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Stowe Boyd is a well-known media subversive, and an internationally recognized authority on real-time, collaborative and social technologies. His new blog is Message.

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October 28, 2004

Blogging and the B-Side

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Posted by Gregory Narain

Everyone, except you real younguns, probably remembers buying music in some tangible format (vinyl, 8-track, cassette, or CD). A common practice, then and now, was for the best information to make it to the front, the A-Side. Other music, many times music that the musician, not the label, wanted, is placed on the flip side, B-Side.

Perhaps a common misconception of the B-Side is that it's "riddled with crap". Fortunately, I've heard many a B-Side that's good if not better than the A. Jimmie recently got me thinking about this as applies to blogging when he mentioned a photoblogger than was sorting his posts this way.

My first reaction to the notion was good, honestly. I really liked the idea that there was a place for overflow. It wasn't until last night, as we finished up some plans for the launch of a new blog (sorry can't tell more until next week), that I realized how much I could use one myself.

SocialTwister has never really been a personal blog. I see what I do here as part of work, but it's an enjoyable part (sometimes more than others). I tend to have a policy of posting only once a day. I do this to ensure that I give each post enough consideration and thought. My schedule is just too busy to write more often and I like to do my best once a day. Subsequent posts in the same day would be little quickies and against my goal.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with posting lots of times a day, it's in the DNA of bloggers. I get the urge many times to just throw stuff up, but I won't. I need a B-Side. If I had a B-Side, I would be able to be looser with my policy. I could post the meaty piece here and then lots of other things over there. Next week, I'll be starting that process.

I'm curious how you're all dealing with your content. Do you simply have different categories that you post to for filtering purposes (the pegboard approach)? Do you have on dumping category (the kitchen draw approach)? Do you have multiple blogs (the B-Side approach)? Do you just not say anything at all that's out of character?

If you've got a B-Side, can you provide links to both of your identities for some comparison?

Comments (2) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Media


COMMENTS

1. Jeremy C. Wright on October 28, 2004 03:14 PM writes...

Well, I write for half a dozen different blogs in some capacity (volunteer, paid, consulting, etc). Everything that is for other folks' blogs would probably be "A-Side". Some of the stuff on mine is currently "B-Side".

That said, since the sale of my blog is about to go through, it'll probably become another "A-Side" project, and I'll probably start a purely personal one where I can rant however I want ("B-Side"?).

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2. Stowe Boyd on October 29, 2004 08:40 AM writes...

I have two blogs: Get Real (my day job) , and A Working Model (everything else). I recently posted a letter to the editor of the Washington Post regarding Kerry's comments regarding Cheney's daughter, which has nothing to do with real-time, collaborative or social technologies, which is the beat over here at Get Real. Likewsie, I am sure that readers here don't want to learn about my newest Karate kata's subleties. So, I partition my online identity into those two facets. I am going to be writing in a number of other venues in the upcoming months (about which more later) so it may become more complex.

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