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1. E-mail

   I remember an era during the 90’s when signing up for dozens of e-mail accounts was cool. Having so many e-mail accounts did nothing; sending an e-mail was still sending an e-mail. People back then had Hotmail [now called Windows Live Mail], Coldmail, Yahoo Mail, Mail.com, ICQ mail, and AOL mail. Now, people also have Gmail, self-hosted e-mails on personal domains, and more. Having more e-mail accounts was once considered a status. Now, even though many people do not realize that each existing and additional e-mail account can bring in its own unique benefits and downsides, more and more people still keep opening new e-mail accounts daily.

   Opening e-mail accounts is one of the longest lasting online trends ever, and e-mails are still one of the most widely used online tools, if not the most widely used online tool.

2. Guestbooks

   This trend also started more solidly in the 90’s, and continued all the way until the first year or so after 2000 under the original name “guestbook“, after which the name continued and continues to lose its popularity to other terms and concepts which have been derived from it. The term guestbook came from the actual guestbooks and the same term used to describe books at places like museums, where visitors could leave comments and remarks for others to see, whether anonymously or with any detail. Online, in many cases, the guestbook became more popular than e-mail during its strong day, not in number of users but in actual fame, among many people who had guestbooks like Bravenet Guestbooks.

   Guestbooks paved the way for public comments that we see on blogs today. Overall, Guestbooks are still around in their pure form and in some evolved forms like online blog comments. Original, pure guestbooks themselves have lost a lot of their original popularity. In many cases, guestbooks have lost popularity and ground to the very concepts that were derived from them, like comments and forums.

3. Online diaries, blogs and their variants

   Online diaries were the sites that brought blogs into existence. Technically, blogs are nothing more than diaries. Of course, the concept of blogging has been commercialized and now online diaries, the very sites that started it all, are considered immature and not worthy by many of the blogs that aim to make money through non-personal content. I know many people who had and have different online diaries for different reasons. Many people would simply abandon one online diary for the other, as the concept of deleting online accounts was not considered as important by many people in the mid-90’s.

   Among the other things that online diaries have evolved into, blogs are the new normal craze now. Many people get more excited about having a blog instead of getting excited of what they want to achieve and what they can achieve with a blog. Online diaries have evolved into many things including blogs, networking sites, and more. LiveJournal can probably be considered an evolved example of personal diaries.

   Blogs are thriving, and are continuing to get stronger everyday. According to Technorati, more than 70 millions online blogs existed as of April 2007.

4. Chat and instant messaging accounts

   Instant messaging started mainly during the 2nd half of the 90’s, and to this day is very popular. Instant messaging accounts allow people to instantly chat with someone online. In the 90’s, people used to lure their friends into using ICQ to keep in touch. Slowly, Yahoo Messenger, AIM and MSN Messenger [now called Windows Live Messenger] brought more popularity to the entire instant messaging arena.

   Instant messaging itself got popular because of Internet Relay Chat [IRC]. IRC allowed people to chat instantly and live, and thus allowed them to communicate a bit faster than e-mail, if the people involved were online and using an IRC program at the same time. IRC evolved into different kinds of instant messaging, and instant messaging itself evolved and divided into voice chats, webcam conferences, live chat via e-mail accounts such as in Gmail, and more. In some ways, IRC itself can be considered an evolution of e-mail.

   Instant messaging accounts and online chats are also thriving and getting more popular everyday. At this moment, for the first time in internet history, a growing number of online people are using instant messaging more than e-mail.

5. Networking sites, which include social networking sites

   The latest, youngest and biggest craze right now is to open a social networking account. MySpace, twitter, facebook, linkedin, Bebo and many other networking and social networking sites came out with a big bang at different times during the last 5 years. As of last week, MySpace had over 200 million accounts. If it is assumed that each of those 200 millions accounts is owned by a unique individual, 200 millions MySpace members are almost 1/3rd the size of the entire U.S. population. Many people have multiple accounts on different networking sites, and many people simply delete their online networking accounts so that they can start afresh with new accounts.

   Networking sites are very strong right now, attracting more and more members everyday. At the same time, networking sites are also in their infancy sage. Social networking sites are the least experienced players in the entire online arena compared to the other 4 types [e-mail, guest books, online diaries and instant messaging accounts]. In many ways, networking sites can be considered children of concepts like Yahoo Groups and the original Usenet groups, now part of Google groups.

   The trend of opening networking sites in huge numbers started recently, and is in full force right now, gaining more momentum. It is happening and evolving live as you read this.

There you have it. Listed above are 5 trends of opening up 5 different kinds of accounts. These 5 services have had a historical trend of attracting a crowd that focused hysterically on opening new accounts. E-mail is the oldest and longest running of such trends, and networking sites are the youngest of the bunch.

Can you think of any trend from the above or any other trend you yourself may have been, or are, involved in? Do you have any questions or comments? Please let me know.

Thanks for reading.

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In their purest, unmodified forms, blogs like those run by Sawai, Valerie, Sidney, Stacee, Ronald and Jess, aim to do one basic thing: convey an opinion. Some of these blogs are highly opinionated, while some of these blogs talk about anything experienced in the life of that blogger. At the most basic form, the most selfish thing these bloggers can do at this moment, including me on this very site that you are reading, is to manipulate the readers to prefer an opinion or to sympathize or agree with what is written. Even though I may be wrong, as far as I know, earning money through the blog is not an agenda for any of these bloggers, or at least the main agenda.

That means, in my view, if these bloggers earned no direct or indirect money whatsoever and they could not control or manipulate their readers in any shape or form through their blogs, they would still continue blogging. In the purest and simplest form, a real personal blog should aim to be felt by at least one other person in this world, and nothing else. That feeling should be the only purpose of the purest, simplest, personal blog. Whatever that real personal blogger does to make sure the other person hears them in any form, in turn becomes the simplest form of manipulation possible, for the personal blogger intends only to be heard, and feels no need to turn such an attention into a sale or any kind of generated money for themselves or their partners.

Example: This very site can probably still be considered manipulative, albeit in its smallest form

For example, this very article you are reading was written by a writer who hopes that you will understand what the writer wants to say, and that writer also hopes that if the writer is not wrong in the writing presented here, that you, the reader, will agree to what the writer is saying. It is an unconscious feeling that simply exists. I can easily control it to not let it affect any decisions, since control is one of my skills because this is my life.

Since this is my personal site, everything I write and do on it gets an emotional backup from me, and thus I value it a lot. That can be considered a basis for some kind of manipulation on this site. That is why I can limit the manipulation on this site to the very basic: writing in ways that express both what I want to say and in ways that you will understand exactly what I want to say. For me, anytime someone considers anything other than the original message, is considering manipulation. Not all manipulation is bad. It is just that almost all of the manipulation in the world is bad. Some people may say that me writing content in ways that make readers understand the content more clearly is not manipulation: however, if we want to stick to the definition of manipulation, such things also fall under that meaning, fortunately or unfortunately.

The same way a person dresses nicely to manipulate the public feeling of looking professional while going to a party, when at other times they always dress differently, a personal bloggers or a writer can write a message clearly and then try to manipulate it a bit in order to make it more understandable, without altering any of the content or reason or intention or anything related to the message. It is a very rare quality to have, to not alter the reason why one expresses themselves while trying to appeal to others, though when it happens, it can still be considered one of the simplest forms of manipulations, even if it is not bad and in reality is good for both the writer and the reader.

Even though there can be manipulation in the writing itself, a personal blog nature can give you a few things that other blog types cannot: the ability to write anything. I can write about kidnapping whales and stalking squirrels while eating with cats, and I can still be happy. Many other bloggers cannot, since for them, every post must bring in a lot of readers or else they may upset their advertisors or their site may lose value and they may lose credibility, in the eyes of those who pay. It is simply the reason why one blogs that sets everyone apart.

What sets me apart: realizing the importance of reason behind everything.

For me, reason is everything. That is why this site is called The Reasoner. I am not here to make money through this site, period. If I make money while doing what I want, awesome. So far, that has proven to be hard. For example, I was recently offered a few thousand dollars to either delete a post I had written a few years ago, or to close it down and not allow any more comments on it. I rejected the offer, and the post is still open, upsetting some businesses and some ethnic groups since I wrote what I observed and they do not like that being in the open.

What would have happened if I had been offered a million dollars to delete that post or turn it off along with its comments? Today, in 2007, a million dollar solves monetary woes for life for many people, whereas a few thousand dollars solves monetary woes for only a few weeks for those same people. You can see the dilemma when it comes to having answers that apply to every situation. That is why in real life, using real solid logic and reason which majority of the bloggers simply ignore because they do not understand it and because they wish to have smaller type of roles in life or anything to earn money with, it can be and usually is very hard to find out the definitive answer to anything, including the question of whether or not personal blogs are the least manipulative or if they are the most manipulative when it comes to wanting to control the blog and readers in such a way that the blogger earns some kind of money. All of these and the importance of reason itself are why manipulation is a very important thing for me to track and observe on all sites, if I am aware of it.

For our topic here, the issue of how to finance the costs of hosting and running a blog are not important. Our sole concern, at its simplest, is the absence or existence of any kind of manipulation done to earn any form of direct or indirect money.

Some other blogs that come close to the simplest forms of personal blogs do not focus on earning money themselves in any manner

Many personal bloggers simply want to be heard, whether it is by a 1000 people every day or 10 people every week. The most basic and simple personal blog blogs because it is a personal thing to do. In contrast, non-personal bloggers can have some more self interests in their blogs in their simplest blogging styles. They may be blogging for earning direct money, or they may be blogging in order to persuade someone to take some action, like a political blog urging everyone indirectly to vote for someone in the elections. In theory, a blogger can have a blog that helps others earn money, while not aiming for and not earning any money whatsoever, directly or indirectly, through the existence of that blog. In reality, how many of such blogs do we know exist?

Similarly, some bloggers may be blogging to indirectly promote their online or offline business, while other bloggers blog because they want to figure out some way to earn money in the future.

Still, there are some few types of bloggers who come as close as possible to being true personal bloggers. Hobby Bloggers, who blog about their hobbies, can come close to being the least manipulative in their blogging, if they focus solely on promoting or talking about their hobby without manipulating anything or anyone to earn more money along the way. Similarly, bloggers who simply blog, without having any direct or indirect financial or self interest in what they write other than to be heard, come very close to personal bloggers when it comes to the least manipulative tactics that can be seen on different kinds of blogs.

Are Marketing and Advertising blogs and bloggers the most manipulative?

Contrary to popular belief by many people, not all marketers, advertisors and sales people wish to throw down products in your view. However, many marketing and advertising blogs and bloggers do usually apply more sales techniques on their readers, writing articles that attract more readers or claiming to be beneficial for the readers, with the sole purpose of being more popular and earning money either directly or indirectly. The reason why one starts blogging is very important to me. A personal blog that starts blogging simply to express opinions is more important and honest than a blog that starts blogging in order to indirectly advertise one’s skills or business in order to directly or indirectly make money. For me, a personal blogger appreciating readers simply because they like those readers reading that blogger’s writing is more sincere and less manipulative than a marketing or some other blogger appreciating readers because doing so will result in more attention and more business and money in the long run, and vice versa.

A marketing or advertising blogger running only a personal blog and not advertising, directly or indirectly, his or her services or skills, and not promoting any writing in order to benefit in any manner, directly or indirectly, other than to be heard by at least one person in the world, can have a blog with the least manipulation. Of course, by its very nature, it is very hard to find many blog kinds out there which limit themselves to writing only to be heard by only one person and nothing else. The closest kind to such a thing can be anonymous online journals that do not want to, nor do they, make any kind of direct or indirect money for anyone other than the readers, including the anonymous online journal owners. One can easily say and argue that if money is involved, then manipulation may happen. Let us assume that in our case, the readers make money, and that the people producing the content that helps reader make money are not influenced at all by the readers making money: they write anything, including things that do not appeal to anyone, all the time. There are still many people out there who do not allow comments on their site, and all they do is write about different things without advertising or without earning any money. They simply want to be heard or they simply want to express themselves.

I am myself very closely related and tied to the marketing and advertising field, though I have made sure that I am tied to it indirectly. It is not that marketing and advertising blogs are manipulative and personal blogs are not. Many marketing and advertising blogs usually tend to be more manipulative than personal blogs. Personal blogs do have some manipulation, in the form of sometimes not sharing the entire story about something or putting emphasis on a single thing, in order to sway the reader to agreeing or sympathizing with what the writer wants to say.

Thought: Are personal blogs less manipulative than other kinds of blogs?

So I wonder, all the time, the same way I wonder about a countless number of other questions. Are personal blogs the last standing blogs that have any chance of having the least manipulative tactics than other blogs?

As always, I also wonder whether the answer is absolute or relative.

As I said before, reason is everything to me, and that is why I like being called The Reasoner. Now that I think of it, I may also like names like The Hungrer, since I am also usually always hungry. I have to stop writing for now, since I it is near midnight here and it is time for me to hunt for food.

Thank you for reading.

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Personal Blogs

A personal blog can be a place where a blogger talks about his or her daily life, daily outtake on things, or even opinions about certain topics. A personal touch is added where the personal and human emotion and feeling and analysis, among several other things, are given preference over business or non-personal attitudes. I also recently talked about how personal blogs can and should have subniches, something which has not yet been done effectively because many people still think personal blogging is not a niche at all. Spoken-For and BubblesSoc are examples of how personal blogs can compete with non-personal blogs very effectively with interesting, personal designs and useful perspective on things.

Non-Personal Blogs

A non-personal blog can be a place where a blogger does not aim to get personal with the readers. For example, places like Google Analytics Blog, MyBlogLog Blog, and even CopyBlogger are places where the focus of an entity is on a certain topic and promoting an idea to the readers. In this case, Google and MyBlogLog blogs are simply advertisements and news blogs, promoting a certain company and its products and services. CopyBlogger is a great example of a non-personal blog that delivers very useful information to people looking for help with online copy writing.

Are there any other categories?

Yes, and I think you are looking at one of them. A third kind of category is a hybrid of personal blogs, non-personal blogs and a few other things. The personal message, ideas, ideals and values are never let go, and the actual style changes depending on the message at hand. I also like to think that every blog can be a personal blog, if certain elements are present in that blog.

Do you prefer non-personal blogs over personal blogs? How about your own blog, or the blogs you read?

What is your opinion about this? Do you prefer reading or writing non-personal blogs over personal blogs? Would you consider a personal blogger as important as a non-personal blogger?

Thank you for reading.

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Future employers may ask for you blog instead of your résumé

Future employers will not only search for the way you blog but the way you interact with others through your blog. Do you help others online? Your employer will notice that. Do you use online people and leave them hanging? Your employer will notice that. Do you break the personal and business promises and deals you make with others through your blog? Your employers will notice that.

If you were an employer, it may seem more logical to find out about an employee by the way they actually behave online through their blog, compared to reading a résumé which may probably be a few self-advertising pages.

What do you think? Do you think one day your blog will define you more than your résumé in the eyes of an employer?

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Following are 5 things that I think MyBlogLog, or Yahoo, need to improve or work on in the long run. Just because a business model exists does not mean it will work. It has to be fixed and improved constantly. It is more important to fix current bugs that affect users or the overall service instead of introducing new fancy features.

5 things MyBlogLog needs to improve

1. MyBlogLog only tracks other MyBlogLog users

   MyBlogLog lets you discover people who visit your site only if they are also MyBlogLog users. Otherwise, you get even fewer stats than your regular stats program.

   “MyBlogLog was designed to track only registered MyBlogLog users“, you say? Then why is everyone running around, including MyBlogLog admins, claiming that anyone who visits your site can be tracked? The original promise of the program was to discover who visited your site, and not which MyBlogLog members visit your site.

   This bad point about MyBlogLog is also its strongest selling point: if a user is registered, it allows a site owner to find out exactly who was visiting a site including their name and site url.

2. I visit your site only if I see you on my MyBlogLog widget

   Many bloggers have stopped visiting other sites unless they see someone in their MyBlogLog widget. That means these bloggers are only visiting the sites of those MyBlogLog members who visit them. That also means these bloggers do not visit, or rarely visit, the sites of their commentors or people who are not MyBlogLog users.

   MyBlogLog is supposed to let you find out who visits you. It is not supposed to let you prefer MyBlogLog users over non-MyBlogLog users. MyBlogLog needs to promote a mentality through the MyBlogLog blog that will allow people to realize that they should not avoid visiting sites that do not appear in their MyBlogLog stats.

3. Using MyBlogLog makes you depend on MyBlogLog servers for your site to load

   The MyBlogLog code loads a lot of things from the MyBlogLog servers. That means if the MyBlogLog servers go down, your site will load slow or keep loading. That has happened to me a lot, where my site has taken up to a minute to load simply because some image from the MyBlogLog server was not loading.

4. MyBlogLog widget is not customizable

   When you show the MyBlogLog code or the widget on your site, one of the only things you can customize is the colors. Otherwise, you are stuck with showing the standard format of the MyBlogLog widget, including the advertisement link that points back to their site.

   Some people may say that a free service comes with a link pointing back to the service. My point here is not to argue whether or not the link back to MyBlogLog should be necessary; what I am showing you is one of the things that show how and why the MyBlogLog widget is not customizable.

5. MyBlogLog communities are spammable blogrolls in disguise

   These can be two points, though I will combine them as one. The MyBlogLog communities are supposedly places where people can interact and find out more about each other. In reality, the MyBlogLog communities are nothing more than blogrolls. MyBlogLog communities currently display only the names and links to people and sites you are associated with.

   MyBlogLog does allow you to e-mail other people, though that has resulted in spam messages, including people sending “Thank you for visiting me” emails to you everytime you visit their site or MyBlogLog profile, probably resulting in spam advertisement to be disguised in unwanted “thank you” e-mails. Such a trend is increasing, turning MyBlogLog into more of a MySpace community where many spammers spam every profile they come across just to get someone to visit a specific profile in return.

So, what is the verdict?

The verdict is that you have to figure out your own verdict. If the above things are insignificant to you and you still consider MyBlogLog to have an actual purpose, go ahead and keep hugging MyBlogLog. Personally, I am still using the MyBlogLog service as of this post, as it does one thing for me that has made me keep it on my site: it shows me new MyBlogLog members who visit my site. It does introduce new people to me, and it is easy to find out who has visited my site.

How Yahoo’s control of MyBlogLog is shaping things

One of the things, in addition to the above list, that I would love MyBlogLog to have is to allow anonymous users to register their site addresses, using relevant e-mail addresses from the same site domain, so that people are not required to register new accounts, but are allowed to enter in a url that is kept in a cookie or associated with their IP. That way, we can have more non-MyBlogLog members tracked also.

However, considering the fact that Yahoo bought MyBlogLog, we may probably see more strict registration requirements where people who do not register will continue to be left out of the MyBlogLog service. Recently Yahoo announced about improving MyBlogLog, though the above issues are not being addressed yet, according to the announcement. At least it is a good thing that Yahoo is working on improving some things about the service it acquired not too long ago.

What do you think?

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