There's an interesting discussion going on over in the comments section of jjohn's Journal about his use of the Markov blogger.
The discussion falls into two categories, to my mind:
1. MarkovBlog is a pain, because I, as a reader, may be led to a blog that has no real content.
2. People have their own choice about reading, and if the author chooses to put goop in his blog, that is his decision to make.
I'm totally fascinated by this discussion, because no one is forcing anyone to read any entry they do not want to read. Sure, if someone goes to jjohn's journal, and it's a MarkovBlog, and they didn't want to read it, it may waste a few seconds, but isn't blogging, whether you read or write one, at its core, kind of a waste of time anyway?
Don't get me wrong, I totally enjoy both reading and writing blogs, but is it an essential part of my day? No. Is it an essential part of anyone's day? Perhaps, but I would ask, what did these people do before blogs? Sure, something like reading blogs can become a positive part of someone's day, but does getting distracted by a randomly generated blog really detract from the enjoyment of blogging in general?
Part of the concern about this also seems to be that MarkovBlog may keep people from reading jjohn's blog as often as they would otherwise. To that I say, so what? Should this be a concern of jjohn's, that some people don't read his blog as often as they might?
This gets to a question about blogging. Is the act of blogging for the blogger, or for the readers? Which is prime? Is either prime? Should one be prime over the other? Personally, I view the blog as the domain of the writer, and the reader is secondary. The writer can use the blogging venue to develop thoughts, to post interesting ideas or links, or just randomly post whatever he or she feels like doing at the moment.
The reader has the freedom to put the book down at any time, as it were, and make a choice to go elsewhere for their blogging pleasure. It's not like there's not a proliferation of venues out there to read blogs.
Finally, I guess that whether you care about Markovblog one way or another comes down to a question of what your expectations are of the blogging experience. If you expect relevant content, or even simply logical sentences put together in a proper order, then a blog that has Markov as part of it are not for you. If you are looking for the random musing of a writer, along with goofy stuff, then I guess putting up with Markov is your kind of excitement.
All comments are of course, welcome. Not that I'll pay any attention to them, but who knows...
I hate it each and everytime I read it. Then I have to go and blog about how much I hate it. Stop writing it so I can blog about other things.
PS. Stop masturbating!
