In the interest of clearing

In the interest of clearing the air a little about the post I made yesterday, kottke.org is proud to present:

Things I Have Learned In The Past Day Or So.

- No offense to anyone was intended. I don’t enjoy hurting other people’s feelings, inadvertently or otherwise.

- One-way communication (such as the writing on a site like this) is often imprecise the first time around because there is no opportunity for real-time feedback such as one would get in a face-to-face verbal conversation. This leads to misunderstanding.

- The writing on this particular site is often imprecise because Jason is often not that good at writing.

- What I meant to say was this: the nature of personal Web site linking is that it points people to more of the same. More of the same is not necessarily bad. Usually, if I find a site I like, more of the same is just what I’m looking for. Right now, I’m bored with more of the same…I want something new, something off the beaten path. It’s the same thing with the “Customers who bought this title also bought” recommendations at Amazon and other such recommendation systems…they also point to more of the same and can be detrimental to finding unrelated material (credit for this whole line of thinking goes back to Steven Johnson’s comments at SXSW).

- In my mind, the role of something like Blog of the Week is to point out Blogger-powered weblogs that are good and unique and pushing boundaries, not just sites that are good. Sixfoot6, Barbelith, and the Digital-Web weblogs are good, but they are not anything new. If kottke.org were Blogger-powered and Pyra chose it as BotW, I’d be more than a little upset at them. Seriously. Pyra is slacking a bit, and just because I know and respect them as a company and as individuals doesn’t mean I shouldn’t call them on it. I critique because I love.

- Paul says it much better than I. As usual.

- I should have kept my damn mouth shut. I wish I were writing about something else right now. Like The Tipping Point and the New Yorker article by Gladwell that was its genesis.

- People writing about other weblogs on their weblogs does sicken me. Me writing about weblogs sickens me. “Sickens me” is a line from the Simpsons that I used below for comedic effect. I think it only worked on me.

- Yes, I am aware of the irony.

- There’s a whole crapload of Dr. Pepper refills available in the kottke.org archives. Drink up.

- When I wrote “Has the weblog format run out of steam?”, I was being melodramatic. Much to my chagrin, admitting it takes all the fun out of it.

- I’m out of shape and suck at basketball…my floating, double-clutched, back-to-the-basket one-hander in the lane notwithstanding.

- I don’t know if I want to write my post about the differences between weblogs and blogs, for fear of reprisal.

- A lot of people name their weblog file “blogger.html”. Isn’t that a bit like naming your child “Uterus?”

- People should have taken more offense at my use of the phrase “BOOTY-SHAKING”. I mean, there’s really no call for using the word “booty”, is there?

- I lack tact. Nothing new here…that’s why I’m not a project manager or in business development.

- I am not doing anything special with this site. Again, nothing new there. Evhead is a large Sprite, kottke.org is just a refill.

- saturn.org really sucks. Really. Don’t take my word for it, go visit and see for yourself.

- I need to spellcheck my email.

- Webloggers are passionate about weblogs and weblogging. Passion is a strong emotion. Strong emotions sometimes result in extreme reactions. There’s nothing wrong with that.

- Greg ate a bug. Bees! Bees in his mouth!

And that’s about all I’m going to say about that.