The rise of NYC Bloggers, a web site that lists New York weblogs graphically by the subway stop they're nearest to, also illustrates one of the primary weaknesses of the blogging community: vanity. Despite the fact it's not very interesting to the 99.99% of the world not writing web logs, the site is now the number one linked item on weblogs tracked by MIT's Blogdex index of weblog news activity.
This isn't suprising, but it's revealing. Imagine if whenever the Pulitzers were announced, it was the A-1 story in your newspaper. You'd think they were pretty silly. (As it is, I think it's pretty silly when they get the front page at all, unless it's a really slow news day. Hardly anyone outside the news or publishing industry is affected by them.) Weblogs need to keep in mind that their readers may not be as interested in web-logging "the practice" as in the actual content of their web logs. Otherwise, they could go read a weblog about weblogging.
(Notice how I have managed to link to this site, while at the same time criticizing others who linked to it? Learned that one in journalism school.)
