Nings & Blogs: How I see it in a nutshell

[Ms. Whatsit]

Here is a blog post about how blogging and ninging are complementary.

What do you think? How does a ning enrich you personally and professionally? How might a blog add to that experience?

[Connie Weber]

Hello "Whatsit" --as David calls you, which I think is cute--
It's interesting to think of the overlap of blogs and forums. Steve Hargadon leans towards posting some "blogs" as "forums" because that way you get a lot more interaction going. I know I've really enjoyed--and learned from--posting my writings about my networked homeroom class over at Ning in Education, due to the replies I've gotten, and the references to the work that comes up later. That was before Fireside was created; now I intend to post in both places.
Blogs are a bit more difficult to respond to; you don't get threaded responses, and lose some features for editing that you've got in forums (but I've discussed this with the people of ning, and they are offering some tantalizing responses for what will be happening next).
Meanwhile, I guess just trying things a number of ways, flexibly, is a good idea.
What's your view?

[Ian Carmichael]

I guess you're used to what you're used to. Since my introduction to the read/write web came primarily through ning, I've been far more socialised into fora than blogs - so for me, I can't really see any benefit of a blog - I'm at the fireside to engage in conversation/discussion, which seems far more suited to fora rather than to share my testimony/biography ('Hello, I'm Ian, I'm a recovering human..') - which seems more in the nature of a blog. I'll share a part of myself - but incidentally in the course of conversation and illustration. (Then again - have I ever mentioned the enneagram and personality styles?) And I've never been a diary-keeper or journaller, which again seems to be the world 1.0 version of blogs.
If ning 'fixes' blogs according to the defects you've listed, then, imHo they've just 'forumed' their blogs. (You'll note the subtle emphasis of humble here.)
Certainly I find the current spate of blogs hard for me to navigate and keep track of.

[Ian Carmichael]

But now I've got an aggregator going, it's much simpler. I still think the forum is overall better. (and that's still imho.)