Why blogs are (or should be) dying

[Simon MacGowen]

The old blog days of Cornish Workshop, the Village Woodworker (both discontinued) and the like are gone. Today's blogs, with a few exceptions, are mostly about commerce, show-offs of tools, or worse, subjects (woodworking as well as non-woodworking) of little substance. Some bloggers have jumped ship and update their Instagram /Twitter daily (or even minute by minute?), leaving their blogs from half dead to totally dead. This is especially true of many furniture makers who previously were diligent in blogging.

I am pretty good now at deciding which blog posts should not be clicked (most of them) simply looking at their headings or authors.

Simon

[Stewie Simpson]

Today's blogs, with a few exceptions, are mostly about commerce, show-offs of tools, or worse, subjects (woodworking as well as non-woodworking) of little substance.

Simon; you just covered the criteria found within most hand tool forums.

[Brian Holcombe]

Twitter/Instagram are enjoyable but they can't offer what blogs and forums can. Both have downsides, but truly I know for certain that I have benefitted substantially from participating in forums and reading blogs.

Your peers raise you up and these are some excellent places to find your peers.

[Graham Haydon]

I've moved to reading most blogs once a month. Gives time for the writer to build up some material, and I can skip the bits that I don't want to read. Social media can be good but I personally found it overwhelming, even though I had very little interaction. I don't know what reputation forums have, but from my experience, they have exposed me to people with a broad spectrum of experience and further allowed me to learn from them. Discussions on forums can sometimes be very direct, but broadly I welcome that.

I'd speculate that time is a big issue for people writing blogs. I simply don't have time to put something coherent together, and often "my eyes were bigger than my belly" in terms of what I thought I could do. I'd like to get back to it at some point but I don't see it happening any time soon.

I'd be interested to find out who's reading what at the moment? Brian's blog is great, I must remind to check in more often. He's easily the most stylish woodworker :). One thing I have noticed is the cyclical nature of blogs, in many ways they have the same issue as any form of content, be that magazine or videos. Steve Voigt had a good update on his blog about the social media side of things http://blackdogswoodshop.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/five-random-observations-from-handworks.html

[Derek Cohen]

The old blog days of Cornish Workshop, the Village Woodworker (both discontinued) and the like are gone. Today's blogs, with a few exceptions, are mostly about commerce, show-offs of tools, or worse, subjects (woodworking as well as non-woodworking) of little substance. Some bloggers have jumped ship and update their Instagram /Twitter daily (or even minute by minute?), leaving their blogs from half dead to totally dead. This is especially true of many furniture makers who previously were diligent in blogging.

I am pretty good now at deciding which blog posts should not be clicked (most of them) simply looking at their headings or authors.

Simon

Simon, I beg to differ. I think that you generalise far, far too widely.

Blogs are like forums are like people. They range from beginners to expert. They range from tools-orientated to theoretical. They range from gossip and socialising to serious discussion. There are those that have little original to offer, and they will show their tools instead. There are those that are focussed on builds and more interested in what the tools are capable of. Then there are readers who range from fan boys to those who only seek a target to vent their petty jealousies. There are readers who seek to offer input and readers who are have nothing to contribute to others. There are readers with green eyes, readers with warm hearts .... the list goes on an on. No different from the world around us.

Where do you think you fit in?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Todd Stock]

There are likely thousands of woodworking blogs which might merit a read for a tyro, while someone with experience in the field will find just a few of interest...in other words, what benefitted me to study with perhaps a few hundred hours of experience is not what benefits me tens of thousands of hours later. As craftsmen, we progress at different rates and along different paths to whatever constitutes proficiency in the branch of the craft we find of interest, so quite a few blogs - even ones that are rich and wise in lore or practice - will be of little or no interest.

[Ron Bontz]

Hmmm. My thought would fall into the non substance category, but it seems even the opinions / thoughts above have a wide spectrum. I too have gleaned much from this and one or two other forums. So I will just lurk away in my non substantial world. I also seem to pick and choose. Best wishes to all.

[Derek Cohen]

Well said, Todd.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Frederick Skelly]

I agree there's a spectrum and what's "good" depends on your interest and skill level.

Sometimes, a blog looks to me like an attention getter - a way of saying "Hey look at me!" I usually learn little from such. Or a self-promotion - an individual trying to achieve celebrity status via their website. I know many will vehemently disagree with me, but personally, I class the wood whisperer as one of those. (Now he shows up at woodworking events? Really? No thanks. I bought his book and didn't learn anything, except that he's got a good eye for design. YMMV.)

My taste runs to the well written, carefully considered blogs/websites that try to present well thought out tool comparisons (not just "reviews"), (good) how-to's, and builds with enough detail to let me learn something new. For me, Derek Cohen's and Brian Holcombe's sites fall in this category. For example, when we were discussing the LN vs LV shooting planes, I recalled Derek had analyzed that already and referred back to it.

I like Chris Schwartz. Many don't, but I do. His blogs are short, sweet and readable. They often have a useful nugget or expose me to something new - a tool, a device, a technique. I have 2 of his books and I've learned from them. I think he's self-promoting, but the guy is just so readable, probably because of his journalism background, that I enjoy his stuff.

Forums? Good forums with knowlegeable participants help me a lot. I check SMC at least twice a day.

YMMV
Fred

[Simon MacGowen]

I scan Unplugged Shop (owned by the son of Paul Sellers?) to see what blogs I may want to check out now and then. Take a look at its blog headings for the past few days or week and judge for yourself.

Several commercial posts (class schedule, meet the author, stickers), someone on steroid putting out 10 (12?) posts in one single day, another one making a big story out of two chisels....

Sometimes, you see a long post all about apologizing for the poster's inactivity, a post about a new dog (or cat, or car), or some trivial matters. You may be interested in sharing your diary with the world, as a woodworker, I am not interested in any of that (that is why I click on posts from the few authors who I know will deliver inspiring woodwork). The few I miss are furniture makers (in the US and the UK) who do fine and one of a kind pieces and who now update only their Instagram accounts. You see their work but you no longer see the details which previously these fine makers would share on their blogs.

As I said, I have perfected the skill of bypassing most of the blog posts (including of course posts on the forums) and if I am doing that so well, I must not be alone. The slow death of blogs is inevitable although as Brian pointed out, its potential replacements (eg Instagram) may not be as capable. You can find an Instagram or FB with 50,000 followers but hardly any single blog will command 5,000 constant readers. Like it or not, the trend cannot be clearer.

Simon

[Patrick Chase]

The old blog days of Cornish Workshop, the Village Woodworker (both discontinued) and the like are gone. Today's blogs, with a few exceptions, are mostly about commerce, show-offs of tools, or worse, subjects (woodworking as well as non-woodworking) of little substance. Some bloggers have jumped ship and update their Instagram /Twitter daily (or even minute by minute?), leaving their blogs from half dead to totally dead. This is especially true of many furniture makers who previously were diligent in blogging.

I am pretty good now at deciding which blog posts should not be clicked (most of them) simply looking at their headings or authors.

Simon

Maintaining an interesting and engaging blog is a lot of work, and bloggers and their blogs consequently come and go. You really can't deduce anything about woodworking blogs in general from the fact that some specific blogs have gone away.

My employer runs both Blogger and YouTube, so there's a lot that I can't discuss, but I think it's safe to say that some creators have moved from conventional text blogs to other platforms. My impression is that that migration has been most pronounced among younger/trendier creators and their audiences, and I'm not convinced that hand tool woodworking is impacted as much (David Weaver and his vlog notwithstanding :-)

[steven c newman]

Not sure my "Build-a-long" posts ARE blogs.....I am not much of a Blogger, it would seem.

I don't have any sponsors telling what to do
I don't try to sell items with the build-a-longs
I try to show a way to do a task, or too.....even with a broken thumb.

I do get email blogs from Paul Sellers, and a few "Newsletters" from other people.....that's about it.

[Simon MacGowen]

I agree there's a spectrum and what's "good" depends on your interest and skill level.

Sometimes, a blog looks to me like an attention getter - a way of saying "Hey look at me!" I usually learn little from such. Or a self-promotion - an individual trying to achieve celebrity status via their website. I know many will vehemently disagree with me, but personally, I class the wood whisperer as one of those. (Now he shows up at woodworking events? Really? No thanks. I bought his book and didn't learn anything, except that he's got a good eye for design. YMMV.)

My taste runs to the well written, carefully considered blogs/websites that try to present well thought out tool comparisons (not just "reviews"), (good) how-to's, and builds with enough detail to let me learn something new. For me, Derek Cohen's and Brian Holcombe's sites fall in this category. For example, when we were discussing the LN vs LV shooting planes, I recalled Derek had analyzed that already and referred back to it.

I like Chris Schwartz. Many don't, but I do. His blogs are short, sweet and readable. They often have a useful nugget or expose me to something new - a tool, a device, a technique. I have 2 of his books and I've learned from them. I think he's self-promoting, but the guy is just so readable, probably because of his journalism background, that I enjoy his stuff.

Forums? Good forums with knowlegeable participants help me a lot. I check SMC at least twice a day.

YMMV
Fred

Agree 100% with what you said (except the part on Chris Schwarz, because he is sometimes very good, but sometimes not so much and sometimes to the point of being arrogant, because of his success after leaving PWM).

There are a lot of attention getters (men and women) in the woodworking social media (someone calls them woodworking socialites) for all kinds of reasons -- business, personal gratification (look, 831 (mostly strangers) love me!), need for online recognition, etc. It is all about themselves. They will pat each other's shoulders nicely by supporting each other's tweets, etc. or retweeting or cross posting. Some of these attention getters share a lot of things, except real practical and inspiring woodworking knowledge and techniques. That is, unless you count shiny, new and fancy tools as one of them. There are many woodworking tool collectors but they don't claim to be or pretend to be a woodworker.

I should also add that you learn something about a person by looking at his or her online behavior (I am not talking about Trump here, for the record). One FW contributor has over 60,000 followers and you can tell how selective he is in answering questions. If you are another well known woodworker or tool maker, you get a response. No luck even if your question is genuine but you are a small or unknown fish. You count yourself lucky if some other followers answer you question. You can also tell a herd of sheep (aka followers) from a group of independent thinkers when some celebrity woodworker or blogger makes a statement of nonsense and the only responses you see fall in line with the emperor's new clothes story.

Simon

[Simon MacGowen]

Maintaining an interesting and engaging blog is a lot of work, and bloggers and their blogs consequently come and go.

Agreed. But it is better not to blog out garbage where silence is golden. When the prolific bloggers or attention getters are flooding the scene with essays and essays about matters of little substance, they are helping kill the medium itself.

My deduction is simple: blogs will diminish in their value for existence when most of the remaining blogs are full of junk or materials for self-interest or self-promotion. I am not promoting the death of blogs, the bloggers themselves -- many not knowing it -- are.

Simon

[Derek Cohen]

I think that as we grow, we also outgrow some topics, become more selective, and then more dismissive or critical of topics we now find mundane. I have contributed on many forums in the past, and now rarely visit many of these as either my tastes have changed, or the forums have changed. Sawmill Creek is one of the forums where there is a decent mix of topics, and enough to bring me back.

My own website has changed progressively over the years. I revamped it slightly a few months ago and removed several articles. While I still do the occasional tool review (which have always attempted to explore tool design in the context of its purpose), my focus has moved increasingly into furniture design, joinery and builds. I am happy to discuss the merits of various tools here, but my interest is not about tool acquisition or sharpening. I changed web services a couple of years ago. The previous service would send me stats on readership. I was regularly receiving 1 million readers each year. That surprises me as I have avoided running a blog - a blog involves and encourages interaction. The website simply records information. I prefer to keep the interaction on the forums.

The fact is that we all continue to change. Change is good. Hopefully we continue to do some of this together and find enough that is mutually interesting.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Kees Heiden]

My blog certainly is very quit, since I discovered instagram. Allthough I like to read blogs, writing them is indeed a lot of work.

I also like to check out unpluggedshop or norsewoodworking, two places to keep up with handtool woodworking blogs. It's a pitty you miss out on a lot of other quality blogs.

[Patrick Chase]

My blog certainly is very quit, since I discovered instagram. Allthough I like to read blogs, writing them is indeed a lot of work.

You were one of those younger, trendier creators apparently.

[John Schtrumpf]

Today is definitely a day to check out unpluggedshop, there are instagram links to the kez 2017 planing contest with video clips. Including a pass by Brian H.

[Brian Holcombe]

I'm putting together a post for Kez soon as well, then will get on to a new project that I've been working on for some weeks now without putting it up.

A blog is more effort, so should of course be more infrequent than something like Facebook or Instagram but also more thorough. I think it is a bit early to write it off, there was a recent 'forums are dying' commentary, but not really. More people do participate in some Facebook groups but the downside is that good discussions can get buried too quickly. I find forums easier to navigate. I find blogs to be more of a 'sip your coffee and enjoy' than the quick consumption associated with other venues.

I find a good development of community in both. The fun of a picture based venue of course is that it is very inclusive, I have followers who post in many many other languages and still we can communicate well because of the fact that we are trading photos. I've seen posts from Japanese kezurou-Kia participants, for instance, that otherwise would not be accessible to me, and they very much provide an ah-ha moment or other insight.

There is no real need to approach this as an either-or, when you can have all of the above.