Right now, AOL is boasting on it's people connection page that Magic Smoke, written by Joe, "The" Journals Editor (aren't there others)? is the official blog of AOL-Journals.
The Face is kind of cute, you can check it out here --> Magic Smoke but his intentions here are still not very clear. I would assume that in part he's trying to smooth our integration with AIM, and to encourage us to become more attractive to the rest of the web, but so far, the Blog Father he is not!
In his recent entry about boring blogs, Joe complains about the "big fish blogs that endlessly talk about the same things over and over, and the small fry blogs, regular folks who are (let's face it) regular".
Ummm ... correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a blog a log of the daily thoughts events and opinions in the life of a regular person? For the most part, don't we like reading the regular news, about the regular lives of the regular people that reside here?
Joe, I guess you could try hiring a few interesting writers to write interesting things in some interesting blogs that might (or might not) attract some interesting readers from the web ... but for now, this is still our community and it's all about the magic of interaction and connection, not about your magic smoke ... official blog or not!
I am sorry that you find reading blog page after blog page to be so boring ... have you ever thought that maybe you're just in the wrong line of work and that maybe a different job would make you less cranky.
Taking into consideration that you consider your boring blog entry 60%-75% serious, I'll just say that the jury is still out (at least for me) on welcoming you and your official blog to J-Land.
31 comments:
Well said!
Tami
Wow. Coy, yours is the only blog I read. I don't surf, jump, slide or anything out on the net. I stick my toe in the water once in awhile. But I'm very shy of accidently getting into a porn site, pop up ads or the CIA. This Joe is an idiot if he thinks he is the be all and end all. I have never read a word he wrote. And I'm not going to either.
If you can forward my comments to him you are welcome to.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks for not being "interesting" read as "just like reality tv"
Thanks for being Coy. :))
LOL!
great entry coy!
you hit the nail on the head,
you have to get to KNOW the people
that make up each blog, before you make
a clear judgement of what each personal
journal is really saying.
It just takes a little extra love.
:)
...he just isn't into getting to know the person behind the blog..based on that idea...I guess we all are boring.....I myself only read a handful of j's..and to me they are the highlight of my day.....
E
I took Joe's entry as humorous. Blogs can be kinda boring. I read a bunch of photography related ones and when a new camera gets released I often see the same reviews blogged over and over on several blogs.
Still no rain in texas :-(
Maybe that is why I don't read him?
xoxo
I read what Joe said and I ran a poll on my journal to see if people agreed with him. Overwhelmingly not.
Yup. LOL
BTW Joe, ... I left out the part about only being 60%-70% serious about the
"maybe you are in the wrong line of work thing" ;-)
*** Coy ***
Great entry. I hadn't realized we were necessarily writing for an audience anyway... ~ Lori
my response is I refuse to justify the "boring" post over there with a comment, the jury is still out will await the follow up. :-)
I agree with you 100% . Helen
HAHAHA:-) I coulndt agree more. I love reading about your weekends with the girls or looking at the wonderful pictures you take, just as much as anyone esle journal I read. It's the day to day of these journals that make them comftorable. Not to mention HONEST:-) Great entry!
Amy
Hi...just to clarify, the Magic Smoke blog is only official in the sense that it is the official Journal (and I am the primary editor) speaking for the AOL Journals product (the actual blogging tool that we use, love and/or hate) -- I wouldn't dream of trying to speak for the J-Land community, nor the entire realm of AOL Journalers.
Likewise, I am not trying to change how anyone writes, what they write about, whose blogs they read, or anything else.
As I said, blogs are most interesting to the people you know, the people who know you, and the people you interact with online.
One other thing I am trying to do is to deflate some of the hype (seen more often in the mainstream media than not) around blogging. It's just something that people do. And we like to do it.
"Boring" can be good. We don't have to be writing Shakespeare everyday or blogging from the top of Mount Everest. Maybe boring is the wrong word -- but I don't think mundane, ordinary, normal or regular are any better.
Like I've said elsewhere, no matter how boring you might think your own blog is, there's bound to be someone out there who finds it interesting.
All that I ask is that is people take it on faith that I don't actually hate you all, your journals, or my job, and maybe re-read my entry with that in mind.
Thanks -- Joe
http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/387
I write a rubbish journal but it keeps me happy and has found me many friends. Don't care what official journallers think or say - I will never win any official awards, but my award is the freedom to scribble away.
Sylvia
http://journals.aol.co.uk/sylviam4000/JottingsfromtheSticks
The offical blog? Really? Whatever.
I love keeping up on the minutae of everyone's lives. When someone I have become addicted to reading goes private, I pray I am going to be invited to continue reading.
Tell Joe to blow magic smoke up his ass. I hate his name anyway, it's my ex's. So there.
HMMMM... Who died and made Joe in charge? I love regular people's blog. That's what makes reading a blog addicting.
Coy,
I have mingled in here to look at your site/journal periodically to enjoy your photographs and I always point at my computer screen to my kids and say "seelookie there isnt that purdy? I have felt the "stuck in the rut syndrome of JLand" and its lack of connections with so many but the assignments that Joe or John from AOL dish out give me something to look forward to as a challenge. I can imagine that Joe is just voicing his desire for some people to interact and have something to "talk about". I can only appreciate their opinions and the fact Joe took a risk to say something that the public would NOT like to hear or read. Neato you , he commented on your retorics.
It just occured to me that Joe is probably singing the song "Come together right now over me". LOL
TimelessCalligraphy
*Renee'*
It's weird, I could kind of relate to what Joe was saying, but it also struck me as "biting the hand that feeds you." Sometimes I have felt that blogs both in J-land and the greater community get repetitive... and also, that there is a kind of cool/hip factor that many non-AOL blogs aim for that is, in fact, very boring to me.
But there are some very interesting unique voices in the world of blogging, and also, often, enjoyable things don't have to be earth-shatteringly exciting-- I enjoy just reading about day-to-day stuff too. Sometimes this community feels like having lots of different penpals all over the country, and it's just fun to hear how different people live their daily lives.
And when I get bored, I know it's time to turn off the computer.
AOL: pay me a salary and I promise never to get bored!!! --Albert
ps: LOL at Mort's comment!
You know, I don't know if I would have started, or continued with my Journal if it wasn't for all of the nice people I've met here. And, although I'm sure I'm one of the 'boring' people Joe was talking about, I'm not going anywhere. I LIKE all the boring people I read and who sometimes stop over at my Journal and read and comment to me... So shoot me <LOL>
http://journals.aol.com/astaryth/AdventuresofanEclecticMind
Guess I really can't comment on this since I haven't read his journal - and really have no desire to. I like reading the everyday lives of many people here ... getting to know them and feeling a connection in some small way.
Monica
http://journals.aol.com/photographybymon/Mamarazzi/
Hi Coy...
From one bore to another...
V
Wow!!!!!
At least he headed over here and tried to defend himself eh?
Great entry brom one bore to another.
xxoo
the things people will do to stir the pot huh? now that drivel about our boring blogs is all the talk over in jland....i detect hidden motives ;-) *wink*
Coy~I vote for you! heehee...Seriously now~ I agree abt. the possible "publicity stunt"! Obviously many of us are entertained and enjoying writing, photographing and viewing others journals! Poo poo on Joe I say...;-) Sassy
http://journals.aol.com/debbted/SassysSecondWord
(just in case http://journals.aol.com/sasssydee50/SassysWORD didn't have you already bored to death) lol
I couldn't agree more with this.
LMAO! Way to go girl! That's telling him. In the first place, I seriously doubt there's anything they can do to make J-land "more interesting" to the AIMers (at least nothing I can think THEY would think of doing). Frankly, the fact that they'll be getting something else for free will likely prove to be incentive enough. If it isn't, who cares?
I dropped over by the official blog and almost dozed off right here in my chair. Sheesh! Anyway, I agree that J-Land is all about US, not them. And I promise I'll try my best to both make some time for the community this weekend (I've been a very bad bay) as well as wake up some of my fellow, slumbering old-timers to get prepped for the 2nd anniversary so we can celebrate in grand style.
Smooches,
Gregg
Your point about enjoying the community 'as written' is well-taken, certainly. If we didn't enjoy it, we wouldn't be here.
But I readily admit that I enjoyed the humor in Joe's post and agreed with his obvious point ~ yes, blogs can be boring (yes, mine especially) and it isn't blasphemous to say so. Not all things appeal to all people.
And that's *OK* ~ 'regular people' do write 'regular blogs' and that is, perhaps, what appeals. In this respect, the journals represent a truly democratic experience ~ we all go and come wherever/whenever we feel like it, each according to his/her own interests, and when we're bored...off we click. Till next time. And there's always a next time.
Because sometimes the connections we make are real, and that's never boring. :)
I couldn't help but wonder in the back of my mind if Joe's tongue was stuck in his cheek while writing that entry.
At any rate, I got bored and didn't even finish reading it. Lost interest...
moved on. Must have been all that smoke...
I'll take you, and many others in J-Land over his blog, hands down, any day of the week.
Dona
I don't think he meant anything too serious about his writing. I think he was trying to help people not to take themselves too seriously, y'ah know. :-) ---Robbie
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