The Blogging Explosion

11 November 2006 by The General Published in: Blogging 8 comments

Dimitri Rotov’s blog entry for today points out the launching of yet another Civil War blog, called Civil War Gazette. According to the blog’s owner, it is a webzine dedicated to telling the story of the common soldier. There is some good information there. I’ve added a link.

I’m just flabbergasted by the proliferation of Civil War-related blogs. That makes four new ones in the past week or so, and another one that I elected not to include. What’s the deal here? Why the sudden burst in activity?

Don’t get me wrong–it’s all good, and anything that spreads the word is a good thing. I’m all for adding to the body of knowledge. I’m just amazed by the sudden blitz of additions to the Civil War blogosphere.

Good luck to all.

Scridb filter

Comments

Mike

Sat 11th Nov 2006 at 12:47 am
lol. I just wrote a post about this myself. It will show tomorrow. I’m counting 28 blogs now!
Tom Churchill

Sat 11th Nov 2006 at 1:49 am
I think we should all welcome the new guys to the neighborhood just as you have done. That being said, it seems to be happening so fast, I can’t keep up with adding links over at TTE.

I started blogging on the ACW shortly after a good friend of mine started doing one on music. After about three months he just burned out and unfortunately, I’ve seen that happen with many of our brethren as they do their sites. Heck, I had a week where I couldnâ€™t even look at the blog without trembling in fear over where the heck any new, fresh ideas were going to come from.

I hope that our new neighbors will take some time and enjoy the ride and not stress out over their new endeavors. I know itâ€™s hard enough for me and Iâ€™ve got someone who posts with me, ensuring fresh content most of the time.
Dave Powell

Sat 11th Nov 2006 at 8:36 am
Any correlation between the rise of the Blog and the slowing down of discussion groups?

Dave Powell
Brian Downey

Sat 11th Nov 2006 at 10:47 am
I think the growth might correlate with the ease with which one can get online and blog, but comparison with discussion groups is interesting. Maybe it’s a control issue?

BTW, The Gazette, announced here, looks to be a large scale dump of articles already online at the “main” CW Gazette website (http://www.civilwargazette.faithsite.com/). I’m not sure why he’s opened the new blog format. We’ll have to watch to see if it’s really an ongoing, viable blog.
The General

Sat 11th Nov 2006 at 2:30 pm
I don’t know, guys. Obviously, there’s something in the water. 🙂

Dave, you could be right.

Eric
Terry Walbert

Sat 11th Nov 2006 at 7:56 pm
I’m fairly new to reading ACW blogs, but I’m quite aware that the presses are still turning out ACW books as fast as trees can be cut down. And many of them are good ones too.

Here’s an idea for a blog if anyone feels up to it. I don’t, that’s why I’m suggesting it.

The blog would be called “Lincoln’s Doctor’s Dog.” It would focus on little known facts and trivia about the ACW.
Carolyn Ellertson

Sat 11th Nov 2006 at 10:27 pm
It’s because family history is all the rage now, and its EASIER now than ever before in history. People who have never tried it before, or were unable to leave their homes to research, can get all kinds of help in every area of research, just by going to their computers. They are able to sit at home and access hundreds of websites from the tens of thousands that are out there, as well as the largest and finest libraries, museums, and other sources of information in existence. If grandma can’t do it, her/his computer literate grandkids can do it for her/him, and are happy to show them how efficient they are onlin. It seems like there’s a little something different in each source. Put them together, and you can see where grandpa was and what he did during the civil war. Many of us descend from ancestors who fought on both sides of the civil war (three sides, if you count the Indians). You know, the brother against brother thing (turns out to be very true, I’m sorry to say), therefore, we are interested in the overall picture, as well as the specifics. Many of us have been doing it the hard way for years, but everyone in the world is getting all excited to dig into their ancestors’ civil war history and documentation thereof. Sort of a new disease going around. The internet has made a lot of research available to us which was not formerly available, but what really helps us is all of you military history buffs out there that define it for us in terms we can understand, and help us to sort the darn confusion out. I love it, since most of us women are still experiencing a learning curve with regard to our military ancestors, structure and history of the regiments, and all of that. I guess you could say the supply is a result of demand, and enthusiasm. We will all be better for it. I can’t tell you how helpful it has been to be able to access personal information of a military nature. When I read my Great Great Grandfather’s civil (Thomas Legion of Indians and Highlanders) war letters to his family, all of those hours, days, weeks, and years of sitting at my computer, going to the genealogy and public libraries, and corresponding with anyone with even a tidbit of information to follow up on, instantly became worth it. Besides, Great Great Grandpa lead the last battle of the civil war at “Hanging Dog Creek”! How can it get any better than that??Thank you all.
Brooks Simpson

Sun 12th Nov 2006 at 4:10 pm
I find blogging to be a far better alternative to discussion groups when it comes to discussing historical issues. Serious people reply, flaming goes away, and there are no distractions. The usenet groups have declined in quality and increased in uselessness, and the Yahoo groups are uneven at best.