so timid and that you would boldly tell us what you really think.
I like #1 the best and absolutely refuse to do any of that. Mine is about Scripture, not about how cute my cats are. (They really are cute though.)
I was pretty scared when I saw the title but think I’m pretty safe on most counts although the first sentence of #3 may be a weak point.
Jeff
cogito ergo bloggo
>3. Your level of knowledge regarding the subjects you write about is so low that a discussion isn’t moved forward by what you write.
No, that’s one of the good ones
“>3. Your level of knowledge regarding the subjects you write about is so low that a discussion isn’t moved forward by what you write.”
As an example reference my incredible body of work about humility and see what a deep level of knowledge looks like as I single handedly move the entire discussion forward.
God has revealed to me that you need to delve into the depths of the Levitical code to find the correct method for washing your sheets so you don’t get a rash. If you would only study this as I have, you would be rash free.
Excuse me, I have to flush. Then I have to go play with my unbelievably cute puppy
Now I’m ticked off.
I can think of only one time that the frequent use of Twitter was most helpful. It was during the labor and delivery of a new baby. Fortunately for us all, she refused the webcam.
And by the way, the last time I checked, mother, baby and the rest of the family are fine.
After doing my previous trite posting, I closed up my laptop, pulled up my down sleeping around my head, closed my eyes and attempted to “celebrate the Sabbath†by a nap then a cold beer. But then it started me thinking, why do I attempt to blog? I think people do blog for whole spectrum of psychological and social reasons. There may be others in the thin slice of the band that do so for the same reason as I.
I don’t think I post with any grandiose ideals that anyone is actually reading it, reflecting on it or even changing their way of thinking. I certainly don’t post as some type of authority. In my case, I am the Tom Hanks character in Castaway and my own Blog is my “Wilson†. . . Just an impersonal volleyball to which I can direct my thoughts. Sure it would be nice if some “Friday†person would wonder into my Blog-world and read and respond and say . . . not you’re not insane, but that’s not the main point.
I am a castaway in the midst of the Sea of Evangelicalism. Hey wait a minute, I actually do live on an island in Puget Sound. On my little island I have many Evangelical friends. I have many non-Christian (and what some would consider “New-Agerâ€) friends. I even have some post-Christian friends. But I personally don’t know of a single other person who is on the same (Post-Evangelical) page as me, maybe not even in the same book. This creates a very lonely world. If it weren’t for my LAbri friends, in other parts of the country, I think my head would implode.
I spend my days, between my demanding “day-job,†reading, thinking and more reading. Yet, I have no outlet through which to direct my thoughts. My feeble attempts to having meaningful discussions with people in my church, even my pastor is either met with them glancing at their watches—because they don’t understand or care about what I am saying—or looks of horror on their faces . . . a horror that Mike has gone over to the “dark side.†After all, I was the only one in my church to disagree with many points of the Ken Ham (creationist) video series that we had to endure. I am the only one to disagree with the predominate opinion of the adults in the church that the reason that our youth are leaving the church is because parents are allowing them to have body piercings and tattoos (marks of the devil).
But the only other church choices on our gorgeous rock in the sea are theologically-liberal (with a pantheistic view of the universe) or hyper-fundalmentalists. I could move off my island paradise and find more like-minded people in the big cities, but, except for this one issue of loneliness, I literally love it here . . . as does my family.
So that’s why I Blog. Michael I do enjoy your virtual coffee shop and places like this give me some hope that there are other prophets who have not bowed to Baal.
Dear Mr Spencer,
In order for you to read a blog, it needs to:
- Be personal, but not be personal.
- Be researched and taken seriously, but not taken seriously and researched.
- Link to sites the author likes, but not link to sites the author likes.
- Be modified to find out what works, but not modified.
I’d like to spend some time thinking about how to get the balance right on my blog, but I fear that I’d be taking it all too seriously
Helpful. Thanks. I would add this as perhaps an echo of what you have already said…
If you find that you read more blogs than good books, that is most likely a problem. For the most part, good books have been tested by time, publishers, editors and years of research and thinking. Most blogs have not. … “any other nut-job can get a blog”. Though there certainly are nut-jobs that write books, there are way more of them that have blogs simply because it is so much easier to acquire one. Keep this in mind as you read blogs.
Matt:
Very good.
Now, go to a good dictionary and find the word “too.”
Insert as needed. Stir.
peace
MS
After further review of your post, I must ban you, Mike, from commenting on my blog. I will require a full and public repentence from you and your entire family before I will lift the ban. That’s blog seriousness.
Uh…oh. I don’t allow comments on my blog. Man, just when I was about to wield some electronic authority my entire world falls apart.
Sorry, the ban is lifted.
certainly you are speaking of my blog!
Reading some rookie blogger tear into a guy with three Ph.d’s is, at the least, unlikely to yield any real insights.
I get the main point you’re trying to make, but I must confess some frustration with the idea that someone with three Ph.d’s necessarily trumps others in a conversation. For me, reflecting on what people far more educated than I say about a topic is a must and will not always result in my agreeing with them. I can’t abide the idea of someone else doing my thinking for me and I just can’t believe that real insight is solely the domain of those with letters.
Having said that, yes, there is a desperate need for humility in the face of people who have thought and studied far more than you…just not, please, at the expense of allowing others to actually contribute to the conversation.
Good point.
Let me skip the spectacle of a guy from Coon Creek Bible College and Massage Parlor telling N.T. Wright what the New Testament says. Let’s just go straight to something like….medicine.
The Internet is full of people telling you there is a 25 pound salmon in your colon, that the radiation from your pillow is giving you brain cancer, that viruses don’t really exist and so on. I realize these people who went to med school, etc mess up all the time, but just as a basic premise, I think the idea that a guy sets up a blog therefore he’s on equal discussion footing with Dr. Akmad is just dangerous.
When I was studying baptism this year, I read some things by David Wright. Wright- who recently died- spent his life studying baptism. I am not smart enough to comprehend his syllabus, much less his knowledge. Now I can argue with the man and toss verses, but in all honesty, what is the point of scholarship if the guys at Blog Super Calvinist are not humble enough to say “We haven’t read, studied, translated, debated, etc. We have a blog”?
I like the blogosphere, but I don’t like the idea that every fan can pretend to run the team or that every guy who listens to Christian radio can pretend to have paid the dues of decades of study.
And I really don’t like the contempt for scholarship that the net promotes. “Yeah, I just went to Skunk Creek Bible College, but that doesn’t mean God can’t reveal things to me.” True. Amen. But is this how we are going to run the business of scholarship? Whoever has the most blogreaders wins?
I know I’ll get pounded for this, but I think the blogosphere has consistently ruined just about every scholarly debate it’s taken over.
peace
MS
Hey Michael, you said:
I’m not here to pound you, I promise.
But I’ll also say that non-blogging scholarly debate hasn’t always been all that stellar either. But, no the whole, I’d say that the accountability structures of scholarship have done a better job at weeding out the worst of the quacks…
Otherwise, great list!
MS – There are many with the same sholarship an academic “dues” as does N. T. Wright. And in that eclectic group comes many different views, some at odds with each other. So if you remove the “undereducated” from the discourse you may well end up with more civility but as to consensus, well, it remains elusive.
Therefore, with the prerequisite of humble and respectful discourse, everyone can offer their opinion because in the end, that is all the acedemia offers as well.
A proud Proletariat!
BTW – I’m a proud graduate of Skunk Creek Bible College.
Go Black and White!
I don’t see this as the same as the “pajama media” vs “main stream media” conflict.
This is more about whether I should conduct myself as equal to a David Wright on the subject of Baptism. I know there are scholarly disagreements on everything, but I don’t think most bloggers have any idea what one must master to get a major Ph.d in some area of Biblical studies, and how inane it is to assume that any blogger with Strong’s numbers can go toe to toe on these subjects.
I just want to recognize that these people have an expertise that I don’t have, and being able to muster an audience of 100 other geeks and some clip art doesn’t make me a scholar. I should act like it.
peace
ms
Gal.2:6 – But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatever there were, it makes no difference to me), for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me.
“This is more about whether I should conduct myself as equal to a David Wright on the subject of Baptism.”
As equal based upon what? Years of study? Original language credentials? Devotional life? Degrees? Marital fidelity? I find all these things useful if they do not get to “holding men’s persons in admiration”. That is human idolatry which can be found in every camp (Camp). I am of Cephas, I am of MacArthur, I am of Bell, etc., etc..
Academic prowess can be a hinderance as well as a help, however I do agree there are jerks in the blog genre. I have an unabridged list.
BTW – I find baptism pretty basic. Outward symbolism and identification to Christ by a professing believer. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!
Rick:
I’m really not following you here.
I don’t want to approve of personality cults or “teams” based on “I am of whatshisname.”
But my mechanic has studied cars and fixed thousands. I’ve tinkered with a few. I respect that, and in a situation where the knowledge of cars is up for discussion, I can drive, but he knows more than I do and I will respect that. I won’t pull in the garage and tell him what’s the “real” problem.
Baptism is basic. But the scholarly study of Baptism, the language, the religious history, the historical precedents, the details of historical development, the hundreds of books in other languages, the interaction with other scholars….
I don’t have this. I’ve read the confessions, I’ve read my English Bible, I’ve read a couple of basic books.
I respect the difference. I am not elevating Wright or any scholar to a spiritual plane. I am respecting him as a professional and I understand that my comprehension of the topic is limited. That’s the real thing. I can’t even converse on the same level as guys who have made some topic their LIFE.
peace
MS
I do not disagree with anything you just said.
Rick
What’s that they say? Arguing on the internet is like winning the special olympics….
“8. You keep telling me how much I need to read your blog posts. No one else tells me I need to read your posts. No one links them. No one seems to have noticed them. But you keep saying I really need to read them.”
BLAH BLAH BLAH
Check out my blog. The two people who read it think it’s not as pathetic as it used to be!
Thanks, I enjoyed some good humor after a long ecclesiastical day.
Now I just have to conjure up something semi-witty to validate my blogging existence …
Hey! Good post. Enjoyed it. I don’t read blogs for the same reasons that you don’t. These are also probably some of the reasons why people don’t always read mine.
Hi Michael,
Thanks for this! These were really helpful, especially number 4. I’ve been blogging for a few years and link on occasion, but have never seriously considered how necessary 4 is! go figure
Anyway, thanks for giving blogging such a great name and for the level of “professionalism” you put into this site…
-jeremy
I have a Christian poetry site/blog. I think my site would fall under these categories if you were perusing my site (which I highly recommend, if I do say so myself):
1. I do write very personal poetry. Some readers rebuke me for sharing with the public, even if they do not disagree Biblically with my poetry.
2. I have a sense of humor, but my site does not. I rarely write funny poems, but I tell many jokes off site. I had the opportunity to win a $150 Borders gift card in a limerick contest. I probably could have won. I hate limericks, so I did not enter.
3. My knowledge of Scripture is extensive for a lay reader. But you probably would quibble with many of the connections I make in poems between this verse and that verse of Scripture.
4. I do not link to anything in my poems.
So that’s not a 25 lb salmon I passed this morning?
I’m gutted. My blog and my medical conditions trashed in one big discussion. Must go and blog about how I feel as a catharsis for my angst
“I think the blogosphere has consistently ruined just about every scholarly debate it’s taken over.” Amen to that.
In my case, the sort of blogs I don’t bother with include…
1. Rants that really don’t go anywhere; there’s no point or logic to them. They exist pretty much ’cause someone is annoyed.
2. Quotes, lots of them, and little else. (Ben Witherington is starting to do this with his posts full of jokes, which are frequently the same things I keep telling people not to email me.) And what’s with the folks who post nothing but other people’s song lyrics?
3. People who just go on way too long. If you can’t sum up your point in less than 5,000 words, you might not actually have one and I give up. (And please, for the love of all that’s holy, write it in more than one paragraph.)
4. If the blogger doesn’t know the difference between “they’re,” “their,” and “there,” I just assume I’m dealing with a moron and stop reading. If people are gonna expect people to take their writing seriously, they need to do it properly. (Of course, I just used “gonna” in that last sentence, so I should talk.)
5. Bloggers that don’t deal with comments properly. Some of them don’t have any, and that’s fine. When they do, they need to pay attention to them. They need to filter out anyone who’s rude or obnoxious — or at least call them on their bad behavior, without resorting to such behavior themselves. Most blogs offer absolutely nothing insightful, amusing, or worthwhile in the comments. This blog is one of the few exceptions. (And I’m not saying this because I comment from time to time. If I want to read my own stuff, I have my own blogs.)
That’s going in my quotes rotation.
2. You have no sense of humor. Ouch. Like most ppl who have no sense of humor, I think I have a sense of humor. But I definitely haven’t let it out to play on the blog…far too serious stuff. Thanks for the reminder!
)
3. Many bloggers aspire to be pundits, theologians and culture commentators, but they simply haven’t done their homework. They don’t know the subject, they haven’t read the books. This one makes me want to stop blogging altogether. I probably haven’t read enough–enough to sound intelligent at dinner parties, yes, but not enough to write thoughtful well-developed posts.
7. I want my five minutes back. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but is there anything real, human, truthful, beautiful or worthwhile there? Yikes. I sure HOPE that isn’t the case with the few who read my blog. If it is, I’ll wrap it up, close it down, and go back to my day job (law student).
Truth be told, I really needed to read this post. A humbling experience, to be sure, and absolutely necessary. I’m a 26 yr-old law student; what do I know? Other than one incredible summer internship with the Alliance Defense Fund’s Blackstone Fellowship, I know little more than any other law student, and probably far less. Again, thanks for this post. I may need to rethink this blogging thing. God bless!
Grace and peace,
Daniel
K.W. Leslie – You have a great point their!
I’m going to break Rule #5 and link to this.
Thanks.
Hah!
Well said.
Well. That article made sense.
As a quick plugh, voice your opinions on a new project coming out to promote peace through t-shirt sales:
intruthandaction.wordpress.com
I’m running this blog to raise awareness within Christian circles and hopefully get people interested.
Thanks
Thanks! Something to think about.
i claim my level of knowledge to be low.. i think that is part of my charm. &:~)
Strange, those are the exact reasons that today is my last time reading this blog. I think in your own mind you may be slowly removing yourself from the “common” folks.
A couple of those were very convicting – thanks for sharing!
Hmmm, this was an interesting read and made me think about my own blogging habits. I don’t actually “read” other blogs as much as “scan” them. If I see something that catches my eye, I will spend a few minutes actually reading the words. In this case, your title caught my attention and I thoroughly enjoyed the content. Thank You!
Michael,
Wow – very well written and truthful! I have often struggled with finding a balance to blogging – to share what God has done (and is still doing) in my life in a manner that is real! I want lives changed because of power of Christ – NOT just because my blog is color coordinated!
I will say that your blog is absolutely one of my favorites – even over all my buddies. You have a wonderful gift of communication and your writing style is very identifiable (is that even a word?). Thanks for the guts to be real!
Also, I just thought I would add….”what the heck is up with all those stupid “blinkies” – they are enough to make me find the quickest exit to their blog.”
And Michael…are you dissin’ CCBCMP? There is a line, Mister, and it may be behind you.
Lets not forget the blogger who goes ballistic if there is a POLITE disagreement (comment) over some minor point. I guess point number 10 covers that.
The readers are just supposed to say “yeah, amen,” and nod vigorously like a roomful of bobbleheads during an earthquake.