Blogging communities

There are many types of blogs surfacing each day and these blogs are usually classified by genre (entertainment, political, personal etc) and type (vlog, linklog, tumblelog etc). The common blogs we see by Malaysians are usually political and personal and rarely business-oriented. You can view the statistics of the top 50 Malaysian bloggers at Sabahan.com. But if we view this in a larger scope, most bloggers are driven by specific interest, for instance, a music blog on one's favorite band.

When I surf for blogs, I would usually search those with the same background interest. I believe the topic is far more important when it comes to information and shared interest and it outweighs design by a mile. In my opinion, the design comes as a bonus when viewing a particular information that I am very much interested in. Sure, a beautiful design pleases the eye but lack of information will have me leaving the page in a matter of seconds. Schriver (1997) also attest to this in her statement that no matter how pretty the picture is, it can't save a document from lack of content and infromation. In the end, a pretty picture is just a pretty picture. However, I wholly believe that the layout arrangement is important as it helps users navigate themselves through the document. Kress & van Leeuwen (2006) very much agrees with this notion in their text, The meaning of Compostion.

Livejournal plays host to a massive amount of online blogging communities. It is one of the most easiest blogging site that allows bloggers to access and post on their journals through moblog. A few communites on Livejournal that I am familiar with are Dir en Grey, American Idol, SkinsFans, and Eat my bento. Dir en Grey is a Japanese rock band with a very strong fanbase all over Asia, Europe and America. This community was created for the sole purpose of showing support and your love towards the band and has 5140 members. The members deal with everything in regards to the band from sharing pictures, to exchanging informations, to dealing with concert tickets and CD albums. Members are given free reign to post arts and videos regarding the band as long as they follow the rules and guidelines when posting.

Blogging communites such as the ones listed above are created when a group of people with shared interest in anything, gather to discuss issues and news related to their interest. Anyone can start a blogging community but it takes a lot of passion to maintain it.



References
Schriver, K 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, Routledge, London.

Sabahan.com 2007, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/