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by Josh Baltzell.
Original Post: Why you should not have to defend yourself based on your blog
Feed Title: ShortDomainName.com
Feed URL: http://www.contegix.com/Rss.aspx
Feed Description: Weblog of Josh Baltzell. Focusing on the computer industry and .NET programming related news. I like to get involved on the discussions wherever they are.
Robert Scoble is defending himself on his own personal blog for giving out an opinion that (god forbid) is not related to Microsoft or it's competitors. I don't think anyone should have to do this ever. He makes some points as to why it is his right to post anything he wants, two of them I particularly agree with:
3) Because this is my personal weblog I will occassionally make personal statements on issues that people are talking about. Sometimes you won't like those statements.
4) I believe that to be an informed human being you should consider points of view that you might not agree with. If you look through my 1300 feeds, you'll see many blogs done by people and companies I don't agree with, and, maybe even, don't like. Why do I do that? To get outside of my echo chamber.
I read blogs because I like the opinions about everything imaginable, and I like reading what real life people are doing with all these gizmos out there. I would specifically read the MSDN Library if I didn't want to see any opinions or off topic articles (Then again you might stumble over an MSDN TV Episode with Don Box in it and my analagy falls apart). Don't get me wrong, I can understand staying on topic when you are posting on Longhorn Blogs or GotDotNet or weblogs.ASP.NET, but on a personal site I like posts that are off topic. Why do you think Rory Blyth's blog is popular? Sure he writes some nice technical articles, but what keeps people coming back is the stuff in the middle that makes things seem more real and less like a fire hose full of instruction manuals being fired at your face.
If a blogger wants to help readers filter information they can post in to categories. That way those people only looking for one topic can subscribe to that feed, but no matter how you think of a blog or explain a blog to “normal” people, a blog is not a news website. A blog is a new medium that is much more personal, so the opinions and off topic comments need to be there.
Keep on cranking out opinions Robert, I hope I don't agree with half of them so I can see things from another angle.
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