February 06, 2004

Web Politics

Posted by shonk at 12:46 AM in Blogging | TrackBack

Over at bighead, Petya is thinking about getting rid of her links page. Why? As with most of us, I’m sure, she’s added friends’ sites to her list of links “not because I frequent them but because it’s the right thing to do.” At heart, though, her concern is the following:

This whole link-business is totally confusing. On one hand, it’s absolutely straight-forward. The internet is build on the premise that people will find information and each other through following them. On the other hand, however, especially within the blogosphere, it’s totally political. It facilitates the creation of a web-specific hierarchy where the more people link to you and the more mentions you get, the more valuable whatever you have to offer becomes. So much for the pure need for self-expression and the like.

Put another way, too many people forget the point that a URL is not a mark of quality, reasoning that a site linked to by a lot of people must be worthwhile.

I had written a very long (and very bad) response to this, but I think, instead, that I’ll just make the point that online dynamics are fundamentally social, not political. It’s tempting to ascribe the bad aspects to “politics”, but in so doing I think we stunt our ability to understand and explain those dynamics. Much as we may dislike it, not all hierarchies are the product of politics.

And yes, I’m aware that “political” has a colloquial as well as a technical usage. But I think that the misapplication of the term is an impediment to communication and every once in a while I feel the need to rant about it.

Comments

I'd considered removing all links from my organizational website precisely because of "political" disputes that arose from my selection of links. For example, I've linked to separate groups and individuals that I find worthwhile; but when it turned out that some of these groups didn't care for one another, I became the target of "why do you link to us and those morons" e-mails. But at the end of the day, I felt all the links were appropriate for my site, so I left them be, to hell with what others say.

Posted by: Skip Oliva at February 6, 2004 01:13 AM

Shonk, "But I think that the misapplication of the term is an impediment to communication and every once in a while I feel the need to rant about it."

And rant well you did.

..."I felt all the links were appropriate for my site, so I left them be, to hell with what others say."

Indeed!

Posted by: John Venlet at February 6, 2004 08:26 PM