---
title: "Weblog Reading And Writing: Always Unfinished?"
date: 2004-12-10
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2004"
    url: "/tag/2004.md"
---

# Weblog Reading And Writing: Always Unfinished?

[Jason Kottke on web magazines](https://web.archive.org/web/20050206191401/http://www.kottke.org/04/12/web-magazines):

“Before weblogs ruled the realm, a typical way to publish content online was in a Web magazine format. Suck, Feed, Netly News, Smug, Stating the Obvious, etc.”



Jason followed up in a later comment with this:

“Suck articles were finished and “professional”, which is what’s missing (I think) from my online reading these days.”



I wrote the following as a comment in Jason’s weblog, but I think it’s worth publishing here too. It’s an interesting issue and I’d be keen to hear your feedback. Here’s what I wrote (tidied up slightly):

I wonder if weblogs are making our reading and writing habits temporal and ‘always unfinished’ (to twist the term ‘always on’)? Having written [an article for Digital Web Magazine](https://web.archive.org/web/20050206191401/http://www.digital-web.com/features/evolution_corporate_sites.shtml) (and I must get around to writing another one), I can confirm it takes at least a couple of weeks to ‘craft’. Whereas with my weblog, although generally I write carefully crafted long-form posts, it’s still of-the-moment and a lot of times it’s an ongoing theme I’m exploring (ie it’s not “finished”).

I would probably write more “finished” articles for my blog if I didn’t feel so much (social?) pressure to continually update my RSS feed. As it is, I only write an average of 3 posts per/week anyway, but still…

And same goes for my reading. To participate in the blogosphere you have to keep up-to-date with the RSS feeds in your circle of influence. Which leaves less time for reading “professional” and finished articles.

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002546.php))*