Day: May 10, 2008

In a recent post Paddy Johnson considered the merits and demerits of two websites, the Frieze site and the Eyebeam reBlog. I just added a comment re: the latter:

Four years ago when I reBlogged for eyebeam Michael Frumin and Jonah Peretti were still there. They invented the reBlog concept and were actively recruiting a wide range of people to use it, including non-tech people. After they left, responsibility for the reBlog changed hands a couple (?) of times but staffing it with a diverse group and maintaining a certain rhythm remained a priority. Apparently the current group no longer has that interest. When you last mentioned the pruned feed list Amanda McDonald Crowley of Eyebeam said she’d “look into it”–she couldn’t commit to fixing it–and she said that potential reBloggers were welcome to contact Eyebeam, which suggests they are passively but not actively involved in recruiting new reBloggers. I hope I’m wrong about that.

It was an interesting experiment but they never added comments to the blog and as you say reBloggers rarely added their own thoughts to the feeds. You can’t chide an overworked, underpaid nonprofit with volunteer reBloggers too much for not having the “right” priorities but you would think an “art and tech” website would want a feisty, dynamic web presence. Their current feed list is mostly the other “art and tech” sites so you’re getting unironic items about rocket powered personal helicopters again.