Oh, the tedium!
I have received comments on my blog that indicate that some readers may doubt my genuineness on the topic of Project Integrity Control. Probably through some fault of my own, some people have gotten the impression that I am holding back to keep people coming back and that there may not even be anything to the whole topic. The fear is, apparently, that they will invest great amounts of their time reading installments of something that turns out to be impractical or just a rehash of old ideas. My posts have been called "tedious", which I can only take to mean "too long" or "too detailed". But unlike many things out there that are routinely blogged about (sports, politics, games), this is not a simple topic that can be covered in a few paragraphs and it takes a good understanding of the structure to realize the benefits of it. Maybe I am too detailed in my descriptions, but then again, I want to make sure that what I am explaining is what you are getting.
Still, I could be wrong and how would you know? You could just set a reminder in your datebook to come back in six months and take it all in at once, but if a person considers the 1-2 page articles tedious on their own, I doubt they will have the time or patience to get caught up all at once. Instead they will likely skip to the newest posts and then start arguing about things that they missed by not reading the previous ones. This is like complaining that an author is too tedious in a technical book and he should just summarize everything. Most all of them do this though. It is called the last chapter. Unfortunately without having read the previous 20 or 30 chapters, while it may be nice and summarized, you won't understand most of what it is talking about and will then have to read the "tedious" parts to gain that understanding.
I also realize that blogs aren't books and that the format that works for one may not neccssarily work for the other, but then again, I am not trying to get published...I already am published just by putting it in a blog. I am not trying to get traffic to support myself through banner ads and referrals. I have none. I am simply trying to explain something that I find very interesting in a way that will stick and make sense.
Still, I can sympathize with the point of view that maybe this is all hype and in the end, there will be nothing worthwhile. I have a funny name for that situation: life. But since I am comparing these articles to a traditional book (as opposed to a magazine article which typically wraps everything up in one installment), I will concede that books have something that helps with this problem that, so far, this blog does not: a dust cover summary.
I could argue the merits of doing such a thing on a blog...after all, the dust cover summary is a marketing tool and I have nothing here to market other than an idea which the reader can take or leave, but since I know that there is more to this series than dragging you on with the hope of some good information in the end I will shed some light on where I am going. I will write the equivalent of a dust cover summary for the concepts I am building here. This will give you the opportunity to decide whether or not I am nuts in one single reading instead of having to try to determine it over time. Then you can happily hang around and read them as I write them, or you can go somewhere less nutty and read other things with your time. Fair enough?
M@
Still, I could be wrong and how would you know? You could just set a reminder in your datebook to come back in six months and take it all in at once, but if a person considers the 1-2 page articles tedious on their own, I doubt they will have the time or patience to get caught up all at once. Instead they will likely skip to the newest posts and then start arguing about things that they missed by not reading the previous ones. This is like complaining that an author is too tedious in a technical book and he should just summarize everything. Most all of them do this though. It is called the last chapter. Unfortunately without having read the previous 20 or 30 chapters, while it may be nice and summarized, you won't understand most of what it is talking about and will then have to read the "tedious" parts to gain that understanding.
I also realize that blogs aren't books and that the format that works for one may not neccssarily work for the other, but then again, I am not trying to get published...I already am published just by putting it in a blog. I am not trying to get traffic to support myself through banner ads and referrals. I have none. I am simply trying to explain something that I find very interesting in a way that will stick and make sense.
Still, I can sympathize with the point of view that maybe this is all hype and in the end, there will be nothing worthwhile. I have a funny name for that situation: life. But since I am comparing these articles to a traditional book (as opposed to a magazine article which typically wraps everything up in one installment), I will concede that books have something that helps with this problem that, so far, this blog does not: a dust cover summary.
I could argue the merits of doing such a thing on a blog...after all, the dust cover summary is a marketing tool and I have nothing here to market other than an idea which the reader can take or leave, but since I know that there is more to this series than dragging you on with the hope of some good information in the end I will shed some light on where I am going. I will write the equivalent of a dust cover summary for the concepts I am building here. This will give you the opportunity to decide whether or not I am nuts in one single reading instead of having to try to determine it over time. Then you can happily hang around and read them as I write them, or you can go somewhere less nutty and read other things with your time. Fair enough?
M@
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