I’m wondering if my readers are getting as bored about the technical problems I’ve blogged about this past month as I am.

Have I been wrong and blind about blogging?

I’ve spent the last two years encouraging bloggers, especially god-bloggers.
I’m beginning to think I’ve been blind.
The god-blog demographics done in November still hold up. The majority remain white, male, late 20’s to 40’s. There are a couple of things that stand out.

1) They have disposable income.
Home computer prices are falling, a computer is becoming more affordable and user friendly for the average person. But, the cost of maintaining a computer is not falling. A firewall, anti-virus software and anti-spyware are no longer something to put off for another day. If you know where to dig online for the shareware, you can get by without spending an extra couple of hundred dollars for online protection. Most people don’t have that kind of online saavy.
The cost of servicing a computer is going up.
Power costs in most of Canada are going up as well as ISP costs.
Blogging isn’t as international an endeavor as I wish it could be, or that I believe it should be.
The average Phillipine family would spend 70% of their annual income to have a computer online.
The complexities of setting up a basic blog platform remains beyond the ability of most of us. And after two years of blogging I believe it’s only getting worse.
Joe Carter of the evangelical outpost said awhile ago that the opinion of Canadians (regarding whether we’d elect GW) was not relevant. I think he was right on more levels than he understood.
Look at the rankings - he (not international or she) who has all the money gets to make all the noise.

It is no different in god-blogging. Money talks. And after two years of participating, internationals (non US) are an amusement if they are considered at all. Just read the comments in a pundit god-blog. It’s almost inconceivable that someone wouldn’t be a democrat or republican. The assumptions would be funny if they weren’t so sad. And because everything is thought in US dollars, the struggle many have to stay online economically is not even a concept.

We don’t fall well into the parameters of US thought, politics or religion expect as ‘the other.’ That leaves little room for dialogue, doesn’t it?

2) Most bloggers love technology.
I hadn’t really paid much attention to that concept before. But again, looking at the demographics and the blogs; the toys and tweaks, and platforms and coding and servers and all the things that help a blog work, you are looking at a rather elite group - western, white males early 20’s to 40’s who can’t wait to tackle a new technical issue. Case in point: looking back…looking forward is learning some kind of computer language. connexions is learning another kind of computer language.
Good for them. The more god-bloggers learn the more opportunity there is.
But where does that leave others? Teens are underrepresented. And the most valuable group of all - the ones with life experience and wisdom - 40+ aren’t blogging. Women are seriously under-represented.
This isn’t a populist hobby after all.

The cost of blogging
Think about this for a moment. How much have you spent the past year on your blog, platform, computer, server? How much did you spend the year before? How much do you plan to spend the coming year?
Can you afford it?

And when you lay aside the hard dollars and cents, what about other costs?
Things like the time it takes to find a technical solution, wrestle with an ISP, clean out comment spam and email inboxes.
Is this becoming a hobby where registration for comments won’t be optional?
Will Blog ads have to be on the sidebar to pay for the opportunity to remain online whether we want them or not? A speciality technican is probably on standby for the “A” listers. Is that where the rest of us are going to have to go?

I’ve spent so much time wrestling with technical issues this past month keeping this blog and myself online there has been little to no time to do what I do.
I’ve needed expert server help. I’ve needed security help. I’ve needed an on ground real life computer tech. I don’t think my experience is unusal. LivingRoom gets about one comment spam an hour and has had over 100 trackback spam in the past few weeks. Jordon Cooper makes no bones about his email problems. In the past two weeks over 3 thousand emails flooded my inbox and it took two trained technical interventions. It cost me hours and hours in confusing help menus and forums. I have no intention of counting the hours it’s taking to clean up this blog.
All because of what? Some automated spammer that thinks targeting blogs pays off?

A few weeks ago a server friend quipped that people such as myself (no technical passion) shouldn’t be blogging. Blogs are a headaches to server people, and bloggers are rather needy as far as server people are concerned. We aren’t worth it to server owners. Perhaps he is correct.

The statement might be better said that people such as myself can’t afford to blog for a lot more reasons than money. I’ve been so busy seeing what I think blogging can be, I haven’t acknowledged how blind my vision is.