"Writing is tiresome"
i do not find writing tiring, i find it relaxing. perhaps they are about the same, i dunno, but i write when i am bored and don't wanna do work, or when i'm stressed and don't want to play games.
I didn't realise there is such a big fuss over whether blogging is already dying/being taken over by non-independent interests, but i posted this:
Let sleeping Blogs lie...
about abandoning blogs. i also posted a reply with my thoughts on the so-called revolution and death of blogging.

IMO writing should be something one enjoys or they shouldn't do it. Blogging isn't for people who hate to write any more than office work isn't for people who don't like being tied to a desk.

While payment is an economical consideration for (professional) writers, most writers just want to engage, entertain, share with and involve as many readers as they can. They do not like or enjoy the business of writing as much as the writing itself.

There are some blogcritics whom I've read here say that they do this mostly for fun and I think that's great. Some people like to spend hours finding secrets in video games, some would rather read and research a topic and write about it in a blog. To each his own.

And as for the Perseus study? My opinion on "studies" is that any study can be done slanting the findings to whatever angle that is desired.

I do think the Perseus study was interesting (when I first read and commented about it in my blog and now reflecting on it later), but I didn't think it was really that indicative of what was truly happening in the blogosphere -- or a premonition of what will happen in the future.

As to the true fate of blogging? Dvorak is just guessing in his column and so is anybody else at this point. My guess is that it will -- and already has -- begun to change the way material, especially newsworthy time-sensitive material, is being published online. That's significant, not just some fad.

Excellent job Bill, and just about what I think as well. The "revolution" is more like "evolution," and the evolution is proceeding very quickly and fundamentally. There are thousands of excellent blogs - that is what counts. I do "professional" blogging on Cleveland.com and it is cool in its own way, but will never replace what I would want to do on my "own" site. Many "professional" writers are also bloggers because they like the freedom blogging affords from some of the strictures of formal publication writing. I like it all, would miss any of it if it were removed from my palette, and think anyone but a total, brain-reamed idiot has to see blogging as a complete success at this point, and it has just begun.

My main gripe with blogging lawyers is that too many of them are misrepresenting their political views as 'the law,' particularly Reynolds and Volokh. You'd think the Republican Party platform is the Constitution if you relied on them solely for information. I try not to make that mistake by distinguishing between fact and opinion -- something I learned from being a journalist before I went to law school.

In regard to the talent issue, I've noticed the same thing in other venues. I'm a published writer of fiction, but did not go for an MFA, though I've taken undergraduate and graduate classes in writing. Ironically, the best writers in those workshops were people who came from other fields. I still keep in touch with a lawyer and a doctor from a graduate class I took years ago. We're the ones who had some success. As far as I know, none of the MFA grads have published stories or books that received notice. Is that fair? Probably not. But, it does have meritocracy on its side. In the same way, I don't see anything wrong with pros becoming the most read bloggers.

The Perseus study, which I blogged here, does shed interesting light on blogging. I was surprised by just how ephemeral most weblogs are. Here today, gone tomorrow. Rarely lasting more than four months. Most are updated only biweekly. Perhaps because I began blogging running with the big dogs, I didn't know as much as I should have about more typical blogs until I read the study.

Just based upon statistics and the law of averages, you can pretty well figure anything voluntary that a million-plus people do will include a sizable percentage who don't put all that much time and effort into it.