Blogdom Kerfuffle
The "Blogdom of God" kerfuffle has been mentioned on several blogs of late (Bene Diction, Irene Q, Can You Hear Me Now and others). I mention it partly as an excuse to use the word "kerfuffle" in a semi-serious context. The Blogdom is an aggregator for Christian blogs, created by Adrian Warnock. It is also an alliance on the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem.
The original rules for joining the Blogdom were removed after a number of people objected. The rules sounded like a cut-down version of JesusJournal.com's Manifesto which caused a big stir in August 2002. It's hard to dictate those kind of standards to such a diverse group of people, especially when you have little or no history with those people, as JesusJournal.com had. Warnock has been blogging since April 2003, but the first I heard of him was when he asked to be linked on my list of UK Christian blogs in late October. To join the Blogdom, you have to email Warnock. I don't know if the aggregator requires RSS feed, or special tags in your blog post. I asked via email and blog comment, and have not received a reply to either.
The goal of the Blogdom appears to be increased traffic to participating blogs. Personally, I'm staying out, because that's not my goal. It comes down to what your blog is for, whether it's to get as many hits as possible, or to connect with people around the world. Blogs that connect have regular comments, co-operative ventures with other blogs, maybe join in a few memes. Connection-minded bloggers leave comments on other's blogs, and email other bloggers to say "hi," they have conversations. That's my goal, and I think I'm doing OK. Hitcount isn't much, but I'm having fun in the bottom 95% of the blogosphere.
Community vs. Ghetto. This is the issue on my mind, where's the line between an online community and an online ghetto? To me, it's the focus. A community looks outward, brings in new people, the focus is on the group, not the individual. In a ghetto, the focus is on us insiders, and hang the rest. I've been in both, and much prefer the communities. The ghettos tend to fail on their own, becoming ever more insular and exclusive. Blogging is mostly a community, with a few ghettos on the edges. I don't want to end up in another Christian ghetto, and the Blogdom feels like the two I escaped before. I don't need to be in a Christian-only zone, and I'll link to people who write stuff I actually want to read. The Ecosystem is a toy, a distraction, not a goal.