Jeff Goldstein on Reader Loyalty

Sat   19 Apr 2008   23:38 by Kevin McGehee 51° and clear in Coweta County, GA 16 comments [Asides]

Jeff Goldstein, of Protein Wisdom blog, spoke at some kind of panel thingie about blogging today, and via a comment by Happyfeet there’s a link to some video of the panel thingie. One of the things Jeff talked about was commenters and the way he has attracted such an unusually loyal group of us. We visit more often, stay longer, and continue to visit regularly longer, than most any group of reader-commenters in blogdom. And he says part of why that’s so is that he’s fostered a kind of “blog grammar” that requires an investment of time and attention to catch on to. He also uses the word “cult,“ but if he thinks I’m going to get myself castrated or start sleeping with my sister (if I had a sister, which I don’t), that just ain’t gonna happen. Anyway, so maybe the thing for me to do to build a following as loyal as Jeff’s, is to be harder to understand. Gleep? Update: Jeff expands on “blog grammar” here, but he said it here first.

 

happyfeet said: I would have just called it more like an idiom I think, but I a lot gleeped what he meant. » Sat   19 Apr 2008   22:52 Kevin McGehee said: I gleep you’re right, “idiom” would be the better word.   » Sat   19 Apr 2008   23:06 Kevin McGehee said: Especially if Sir Lancelot is trying to leave the castle to keep from getting married off to the princess whose fiance survived being dropped into the muddy moat. » Sat   19 Apr 2008   23:08 Cowboy said: I found a tiny kitten at the end of my driveway last night. Named him “Meep.“ Kismet, I think. » Sun   20 Apr 2008   7:23 The Sanity Inspector said: Protein-lanche! » Sun   20 Apr 2008   8:02 Enoch Root said: Cult! Ahhhhh, shit. I had no idea. I’m with you about the whole sister thing. But I’m parched. Any Kool-Aid around this place? » Sun   20 Apr 2008   8:18 Kevin McGehee said: The Kool-Aid is under the sofa cushions with the pie. And the kitten dances on Saturday. » Sun   20 Apr 2008   9:04 Ardsgaine said: I thought it was interesting that he used Terry Schiavo as an example of how he had not remained ideologically pure. I would have said the exact opposite. It seemed to me that he adhered to his classical liberal principles in his opinion and refused to sacrifice ideology for partisanship. I sometimes think that the more partisan Republican bloggers twist themselves into pretzels trying to defend the indefensible. That’s my take on that anyway. » Sun   20 Apr 2008   10:52 Jeff G said: I didn’t explain the “blog grammar” thing very well, but it goes beyond idiom. That’s what I get for not using note cards. If you’ve has ever read, say, Gravity’s Rainbow or Foucault’s Pendulum, you’ll note that the first fifty or so pages are incredibly slow going and difficult to get through.  The reason is, I think, that both Pynchon and Eco are actually teaching you how to read the text:  they are introducing you to the peculiar grammar of the work—the way it operates linguistically, the way connections are made, the way temporality will be approached and approximated, the way movement in point of view will be signaled, etc.  In short, the text becomes more than just about its content:  it is, in addition, a primer on how to read it. In many ways this is true of all texts—the difference being that most texts will stick to established conventions and / or point their readers directly toward any kind of conventional deviation. Whereas with GR or FC or (and this was my point) PW, you are really forced to work at learning how to read the text on its own non-conventional terms with little apparent help.  Instead, you become accustomed to the cadences, the way referents work, the backstory, etc.,by having immersed yourself in the grammar of the text/site (I would put some of DeLillo in this category as well, and, if we want to go back, Don Quijote or Tristram Shandy would fit, too). And having done so, you feel a sense of belonging to it. I have always described my site as a kind of cult site, though I’ve never described my readers as cultists. They tend, on the whole, to be extraordinarily bright and literate, and possess the kind of intellectual curiosity necessary to put up with some of the barrage of in-jokes, non-sequiturs, and strange content that makes pw so different from more conventional “political” blogs.  Sure, many of the posts stand on their own. But many more (red pills, armadillo, conceptual series, etc) require of the reader either some previous familiarity or else a willingness to take the leap and enter in medias res. I try to attract those readers willing to take the leap or invest the time. And of course, I in turn reward their loyalty and determination by disappearing for months at a time. I’m like Kaufman that way. Fuck. May as well go make this a post. » Sun   20 Apr 2008   10:55 Kevin McGehee said: I never realized before just how long a less-than-2,500-character comment can be.   » Sun   20 Apr 2008   15:05 Jeff G said: I didn’t mean to use Schiavo as an example of how I hadn’t remained ideologically pure, but rather how I often broke rank from the more reliably conservative sites. I believe I was staying true to my own ideology; I think the Schiavo affair was an example of social conservatism run amok, legally speaking. » Sun   20 Apr 2008   21:33 The Sanity Inspector said: “Not that I’m complaining at having Jeff come leave a comment,“ he hastened to add. » Sun   20 Apr 2008   21:45 Guy S said: So, what about “Electron Ephiphinies” or “Neutron Nostrums”?  Why were Protons singled out??  OH!! it’s called “ProteinWisdom”  never mind! And congrats to Jeff on his fine home on the web and your getting a bit o light shined on you as well. » Sun   20 Apr 2008   22:01 Kevin McGehee said: “Not that I’m complaining at having Jeff come leave a comment,” he hastened to add. Of course. » Sun   20 Apr 2008   23:04 Kevin McGehee said: I certainly understood your position on Schiavo, Jeff—even as I was on the other side of the question myself. Of all the people with whom I disagreed on that, in fact, you were probably the only one I was able to continue reading while it was still on full boil. » Sun   20 Apr 2008   23:06 Ivan Ivanovich said: You can sleep with my sister and her name is not Terry. » Mon   21 Apr 2008   20:29 You must be registered and logged in to comment.