7 New Bloggers have joined Jordan Planet recently (and a big welcome to them). Though they got me thinking.
When I joined Jordan Planet I was number 15 or 17. This was of February 2005. 8 months ago.
When I wrote the feautre on Jordan Planet in the August issue of JO Magazine, there were 28 bloggers at the time.
As of today, there are officially 46 citizen Jordan Planet bloggers.*
Now don’t get me wrong, this is an incredible thing. In one year (and some change) we’ve managed to go from “town” to “city” and now we are, I believe, on the way to true “planet” status.
The voice of Jordanian Bloggers is growing stronger everyday as more and more blogger inhabit the Planet. A greater segment of society is being represented here.
Though in such a highly caffeinated frame of mind I find myself thinking, will we see an overpopulation of the Planet?
I remember a time when our posts would hang around the main page for at least a week before it was knocked off to the second page. I remember when it was something to have one or two of your posts in the “weekly highlights”. Though now our Planet’s resources are running out. Our posts dissapear after a matter of hours. Making the weekly highlights is like winning the world cup (if you’re Jordan).
Where once we belonged to a neighbourhood where everyone knew each others name, now we are part of a vicious circle of anonymity. Will we pass each other in the halls and replace idle conversation with brief nods of acknowledgment? Will we hide behind our doors, or rather blogs, afraid of each other, suspcious of one another? Will we battle each other for page-space on the Planet? Will our posts appear smaller and smaller until it’s just our initials? Will we form alliances and treaties? Will our once safe neighbourhood now BE PATROLLED by a police force? Will we need a security council to regulate CONFLICTS on this growing planet of ours? Will we form coalitions and invade each other’s blog under flasified evidence?! Will we have DIPUTES over borders and comments of our respective blogs!?? Will the BIGGER and BETTER blogs that get MORE traffic become the Planet’s SUPERPOWERS, where they just CONSUME AND CONSUME AND CONSUME?!! Will they force the rest of us into 3rd WORLD BLOG status?! SECOND CLASS Citizens?! Will they COLONIZE us by selling us OVERPRICED GOODS and exchange OBSOLETE WEAPONS for CHEAP FUEL?!?! Will WE BEGIN MASSIVE CAMPAIGNS OF CENSORSHIP OF OUR COMMENTS!!!! WILL THERE BE UNFORSEEN MASS MEDIA PROPAGANDA WARS COMPLETE WITH ANTI-ROBA, ANTI-LINA AND ANTI-DEEB CAMPAIGNS!!?? DOES ANYONE EVEN REMEMBER THAT DEEB IS A BLOGGER AT THE PLANET????!!! WILL WE STAGE PROTESTS THAT GO TERRIBLY AWRY AND WE END UP OVERTHROWING ISSAM OR KIDNAPPING HIS BLOGGER FRIENDS; AIRING HOSTAGE TAPES ON AL JAZEERA ?! WILL THE PLANET GROW AND GROW AND GROW UNTIL WE’RE ALL FIGHTING FOR THE SMALLEST PIECE OF CYBERSPACE TO HOLD ON TO, TO THE POINT THAT WE EVENTUALLY ALL GO CRAZY AND KILL EACH OTHER IN A TRAGIC YET HISTORIC DISPLAY OF MASS-GENOCIDE??!!!??!!!????!!!!????
i dunno…
maybe i’m over thinking this
*since the publishing of this post 5 new members have joined Jordan Planet.
Hehehe, ya 7aram! God get some rest 😛
looll 😀
well, i think most of what you said is right.
i open jordan planet daily, and read only the titles of bloggers posts and when some titles grab my attanion, i read the first 3 lines of the post, and i liked them so i click on the headline to read the whole story, and there is somthing i have to share i comment on this post.
but at the beginning when i joined before 7 months, i used to read all posts and comment on most of them coz they were a few, and their type of posts where nice and intresting … but now i feel that there is somthing wrong, i dont know but i dont enjoy reading jordan planet like before …
you’re over thinking tis:p
With the new heightened traffic, it is becoming a bit cluttered. Perhaps a new, efficient design, something along the organizational lines of 9rules?
I think it’s still workable at this point; but if the numbers continue to grow then the current format will no longer remain viable.
I’m not sure what can solve this problem; but it certainly is NOT to reject newcomers. Maybe a format can be designed where each blogger has a check-box by their name, and a viewer can check the names of the bloggers whose posts they want to be displayed in the aggregator.
I think it’s still workable at this point; but if the numbers continue to grow then the current format will no longer remain viable.
I’m not sure what can solve this problem; but it certainly is NOT to reject newcomers. Maybe a format can be designed where each blogger has a check-box by their name, and a viewer can check the names of the bloggers whose posts they want to be displayed in the aggregator.
Naseem, that was funny 🙂
I don’t know about a check box.. how would you know if someone of your not-so-favorite bloggers, and hence uncheked, said something that you just can’t resist commenting on? 🙂
I think inline with the recent JP pole, displaying the 50 or so first words of the post would solve the crowdedness issue, and everyone’s voice will be heard equally (or their posts will be on JP’s first page longer :), just like Naseem’s posts are displayed on JP now. Maybe people who can control that can take the initiative and start displaying their posts in that way (I believe Blogger has an option for that under publishing the xml feed).
I was considering becoming a citizen of Jordan planet ….u made me feel so unwelcomed 🙁
Good to have u back
Samra, I was half-joking actually so don’t worry. In fact I started out this post with a “big welcome” so give me some credit.
On the other hand I was trying to draw attention to the fact that when a place expands, beit a family, a business, a nation or even a website…it has to accomodate or everyone becomes disadvantaged. It’s basic Jordanian Economic Theory, if the demand is high and the supply is too low then the people go home to get their ganwas and that’s not a pretty sight.
Alright, am one of the new bloggers here and it is a real pleasure for me to be here.
However, the way I see it, is that the MORE people join, the better it is, this is actually what we need in Jordan, as many different views on things as possible.
If it is too much for some, maybe a design stunt could do it for them.
rami, welcome to the planet. read what i wrote to samra
am astudent of geo-sciences and i want to be study in your school coure of the equiment andam with my talent here in nigeria