Those of you who visit this little corner of cyberspace on any kind of regular basis will have noticed that I’ve messed about with a number of different themes lately. I think that is symptomatic of a general restlessness about this blog.
Since I started blogging, I haven’t exactly had a business plan. What I liked and continue to like about the blog space is that it is possible to claim a little bit of cyber real estate to do with as I please. These days, it seems fewer and fewer people visit regularly. This is understandable. Who would want to endure the onslaught of semi-obscure music punctuated by Newfoundland dog pictures I post much of the time? If fewer people are visiting, even fewer comment. Of course I appreciate those faithful friends who do, a small circle of friends, to quote Phil Ochs.
I’ve been cross-posting from this blog over to Facebook and Twitter, but that has mostly resulted in a few friends catching my posts over at Facebook, a space I’m not so interested in. I’m considering keeping this blog as a stand-alone entity. That of course is not the way the blog space is evolving though, is it? Consider that Google is shutting down Reader. I use that tool regularly to keep track of posts on numerous blogs I like to follow. In doing this I suppose I again find myself to be somewhat old school. I know some people who pick up blog feeds in magazine formats like Flipboard and view them on tablets. That’s fine and looks really nice but I personally still enjoy tracking blogs the old fashioned way. Eliminating tools like Reader (yes I’ll find a different reader until they all disappear) puts pressure on the blog space. Move to Facebook or Twitter or some other popular social platform? It seems we are being herded in that direction.
I understand that sometime soon WordPress is going to stop supporting blogrolls. Isn’t that interesting? There was a time when the blogroll seemed like an important element, but I wonder if I moved to a format that is single column and took out all my sidebar material, if anyone would complain. I’m considering trying that out too.
At the same time as I’m thinking about how my blog space looks, I’m also thinking about the content and what I want to put in this space in the future. I’ve considered a few different ideas and haven’t come to any conclusions. There is a gnawing part of me that wants to make a big change and turn this thing upside down, and another that would much prefer evolving it, adding some new things without making any rash changes. Maybe I should shut down 27th Street and reinvent it as something else?
27th Street 
Thank you all for your comments on this post. Salvelinas, I’m sure you’re right, but short of living in a fallout shelter with no access to electronics, I think keeping our valuable demographic information private is hardly possible.
A, Barbara and Karen – how is it we haven’t met? I feel as if I’ve known you for years!
I’m not happy about the move of more and more people towards social media sites (and away from blogs). Why does everything you want to say have to be confined to 140 characters? True, I haven’t been blogging as much as I used to and part of that is, I think, because it feels as though I should be using some other method to get my message across (ie. twitter/FB). I stay on FB mainly because some of the people I’ve met through blogging no longer do so and this is one of the few ways to keep in touch with them. However, I’ve been debating ditching the Twitter for a while now.
Remember when we used to write actual letters?! Using actual English (and not web shorthand) and on real paper?! Ah, the old days…
PS: I love your unique combination of music and Newfies 🙂
If Google reader is old school, I can’t even imagine what my method of going through my blogroll would be. Antediluvian, I guess. Social media sites like Facebook are for when you don’t have a lot of time, blogs are for a proper visit.
Funny how the way we use the Internet evolves, and it definitely seems like we’re being herded away from individual blogs to social media sites. I’ll follow whatever you post, but it boils down to what your needs are in an outlet. Post what you enjoy, I say, and what you’ll have fun reviewing down the road!
I dont facebook and I never will. I also dont twit or whatever the hell the call it. And for absolute dead certain I dont ‘like’ anything. There are things happening in the murky world of internet cash grabbing that except for tiny flashes of visibility remain closely guarded secrets. One of the biggest of those is the ‘like’ button. There are folks who wander all over the web pushing that harmless looking button all over the place. Ever wonder what happens after that? Well for starters your ip number is collected along with the fact that you like that thing and that information gets added to the mother of all databases. Maybe you dont care about personal privacy. Fine. But you should know that every time you push that button your like is available for sale for cheap. So lets say you like 3 things a day for 6 months so over the course of that time you have proclaimed that you like about 540 things. What can someone do with that? Well they can look at say your likes in music and nail your age very accurately. There are a number of algorithms to determine your color and gender from what you like. Yes even your sexual preferences can be inferred from your likes with remarkable accuracy. Liked that recipe for venison? Ok fine you are a hunter and you own guns. At the end of 6 months someone out there has deduced that you are a black gay male who owns 2 guns, like monster trucks and wears panty hose. Your name is John Smith and you are a civil servant. You live in Moose Jaw Saskatechewan and you just love sushi and pictures of young boys. There is a pretty decent chance that they have your address also. Once they assemble a profile you are offered up for sale to advertisers. The old school term was sucker lists but this is far more sophisticated. Many folks have noticed that the internet seems to be getting a bit slower. An interesting thing is happening now when you go visit a website. Not in every case but this is becoming more prevalent. Your ip number is captured and sent to a marketing outfit which pulls your profile. That profile is sent to an auction site (no Im not making this up) where advertisers can bid for the opportunity to place a focused advertisement tuned just for you on the website you just visited. They do this because they know you are the perfect prospect and are willing to pay 2 cents rather than a half cent for placing that ad. It happens fast at computer speed and you really dont know it is happening until you start wondering why you start seeing ads for guns featuring black dudes wearing pink pant suits. Everyone grabs all the information they can about you and they sell it. Big money there.
There was a case recently that got some media attention. A teenage girl ordered some assorted lotions online and she used a credit card to buy some Gravol at her local drugstore. The algorithm decided there was a pretty decent chance she was pregnant and sold her profile to a direct mail advertiser who started mailing her advertising for diapers. Her father was not amused. It is pretty easy to say naw that stuff isnt happening that is just a huge myth. If you think that way you are in denial. This particular blog for example allows the following data mining scripts to run while you visit the site:
google analytics
google adservices
quantserv
gravatar
Wordpress likely collects money for allowing that. But dont get all panicky, it isnt just this blog it is EVERY website you visit that does this. You really cant escape it if you use the internet. The push towards the social media sites is real and is happening because that is where the big money is. Not only can they build a profile on you from what you do on a social media site but they also get to learn who your friends are and lets face it, if some of your friends visit terrorist websites then geez you might be a terrorist also.
I am staying as old fashioned as I possibly can although deep down I believe that somewhere out there is a pretty accurate profile for me and there isnt a thing I can do about it.