Today, Zanstorm over at Waiting for Stanley points out a tip he got from Greg at The Fourth Period about a Devils blog he didn’t know about, called 2 Man Advantage. (Follow that?) I didn’t know about it either. And on 2 Man, they have links to some New York Islanders blogs I had never heard of (like The Drive for Five and The View from Section 317).
And that is a big problem.
The hockey blogosphere feels large when I just don’t have time to read everything I want to. And there are more and more hockey blogs starting all the time. It doesn’t matter if the season is mostly over, there is plenty of hockey left, and plenty of hockey to write about. There are all kinds of ideas and styles and thoughts out there. There are more on the way.
That’s the way it should be.
But if you can’t find out about the blogs that are out there, you have no opportunity to read the good stuff. I remember a few months ago, some bloggers were talking about the lack of blogs for certain teams. They were pointing to the Phoenix Coyotes as a perfect example. But not long ago, I found out about One Fan’s Perspective, and I only found out about it thanks to a link to my blog. That there was one islanders blog (Islanders Army) was a surprise enough, but now I find out there are more and more cropping up. Did you know there is a Battle of New York blog? Heck, did you know there is a Battle of New York at all? But there is nowhere to find this stuff. James Mirtle has a big blog listing, but it isn’t enough. Only one Islanders and one Devils blogs are listed, and none for the Coyotes. Minnesota Wild? None (I have 2 in my blogroll). St. Louis Blues? One. There are new blogs cropping up all the time. Some stay, some go, but they are out there. If nobody is reading them, they will go away even faster, and writers who are just finding their voices are going to give up.
Independent hockey blogging reminds me a lot of the music industry several years ago. The power and control during the vast majority of the recording industries lifespan was controlled by a few record labels. The rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the artists themselves were the tools of the trade. Large acts were going bankrupt while industry barons kept all the cash (sound familiar, like before there ever was an NHLPA, or the WHA came to be?). To “make it in the business,” you had to send off a cassette of your little four track demo off to the record company, hope that someone listens to it, and then hope they are in a good mood and maybe like it enough not to just blow you off. What changed the industry wasn’t iTunes, or the internet, or even indie labels. It was inexpensive recording software. All of a sudden, bands didn’t need to pony up big dollars to get into a recording studio. The bedroom studio was suddenly just as usable as the big multi-track studios. Bands could record, produce, and come up with a complete product they could sell themselves. The large record labels became less necessary, and smaller labels found a way to exist, by not having to pay as much for the recording of the music, and could focus on the promoting. iTunes, internet distribution, podcasting, all of it was made possible by putting control of the medium in the hands of the artists themselves.
Hockey writing is in the same place right now. What was once limited to the few is now in the hands of the many. The individual has power now. The medium of blogging gives that power. It allows the writer to be read by as many people as can find that writing. It’s up to the writer to get them to stick around. But getting the word out there that hockey blogging is going on is only part of the struggle. Part of it is telling the world where the good stuff is, where the new stuff is, and where the exciting stuff is happening. Finding a good blog, or a good piece of writing is not as easy as it sounds. You have to wade through a lot of noise, things that seem related but aren’t, the things that get in the way of reading the good stuff. And there is plenty of good stuff out there, and a lot of good stuff yet to be written.
Where do I have to go to find out about the hockey blogs? Google blog search? Imprecise at best. Technorati? Have you seen how many errors and issues there are with that service? Hockeyblogs.org isn’t much better. I have not been able to update my address there yet, and there are plenty of bloggers who don’t even know it exists. The closest thing you can find is other blogger’s blogrolls (those lists of blogs on the sides), but that is a tangled web to be sure.
There should be a useful place to find out about hockey blogs. Something substantial, where you can update links as they change, and something that helps maintain itself. Something where you don’t have to be on anyone’s good side to get a link. If I, or anyone, were to attempt maintaining a blogroll with every hockey blog in it, there wouldn’t be any time for actually writing about hockey. But there has to be something that can be done.
Jeez, was that my outside voice?
11 responses to “Finding the Blogs”
Thanks for the mention buddy, have a good one and keep reading!
Thanks for sharing the ‘love’. It is a lot of fun to talk about our teams and what we think. Sometimes, the ‘media’ know LESS than we do – and our opinions (I speak on a whole) can be so much better than the experts. The writers in NYC (who I dont even want to bother naming) give me the creeps….
Thanks again! Cheers!
I’ve noticed that Ottawastart.com had listed some Ottawa Senators blog as a collection and there has been some Cultural site that listed a bunch of differnt blogs for different Canadian teams, but I agree, the Hockey Blog-o-sphere seems to be growing everyday and it’s hard to keep up with all of it.
Which is why I sort of think the teams should go around collecting them and listing them on their website. Then again, if blogs are critical of them, they might not be so gun-ho about it.
Sherry – You know, if we rely on the teams, nothing will ever happen. It would be nice if the teams treated their fans who are passionate about the game well, but for the most part, it’s just butts in seats.
But NHL teams and owners aren’t exactly the most progressive people in the world. Not all teams are like the Thrashers, who opened their doors to bloggers for a game and backstage look at the team, or Ted Leonsis, who activly promotes the blogs that cover his team. I think the rest of the teams are going to slowly come around.
Now, the question is, who’s going to do it?
Thanks for the mention…we’re just trying to get our name out there, it’s great to find any hockey blogs — gotta love reading anything to do with puck, you know?
-Patricia (2MA)
Thanks for the link!
I completely agree with you about the medium of blogging as it relates to us, the hockey fans. Since mainstream media for the most part, simply doesn’t get it (too violent a sport, too difficult to learn, and so on), I think it will be up to us to spread the word and show the passion and skill this great sport has to offer.
I think the more NFL players they lock up, the more thugs infiltrate the NBA, and the more MLB players convicted of steriod usage, I think the casual sports fan may give the NHL a second look.
For now, the NHL should be very glad we’re here.
you know, off wings’ “random hockey blog generator” seems to do a good job of keeping up with new writers, and gets to everyone eventually, but if mcerlain has a complete list anywhere, i’ve yet to find it. still, i feel like there’s some sort of database over there that beats the crap out of anyone else’s list.
i think it’s too difficult for one person to keep up with, the fractal way the blogosphere grows. you could probably do it as a collaborative effort- get a website and a group of people who spend a lot of time on the hockey blogs anyway, and have them drop in once or twice a week to add whatever new they’ve stumbled across. maybe supplementing it with little capsule profiles/posts on the various projects. hey, it might also fill your previously-mentioned longing for a ‘team blog’, or at least a ‘team blogroll’.
PB – As I see it, the medium is very suited hockey writing, or maybe, the lack of new and interesting writing from the mainstream is what is driving the medium. There are so few topics that seem to interset the mainstream to actually write about, they are leaving the door wide open for the rest of us. The beat writers and the columnist are no longer in touch with the hockey fan.
E – The random hockey blog generator is just too random. I like it for what it is, five a day that are a good roundup. But it doesn’t point the fans to what they want. If someone wants an Islanders blog, where do they start. The thing is, it should be easy. Really easy. You can’t push blogs on people, but you can make it easy to get to.
It is a huge task for one person. Just ask Mirtle. Even searching them out can be daunting, so an opt-in kind of thing would be better. But you can see how “well” that works with Hockeyblogs.org.
Actually, I’m thinking a little bigger. A list is nice. A list gets names out there, but like hockey, you have to get the butts in the seats.
Geez, Tapeleg. Both “2 Man Advantage” and “Battle of New York” have been listed in my sidebar for a while now, and I’ve put up other links to “2 Man Advantage” and “View From 317” within posts, sometimes months ago. I guess nobody’s paying attention… *crocodile tears*
I agree, though– the number of hockey blogs is starting to grow exponentially. If there were 10 in 2004 and 100 in 2005, there’s now a thousand. I went through the same thing happening with print ‘zines, when I was a part of that little subculture decades ago. Maybe it’s time for a blog site that exists to review other blog sites, like Factsheet Five used to do with zines. (I’ve actually thought of starting a site like this myself, but I’m a bit wary of all the toes that would get stepped on along the way if I did it right and kept it honest.)
One of the ways I stumble across new blogs is by using the site tracker on Sidearm Delivery; I click on the Google blog searches that other people have used to find my blog, and see what other blogs pop up under the same search topic.
Excellent article – just as blogs have blossomed during the season, there are also many which have withered on the vine, adding to the difficulty of maintaining an authoritative list.
My main way of finding new sites is through my existing blogroll. I try to visit each site at least weekly, and keep an eye out for recommendations as I surf. Thanks for the pointers here, as you’ve given me some new reading material for tonight!
BB and Fore – The thing that the comments here are telling me is how existing bloggers are finding blogs. And that’s good, because it gets the word out to other bloggers still, and then to their readers. But that doesn’t get people aware that there are hockey blogs in the first place.
Before I knew of the wonderful world of hockey blogging, I was checking scores and stats on NHL.com, reading news on ESPN.com and TSN.ca, and being generally tech savvy about my hockey. It took the right google search at the right time, with the right click on the right link to find Hockey Rants, and then to branch out from there. If there is a good way of getting the word out in the first place to the less participatory of the internet hockey fans, I want to know what it is.