Secondly, onto Richard’s Comments… & I do like comments – see I am even responding!!

You raise an interesting point, because, when I was thinking of diaries the “dear diary” type of diaries were not at all what I was considering! What I had in mind was something more akin to literally diaries such as: “Flight out of TIme (A Dada Diary)” by Hugo Ball. Which although it has some personal content, I was thinking about the way Hugo Ball brings up ideas and discusses them, some of which return and are further developed at later dates whilst other disappear. Furthermore, the thoughts in a diary such as this are never static, they evolve as time passes, which to my mind is comparable to a blog.

I can see where you are coming from though, and perhaps you are correct that blogs are not immediately comparable to diaries, in fact to be honest perhaps they are not comparable to any other form of writing, and in fact they should be considered on an equal footing to other writing forums, that is to say they contain style and content that is unique to the format.

But to clarify, I wasn’t attempting to suggest the content of blogs is similar to a “dear diary” entry, even despite many early blogs having those similarities. I was more concerned with the style of writing. That is to say essentially they are personal over institutional, they are for the most part about people and their thoughts, opinions, ideas, and the results of their work (or play).

Another point of comparison in terms of style would be that a diary is usually written in the first person, whereas academic writing is usually third person (sometimes this is even enforced policy). In many ways its simply this style of writing I was trying to compare. My essential point being that blogs are about people, and the style supports this. The only other major form of writing, that I am aware of, that has this same stylistic emphasis is the diary.

I hope that sheds a little more light on my interpretation of that comparison.

Cheers,

Dan

Since he likes comments, I’ll take issue with his idea that a blog is a diary. I really have never been a fan of this concept, and would argue that his blog really isn’t a diary.

It’s a kind of frequent publishing about timely issues, but I wouldn’t say I know much about Daniel’s personal interest from his blog. I know a lot about his professional interest. I think a diary veers towards the personal.

For example, this might be an entrance of his after reading this comment:

Dear Diary,

I really don’t like it when Richard McCoy leaves comments. He thinks he’s funnier than he really is.

Love,
Daniel

Ha, ha. Get it? Richard isn’t funny. Hilarious!