Do you think blogs are waste of time?

[donniezazen]

I am subscribed to 100's of blog in Google Reader some of them notably are TechCrunch, Mashable, Lifehacker, WebMD, etc. Out of 100's post each day only 2-3 are informative. It has become waste of time but you don't want to unsubscribe them coz you do get something once in a while. What is your opinion?

Thanks.

[RiceMonster]

I think web forum polls are an even bigger waste of time

[lrcaballero]

Blogs are very helpful! especially when they interest you in what ever topic may be of your preference, there is a Latin american saying: "Whatever you don't understand drop-it but KEEP reading!!! something good will come up.

Luis

[juancarlospaco]

Nah, see Hak5 or PacketLife...

[leef]

useually you can tell if it will be useful or entertaining from the post title so you just skip posts that aren't useful or interesting.

[Skripka]

I think web forum polls are an even bigger waste of time

I like coffee cake.

[RiceMonster]

I like coffee cake.

I prefer asphalt

[Queue29]

Iv'e found blogs to be fantastic for finding tidbits of information that aren't really documented anywhere else. The way you use them (for news/entertainment) I'd sooner use reddit or digg to get to the good stuff without sifting through the boring stuff.

[arvevans]

Blogs are problematic for discussing an on-going project, because the information orientation is backward (LIFO) and thus does not represent the order in which you did the work.

As the Internet evolves, we old geezers have seen it change from an email and data retrieval system (WAIS & Gopher), to data storage & retrieval (WWW), to Social networking (Facebook, etc.), to cloud-based computing. Blogs were one of the many fads along the way, but now seem to have been replaced by new usage methodology.
_._

[~sHyLoCk~]

Blogs can be helpful. It's where someone has put down his own experiences and ideas. It's often different from the official guides/wikis. You may learn a lot about different workarounds and inner workings. Like for example my blog teaches you howto enable root login which is considered an evil ct here in ubuntu forums and suggesting this here might get me banned.

[ticopelp]

If you enjoy reading blogs, it's not a waste of time.

If you enjoy writing blogs, it's not a waste of time.

IMO, hoping that every blog you read is going to be gold every time, that's kind of a waste of time. You gotta take the bad with the good.

Subscribing to hundreds of blogs might be a bit much. I think I read about two dozen and that's way more than I can reasonably keep up with.

[sudoer541]

I thing OMG!!!!! UBUNTU!!!!!!!!!1 is a great blog! it has good info about ubu.

[donniezazen]

If you enjoy reading blogs, it's not a waste of time.

If you enjoy writing blogs, it's not a waste of time.

IMO, hoping that every blog you read is going to be gold every time, that's kind of a waste of time. You gotta take the bad with the good.

Subscribing to hundreds of blogs might be a bit much. I think I read about two dozen and that's way more than I can reasonably keep up with.

Agreed.

[Project PWNED]

Blogs are pretty hilarious when people blog about social interactions with other people or coworkers, then act like random people online actually care. Well, I said blogs - I guess I mean LiveJournal..

[Gizenshya]

If you enjoy reading blogs, it's not a waste of time.

If you enjoy writing blogs, it's not a waste of time.

IMO, hoping that every blog you read is going to be gold every time, that's kind of a waste of time. You gotta take the bad with the good.

Subscribing to hundreds of blogs might be a bit much. I think I read about two dozen and that's way more than I can reasonably keep up with.

I agree with you completely.

Well, except the first bit... and the rest of it.

[ticopelp]

I agree with you completely.

Well, except the first bit... and the rest of it.

Good post.

[HappinessNow]

I prefer asphalt

I prefer sugar on the asphalt:


...Salt, sweat
Sugar on the asphalt
Our hearts littering the topsoil
Tune in and
We can get the last call
Our lives, are cold...Bleed American Lyrics
by: Jimmy Eat World

[PartisanEntity]

At first I thought blogging was stupid and only for those who thought they had great things to say that everyone wanted to hear (read).

But I use my blog as a repository of notes, howto's and info on the computer/graphics/web related things I am doing.

And it has helped me tons of times, I keep going back and searching for notes I have written when I forget a step or two.

As far as reading other blogs I am subscribed to about 30 blogs ranging from humor, to politics and mainly computing/IT/web.

[judge jankum]

I like the fine grind asphalt, with sugar

[kagashe]

When I started using Linux I registered a blog on Blogger primarily to record my experience online so that I may search and find how I did it because on Linux you learn a trick you use it but you don't exactly recollect how you did it later on when needed. I found that my blog was being quoted by others on forums (posts like Debian rocks on 32 MB RAM, Debian Live persistent etc).

At least I consider my blog useful.

kagashe

[Eisenwinter]

Good post.
Yeah, it was awesome, really mind-blowing things were said there.

[The Real Dave]

The fact that only 2-3 of the 100s of blogs your subscribed to arent great isn't the bloggers fault, its yours, why would you subscribe to something that isn't good and then say that blogs are a waste of time? Its like buying 100 rotten eggs, 3 fresh ones, and saying that chickens laying eggs is a waste of time.....


I like blogs, I blog myself, usually to keep notes of stuff I want to be able to find later, or to keep a record of the hardware I use at a certain time.

One of my favourite blogs is Kmandla's blog Motho ke motho ka botho (http://kmandla.wordpress.com/), makes for some great Linux reading. His post on rTorrent has helped a lot of people use a seemingly intimidating app. So no, not a waste of time. :)

[chucky chuckaluck]

blogs would be great if, somehow, morons were prevented from writing them.

[wojox]

Bitch LOGS nuff said.

[Bachstelze]

Most are, I know three that aren't.

[t0p]

"Are blogs a waste of time?" - what a sweeping question. You might as well ask "Are books a waste of time?" or "Is conversation a waste of time?" There are so many different types of blogs, of such varying quality, that it's impossible to characterize them all as useful or useless. You have to consider each one on a case-by-case basis.

I think my blog (http://ihatehate.wordpress.com) isn't a waste of time; and my very small readership might agree. I don't follow many blogs, but the ones I read regularly are certainly not a waste of time. In my opinion. I certainly wouldn't bother subscribing to a blog that I considered a waste of my time. Even if a blog just gives me an amusing way to kill 5 minutes, that's not a waste of time. Whereas picking through 100 posts per day to find just 1 or 2 items of interest amongst the detritus certainly would be a waste of time. Well, a waste of my time anyway. Maybe you find it a useful way to spend your time.

[forrestcupp]

"Are blogs a waste of time?" - what a sweeping question. You might as well ask "Are books a waste of time?" or "Is conversation a waste of time?" There are so many different types of blogs, of such varying quality, that it's impossible to characterize them all as useful or useless. You have to consider each one on a case-by-case basis.

+1 You should have had the option "Some blogs are a waste of time"


Blogs with educated information? no

The thousands of blogs that are just no name people telling what they had for lunch every day? yes


Half of the "articles" we read on the internet are in blog format.

[donniezazen]

The fact that only 2-3 of the 100s of blogs your subscribed to arent great isn't the bloggers fault, its yours, why would you subscribe to something that isn't good and then say that blogs are a waste of time? Its like buying 100 rotten eggs, 3 fresh ones, and saying that chickens laying eggs is a waste of time.....


I like blogs, I blog myself, usually to keep notes of stuff I want to be able to find later, or to keep a record of the hardware I use at a certain time.

One of my favourite blogs is Kmandla's blog Motho ke motho ka botho (http://kmandla.wordpress.com/), makes for some great Linux reading. His post on rTorrent has helped a lot of people use a seemingly intimidating app. So no, not a waste of time. :)

My point was blogs like Lifehacker, Mashable, etc have huge following so they do write good blogs but then they send you so many unnecessary post that good post get lost.

[ratcheer]

Most blogs are a waste of time. A very few are excellent.

Tim

[crimesaucer]

Most blogs are a waste of time. A very few are excellent.

Tim

This is one of the few blogs that I read: http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/


I'm also a big fan of the Phoronix site (not really a blog but definitely on my RSS live bookmarks): http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=home

[Frak]

I like blogs. Whether somebody reads or not, I couldn't care less.

[Gizenshya]

"Are blogs a waste of time?" - what a sweeping question. You might as well ask "Are books a waste of time?" or "Is conversation a waste of time?"

What an excellent post... well, from what I read of it. I only got as far as what I quoted above before I had a startling epiphany. And... hmmm... eureka!

[Khakilang]

Especially newbie like me it provide rich information on what I want to know. I think Social network is a waste of time.

[handy]

At first I thought blogging was stupid and only for those who thought they had great things to say that everyone wanted to hear (read).

But I use my blog as a repository of notes, howto's and info on the computer/graphics/web related things I am doing.

And it has helped me tons of times, I keep going back and searching for notes I have written when I forget a step or two.

As far as reading other blogs I am subscribed to about 30 blogs ranging from humor, to politics and mainly computing/IT/web.

I write how-to's to do the same thing, it helps (hopefully) others & I can refer back to it in the future sometime. Saves reinventing the wheel.

I'm not really into blogs that much, but there are some I have bookmarked because of there very helpful technical information, so those types of blogs are really technical reference sites like a wiki.

I'm not interested in reading pages written by some egotistical moaner.

Be happy, be practical, be helpful, or be gone!

[Groucho Marxist]

I am subscribed to 100's of blog in Google Reader some of them notably are TechCrunch, Mashable, Lifehacker, WebMD, etc. Out of 100's post each day only 2-3 are informative. It has become waste of time but you don't want to unsubscribe them coz you do get something once in a while. What is your opinion?

Thanks.

It depends upon content. For example, I am much more likely to read political or DIY Linux blogs than Twitter-type gossip.

[LeifAndersen]

I subscribe to >100 blogs in Google Reader, and get >1000 posts a day. I just go to the view all panel, click on 'sort by magic', and start reading the recent news. I'll skim over everything until I find what looks interesting. Also, if I don't get time, I just won't read that day.

[donniezazen]

"Are blogs a waste of time?" - what a sweeping question. You might as well ask "Are books a waste of time?" or "Is conversation a waste of time?" There are so many different types of blogs, of such varying quality, that it's impossible to characterize them all as useful or useless. You have to consider each one on a case-by-case basis.

Well, it takes less than an hour to write a blog and over an year to write a book, so, pretty much their is no comparison between a book and a blog.

[donniezazen]

I subscribe to >100 blogs in Google Reader, and get >1000 posts a day. I just go to the view all panel, click on 'sort by magic', and start reading the recent news. I'll skim over everything until I find what looks interesting. Also, if I don't get time, I just won't read that day.

Ya same here i just star important post to read it later.

[handy]

I will never have anything to do with facebook, twitter, myspace & the like. They are data-miners extraordinaire, that the majority of the youth in the West at least have become addicted to, & by strength of numbers have forced others (even university lecturers!) to have to join, to the point that social networking has insidiously become such a part of the corporate world that some corporations have & are making rules about what can & can't be mentioned via their social networking addictions:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/facebookfollow/

Then there is the beginning of the closed & private corporate, so called social networking systems, which are being created to protect their privacy & IP!:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/17/facebook-twitter-security-technology-cio-network-social-networking.html

Though it's business as usual for the mal-hacker underworld & the supposedly legit' corporate "sweethearts", with predictions of even more hidden IP address-diversion for the social networking crew this year as mal-hacker ramps it up due to Google & co clamping down on mal-hacker on the web:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/185661/2010s_top_security_threats_facebook_twitter_and_ip hone_apps.html

[Chris Edgell]

"Now every gambler knows, that the secret to survival...
Is knowin' what to throw away, knowin' what to keep.
Kenny Rogers "The Gambler"

I loved the post by PartisanEntity and also the one by tOp

There are many things that we have to weed out before we can't find the garden.

Happy New Year