Blogs are Back!

To kick off 2020, we have a cascade of agreement on all sides:

NONSTOP SINCE 1998, PAL

Also, yes, this. I'm not leaving Twitter but I am strongly encouraging people to build/repopulate their own sites, stuff them full of content, and encourage people to visit them there. Twitter/Facebook/Insta should be the side dish, not the main course. https://t.co/5wkgo0E2lj

— John Scalzi (@scalzi) January 1, 2020

And I’m not the only one agreeing with Scalzi and Wendig:

New blog post: Chuck Wendig and John Scalzi are RIGHT About This… https://t.co/M3mJW5NY1A

— The Spirit of Harlan Ellison (@jondelarroz) January 2, 2020

Scalzi & I have had our public disagreements, but in the interest of avoiding the genetic fallacy, he's got a point.

Blogs, for want of a better term, are back. pic.twitter.com/gM6EoVGUvD

— Brian Niemeier (@BrianNiemeier) January 3, 2020

So why? Why are blogs a thing? Or alternatively, why do they NEED to be a thing?

Scalzi spells it out – even if you are on the left, and I STRONGLY URGE any of my readers who feel “safe” on social media due to being politically aligned to the left to consider this, the goalposts can shift at any time and you can get your social media presence destroyed.

They can destroy it directly by banning you outright. Your account is gone – so is your line to everyone who liked you on the platform.

They can destroy it discretely by changing their algorithms so the type of content you produce is rarely shown, even to those looking for what you are creating.

They can destroy it by shadowbanning you – by straight throttling your account, forced unfollows/unsubscribes, and hiding your content from followers. This is actually the default mode for Facebook pages, which ask creators to pay them for the privilege of showing your content to those who already follow you!

A Blog, by contrast, is wholly owned and controlled by you (ideally – there are some limitations). There is no robot overlord withholding or granting success to you. However, it is also up to you to build a readership, and ultimately that might require social media being used by either you or your readers (who will hopefully share your posts).

Blogs are better than ever before, supporting a wider variety of media than ever before. They were here before the social titans, and will likely be here after Facebook is a memory.

They are also a great hedge against loss of social media access. Vox Day has maintained a highly traffic blog despite being banned from twitter some time ago, and will likely still maintain the blog if/when he is banned by YouTube.

I’ll be trying to keep this thing updating pretty regularly going forward, with more nonfiction content (like this) and also some more serial fiction, which is what I originally created the blog for.

Fan of horror? Check out my latest book, Eyes in the Walls, for only 99 cents on Amazon (or free with KU).

The sequel to my latest fantasy book will be coming this year. Read part 1 now!