Kent emailed me last week with the observation that AMV was at 998 posts. I had noticed last June that we were inching closer to quadruple digits, but hadn’t thought about it since then. The pace around here has been languid of late. It snuck up on me.
1,000 posts is as good a milestone as any so I’ve decided to mark it, to honor it, to get it over with.
I last reported on the state of AMV back when we turned five. Although I didn’t say it at the time, it was apparent that blogs had peaked and were in decline. That has happened. Our monthly traffic has certainly dropped (about 45% from where we were in 2009). As has posting frequency and the number of active bloggers. Almost all of us have other online presences and pursuits now. And, naturally, Twitter and Facebook have captured much of the energy that used to be expended on blogs. Which reminds me: follow AMV on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
I worried about burn out in that anniversary post. At the time I thought it was imminent (although I committed to two years — two years that have since come and gone). I avoided that by slowing down the pace of my posting and expanding into other projects. It seems to be working. I (and I say “I” because even though I very much value the contributions of my co-bloggers, based on post count alone, it’s obvious that I’m the main person driving this thing [I account for 43% of the total posts]) find that I still have things to say.
In that post, I also mentioned more voices. That has not happened for two reasons:
1. I like and trust the people I’m with and don’t feel the pressing need to add more (although guest posts are welcome).
2. The kinds of voices that I would normally have recruited are now either posting at Dawning of a Brighter Day. Which is a very good thing.
So for the near future, expect the status quo (but remember our status quo is the radical middle).
And I want to reiterate what I wrote back in June of 2009:
“I’d say that the biggest success of AMV has been the creation of a community of contributors and commenters who enjoy the conversation.”
Yep. This is a good place to be. It will continue. Thanks, everybody.
A Motley Vision 
.
It’s true that blogs are not what they once were. I’m torn on this. I like what’s new but I mourn what’s gone. I guess it’s kind of like what happened to newspapers. (Do you remember newspapers?)
That said, I still have a long list of posts I intend to write for AMV. Just as soon as I can. Whenever that might be.
Congrats, guys. Here’s to the next thousand.
Thanks, Wm., for making AMV what it is. Happy 1,000! I am proud to be part of the conversation–even though I never manage to contribute as much as I want to. My list of unwritten posts may not be as long as Theric’s, but I am certain mine has collected more dust.
Congratulations, AMV, on your grand (ha!) milestone. I may comment only rarely, but I read you. I’m glad you’re still here.
Yeah! I have been reading since April of 2007. 4 more years!
Congrats, and keeping on truckin’
Congrats on a milestone! I find that I still read many blogs, but for some reason I rarely comment. I guess entropy wins out over community. I still love this blog and it’s one of the few group blogs I read anymore. I will try and comment more often in the future to keep the conversation going.
Huzzah!
Happy 1000!
Congratulations! I am like FoxyJ in that I read but don’t comment much.
But this is a grar milestone-way to go.
Yay for us! I love AMV and don’t post nearly as often as Wm and Th.–or even as much as I want to. Even if blogs in general on on their way out, this one sure isn’t 🙂
Thanks guys.
Oh, and this will be the 10,937th comment. Which means we average 11 comments per post. Not bad.
Sadly, I don’t have stats on who has commented the most, etc. (plus they’d be skewed by the move over from blogger).
AMV is a fine ride, Wm. You done good.
Are we really so focused on the new that we believe blogs, of all things, are dead or dying?
As much as I think about it, I can’t see how FB or Twitter really replace the function that blogs provide. Sure blogs are no longer considered the favored, hot, new thing. But to think that blogs are dying just because they no longer have the favored status they once did seems flighty and focused on fads.
Or perhaps there is some new definition of “dead” or “dying” that I’m not hip to?
.
Blogs : 2011 : : Newspapers : 2001
Neither will die.
I don’t get around to visiting nearly as much as I used to, or as much as I’d like to. But that goes for all of the blogs I used to read. In fact, that goes for my whole social media experience anymore. Just where are my priorities these days?
Anyway.
Congrats on the grand, Wm. And many more.
Kent:
In terms of overall traffic and importance in the overall conversation, blogs are dying. That doesn’t mean all blogs will die. The personal blogs is dying. It is being replace by tumblr blogs (which are easier to maintain and focus on short posts or image posts and don’t lead to conversation so much as re-sharing of content).
Blogs that are healthy enough and active enough and engage well with social media will survive. And blog traffic has clustered (and will continue to cluster) around the most successful blogs. And these successful blogs become, essentially, media voices. Like newspapers or alt weeklies or small magazines or journals.
This all isn’t to say that blogging isn’t still worthwhile. Just that it is no longer the most important, the most traffic-gathering way to go about disseminating ideas and creating information on the web. I much prefer blogs because I can flow them into my Google Reader and consume a lot of good content at once (whereas I only dip in and out of my twitter and facebook streams and don’t use tumblr or another microblogging service). I also really like Google+ because for the moment, at least, I’m getting some good conversation with the stuff I post there.
BTW, this Wired blog post from 2008 (language warning) is interesting because it makes some of the same arguments I have been. Of course, being Wired it *overstates*, but I’ll include it as another datapoint (that’s more relevant now than it was then).
Ooh. This post is better: http://www.economist.com/node/16432794
Edit to add: this NY Times story from earlier in the year is also interesting.
Again: I don’t plan for AMV to go anywhere. I’m just acknowledging that the state of the field is different from 2, 4, 8 years ago.
Wm, I do know that the popularity of blogs has diminished. But to me the word “dying” implies that it will eventually not exist.
It seems clear to me, even from your comments and from the economist article, that there is still a role for blogs — just not the popular, “if you want to know what’s going on with me check my blog” role.
I’d suggest that blogs as they originally were are already dead. The era of massive links sidebars, reciprocity, post carnivals/roundups, individual authors voraciously posting on each other blogs is pretty much gone.
Notice I said that not all blogs will die (and in my original post I only said that it was apparent back in 2008 that they were in decline — which is true), and that’s what agree on — there’s still a role for them. Absolutely there is. But for the most part they are not the dominant medium they once were. And the bloggernacle isn’t what it once was. And that’s okay. The good thing is that the big blogs and some of us niche blogs are still going concerns.