Note: If you weren’t involved with BlogHer in some way, skip this post. I’m not kidding. You’re totally not going to get this and you’ll find it boring. Seriously, click away. Read this old post about luggage instead. Or just scroll down the page.
The rest of you, if you’re really interested…
By way of introduction: I’ve been a contributor to the BlogHer site for several months. For the last three months, I’ve recieved a small stipend in exchange for regular posts about Travel and Recreation. I did not attend BlogHer. I am responsible for the much discussed “Fluff” question, first mentioned in the BlogHer chat room and then, blogged on A Daily Dose of Denise and a bunch of other places.
I wish…
- the BlogHer site had a better look and feel.
- the authoring interface on the site was better.
- there had been more complete conference day blogging and virtual interaction.
- that I had not seen “the breasts of BlogHer” photo set and the cartoon about “Who cares about your blog, show us your tits” on the same day.
- so many people didn’t feel the need to explain how it’s not all about the moms or the cliques or the a-lists because that sure makes it look like it’s all about the moms and cliques and a-lists.
- that I’d been so excited by the ’06 speakers and topics that I’d thought, money be damned!
- that I understood the value of limiting the focus by gender, as opposed to subject matter.
- that people spent as much time thinking about how to be better writers as they did thinking about how to make their blog pay.
- that I could be the Piers Morgan of blog critics.
- that I could tell you that my blog traffic has skyrocketed because of my involvement in BlogHer
- and that I’m awash in excellent offers to write because of my involvement in BlogHer.
that the BlogHer ad network was not just for moms.(Update, Aug 8: BlogHer is building a new ad network with broader focus.)- that blogging wasn’t seen as some magical or radical act because after all, anyone with access to a computer can blog, which makes it more of a middle class act, when you think about it…unless you’re really doing something exceptional with your blog.
- that I could say I feel like I’d missed something big.
- that my skepticism, which I had when I signed up to post for BlogHer last winter, was gone.
I’m still unclear on what BlogHer is/was about and what the value of my particpation is/was. I should get it by now, I think. Or maybe I’m just not a BlogHer kind of person.
You are right. Blogher can do better.
First of all, it’s interesting to hear someone who is involved with the organization speak up honestly. I actually got an email from someone who went to BlogHer and didn’t like the conference, but maybe me swear that I would never mention any names! The whole conversation reminded me of a dissident sending a message out of the Soviet Union. This is inevitable in any organization as a bureacracy develops and politics begins. No matter what the common bond — gender, religion, or political affiliation, everyone always wants to turn the organization into their own image. Sit in on the Board of Directors of any church or synagogue and you’ll know what I mean.
As a male, I think it is great that women bloggers have found a way to bond, even though the whole reason for having a BlogHer seems a little forced. While the big bad political bloggers are mostly men, the vast majority of personal bloggers already are women. If anything,it is the men who are like a minority in a world of mommies, female sex bloggers, and women talking about their dating lives.
To me, BlogHer seems more about being a commercial endeavor nowadays. It seemed so corporate! I’m all for people making money with their blogs, but having women join forces to sell advertising on their gender-oriented blogs does not seem like anything that makes the blogosphere either more interesting or innovative. That’s what a blogging conference should be all about.
The fact that women had fun and gossiped and drank — hey I’m all for that. Blogging is supposed to be fun and it’s great when there are opportunities to meet others. I have more of a problem with the corporate role in what used to be a fun hobby.
Amen to that. I joined. I found it fascinating at first, because it was new and then… I just failed to see the point.
When I read that some people were drowning in work I offered to help out (twice) and nobody bothered to reply.
I discovered two nice blogs and that’s about all the whole experience brought me.
The way I see it now, Blogher is just one enormous blogroll with the unfortunate disadvantage that you can’t adequately search for blogs you might find interesting.
The mother thing bothers me too. Hang around the site and you start feeling like you’ve failed somehow if you don’t have children.
Oh no, just my luck – I wish I had read this before I signed up with Blogher.
I’m all disappointed now! Oh well, guess I’ll have to find that “I’m leaving” button.
This is a good post with a good list of questions and “I wishes”. I’m going to get back to this because some of them I agree with, some of them I would like you to clarify and some of them I have a different perspective on.
Thanks Pam, for writing posts and asking questions that make us think and help bring about solid discussions. 🙂
Neil: I’d really like to see what your spy has to say. I agree that conferences should be fun but check it out as a headline:
Men have fun, gossip, and drink at conference.
Is that the big news about BlogHer? I can “have fun, gossip, and drink” at home, too. Why is this a draw to a conference? For me, it’s not.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I KNOW people, that’s not all it was. I GET IT. This is about my FIRST IMPRESSIONS from the outside, not about the actual conference. I wasn’t there. No need to bite my head off. (Prememptive strategy, ala Bush Cheney. No one’s bitten yet.)
Lies: I asked about the enormous BlogRoll thing from the get go. The site is indeed that and it’s hard to wade through that thing to find stuff that’s useful for YOU to read.
I THINK the idea was that you’d find there was an editor posting about issues that YOU cared about and their posts would introduce you to blogs you’d find interesting. This is a good idea. It’s akin to reading that column on Salon about what’s on in the blogosphere.
The BlogRoll itself? I haven’t found it that useful, plus I find that being listed on a blogroll is zero indicator of quality. I might have a blog on my blogroll simply because the writer is a friend of mine. Their blog could very well suck, I just want to know what’s up in their life. (Not YOU, your blog is awesome, you know who you are. :)) That’s not interesting for YOU at all.
Toss in the idea of people adding themselves to the Blogher blogroll and what you have is a library of blogs with little editorial guidance. I do think the posts have value, though.
On the Mom thing, yeah, I don’t know what to say. Unless you’re a fine writer (Annie Lamott, anyone?) or I’m connected to you personally, I don’t care about your mom trials and tribulations. I just don’t. Women have been talking to each other about their children since language was invented. As a childless person, this is a big yawn to me. I don’t hate you, I’m just not interested.
The mom as cash cow thing the marketers are on to, well, I’m not the least bit surprised. Honestly, I’d like someone to think they could cash in on ME, then I could make some money out of it!
ET: Don’t go! I haven’t resigned my post as Travel and Rec editor, which I really enjoy. Plus, I think that BlogHer is very much a work in progress. The board is made up of Really Smart People and I trust that many of the issues brought up by detractors will be answered and/or addressed.
Denise: Back atcha. Civil discourse and all that. Cheers to you!
I went, I enjoyed it, and thought it was worthwhile, but there are still things I would change. Your #8 bullet- Yes, Yes, for the love of god Yes!!
Blogging is about two things in my life- writing and community. Blogher offered tons of community. I talked to all sorts of women very different than me- most of them not mothers. They have that networking aspect down pat. I would have loved to have been offered more workshops as how bloggers worked as writers, instead I heard a lot about making myself a brand.
I will never be a big blogger or one who generates enough traffic to advertise. Not interested. So many of the sessions had nothing to do with me. Though I did go to the pro-session on Saturday to hear what it was like to make your living off blogging. Confirmed, not for me.
I want to attend next year, and hope more of my blog circle will attend. I think/hope they will learn from this year and move more towards a more diverse conference.
It’s my impression that many of the “mommybloggers” hate being pigeonholed as much as I hate being called an “expat blogger” (although it’s how I escape the mommy label). It’s not that I deny being a parent, or living out of my country of birth, or being female, or any of these other things. It’s that I bristle at any implication that this is ALL I am. I thought the internet was supposed to help us leave our societally defined groups based on appearance, location, job, etc., and help us find like-minded individuals on the basis of our complete interests, or at least several, not just one.
I don’t know; I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with you. Merely adding my voice to say: something about the concept of BlogHer leaves me cold, and to a certain degree it’s the fact that there wouldn’t be BlogHim. That conference would already have been subdivided by topic and people could attend as many as they wanted. I don’t like when groups I belong to are separated off, but I really don’t like it when the groups I belong to separate themselves.
Pam, you have a lot of valid points. I do think that the problems with Internet connectivity hurt the BlogHer image during the conference. I don’t know how much live chatting you were able to do — I was a live blogger and was unable to post much of anything “live” — I had to type it out in Word and post later, from the hotel room, where I did have an Internet connection that worked most of the time. I think because of that, there were a lot more Flickr photos taken out of context (which were indeed giddy and drunken and social) instead of the serious discussions that were occurring in the rooms. Contrasted with the ’05 conference (which I also live blogged and where we also had technical issues), this made a big difference. In ’05, I could see the chat going on while I was posting to my blog, I could respond to comments as they occurred, and it was just way more exciting from that perspective. In ’05, we “mommy bloggers” (yes, I’m one of them, and I am not offended by the thought that what I’m writing will not appeal to everyone — isn’t that true of all of us?) were the ones that felt kind of marginalized. To read the impression of others that we were now the BlogHer target audience (which is untrue – we’re just one part of it) was strange.
There was a lot of business-related workshops — but also some technical ones and others focused on content. (One of the workshops I “live” blogged, “Is Your Blog a Gallery or a Canvas?” comes to mind.)
I will tell you that much as I would love to attend other technical conferences, without a deep pockets employer, I am unable to do so, and do appreciate what BlogHer is doing – not least of all, keeping the costs down so someone like me can afford to attend.
I also want to tell you how much I appreciate your contributions to the BlogHer website. It’s taken me a while to learn to navigate the site and I think the interface could be improved — but I usually find myself going there for a quick read and looking up at the clock an hour later realizing I’m late for something…
When BlogHer 1 was in the works, I dismissed it as something for the “Big Ones” who’d “made it”. By the time BlogHer 2 came around, I had successfully accepted my hobby as something that I could enjoy without a wink wink, nudge nudge and that if I wanted to attend BlogHer, I could. It wasn’t just for the people who were going places and doing things with their blogs. It was for me, too. Even if I only get 30 visitors a day.
I think that’s a portion of the difference between Part 1 & Part 2. It will be interesting to watch what BlogHer is like in 2007. Especially since I’m planning to be there.
I’m speaking of the conference, of course. Online, I don’t think BlogHer is working. I’m not entirely sure what the original goal was over there. It’s failing to be useful to me. I agree that live coverage of the event was dismal and ensuring that’s a successful part of ’07 should be high on the To-Do list.