I am, by my nature, a huge fan of the blogosphere. I would be lying if I came out and said anything different, however, what I will say is that the more time I spend here, the more I realize that the long tail is becoming quite a bit longer and that is not necessarily the best thing. As such, I am taking a cue from Kent Newsome, Hugh Macleod and Martin Luther and weigh in on this whole “death of the A-list” meme.

How To Split An Atom’s 9…15 Theses

Out of love and concern for the blogosphere, and with the object of eliciting it, the following heads will be the subject of a public discussion on Techmeme under the presidency of the respected bloggers, Kent Newsome, Hugh Macleod, How To Split An Atom, and duly appointed Lecturer on these subjects in that place. He requests that whoever cannot be present personally to debate the matter orally will do so in absence in writing.

1. When our Lord and Master, Technorati, said “Link”, It called for the entire life of bloggers to be one of linking.

2. Knowledge of unknown blogs cannot only be spread through the lips of the “A-List”. We must all take part, spreading their goodness throughout the length and breadth of the long tail.

3. Yet this sentiment cannot be restricted merely to one’s heart; for such evangelism is null unless it produces outward signs in various posts and ovations.

4. As long as hatred of self abides, causing blogger to lose hope and abruptly end their weblogs our work is not complete.

5. Techmeme has neither the will nor the power to remit silly memes beyond those imposed either by the discretion of its development staff or by the will of the blogosphere.

6. These blogging edicts apply only to blogs that are still alive, and, according to the edicts themselves, none apply to the dead.

7. This fear or horror of the A-list should be replaced by respect for their place as our spiritual fore bearers. Whatever else might be said, we owe them a great debt for legitimizing blogging and providing all of us, at some point, with news to editorialize on.

8. The same authority as the A-list exercises in general over our blogs was given to them by us, and it was given as a result of merit earned by them.

9. Of a truth, the pains of new bloggers ought to be abated, and assistance ought to be proportionately increased for them.

10. Moreover, it does not seem proved, on any grounds of reason, that these blogs are outside the state of merit, or unable to grow in popularity.

11. Nor does it seem proved to be always the case that they should be assured of growth, even if we wish that were the very case.

12. Therefore as bloggers we should provide assistance where we can, taking pains to share our knowledge and traffic with those who provide good content, but who have not yet been accepted by The Google.

13. Hence those who preach “building communities” should work to build them on their own blogs, encouraging commentators and sharing information.

14. It must therefore be the case that the major part of the new bloggers time should be spent cultivating their own communities and sharing resources with those in need.

15. Who knows whether the entire blogosphere shall be redeemed in this way. However, it can be assured that a greater number of conversations will be started and the industry will be a far richer place for all concerned.

Web 2.0 Roundup

The summary, we all need to do our parts to help build new vectors for conversation. In all cases, voices are only heard if they speak up and when you are operating on a smaller scale than the larger blogging institutions you have to be even louder.

If you are concerned that the big, bad “A-list” is making life difficult for smaller bloggers, reach out to others in the blogosphere. We the readers are responsible for affording power and authority to our idols, if you want to spread the wealth it is up to you to do it.

Help your fellow blogger and the blogsphere will grow richer, not a bad sentiment if I say so myself.

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