Booksquare

Back in the day, we had this thing called the Usenet. It was very cool, and we (and our friends) spent many long hours voyeuring on a group called alt.fun.with.luc (newsgroup still exists, though Luc has a blog now). As Californians, we didn’t get the obsession with cheese, but we got the concept. So what, you say, what does this have to do with me? Why am I reading this? Well, little grasshopper, in the day, newsgroups were a bit like blogs. Which is why we drifted into this world so readily — we were preconditioned. On one level, MediaBistro’s article on blogs and their influence (and, sometimes, lack thereof) is a bit of the emperor and his new clothes. On the other, because we believe the blog concept hasn’t really permeated the public consciousness, it’s a cautionary tale on how blogs can be used for good and evil — you know, beware advertisers bearing gifts and all that.

• alt.fun.with.luc
• altfunwithluc
• Blogging Fads: Are blogs the great new way to get news, or just the best new way to spread buzz?