Me writing about people writing about me

Me writing about people writing about me (and blogs): Blogging On: Web loggers bare their souls -- and reading lists -- to the Internet. Why yes, that is my mug on the cover of the Datebook section in today's San Francisco Chronicle. (That's the picture that was being taken when someone thought I'd fallen down.) It took a while to run, but I think it's certainly one of the better mainstream articles on blogging. Understandable to a wide audience without being incredible dumbed-down or plain inaccurate. Here's what the paper version looks like. Pretty much takes over the front page of that section. That's a big picture of Drue and Shauna above the fold.


There were two quotes in the piece (not from me) that I'm particularly glad were included, both because I agree wholeheartedly and, well, such thoughts aren't usually included. One:


As the pool of blog writers has grown, perhaps inevitably so have complaints about quality. It's true that some bloggers seem to feel the need to log every sneeze.
But even drivel has its readership, [Caterina] Fake says. "Sure there are a hundred teenage boys typing, 'I'm bored. School sucks' every three hours, but their friends read them -- and that's their intended audience."


And two:

[Amy Jo] Kim, who has a background in behavioral neuroscience, believes Web logs are here to stay. "We're just starting to see the native forms take shape on the Web," she says, "and I think this is one of the native forms."

"Native format" is exactly the term I've been using lately.