First of all I find myself in the same thought of Liam:

“A blog type site I believe started out as just individuals writing daily about their lives. Just because a website uses software that blogs tend to use, that doesn’t make it a blog.”

And then I kept on reading and came across Mirko’s thought:

“I don’t really understand why there is such a controversy about list posts. I write lists on my own blog, and even sometimes with no or very little added value.

Why am I doing it? Simply because my blog is a place for me to store my project research and save glimpses of my web browsing. I’m going to do the research anyway, so why wouldn’t I share it with others since they seem to enjoy it? If people don’t like lists, I have a good advice for them: don’t read them…”

I mean I can agree with you “the author” that where exactly do I want my blog to go, or do I know where it’s going or not. But on the other hand, I maintain my blog as a place where I do the things I like about design, media and technology and frankly I would love to gather information and opinions from others on my own blog. That’s my “garage” where I pile up my research, things i’ve learned etc etc. And I know i can count on my piled up things that i will always have them as information for my own using or for when others are looking for that certain info.

I also have a lot on my mind and it’s a good topic to keep the discussion going.

Pure texts, lists. round ups, whatever it be, I like to check up on all type of posts and see what I can use in my daily work as designer and in my daily life. That’s why I also write all kind of posts cause I know all of them can contain added value for the readers.

Frankly, I don’t know if we will ever find the answers but one thing is sure, i’m a subscriber here at echo enduring but i am also on smashing magazine, and both deliver added value’s in their own way and i have no complains.

Hope you understand my pov and continue with doing what you do best. (i mean designing and writing =) You could have use some lists or images in this article too! it would have add even more value to it…) *Just kidding ;) Great article

See you around! =)

How about those websites that post NO original content and only content is based off content of others? I could mention one design tutorial site in particular. In a sense, they are providing a service of collecting and displaying content from different sources but we all know its more about the traffic generated and advertising though. Its hard to totally call it wrong. Maybe a little unethical but, none-the-less it is a service of sorts just like the list posts. They are useful to a point but now we are just recycling the same content in different lists with slightly different headlines. That is where the distaste is derived in my opinion. In the end, the community will soon see some of the websites and blogs for what they are… traffic builders rather than a true content provider and those sites will suffer. I know there are a few I quit watching for this reason. Its kinda like Darwin’s theory is it not? lol

It’s is more than aggressive and relentless. It is inevitable that even as professionals we question exactly what it is that we’re doing when we are looking for solutions for ourselves, our clients and solutions in defining our products.

“Everyone” wants to be in all social media networks, from Twitter to facebook and myspace and so on. When before, in this business all you needed was a website to promote yourself. Now were integrating interactivity and blogs into our sites whether they be portfolios or promo-microsites.

But indeed this post was an awesome read. It raises questions and makes us all want to get to work, at least it does for me.

Yes, magazines are famous for “# of new ways to [verb]” articles. But how often do you see a cover story about that? Usually the number-noun articles are supplementary to some central theme of the issue. In fact, if we designate print equivalents to the web world, Smashing Magazine has gone from Elle Magazine to People Magazine to Ok!. To designers, Smashing is Perez Hilton with better subject matter.

The final point about the article on the “death” of our community is that it didn’t call them out for being bad articles. Boring, dull, over-done, and over-recycled nuggets of blandness, perhaps… but not bad. Nor did it call on an all-out war or boycott of any writer that dare post a list. Ironically, Drawar just put one up a week ago.

Instead, we need a return to discussion. These days, we’re more inclined to list 50 websites we like than debate just one that we don’t. I disagree with Drawar’s characterization of SM as all-lists all-the-time… but you can’t deny that he has a point, and that the guardians and gate-keepers of design (blogs) should be held to higher standards.

The thing is that many of us hate list posts and in the other hand we all read and love Smashing Magazine (well, at least I do). Why? Because SM today is the most influential site in the community which delivers high quality content, be it list posts or not, no doubt about that.

I hate the fact that my RSS reader is flooded with posts that begins with number, and I ignore them. But not all of them. I always enjoy reading list posts published on Smashing Magazine or Web designer depot. So the problem is not in list post themselves. The problem is the source.

Why am I doing it? Simply because my blog is a place for me to store my project research and save glimpses of my web browsing. I’m going to do the research anyway, so why wouldn’t I share it with others since they seem to enjoy it? If people don’t like lists, I have a good advice for them: don’t read them…

This said, I have to admit that I find well-written articles and thoughts on design way more interesting. I try to write some of these from time to time, but truth is that they take much more time and effort.

If you take a look further, bloggers like SwissMiss or Kottke don’t do much thinking either, they just find great content and share it. I’m still a happy subscriber and enjoy pretty much every of their blog posts…

You definitely bring up some great valid points for discussion. I personally, like Jeff said, don’t know what my site is. I have been calling it a blog these days, but a blog nowadays can mean so many different things that it’s hard to classify what we have.

I do have the answer to what Echo Enduring, GoMediaZine, Smashing Magazine, Design Informer, and all the rest of them. THEY ARE ALL…………….WEBSITES! (LOL, J/K.)

But seriously though, I don’t really think it matters what we decide to call ourselves. It all matters about what the content we produce and how people like our content. Different people will have different perceptions of the type of website we have.

It’s like those people on Twitter that call themselves “Social Media Experts.” Just because they say that they are doesn’t mean that they are. Just because Smashing Magazine has the name Magazine in their name doesn’t mean that they are. I think that it’s subjective. Anyways, that was my little rant or some might call it, my two cents. ;)