Passion * Technology * Ruthless Competence

Friday, March 21, 2008

Will The Real DevHawk Please Stand Up?

Sometimes when I blog about politics, I'll get a comment like this:

As far as I'm concerned, posting about topics such as politics or religions on a blog that's supposedly about technology is just looking for trouble.

As I've pointed out before, DevHawk is not "a blog that's supposedly about technology". It's a personal blog - my very tiny corner of the web, if you will - so I feel totally justified writing about technology, politics, hockey and whatever else I want to. I figure that if you don't like it, you're free to unsubscribe and neither of either of us will lose any sleep over it.

The flip side is that DevHawk has traditionally been the only place where I exercise such lack-of-restraint. When my blog was featured on MSDN Architecture Center, I cross-posted relevant content to a separate blog so as to create an topic-focused and safe-for-work subset of my "real" blog. It was always a hassle - especially tracking comments to the same post in two places - and I quit doing it shortly after leaving the Architecture Strategy Team.

However, now that I'm using Twitter, it doesn't feel like DevHawk is "my only place" anymore. My blog == my writing, my del.icio.us == links I find interesting and my Twitter == real time updates. I use FeedBurner to include my del.icio.us links in my blog feed and twitterfeed to include the blog feed in my twitter feed. Therefore, Twitter is the only place to get an feed of all three. Obviously, Twitter's feed isn't full content, but in an always connected world, clicking the link to read the blog entry in the browser isn't that big a deal. Besides, you can always subscribe to both the blog and twitter feed if you want full content + real-time.

I haven't fully integrated Twitter into my daily life yet, though I'm getting there - for example I twittered the results of my hockey game last night. But unlike other social software sites, I think I'm going to be using Twitter regularly. I'm on Facebook, but there's too much "you've been bitten by a Vampire!" type spam to really use it for anything but pure entertainment. Twitter is more like blogging, where there's an information exchange with only the people I subscribe to follow. Also, maybe it's me, but there doesn't seem to be the same stigma if you stop following someone on Twitter compared to rejecting them as a friend on Facebook.

DevHawk has been "me", but now it feels like DevHawk @ Twitter will become "me" which leaves my blog to become my endless book. It's not a bad thing, but it does feel a little strange.

Posted By Harry Pierson at 12:31 PM Pacific Standard Time
Friday, March 21, 2008 1:30:01 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
I feel as though reading a blog is a bit like being invited to dinner as a guest. The host is entitled to say what he or she wants -- it's their place and they're paying after all. However, some degree of manners towards your guests is a nice thing. People may hold different opinions and sometimes being receptive (not necessarily persuaded) is a good thing. A good discussion does not start by saying if you disagree with me you’re an idiot, evil or both. (You haven’t said that – but it feels implied)

There is also an asymmetry in your personal/political opinions. An extremely knowledgeable discussion of the technical is contrasted with a rather nasty and perhaps simple/close-minded view of the political world. (F# parsing vs. "[so-and-so] is a douchebag".

I've always appreciated your writing so thank you.
OffPoint
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