Musings from Brian J. Noggle: False Dichotomy of Thinkers vs. Linkers

False Dichotomy of Thinkers vs. Linkers

Jay Tea at Wizbang! reminds us about Stephen Den Beste's categorization of bloggers as:

Thinkers, who write essays and whatnot.
Linkers, who post links and say, "Heh." or "Indeed."

However, this simple dichotomy overlooks the third type of blogger: the lister.

The lister type of blogger:

Embraces the numbered or bulleted list as a means of communication.
Often dashes off lists of related items important to the blogger.
Relates favorites in movie or music, often specializing in:
- One
- The other
- Both
Participates in and spread "memes" which contain lists of questions or simple lists for other bloggers to fill out.

The beauties of the list blog include:

Not needing to assemble complete paragraphs; all you need is a topic sentence or a topic fragment.
Lists easily translatable into PowerPoint presentations, with neat transition effects.
Take up lots of vertical space on the blog, ensuring that the content column is longer than the blogroll.
Could make blogger as famous, wealthy, and respected as Chris White.

These blogs show signs of listery from time to time:

So the thinkers and linkers polar axis needs to accommodate a new dimension: those of us who don't necessarily think nor necessarily link but do, in fact, blog incessantly.

- posted by Brian J. @ 1:39 PM