[The Networked Society] Retooling Shirky's blog types

[Originally posted at The Networked Society]

In Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality, Shirky defines three basic kinds of blogs: the mainstreamed-media blog (too big for its writer/s to reply to comments etc.), "Blogging Classic" (outward-facing blog with a small enough readership that the writer/s can be involved with them), and journaling. (For comparison, Dreamwidth's Design Personas: Betty Broadcast and Ivy Inward on a journal site versus the first and last of Shirky's blog types.)

I'm not personally interested in where the tipping point between Blogging Classic and mainstreamed-media lies. What I do care about is how popular a journal can get before its writer can no longer interact significantly with readers. I'd argue that there are two basic ways of managing a journal (as opposed to a blog): a semi-broadcast model and a more reciprocal model (for more popular and less popular journals, respectively). I'll name them along the lines of the Design Personas.

Sandy (Semi-broadcast): Sandy has more readers than she can fully engage with. She has a group of friends with whom she interacts by reading their entries, replying to their comments sooner and more fully than others, and allowing them to read locked entries in her journal. Sandy tends to have far more inbound relationships (another user lists her as a friend, subscribes to her, and/or grants her access) than outbound relationships, and she probably has relatively few outbound-only relationships.

Rita (Reciprocal): Rita is able to be friends with all or most of her readers. The volume of entries and comments posted by Rita's social group fits within the time Rita can devote to this form of interaction. She tends to have a relatively even number of inbound and outbound relationships, and many of them are mutual.

So what is the tipping point between Sandy and Rita? For what it's worth, I currently subscribe to about 240 journals and have about 250 subscribers (although there are some inactive accounts in there, and about 30% of those relationships are non-mutual) and would consider myself a Rita because I don't feel that I have more other-people's-content than time.

Recipe: curry

I am so proud of myself, y'all. After months of trying, I finally have something that is seriously tasty, albeit not as good as restaurant food. Much cheaper, though.

Thai curry

Ingredients (per serving)

½ can (approx. 7 oz) coconut milk

0 to 6 birdseye chili peppers or similar, according to taste (I use 4)

dried basil, lots

fish sauce

½ to ¾ tbsp curry paste

one chicken breast fillet or one half boneless thigh, sliced

red, orange, and/or yellow bell pepper (about ¼ to ½ of a pepper), sliced

½ to 1 cups rice

Directions

1. Possibly begin making rice.
2. Coconut milk in saucepan of appropriate size.
3. Add chilis, fish sauce (about ½ tbsp, but I eyeball it), and curry paste. Stir for a little bit.
4. Basil. Make a little mound, then stir it in. I would recommend overdoing the basil rather than underdoing it.
5. You should probably make the rice here if you didn't earlier.
6. Let the coconut milk etc. sit over low heat. Turn the burner off if it starts to froth.
7. About five minutes before the rice is done, add the chicken and bell pepper and possibly nudge the heat up a bit (or turn it back on if you had to turn it off earlier).
8. Serve and eat.

I give per-person ingredients because I haven't found a way to make the leftovers good (the chicken always tastes funny, so vegetarian versions might reheat just fine), and I only make this for myself because Ellie hates coconut milk.