The nature of blog discussions

A while back a thread emerged in my Facilitating Online Communities course regarding the differences between discussion in forums and email lists and those that occur on or between blogs.  To some, discussion forums were more conducive to indepth discussion than blogs are, and were much easier to follow.  In response to this I posted the following thoughts:

Interestingly I find it far more difficult to keep up with the conversation on discussion forums and email lists than blogs – particularly with respect to the volume of posts that come through. With this google group for example I only manage to read one in 10 messages that comes through (if that) and I feel like I’m really missing out on the conversation.

In that sense I think usage preference really comes into play. It also raises the issue of centralised versus decentralised conversations.

In the case of blogs I think conversations do take place, but it’s of a much different nature than discussion forums. With forums you have one spot where all the activity takes place. In blogs it’s spread across a few or even many different locations. With certain topics it can become what’s known as a “meme” – or a topic that is discussed by numerous people.

I do notice a sort of informal convention with blog-based conversations which is worth mentioning here. Personally speaking, when I have a thought that relates specifically to the post I’m reading – either as feedback, or a suggestion, or an anecdote – I’m likely to leave that as a comment on the post itself. As [a student] was saying, these do tend to be shorter than the blog posts themselves and may not necessarily push the conversation along in a really meaningful way.

However when the content of a post inspires me to in depth reflection I’m more than likely to post something elaborate on my own blog and link to the originating entry as a trackback**. In many ways this does represent an addition to the conversation, but it’s of a much different nature than what you see on discussion forums.

**NB: Trackbacks are notifications sent to the author of a blog indicating someone else has referenced their post. They tend to appear in the comments area as a reference to the new post to help tie the discussions together.

The result in the blogosphere is a conversational “web” in which a topic is being covered and progressed by a decentralised network of bloggers. On the topic of “what constitutes a community” I would argue that edubloggers (bloggers with an educational interest or focus) do constitute a community – but in a much different sense to what most people associate with the term.

So if you can consider blog posts that inform and influence each other as related “conversations”, then the discussions you see in blogging may/could be as considered as considered – or perhaps even more so – than those you see in discussion forums.

That said I can definitely understand why people who favour discussion forums or email lists have an aversion – or at least difficulty acclimating – to the notion if blogs. The whole concept of communication and how conversations take place is inherently different with blogs and in some ways it favours certain usage preferences.

In that sense I think having both blogs and discussion forums/email lists is really important in a course like this, because almost certainly one technology won’t appeal to everyone – so you need to provide a range of
conversational vehicles in order to accommodate the needs and learning preferences of as many people as possible.