Hey BITs
This just occurred to me recently. There were about 50 people doing my first degree, which was in IT. I know a few friends from the course who have been reading this site for years. I know this despite them being pathological lurkers (hi guys), because occasionally they’ll retort to something I’ve said with, “Yeah I know, I’ve read it on your site.” Anyway, in a day and age where every third person has a blog, not a single BIT in my year I know of has one. Now, BITs in general are known for being chatty. And they are IT graduates, so theoretically there’s no problem with getting the “infernal machine contraption thingy” working. This seems like the right combination for adopting the relatively new-fangled mode of communication in the form of weblogs. But not one has a blog. I find that weird for some reason. Very weird.
I know this will fall on deaf ears and I’ll get no replies, but nonetheless if you’re a BIT/ISM, make your presence known in the comments please :).
Update: See, this e-mail I just got from Ben is exactly what I mean…
Found your little aside about BITs not blogging amusing. Sorry, no time or inclination from me ;) … I guess its just a reflection of our more technical guys not being big on written expression.. and our less technical being so corporate focused.
11:01pm (GMT +11.00) 
All us locusta jerks are BIT grads of some description, from the same institution of course. Well, except me. I’m a drop out.
Oh, and I guess it doesnt count that we all post on the same site and that we like to yell at people who call our site a blog.
Yeah so, carry on.
Prelude: No I’m not a BIT. Yeeeech.
I’m just curious about something. Stu and anyone else relevant who’s reading: Does it come as a surprise when people say “yeah I’ve read it on your site”? Like, when you post something, is there a strong mental connection between throwing stuff out into cyberspace, and people reading it who could actually then come back and talk to you in meatspace?
Does that question parse correctly?
Dropout here also. Hearye is just a regular read for me, like Kottke, K10K.net, theonion and FARK. Always been that way…I’ve investigated a few options for blogging, such as MT or even building my own proprietary system like this one in PHP, but never got around to it.
Keep it up tho eh
Shish: The thing is you can never assume someone’s read your site, so I when I talk in meatspace I just assume no one reads my site. It’s a surprise only if it’s someone telling me that who I never knew read my site. (Though I might, from time to time, throw in, “Did you read the posting I made a few days ago on X?” if I know they’re frequent readers.)
I guess there is a vague mental connection there, but only in terms of self-censoring. The main rule is (and this should apply for all bloggers): If you don’t feel comfortable with people you know offline reading what you write online – for goodness sake, don’t post it online! If it’s online, it can be found.
“Now, BITs in general are known for being chatty. ”
I think the above statement could be your problem!
Yeah, well this jerk used to cop the “yeah I’ve read it on your site” thing all the time in Lismore.
Probably because for the most part our entire core audidence around that time was already fully breifed with all my favourite anecdotes anyway, and there would be days where i couldn’t open my mouth without repeating something from the site.
I’ve never had a problem with real live people reading locusta, but sometimes i’d keep some news or angle or gag to myself to to help salt the conversational battleground that was our uni clique, only eventually posting whatever publicly to the known world after i had milked it sufficiently in meatspace.
Another technique was to vent online almost completely in code – and that, my friends, became lobsterboy.
*cough* plug *cough*
note: I’m the character with leather pants.
Hi Stu. I am, as you fittingly characterised, a “pathological lurker”. Not just here, either. However since you directly asked for a comment, I’m happy to provide one.
So why don’t BITs have blogs?
I think it comes down to a lack of interest or a lack of time. Speaking for myself, I read Hear Ye! because we have similar interests. At this time I’m not interested in other blogs, or a blog of my own.
Time pressure works against those who would like to have a blog. In my experience BITs are people who work to a high standard. Hear Ye! is a shining example. The start-up cost in time, on top of work commitments, is likely too high an entry barrier.
I always figured it to be the whore mentality, never wanting to sit down and spend time with yourself lest it becomes too damn depressing to know what it is that you do.