On the topic of formality, I’m still kind of in between. It is nice to have that human dialogue and not feel pressured to impress others with facts. However, I also find formal blogs very useful. There are times when I come across discussions that effect my research and it is important for me to know the facts which have influenced the opinions.

My biggest issue with blogs is that many of them are just a bunch of pointless psycho babel mixed in with interesting discussions and I feel forced to read through things that don’t matter just so I can retrieve little that does. It seems that a lot of very intense bloggers just have that “I’m a blogger” attitude and I find it really annoying, just say what you have to say without the “bla bla bla”

Yet, the other side of that argument is that through the magic of the internet the social masks we wear on a daily basis can be put aside in lieu of a voice that is unfettered by the pressures of public speaking and peer interaction. Although I personally view this as a setback in the evolution of human communications I’m quite sure there are those out there who would disagree.

And lastly, I thought this was a blog about design, not a blog about blogging. *

*not to be taken seriously. ;D

As for lending credibility to what is posted on a blog, I agree that it depends on the subject of the blog. Certainly there are blogs that are informal forums meant only to stimulate conversation between individuals who have like interests—just a means of interest and entertainment. And I do agree that the informality and immediate nature of blogging does not lend itself to formal documentation of every word posted. Yes you should give a brief, quick citation to sources if that is absolutely necessary, but blogging is meant to quick and spontaneous.

I’m just saying that once the conversation is inspired by your posts, I don’t feel like it has to be as formal.

I think that blogs can be a useful tool for discussion on certain things. I do agree with Daryl though, “students should use blogs for casual conversation and design discussion, not as a place for self-publishing essays,” that is if they aren’t trying to get known for there writings on blog sites, which would be kinda of strange in my opinion. The thing about blogs though is that you are placing these discussions about digital things that you are not seeing in person. It kind of reminds me the semiotics
of taking things out of its intended environment and almost devaluing the piece of art or whatever you are looking at. Changing the environment can change the purpose of the art as well. I think that for designers it is a good way to spark conversations about things but they wouldn’t be as useful as a face to face conversation, in some cases anyways. But as far as being practical I think they are a really good idea because people don’t always have time to meet face to face.

Blogging with those around the world- It may seem fun and exciting to get feedback from around the world but I also feel that there is a lack of respect when communicating with those that you do not know personally. It is easy to make personal attacks or outrageous comments when you know you will never have to see this person face to face. Again, this may not be the norm, but it is something that I have noticed in my experiences with online communities.

Language- Megan touched on this in her article as well, but I’d like to add to it. I feel that online communication; AIM, blogging, web forums and email has lead to the decline in knowledge of the English language. From acronyms such as LOL, WTF and IDK (Laughing Out Loud, What The F*ck, I Don’t Know) to words that were never meant to exist in the English language. Most recently I was sitting in a class critique and heard someone describe their project as “impactful”. I sat there for a second and thought ‘is impactful even a word?’ About 2/3 of the people around me thought that it was a word. I went back to my computer and looked it up to find that the answer is no. It is not generally considered a ‘real word’. It will appear in things like Urban Dictionary and Websters New Millennium Dictionary, but not in any standard or literary dictionaries. Influential or Effective are the recommended alternatives for “impactful”. Upon further research, there are already articles about this topic- the internet “creating” words that never existed before…here is a link to the best of them (IMO hahahaha!)
Impactful Ignorals- http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/exceedance.htm

Also, here is a link to a fellow blog publisher using the word dreaded word “impactful”- http://prblog.typepad.com/strategic_public_relation/2007/09/nikes-impactful.html

That being said, I do not regularly participate in any blogs. On occasion someone has sent me a link to a blog that I found interesting, or I stumbled onto a blog while generally ‘surfing’ the web, so I book mark it and check back every so often, but I have never posted on a blog that was not for a school/class related purpose.

To clarify, it seems that the purpose for this blog is to evoke a design dialog (which this does) however each entry that I have read thus far is circling the topic of using blogs to replace other forms of design dialect, which raises the question in my mind how many times in how many ways do we have to pose the same question?

I cannot lie and say that I enjoy participating in blogs. Occasionally I will come across a post on some random blog found through newstoday or google, or comcast’s homepage, however which pixel gawker being the exception I do not belong to any blogging community. I feel that the majority of blogs do just what I stated earlier and restate the same information either in a different way or by a different person. Truth be told if it weren’t for the fact that my participation is mandatory for this blog I probably wouldn’t return and keep “updated” on this blog.

Not to say that these articles aren’t well written or provoke some thoughtful insight (obviously because I am thinking and writing now) but I do not see blogs as the best form of design communication. It is a way to communicate and it is fast, effective, and revolutionary in it’s own way, however I have never really enjoyed talking to people I have never known, met, and/or seen. Although not applying to this blog per se I believe that a conversation in a more “formal” setting such as a lecture, video blog, casual meeting, or business meeting tends to be much more of an effective way to make a point or to share a thought, I guess a situation where our natural senses have a role in the tone of the discussion are present.

My belief could be disagreed with (and im positive they are) however that is how I feel.

With that said, in a natural conversation with a group of people, I wouldn’t cite my sources, and I wouldn’t take too much time to edit my ideas as they came to me, so why should I on a blog?

Obviously, if somebody makes a factual claim, they should be able to back it up with a source, but I look at blogs as a place for sharing thoughts and ideas, not for regurgitating information and then citing it to make it legitimate.