Speaking of the comments section, that's the real issue I logged in to discuss today. A couple weeks ago, I spent a little while talking w/ some fellow bloggers about the lack of comments, why comments have gone down, & what that means about blogging. It was suggested that w/o the interaction of the comments, it's not really a blog. However, we can't forget that blogging started as an on-line version of journaling or diary keeping. Diaries have always been seen as a private thing, to the point where people even come up w/ spells & incantations to protect their privacy. That said, most people who blog, myself included, aren't doing it as a private act, & we're certainly not doing it in a vacuum. This means we need to consider why the comments have decreased over the years. Most people seemed to think that it was due to Facebook. At 1st, that seemed like a reasonable explanation. As comments are left on the Facebook or Twitter pages where links are provided, they are then divorced from the actual post which means historical archiving of the post w/ the comments becomes much more difficult. On the other hand, it's impossible to demand that people place the comments in the actual comments section for 2 reasons. 1) They just don't listen, & I've tried.
2) More importantly, the blogging/comment programs seem to be making commenting more & more difficult. I tried to comment on a blog the other day, but it wouldn't let me. There was a time when anyone could comment. After that period, logging in was easy. Now, each blog seems to have it's own hoops through which people need to jump.
If the lack of comments is to bring about the end of blogging, most of the blame needs to fall on the shoulders of the very code upon which the blogs are based. That said, I'll try again... leave the comments in the comments section rather than on facebook.
The commenting problem has a certain downward spiral aspect to it... just like The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles which I've sadly been watching this summer. When George Lucas released them on DVD, he re-edited the 1 hours episodes into feature length films by joining them in twos & putting them in chronological order. They were then released in 3 multi-disc sets. Each set contains 8 or 10 films... I'm 4 films into the 3rd set now. The first set follows a 9 year old Indy around the world w/ his family as he has adventures & learns about world culture meeting people like TE Lawrence, Teddy Roosevelt, & Tolstoy. The second set sees a 16 year old Indy enlist in the Belgian army & fight in WWI in Europe, Africa & Arabia where he meets people like Mata Hari, Albert Shweitzer, & Kafka. The third set follows him from the end of the war though some college adventures where he meets people like Al Capone, Edith Wharton, Paul Robeson, & John Ford. They're fun movies w/ a silly educational bent to them. Each one includes a series of documentaries about the people & places. Overall, it's a pretty cheesy series that never really goes anywhere, but since I'm almost done, I figure I should see it out. The one I'm watching right now, The Treasure of the Peacock's Eye, is a nice adventure in the traditional Indiana Jones style... he & his war buddy set off in search of ancient treasure & a series of narrow escapes ensues.
1 comment:
The best WWII movie I have ever seen, albeit not an old crappy army thing like my dad used to watch, is The Pianist. This movie really showed the systematic stripping away of the Jewish people's rights which, in my opinion, is what the whole bloody war was about, and should really be the focus of the conversation when discussing WWII. If you've not seen it, take a break from Tom and watch it - truly haunting.
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