Russell Brown hates me

One of the most common logical fallacies is best described by the Latin term post hoc ergo propter hoc - the idea that because one thing happens after another, the former event must have caused the latter. This is plainly not a necessary conclusion, but it is one that we regularly default to.

For instance, here are two events:

1) I started doing a weekly radio feature on 95bFM, more or less duplicated from this weblog.

2) The only posts on this weblog recently have been those that turn up as features on bFM.

It does not follow that the second of those is because of the first. In fact, it wasn't the intention at all.

The idea was originally that in amongst my regular blog posts, I would intersperse the text of my bFm comment... with audio, just for the sake of feature-richness (and to see if I could. Still working on the mp3 version). Despite appearances to the contrary, the idea was never that the radio script would replace the blog in any way. Deducing that would have been evidence of falling victim to the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

As it happens, the only reason there have been any posts at all in the last month is because the radio commitment (they don't see it as a commitment, necessarily - but I do) has added the external pressure I need to perform at times when other things have been occupying my attention.

In truth, two things have been preventing me from writing more. One is the lack of internet-capable computing at home, the other is the sheer volume of things to do at work.

One development in the life of Dubber has fixed the former and alleviated the latter: the introduction of kick-ass broadband to the homelife: 1Mb speeds and 30gig monthly allowance.

When it works, it blows what's left of my hair back. So fast (but buggy for the moment).

One of the other things that has followed as a result of my rushed blogging-meets-opinion-piece-article-for-radio has been a lack of weblinks.

Normally, I would see this as an unforgivable flaw in a long blog post. But, under the circumstances, I opted for posting the words that I had and waived the compulsion to link to everything I spoke about.

Like I tell my students - it's always better to hand in something - even if it's not as good as you want it to be. These things are never finished - only ever abandoned, and you need to pick your moment to dump it and walk away.

I was becoming aware of the shortcomings in my approach, as they were reflected in the increasingly dire daily stats for this blog. I am currently experiencing a well-deserved ratings trough. You are more or less alone in reading this, and I might as well have just emailed you.

Of course, once the introduction of broadband into my personal life was complete (Saturday, as it happens), one of the first places I headed to was The Listener.

I just hadn't - until that moment - had the opportunity to sit down with a cup of coffee and a croissant and read what until the mid-September emigration had been my only ritual media consumption.

The first thing I read, as if to rub salt in the wound was this interview with Russell Brown about blogging. The salient quotes:

"The defining characteristic of a blog, if it's done properly, is that you point people to other places. I really liked the idea of being able to direct people to source material. Not just to tell them things, but also to say, "Look, you go and work it out for yourself."

and this about the Public Address style...

"So, ours tend to be of greater length and more like conventional columns. But still with the links. They are really important."

In other words, I've got the verbiage, but the point where blogs are actually useful social, political and entertainment phenomena is exactly the point where I've been failing miserably.

I stop putting links in my blog, and then Russell Brown announces to the New Zealand public that blogs without links are no good.

Had I been unaware of the post hoc fallacy, and had I been of a more paranoid disposition, I would have immediately jumped to the conclusion that I was being publicly reprimanded for the general crapness of the Wireless service of late.

So pointed did Russell's comments seem, that the virtually inescapable conclusion on offer was that the blogger's blogger was so appalled that it had shifted from the realm of professional disappointment and into the domain of personal dislike. In short, Russell Brown hates me because my blog is crap.

So - it's just lucky I'm not self-conscious and neurotic, really...

In fact, there's rather a lot to write about at the moment. And a lot to link to. But now I can. I have made a serious dent in the marking I have on my desk. My filing is up to date. I'm no longer fighting estate agents, shipping companies and telecommunications providers (though my furnished flat still has no furniture, my belongings are still yet to leave Princes Wharf and my broadband connection only works under very specific conditions).

While it doesn't necessarily follow (in the least) that Russell made those comments because my little site's gone downhill, it does however follow that my little site will improve - at least, in part - as a result of those comments.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. After, therefore because.

So - more to come. Could do better. Can and must improve. Stuff about audio, new technology, radio and the like to follow shortly. With links. Coming right up.