Re “parenting blogs,” I read only two that are identified as such, with any regularity: yours and another one, by some wacked-out straight chick in Utah who tortures her dog with wigs

My observations based on that limited sampling:

you would likely sell more t-shirts if you changed the name of this blog to lesbian dooce.

From my standing on the sidelines viewpoint, it seems like the key, and perhaps, overarching benefit above and beyond the negatives, the controversies, and difs in culture is COMMUNITY.
I don’t mean to be dismissive of the other points (because there is no hair so fine that I, as a notarized lesbian, won’t split) but in this world, at this time, community is a precious resource.

When Heather went on the Today show a couple months back, it was a total trainwreck. Srsly, it was mind-bloggling. Three things dominated the brief segment: 1) weeee hoooo! you chicks are raking in the dough! 2) so, how do you feel about selling your innocent child’s soul down the river for the world to see?, and 3) so, what is this thing they call the interwebs?

It was not the only such illustration that we have witnessed (the same trainwreck regularly occurs in the political blogging world), but what that little twilight zone episode illustrated was that those who live within, and those who subsist on a diet of, old media do not in anyway shape or form understand, the legitimacy of the deep community the internet affords. Yeah, there may be a market with various submarkets, there but it’s people connecting to people that is the point. That is the real transformative part.

People connecting with people you say? Why should that be transformative? That’s what people are supposed to do, isn’t it? Aha: yes. But no.

and that’s where simple answers part starts to unravel. Because this is a complex issue happening in real time as the world changes around us.

But there are forces, substantial indeed, that want us- lbgqt, straight, parent and non, voters, citizens — people all of us, everyone— to remain passive and frozen in distance from each other. And we need NOT to be. We are not meant to be. Now more than ever, for many reasons, this is true. People coming together should never be a radical act in and of itself, but that’s where we are right now. People coming together in communities, not markets.

And that transcends the smaller questions, me thinks.

Great survey, LD, thanks! If you could get bigger boxes for those essay questions, it would help. It’s hard to maintain a flow when you can only see about 10 words at a time!

Oh, maybe I’m a vet, but I’m a long time livejournaller, which is anathema, or so it seems. I have only been out here in the bigger blogosphere for a wee while. In that sense, you are more the vet than I.

Shall we have the polite dance of demurring, here? ;-}

I wonder whether this differs for people who have a deeper sense of connectedness to online community and identity?

In specific relation to mommyblogging, I think this is my exact point. I mean, ask a “popular kid” from back in the day if there were cliques, and they’d probably say no. They might even give you a one two blinky before it, so shocked would they be.

In general? That’s a possibility. I’m 34 and well-aware of the fact that on the sliding scale of age and participation online, I’m a bit of a senior citizen myself.

However, from what I’ve seen, mommybloggers are mostly in the senior set. Doesn’t really relate, you know?

I do, for sure, see the powerful lines of communication and insight. But less so the snippy in-groupishness. Which is so not to say it’s not there.

I would hesitate to call it snippy in-groupishness. More habitual in-groupishness. And the fact that there is already a proliferation, most people seem to just throw their hands up in the air and stick to who they know, rather than trying to wade into the flood.

I get this, which is why I’m charging an organization (BlogHer) with the task of sorting and making it easier for the old time residents to help out with the newbies on a more intimate basis. Kind of like AA. ;-}

I know that it’s my very short windows of leisure time that foreclose a lot of my correspondence and connection-making outside this (LD) forum, I presume that pertains for others, too.

Of course. Especially with people with families and children and careers and busy lives. Which most of us have/are. Still, we’re here, ain’t we?

Though I’ll also say that what I’m reading of debates within the more conventional so-called “mommy blogs” (hetero? widely read? big name? ad revenue-supported? how the heck to characterize ‘em)

Celebloggers?

I refer us back to the note at the close of the above paragraph, re: high school years being my bleakest, by far. Cliques? Ick!

I’ve yet to find a person I really liked who doesn’t same some variant of this.

I’m really interested in your thought, here, wyliekat, since you are indeed a vet, and I still feel a bit of a rookie. Here’s something I thought of, when I was reading what you said: I wonder whether this differs for people who have a deeper sense of connectedness to online community and identity? I fear that, because I was of Advanced Age when the World Wide Internet came to be (okay, okay: I was grad school. they issued me an email address and I didn’t even know for two years what it was, or what to do with it), I don’t quite see community in it as clearly? Maybe? I mean, I do, for sure, see the powerful lines of communication and insight. But less so the snippy in-groupishness. Which is so not to say it’s not there. But I might be studiously overlooking it, like I tried to in high school (my bleakest years, by far).

Maybe because my own time online is so terribly erratic (relatively speaking, I’m sure), and I know that it’s my very short windows of leisure time that foreclose a lot of my correspondence and connection-making outside this (LD) forum, I presume that pertains for others, too. Though I’ll also say that what I’m reading of debates within the more conventional so-called “mommy blogs” (hetero? widely read? big name? ad revenue-supported? how the heck to characterize ‘em) gives me the sense that people are very tightly connected. Or can be. Which then of course means that they are not tightly connecting to others. I refer us back to the note at the close of the above paragraph, re: high school years being my bleakest, by far. Cliques? Ick! Clumps of kindred spirits, though? Yay! I hope against hope that we have the latter going on here at Casa LD.

To the person who wrote “i thought you said this was a five minute survey?!?!” in the survey, er, well. Um, sorry. I am a notoriously poor judge of time; ask my longsuffering partner of 14 years. It just might take more than five minutes if you happen not to be inclined toward the breezy, rapidly composed, off-the-cuff synopsis-kind of response. Um, to essay questions.

And if the term “essay question” strikes terror in anyone’s heart, remember: This is not a test! If it were a real test, you would have been given instructions! And an “A” for even showing up! I hated grading, when I had to (surprised?).

I’m having a bit of a love/hate relationship with “the community”, I have to admit. I’ve been in the ‘sphere for a long time, but on a platform that seems largely ignored. Now that I’m emerging into the more accepted platforms, I’m a newbie, with all the trials and tribulations that come along with that. Frustrating, because I can tell you that newbies could very easily feel marginalized by the pre-existing community.

I’m a tougher old bird than that, only because I know that after eight years blogging is in my blood and I won’t quit regardless of who accepts, who reads or where I’m accepted. But for someone who’s just looking for some support or a community, they’re likely not going to be around for long.

Maybe blogher should consider an one to one mentoring program, if they’re serious about it.