Comments on: Some Thoughts on a Methodist Experiment http://henrysthreads.com/2009/01/some-thoughts-on-a-methodist-experiment/ Thoughts on Religion in the World from a passionate, moderate, liberal charismatic Christian Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:57:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Henry Neufeld http://henrysthreads.com/2009/01/some-thoughts-on-a-methodist-experiment/comment-page-1/#comment-128504 Henry Neufeld Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:26:23 +0000 http://www.energionpubs.com/wordpress/?p=1845#comment-128504 John-You make several very good points, and I agree. As I think I noted in my original post (which read much like you say--it's an experiment so here goes), that I would have to be revved up about the topic. The Methoblog would probably have to try to gently guide the idea of blogging on a particular topic through the methoblogosphere. It would be interesting to see how it would work. I'm fairly certain that simply providing a video or some similar item from a UM agency wouldn't light things up. And 600 hits on YouTube isn't enough to get the juices flowing... John-You make several very good points, and I agree. As I think I noted in my original post (which read much like you say–it’s an experiment so here goes), that I would have to be revved up about the topic.

The Methoblog would probably have to try to gently guide the idea of blogging on a particular topic through the methoblogosphere. It would be interesting to see how it would work.

I’m fairly certain that simply providing a video or some similar item from a UM agency wouldn’t light things up. And 600 hits on YouTube isn’t enough to get the juices flowing…

]]> By: John Meunier http://henrysthreads.com/2009/01/some-thoughts-on-a-methodist-experiment/comment-page-1/#comment-128503 John Meunier Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:00:50 +0000 http://www.energionpubs.com/wordpress/?p=1845#comment-128503 I think the Watson experiment shows that just posting stuff around does not stimulate interest. Especially when: 1) Nearly all the posts I saw said something like, "Someone is doing this experiment, so I'm posting this, too." Not a lot of enthusiasm there. 2) A lot of Methodist blogs are not well networked outside the Methoblogosphere. My blog, for instance, gets very few comments that are not from other Methobloggers. The viewership of my blog may be slightly larger, but clearly having an echo chamber post the same YouTube clip is not going to increase viewership of the clip. Your blog has much wider readership, but they come to your blog because you have created a niche of sorts. There are some types of things that your regular readers probably expect to see you write about. If you go off those topics, I would imagine your readership does not join you there. That said, I think trying to draw us into conversation and getting different people thinking and writing about common topics is intriguing. A lot of that happens now by the organic and decentralized nature of the blogosphere. Trying to organize the blogosphere may be a daunting challenge. I think the Watson experiment shows that just posting stuff around does not stimulate interest. Especially when:

1) Nearly all the posts I saw said something like, “Someone is doing this experiment, so I’m posting this, too.” Not a lot of enthusiasm there.

2) A lot of Methodist blogs are not well networked outside the Methoblogosphere. My blog, for instance, gets very few comments that are not from other Methobloggers. The viewership of my blog may be slightly larger, but clearly having an echo chamber post the same YouTube clip is not going to increase viewership of the clip.

Your blog has much wider readership, but they come to your blog because you have created a niche of sorts. There are some types of things that your regular readers probably expect to see you write about. If you go off those topics, I would imagine your readership does not join you there.

That said, I think trying to draw us into conversation and getting different people thinking and writing about common topics is intriguing. A lot of that happens now by the organic and decentralized nature of the blogosphere. Trying to organize the blogosphere may be a daunting challenge.

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