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Thanks for the update. A response is all I was asking for. Of course, I would rather him serve his constituents than blog. I just was asking to do both. :)

Thank you again for the update. We await you Bruce.

Good follow through, Nate. Of course, in the time it took Bruce to talk to you, he could have posted as much on his blog.

Roch,

You are a funny man. Very true, but funny. I chuckled. :)

Calvin

I still believe someone talked Bruce into setting up a blog before Bruce was really feeling the need to blog. But we're ALL busy. And Roch's right.

Careful there Sue, that sounds like you're alleging that there was some sort of conspiracy. :)

On another note, wasn't the whole teach-in held last spring designed to do just what you're alleging...i.e. coerce local politicians to blog?

What's the percentage of those who attended that teach-in, outside of Sandy, who are still actively blogging? Even McCall Pera's blog has disappeared into the ether.

You can see it all across the local blogosphere. Many of the "veterans" are posting less and less. I'm only posting at a fraction of the rate I once was. So are Jay, Chewie and Patrick. As of this comment time, it's been over a month for Hardy. The Optimistic Pessimist hasn't posted in nearly two months. Tara Sue, Michael and countless others (including Tom Phillips) have shut theirs down or are letting them wither on the vine.

We've all had those times where we didn't have time, didn't feel like it, or simply had nothing to write about. Blogging puts tolls on personal time, energy, resources and personal resourcefulness. It can be a beast. We all know it.

So, tell me again, why are you all being so hard on Bruce when we've all either been there are are there right now?

Ed Cone once asked, "If you don't update it, is it still a blog?"

My all-time favorite response to that came from Todd Morman of Monkeytime who responded with "Nope. If you don't update, it's not a blog. When you do update, it's a blog again. Next question?"

And I still think we're making a mountain out of a mole hill, and maybe displaying a little blogging elitism, or bloggery snobbery. OK, to tell you the truth, this dog pile on Bruce bugs me. OK so what if it bugs me. Who cares? Granted. Nevertheless, I think four or five articles on 101 have been devoted to it. I've written about this from a different perspective on my blog as well. But another point here. Some people have an inner urge (darkmoon's point somewhere made me think of this) to write, to express themselves, no matter how busy they are. They don't even have to be very good at it. Maybe I am one of those. But there is this URGE to write. It may wax and wane, but it is there, like a calling, a pull. Blogs provide a context for that. I love blogging because I am just wired to communicate whatever I learn and think, and suddenly this technology has come along that enables me to do that! But I can easily imagine that if a person were very busy and didn't have the urge (i.e., most people) then he or she just wouldn't stay at it, or wouldn't start it. I know dozens if not hundreds of web savvy people who don't blog, not to mention those who aren't web savvy. And I can only imagine being an office holder and blogging. It would be a never ending job to attend to the public. Sandy Carmany has said somewhere that her life situation allows her the time where it doesn't for many others. I just think we should cut Bruce Davis some slack on this and not treat him like he's committed some great act of negligence as a Commissioner or as a man because he hasn't kept up his blog. Big deal.

Bruce is a public official, and that's why he's catching hell. If he hadn't started a blog, he'd be hassled to start one. If he posted steadily for six months and then slacked off, he'd be hassled to pick up the pace. Public officials catch hell from their constituents all the time on all sorts of issues. They're used to it; it's part of the package. I doubt he's in need of any sympathy or defenders.

Shu is right that the posting frequency - and quality - of the Greensboro bloggers is nosediving. It's sad, but not unforeseen. There's a lot more white noise than quality content right now. Unfortunately, the worst bloggers tend to post prolifically, since they love to hear themselves talk. They can be endured, however, until they find the next new sparkly thing on which to project their narcissism.

Gradually, the cream will rise, and the noise floor diminish. In the meantime, there are many days when "Blogsboro" is mind-numbingly boring, an intellectual hinterland. Not to give credence to a single unresearched word that Michael Skube said in today's N&R, but there's a fair bit of navel-gazing - and teenage girl-like diaries - showing up in the aggregators. There are also a fair number of annoying toady personalities that seem to live at their keyboards.

I'm not posting much because the inanity of the conversations that I have to endure post-post, not to mention the looming threat of my work selling ads for the newspaper the next day. It seems that everything you blog can and will be used against you by those less intelligent, and there's no offsetting benefit - certainly not a financial one, but increasingly not even a social or intellectual one - to motivate a quality post.

S'ok -- eventually the idiots will slough off like yesterday's skin cells, and we'll all pick up the pace again without being hassled to do so. (I should note that some, like Sue, Hogg, and Ed, haven't skipped a beat.) That may be years from now, but I'm willing to wait. Ultimately blogs have to find a niche and provide a service, even if that service is just entertainment, in order to remain viable. That winnowing is in its early stages.

We've created a nice network here, and it would be a shame to let it slide. Reading and writing these things is a marathon, a steady climb. The weak will be left behind in the long run. I rather admire those who just stay the hell out of it if they're not interested, don't have the time or inclination. Even if they are public officials.