This is a reflection* on the current status of daylogs, and my mixed feelings on them:
I find myself torn by the concept of daylogs. I know I should avoid
the subject, but still, there are a few things that I like about them, and a few things that don't sit right with me about them.
They too, belong. First off, I want to come out and say that I believe there is a place for them on
Everything. They are not as
timeless as a lot of other pieces I've seen, but they do capture much in a person's
life. Some of the old daylogs were really kinda neat to
read, when they weren't as
popular, and
E2 was a smaller place to
hang.
Some people only daylog A lot of times, all people do is daylog. Maybe this is a gross generalization, but I see lots of nodes go by, and sometimes all I notice by particular noders are that they just write
daylogs. What are they contributing on a larger scale? Not much, it seems. I don't want to
squelch their efforts (oftentimes they are quite good), but on the other hand, I see other efforts go
unrewarded, because their titles are not predictable, and not linked to from the front page.
Daylogs are oftentimes over-valued (over voted) Daylogs, I'd imagine, are a
roll of the
XP dice. If you write a long daylog, then people upvote it, it seems. If it is a short writeup, then people might downvote it, regardless of what you say most times. I read them all most of the way through, before I cast my opinion, but a lot of people carpet bomb them with their votes, in an attempt to get rid of their 45, 60, 90,
300** or however many they have. This isn't right. I see incredibly well written nodes go unnoticed, until someone finally brings them to
people's attention, and then they get their votes that they deserve. Some daylogs I've seen have 20-30 rep day after day from the traffic they get. Especially if you are closer to the top of the daylog list.
Newbies are all too quick to hit the daylogs Newbies oftentimes get
discouraged when they see their brief
intimate reflection on the day's events for them earns them a -12 rep on the WU. They are playing soccer in the
HOV lane, and it is never good.
Daylogs are not a linkable form of content I've seen some gorgeous daylogs; wonderful reflections on an event, records of death, life, changes,
monumental events, etc. But once I've read them, if I don't bookmark them, how can they be well integrated? A softlink to a daylog means nothing because
the title is really vague. I wish people would keep their
brilliance out of daylogs, and into something that would make sense in the database in the future. I'd love to softlink someone's touching account of the death of a
parent to
sorrow or to a story about my grandparents or something, but I can't do so meaningfully with a daylog title.
Daylogs are out of context, by default People write up things that are important to them, using
proper names, places, etc; as if we are watching their lives as a soap opera. "Like how Billy, Johnny and Suzie took them to the restaurant down the corner. You know? The nice one." No, I don't know, and it doesn't make any sense aside from the people who wrote it. Daylogs aren't for the database, they are for the noder, it seems. Everything I guess isn't a
personal scratchpad, but still, they don't
integrate well. Perhaps we just need better daylog writers; perhaps I've read one too many excellent writeups in there.
So I guess daylogs do suck, but not for any one reason; they can be a treasure trove of content, or a hole of vote dumping. Maybe we'd all be a little better if people kept personal day logs, if that sort of thing interests you. There is a lot of junk in there, but the occasional gem or reflection that really makes it worth the read; and that's why I'll keep on going there.
Footnotes:
* I felt this writeup had a good place here, rather than using it as softlink flamebait by some coward, it served to voice my opinion on the subject. Also, note this writeup was reparented from it's original home in daylogs suck
** I am not commenting on any of Psuedo's voting habits, but rather that he has a pile of votes at his disposal