Sometimes things just come together. Take this post for example. It is overdue according to the task list item that tells me to make time to write. After a couple days of repeatedly skipping over that task, I had an idea motivated by a comment written on a previous post. The comment was “So, where IS Adam’s iPod?”. Good question. The blog is actually about Where Adam’s iPod *could’ve* gone had I won it. I didn’t win, and I don’t recall who did.
So I started to think I should get busy on the next post when an idea came to me. The idea was that I’d write again about where Adam’s iPod could’ve gone this weekend; The Great Minnesota Get Together. It started today and a few hundred thousand people are expected over the course of the next dozen days. It’d make a much more interesting blog post after having gone, and conveniently enough I had another task list with an overdue item.
This other task list is a list of time wasting things I want to do. They usually involve looking up something obscure that I heard about or recall from a while ago. In this case, the item was “Browse 43Folders.com”. It is a website dedicated to espousing ideas for how to better manage you own time. My words, not the author’s; I’m sure he has a better way of describing his own site. Regardless, I finally got around to checking the site and came across a topic I talked about not long ago without coming to resolution; what makes a good blog. The jist of my thought on this topic was that good blogs have a topic. A topic the author cares about and has either some knowledge of or a desire to learn and willingness to share in the successes and failures of getting that knowledge.
Mr. Mann (of 43Folders.com and other fame) had a more detailed answer to this question. He was actually asked, “Which blogs do you like” but chose to employ a MBA student technique; sometimes you can write better stuff if you change the question. He wrote several points that define a good blog, let us see how Where’s Adam’s iPod scores.
1. Good blogs have a voice.
Check. Voice. Not the revealing kind of info Mr. Mann advocates for though. He’d have me tell you where I live and what I drive; or more importantly what drives me. This blog is a sort of in-your-face response to not winning an iPod, so we’re already pretty far off the road anyway- end analogy. A quarter point on this one, the voice of this blog is like the Charlie in Charlie’s Angels; you never saw him but also never questioned his existence. And this blog had 3 clearly human voices in the DC Trip entries.
2. Good blogs reflect focused obsessions. People start real blogs because they think about something a lot. Maybe even five things.
I’m glad he threw in that “maybe even five things” escape clause. I’m only giving myself partial credit here, say another quarter point.
3. Good blogs are the product of “Attention times Interest.” A blog shows me where someone’s attention tends to go…There’s a story here.
OK, so for a couple years this blog took the readers on a journey through MBA school. But the rest of the time, its a loosely connected set of “wish your iPod was here” type things, so again- partial credit, half a point.
4. Good blog posts are made of paragraphs. Blog posts are written, not defecated.
Heh, heh. He said defecated. I’ve read some blog entries that are not so much paragraphs- more like journals. Not to Mr. Mann’s taste, his experience seems to center on not wasting time so he probably finds the “Journal” style a bit taxing. This one feels a bit heavy on opinion, and desirous of a focused blog. Stylistically this blog is readable paragraphs (except the DC Trip entries), so three quarters of a point for this blog.
5. Good “non-post” blogs have style and curation. Some of the best blogs use unusual formats, employ only photos and video, or utilize the list format to artistic effect.
Excuse me, but this seems to be a contradiction of #4. Apparently there is an allowance here for blogs for amusement rather than productivity. Oh, and I did look up Curation. From the word Curate, which (think museum curator) actually also means Priest’s assistant or parish keeper. This blog is a “post-format” blog so no points here.
6. Good blogs are weird. Blogs make fart noises and occasionally vex readers with the degree to which the blogger’s obsession will inevitably diverge from the reader’s.
This is probably the best use of the phrase “fart noises” I’ve read. It’s a tricky phase to work into polite coversation aside from intentionally trying to shock. It makes the point in this case and while the concept of this blog is wierd, the content isn’t so much. Half a point.
7. Good blogs make you want to start your own blog.
I like this one. I have blogs because I thought them interesting, but only after reading several. I can’t say anyone has told me they started a blog after reading this one, so zero points here. In interest of full disclosure, I haven’t hunted down the people behind the blogs I like and told them either.
8. Good blogs try…A good blog is written by a blogger who thinks longer, works harder, and obsesses more. Ultimately, a good blogger tries. That’s why “good” is getting rare.
Hmm. Try, yes. Obsesses more, not so much. Quarter point maybe?
9. Good blogs know when to break their own rules.
Bingo, full point here. While the MBA tangent this blog took for almost two years could be connected to the “Where’s Adams iPod” idea that started the blog, it clearly wasn’t what I had in mind when I started the blog.
So totaling up the points, Where’s Adam’s iPod gets 3.5 points. Two of the point categories contradicted one another so technically only one could have points, leaving a possible score of 8. So about 44% for Where’s Adam’s iPod. Good thing school is already out, that’s a pretty weak grade.
