Litespeed launches what they're calling the Ford Tour de Georgia Blog with "Litespeed information for cyclists and cycling enthusiasts."
Except it's not really a blog: There's no syndication, no comments, and no trackbacks -- in other words, no ability to interact and no ability to read the content offline. This trend of creating a web page that's not a blog and calling it a blog makes me want to beat my head on the wall. Like Tonya's "blog" that isn't a blog -- are there other cycling pseudo-"blogs" that aren't really blogs?
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But the Litespeed blog does have a smiley face emoticon in one post. Surely that is blogging?
ReplyDeleteBoth of these 'blogs' crack me up. The are marketing tools, but are providing purely one-way information. By not establishing the ability to leave comments -like I'm doing right now - they are telling their readers "Shut up and listen, I'm not really interested in what you have to say."
If the "blog" doesn't allow for reader participation then it is at best a web site done in a blog-like format. Call this an online journal or a diary, but not a blog.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a lot of conversation lately about this very topic.
ReplyDeleteI have always like Litespeed and now the new Lynskey family project. Great products...
This whole pseudo-blog thing is kinda nuts. One of the first examples I saw of this was the Zapata Espinoza one on the Trek website- The View from Waterloo. His column was initally called a blog, but it really just a series of articles and ramblings from time to time. I was really excited about it when I first heard about it, but...
When you remove the interaction you are left with a static site for speaking, not listening.
I may have to cover this on the Kool-Aid site again.
You are right. It would be much better if they allowed comments, but I still think it is good that they are trying to reach out to customers with information about the local area and the race. Of course it is just marketing, but so what, they are after all in the business of selling bikes. In particular, I am happy to see that they are offering tours of the factory during the TdG. Very cool. It may not be online, but that is a great example of customer participation in marketing. I am hoping that I will be able to work out my schedule to go see the Litespeed factory in a few weeks.
ReplyDeleteWell, if "blog" means "web log," then one-way info is still a blog. What's a log? A written record of something. A ship's log didn't allow for comments, right?
ReplyDeleteOh, that's right, this generation forgets things like word origins anything that didn't happen this week - that's why we have blogs anyway :-)
The idea of this BLOG was really to give information from a cyclists point of view. I started this web log understanding that people will come into town and that they may look for certain things such as places to ride and things to eat or stuff to do.
ReplyDeleteI personally travel often and find it quite hard to find a cool coffee shop or a nice riding route unless I really investigate it or stumble upon it.
Now the trackback feature is working on the Litespeed blog. Thanks Herbert. Keep the local Chattanooga info coming
ReplyDeleteThanks for the commentary, everybody. and I thank you, Herbert K, for dropping in and giving your feedback. I agree that the Litespeed blog indeed provides a good resource for local community resources and that's a good focus to have. If you had an RSS feed, though, you could multiply the effect of that resource and make it more useful to a wider audience.
ReplyDeleteFritz and all, this is really a work in progress and hopefully we can make it even more user friendly. What started with a small idea has all of the the sudden grown much larger than I expected. People have just emailed us at info@litespeed.com when they had some suggestions or other questions not covered.
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