Editorial
Another Downside of Collaborative Blogging, Now Showing Live!
Love and hate go hand in hand…
While Impz has enumerated the pros and cons of collaborative blogging, I think there’s one more con that need to be added to this list (something which most of us already know by now), especially since THAT is facing it right at this moment.
A counter-argument for the first pro point…
1. You have great flexibility in types of writing from your different authors… In essence, diverse thoughts and differing views give the blog a sense of differentiation, and to cater to everyone’s needs.
With a group blog having authors with diverse writing styles, you are able cater to a wider range of audience. True. Now here’s where the other con comes in. With a wide range of readers, the more likely it is to encounter someone who disagrees with either of the author’s views and opinions, especially for the GAR ones who don’t hold back in expressing themselves. As the blog gets popular, and get more <3, it also opens its doors for more flame and trolls. Each of the authors cater to a certain niche; in effect, it pisses off a certain niche as well.
In short, “With great GAR comes great hate” 
*goes back to her comfy burrow of love*
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11 comments for “Another Downside of Collaborative Blogging, Now Showing Live!”
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Please allow me to give my side of this whole story and try to clear up any misconceptions about myself and the post you linked too.
First, I too am one of those people that doesn’t hold back in expressing themselves, which is why I made that post in the first place. Also this has nothing to do with Gar.
Gar seems to have somehow acquired this connotation that it’s solely about being as loud and over the top as humanly possible. There is a lot more to it than that. Gar is the last word I would come up with to describe anything pertaining to this situation. This is unfortunate, not heroic or manly.
I’m also not really pissed off as some people seem to think, but rather beside myself. I don’t care about heart or drama or any such thing as people seem to think I do. I don’t lurk on 4chan or IRC thinking up ways to hate on something. I just like to talk straight and happen to not get the humour in Crusader’s Gundam 00 articles that come across more as spite (especially the latest one) than an actual attempt at humour.
Frankly I also think the accusation of the “lover” and “hater” is actually being misplaced in all this. You see, I’m the guy that likes Gundam, Crusader’s the one that hates it, he told me so himself. Seems pretty clear cut to me. Only one persons making a habit of it, while the other just likes to summarize, joke about lightly and comment on the episodes.
I give the same type of summary for all my episodic articles and don’t give Gundam any special treatment like the people who label me as a crazed immature fanboy tend to imply. That’s not a valid escape route to my points relevance. If people want to point out where they think I have been a fanboy then I am more than happy to address the issue.
Now do I “hate” Crusader’s blogging? No. Do I think it’s not funny? Yes. Do I demand he stop? No, it’s not my dominion. Do I wish he would? To be honest, I merely wish the Sunrise bashing would stop, but I doubt that’s going to happen. Will I respond as a fan of Gundam to what I think is unfair criticism? Yes, I would expect no less of any fan of something that is being misrepresented by another in a way that is unproductive.
By the way, love the Shana picture you’ve got up there. Noiji Ito’s style has become one of favourites recently.
Yea, I always thought that style clashing was a bad thing. That’s one of the main arguments I usually have against multi author blogs. I also like to run things by myself….and I see blogs as an identity for one person. When there’s multiple, some authors either lose attention or the blog just isn’t as personalized as single author blogs. :S
I think Impz meant as many people as possible. The thing about trying to please every one is that you’re going to please no one.
Still thanks for making me the GAR one.
Yay I got praised by one of those rare and glorious female bloggers! I feel special.
@totali
We the IMPZ. Lower Shields and surrender your articles and prepare for assimilation. Your biological, and blogological distinctiveness will be added to out own. Resistance is Futile.
I guess that makes me the Moe one. How odd that the guy who basically made it his mission to learn as much about Mecha series and Super Robots is not Gar, but a snob with no sense of humour. At least that’s what I am getting elsewhere, but wait a second, odder still is that Animehistory is also a multi-author blog.
Does that mean this article also applies to me as well? So I am Gar after all then.
What a relief.
@Kaioshin Sama: actually, I was going to note that the love and hate, the GAR-side, etc. is actually reversible in this case, especially with you being part of a multi-author blog as well.
I think some people might have misinterpreted the intention of your post, so I’m glad you cleared it up.
Oh, and this post wasn’t meant as an attack to you or Crusader
@totali: I still hope my fellow chefs will make a come-back despite me flooding the blog =/ *summons her fellow chefs!*
@Crusader: well both you and Kaioshin-sama can be considered GAR actually, when viewed in different aspects / POVs
being sucked in by the moeblog isn’t quite GAR though… but you seem to have overtaken Impz with your GARness, so you weren’t exactly “assimilated” =P
Well I have to say one thing. I actually got two reply articles to my post. One was yours……and then there was the other one.
Let’s just say that yours is by far the one I think was the most productive. I don’t at all mind when people highlight where I might have erred as long as they are clear, concise and productive about it. That you didn’t immediately try to make my out to be the bad guy and tried to provide a balanced view is exactly what I argue we need more of in anime blogging these days.
I’m normally indifferent to criticism of my favourite series as I believe anyone should be, but not to misrepresentation and general bias towards them, nor towards anything in fact. I place a very heavy importance on fairness and equal treatment in all things in life. I’d like to note that I have even defended series I don’t particularly care for when they are attacked or criticized under false pretences.
One thing I have discovered in all this though is that the type of people who will take this Sunrise Trainwreck meme as fact generally aren’t worth trying to suggest an alternative to anyway. They’re basically never going to find anything positive to say as a result of their own mentality and world view that is shall we say, closed minded. Lost cause tends to describe how I feel about them at this point.
The type of blogging that suggests this Sunrise Trainwreck is there to let them hear what they want to hear, and not to be truthful at all. It’s unfortunate, but a sad reality that some people have nothing better to do sometimes then to gather around to bash a series or studio because it’s been popularized. This I guess ties back to your formula for things drawing more hate from some as they continue to draw love from most. I guess it truly is inevitable.
Also relating to your thoughts, as you highlight the unique situation of a multi-author blog, the other authors on my blog seem to think I’ve taken things a bit too far with my responses as of late. Thus I’ve decided to let things take their course, as I like to respect the wishes of others when they are forthcoming. And thus that is that.
I have my own 00 articles I need to get around to anyway.
tl;dr
Basically, what I feel is…if I don’t like a person’s style of writing or bashing or whatnot, I just won’t read it. I believe that many of the readers of THAT blog only read Impz’s articles. That is fine because Impz caters to their views and interests. If a person doesn’t want to get pissed off, why read something It’s common sense to just ignore it neh?
@Kaioshin: these situations are really inevitable, especially for fandom-based interests where there will always be conflicts and clashing views. What might be humorous for some people might be offensive for others, as with the case in point here.
may the blogging force be with you, despite your brutal frankness (GARness? XD)
@Igunis: I think it’s a psychological or emotional dilemma, which applies not only in reading blog posts but also in watching animes (and other media for that matter). Why watch something that pisses you so much, and moreso, why tell the world how that anime sucks?
there are times when reading something you don’t like can be a good thing, if in the process you allow yourself to see things from an objective POV, and evaluate things from a rational and sound viewpoint. or perhaps for the sake of poking fun at the show, which is not meant to be taken as anything offensive. again, similar to the case in point.
I looked at collaborative blogging when i first started ages ago. I even tried it for a few months. It’s not so bad, but i found it highly restrictive, and after a while not so fun.
I want to blog what i wanted to blog, andd not having to run it by other people first. Sometimes i’ll write a post at 2am, and others at 4pm. Having to worry how it’ll effect other peoples posts got annoying after a while. Especially if they start complaining your post bumped their off the home page.
Then there’s the bad fall out if a friendship breaks up, i know of some bloggers who were joint blogging, had a row and woke up the next day to find the entire blog was trashed.
Then we have the all important personality clashes, i have a warped personality, and even worse sense of humor that dosent work well wiuth a lot of people. Personality clashes can end up leading to the afore mentioned fall out.
Sure collaborative blogging has it’s pluses, for me i’ve drifted more rom anime and more into manga which i kind of regret. Having another writer who wanted to do the focus on anime would be great, since it would put my blog back on track to what i wanted it to be.
But then you get the inevitable crossovers between manga and anime, who does them, how are they handled etc etc. All of these can be headaches, minor ones true, but after a while they build up.
Most bloggers i’ve found go through fazes where they burn out, where the writing of posts seems to become a burden, and they lose their feel and love of the stuff they’re reviewing. Having more writers is a good thing here, since it means they can take a break without letting the blog die, which is great.
That said, ive seen many good collaborative blogs, that seem to last really well. Though most of them do seem to go through a lot of members. I’m nost sure if thats a good or bad thing
I think for me ever to either make my blog collaborative, or to join and existing collaborative, i’d have to know those involved already, and know i could work with them. I wouldn’t join one where i knew noone, to easy to get into arguments and stuff. Plus i’ve never got into chedule and deadline writing, i like writing what i feel when i feel it
@Tiamat: the personality clash and/or in-group politics are two of the deadliest(?) downsides of blogging, especially if fellow bloggers take the disparity of views and takes on animes (and issues in general) too personally.
I seem to have overtaken the blog now, in the absence of my fellow chefs… but we do communicate from time to time. I think we know each other enough to know what posts will need some negotiations before being published
blogs need filterish tools for multi-authoring, simple. Even if authors clash or whatever, some authors of a group are enjoyable enough; yes, if all are in the same flow together it is double-plus.
I always keep in mind that yea, multiple people write group blogs… consider a LJ community. There is definitely a ranking order, though the authors may not like that sort of thing
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