Form vs. Content

What keeps coming into my mind as I surf the web is this question: What is it that that draws me to look here, or do I want to move on now? Is it the form or the content?Do you, like me, feel drawn to a catchy image, a poignant photo, good graphics, or words that ensnare? What information keeps my attention, when I could, ever so easily, click away, go down another rabbit trail? Is there somewhere else I need to visit in the magical garden of the blogosphere or the web itself? What it it that catches my fancy, my focus? Does the writer post with good regularity? For example, it has been a whole week since I posted. Do my readers have the patience to check whenever they're online to see if I've had anything new to say?
Here's what I think about these questions, based on what I see in the various categories of interactive communications on the web:

• Web Log/diary - (defined as a blog that is purely personal, written by and primarily for the author. However, it is published so that it is available to the public to read). It is the content here that keeps me reading; the writer's point of view offers some sort of universal appeal. If it is a too purely personal diary (only venting, so to speak), I usually leave the site out of respect for privacy. The form of the journal matters to a small degree; if there are too many typos or it too messy, I give up on it.
• Journal writing - (defined as beautifully composed literary writing). Form is crucial to my artist mind's enjoyment of this kind of writing. Content is of importance only as it applies to subjects that have always interested me, such as history, foreign lands, space, politics, dreams, or the 30's, for example. Lileks, a favorite of many, has both good form and interesting content. Here's an example: he closed his Friday "Bleat" with this absolutely awesome allusion to today's world situation, "But even though it’s the end of the day I can’t shake the nightmare I had last night. It was bad. We were staying at a resort that was periodically terrorized by some sort of scaly lupine beast; I had been there once before during such an attack, and remembered well hiding in a room, listening to the screams, the chuffing sounds of the beast, the rending of flesh. Why I had gone back I don’t know – probably decent room rates for the peak of the season – and when I heard that there was an 60 percent chance of scattered monster that night, I decided to leave. “Oh, because of the monster?” someone said sarcastically.I was rather confused. Well – yes, because of the monster. This seems to be a symbol for much of modern life. Well, yes, because of the monster. That’s enough for you, but not for others. Because we all have different monsters, I guess. For the moment."
• Getting noticed - (defined as blogs that have a definite point of view). All of us who blog in public wonder whether anyone "out there" reads us. What we have to say can be either positive or negative. These are negative ways that writers in the crowd stand out: ranting, being overly cute, staying in an argument just to be contentious, or having to be right/having the last word, using profanity, overusing of blogger jargon, or being flattering and fawning. Here's a negative example of someone who wants to get noticed. I had no idea that my short comment at TPM Cafe would set "cloudy"off on a very lengthy thread as it did. Note how off-putting is his overuse of bold. Bad form. Read it to the bitter end (bad content) however, for "destor23" 's welcome validation "nice metaphor." In a positive way, I notice good writers because of their originality, succinctness, respectful and honest disagreement, intellectual rigor, humor or a beautiful turn of phrase. And I regularly link to these positive folks in my S/SW blog postings, choosing to ignore the others.
• Current affairs blogs - (loosely defined as political blogs). I cite a couple of examples of "What's Happenin" blogs that illustrate why the writers have gained such an enormous readerships. DailyKos declared that he does not claim to be a journalist, but part of the media. His content is almost always interesting, and the writing form is teriffic. That means that I'll read it even if the subject isn't one of my favorites. And, of course he agrees with my own biases. Don't we all want to have those biases reinforced by other "brilliants" like ourselves?
• Reading about writing - (defined as literary blogs). About.com has a good list of literary bloggers, several of whom sat on a C-Span panel I saw several months ago. As an aside, that is often how I got interested in reading all bloggers. Seeing people on C-Span or other TV programs is often how I discover writers; I like having a face to put with a name. My favorite on that C-Span panel, who's not on the About.com list, is Maud Newton. She is small, dark-haired and feisty, with glasses that somehow indicate she is smart. She has a unique style, which I define as good form. Of course I can't begin to read as prolifically as Maud, so some of her literary content is unfamiliar to me. I scan her blog anyway because she has a wonderful way of burying little gems along the way.
• Dialogue/comments (defined as a blog post with a set of comments following it). Comments or related e-mails can be rich sources of communication with excellent content. Here's an example: as a result of my comments on one of my favorite blogger sites, this neat exchange happened with the author of the "Hoarded Ordinaries" (see link at left) in one of her posts. Carol Gee posted a comment, “Territoriality is tough on dog-walkers. Native Americans, who primarily honored the seeds of nature, shared our mystification when fences started appearing all across the West. Let's hope your mystery turns out to be progress, as you would define it." The author, Lorianne replied in an e-mail: “One of my favorite Thoreau essays is 'Walking,' where he rails against fences no pun intended) even though as a surveyor, he helped people mark property claims that would ultimately be fenced. I guess the ultimate kind of fence is our heart's desire to cling to our notion of I/Me/My, and *that's* a kind of fence-building we *all* do to a certain extent."

All this is to say that there is no right or wrong way to blog. But what draws me in, as a surfer, is either excellent form, interesting content or both. The combination of both good form and intriguing content is guaranteed to grab me every time!