LBF, Six Months Later...
I’ve been meaning to tell you about this a few days ago, but here it goes anyway: guess what? We have exceeded the one-hundred-Lebanese blogs! Lately, there has been a new wave of these blogs -perhaps due to the current political situation- in such a way that we have now reached 105 LB, along with eight others bloggers, drawing Lebanese sceneries from a foreign perspective.
I invite you to have a look at our latest entries, listed in the side-bar to the right, among which figure: Rasha, blogging from "the Suffragettes” and who has just celebrated her birthday; Célia, an optimist with a raincoat (Welcome to Lebanon), and many others.
My observations so far?
- Well, I can’t help noticing the increasing majority of English-writing bloggers vs. Arabic ones (check Anawinti, the Arabic Page of Sasmen for example). So, what is this about, bloggers? Targeting a larger audience or just taking comfort in using English as a first Language? Hmmm…
I invite you to have a look at our latest entries, listed in the side-bar to the right, among which figure: Rasha, blogging from "the Suffragettes” and who has just celebrated her birthday; Célia, an optimist with a raincoat (Welcome to Lebanon), and many others.
My observations so far?
- Well, I can’t help noticing the increasing majority of English-writing bloggers vs. Arabic ones (check Anawinti, the Arabic Page of Sasmen for example). So, what is this about, bloggers? Targeting a larger audience or just taking comfort in using English as a first Language? Hmmm…
- The large numbers of Lebanese political blogs, which -I have to say- are mostly edited by bloggers with a sharp analytic eye. Nevertheless, in this context, a blogger once asked me: “how is it that Lebanese political bloggers like to write about the domestic affairs more than the international ones; although Lebanon, as a small country, is mostly influenced by the manipulation of greater foreign powers?” any idea? (You can check in this category the "Beirut Spring", “Lebanese Political Journal” and one of our newest entries “Lebanonesque” as examples, although not exhaustively.)
- Curiously strange nicknames with, I’m sure, an interesting story behind the choice of each one. Arch Memory? Now Go Eat Your Cereal? Boubeyeh? What’s the story behind your names? Thermo-police and Thermo-crime, did you guys make a certain agreement here?
Well, here we are; in Lebanon for a few of us, and out in the big big world, in the case of many of you. Yes, blogging is becoming more and more popular, although I still find some hard time explaining the idea to people in my surrounding. Where will we be in a year from now? still blogging? who knows... In the meantimes, do enjoy the experience!
P.S. for newcomers, don't forget to contact Liminal to register in our forum listserv, as indicated in the side-bar below.
posted by Eve @ 10:30 AM
13 Comments:
Eve, Thanks for the great compilation and happy anniversary.
The problem with blogging, as you know, is that it takes a lot of dedication to post regularly, and a lot of people give up too early.
A lot of the blogs on the right have been started by curiosity, had a couple of entries and then were just left to rot.
The reason why political blogs tend to last more than personal one is that there is a healthy atmosphere of competition among the few really good ons. This keeps us all in check and motivated.
I think that it is essential to have a sort of system, through this forum maybe, to give incentives to bloggers to post more often. Maybe a technorati rank "movers and shakers", maybe a "words posted this month" next to every blog name. And yes, why not, take out the blogs that haven't been updated for the last 3 months.
This way, we make sure that we bloggers are more motivated and our readers get a better selection.
Mustapha
The Beirut Spring
Happy Anniversary guys. Thanks for the plug, Eve.
You're welcome ya chabeb, and sorry there wasn't enough space to talk about everyone. akeed next time.
thx for your suggestions Mustapha. A couple of months ago, there had been an inventory to take out one-post-blogs. I guess it's time for another one. However, there are a lot of blogs with great archives, even if no new post is published.
I think a big hand goes out to Liminal and Eve for putting in all the effort to keep this forum going.
Mustapha, I realize you take your blog very seriously, and you speak of competition, dedication and motivation. But to each his own. some people keep blogs for myriad reasons and not all are aspiring journalists or activists. To some it's just a personal space or an anonymous pleasure.I don't think it is our place to interfere with what or how often bloggers are posting, or judge them by word counts. It's just a link, not an endorsement of prolific writing.
Still, in the spirit of keeping the list manageable, we can have 2 lists of blog links, one daily posters and the other occasional. Since they'll be java drop-down menus it won't take much space. I guess that would look much neater than it does now.
Eve, the beta version should be done soon...
hey there
Im on of the suffragettes, Maha, but busy as hell and not as dedicated as my fabulous friend Rasha. However this list you've drawn is most hepfull for me as im writing my dissertation for my Masters on 'blogging in the M.E'. I will be sending out a survey pretty soon and ofcourse i would be most grateful if you not only fill it in but also give me any insights on the blogging scene in Lebanon and surrounding countries. How interlinked blogs are in the area?, how they differ from mainstream media etc....
Congratulations to all of us! I have to say the rate at which this list is growing is rather impressive. (And thanks for the plug, Eve.)
To briefly address the points you brought up, first, the language. Speaking for myself, I blog in English primarily because I have no Arabic keyboard ;) But also, due to my living in the US, I am sad to say writing in English comes to me easier now. I also think that Arabic, unfortunately, is lagging as a language in embracing modernity, something that I see as reflective of the culture at large. But this can be a much longer discussion...
As for the names, here's a page explaining the etymology of mine: geocities.com/archmemory
As for Boubeyeh, who is my sister, well, it's a longer story...
But, congrats to all, once more!
Sa7 Ramzi, linking to Lebanese blogs here is our way to help in promoting them.
Sure Maha, I'll be glad to help. Good luck!
Arch, we love long stories, don't we ;-)?
Congrats to LBF and thanx to Liminal and Eve for their efforts.
Lebanese bloggers rock. Cheers to all of us!
I discovered LBF and blogging fairly recently (February 2005) and I never could imagine it was such an interesting (and addictive!) world.
Eve, since you asked, it's actually not a long story as much as it is a silly one. My sister calls me Bouboo because she says I look like a crying bunny (and I guess in her own made up language "Bouboo" is the word for that). And since she is my only sister, she became, by defauly, Boubeyeh... :)
"Thermo-Police" is because my roommate had the annoying habit of opening the fridge door, taking stuff out, making himself a whole sandwich while the fridge door is still open (SOMETIMES FOR 5 MINUTES) and THEN putting everything back in and closing the door. Neither environmental nor economical arguments swayed him to change his ways. I ended up automatically going to the kitchen, shutting the fridge door, and carrying on with my business everytime i heard him make a sandwich. He was insolent and adamant about nothing being wrong with what he was doing. This was back in 2003 when we were still roommates and when I started blogging. Now, why, when he started blogging a year later, he embraced "thermo-crime" is beyond me. You have to ask him.
Oh Firas, it was my new found thermodynamic superego that your wisdom and guidance awakened in me that prompted the name, in a spirit of deep regret and need for redemption. OR was it because everytime I was in the kitchen, for whatever reason, my dear ex-roommate was somewhere real close, watching, waiting, like a secret service agent of sorts, then he would materialize out of thin air, the genie in a flask-shaped bottle he is, and would close the fridge door with the bravery and brio of a superhero, determined to fight the dark economico-ecologico-thermodynamic forces I represented, giving me barely enough time to grab what I needed to grab from that all precious treasure of potential energy the GE cold closet was to the enlightened like Firas, but not so much the ignorami like yours truly.
So yes, I felt a little bit like a criminal. A lame one, but a criminal nonetheless.
Hope your curosity was satisfied evo :)
PS. also, hope you realize this is all in good fun. Firas khayyeh wou bimoon :)
Ya waylehhhhhhh! khalas, khalas, my curiosity is satisfied! you two are hilarious :-)
LOL! :DDDD
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