New life for blogs?

I got into blogging after many others and most who once blogged have stopped.  Every now and then I make my way through the blog roll I keep for personal use and find more and more of those addresses are no longer active.  I understand.  I am kind of a dinosaur.  But I tend to stick with things and so I have stuck with this forum.  Over time some changes have been made, though not many.  One is the switch to moderated comments.  It a pain for me; the comments awaiting moderation do not get looked over regularly or often and sometimes I just plain forget to publish them.  But the numbers of robo commenters increases as people try to ply their wares masquerading as commenters.  On top of that, those who comment with the same predictable comments on the same predictable topics -- less to comment on what was posted than to promote their own idiosyncrasies -- have become very tiresome.  Sadly the number of comments and commenters has dropped precipitously since the comments are now moderated.  I regret that since some strings of comments were very informative.

All that said, I wonder if maybe the dinosaurs may again roam the interwebs.  With Facebook becoming more and more persnickety about what is put on their platform and the ubiquitous fact checkers looking over everything, people maybe looking for another venue for commentary.  I am not all that sure about Parler and what its future might be and it is still in its infancy anyhow.  It seems that whatever platforms there are, the same problems will surface.  We seem to have rather thin skins and do not tolerate a vigorous discussion.  We live in a world of echo chambers and we each love the sound of our own voice most of all.  I am certainly no different.  

There was a time when blogs were the forums for opinion and for discussion.  This meager blog still gets more than its fair amount of attention -- usually some 60,000 folks a month venture over to see what thoughts are meandering from my brain.  Some come for the sermons (God bless you) and others to see if the old man is still cooking.  I suggest that blogs could see a resurgence but I have no way of knowing.  At least in the blogger end of things, something other than the party line might be allowed and, if people are polite and spammers do not bother too much, we might enjoy a decent debate.

Earlier this month the ALPB Forum banned anonymous posters and has undertaken a few other measures to try and pour a little oil on the troubled waters.  That forum was once much more vigorous and is now an argument that can be had without even the arguers being present.  I come and go from it but have become rather picky about the threads I will survey.

So we will see if 2021 sees the blog format and perhaps this blogger decline a bit or if the whole form sees a bit of a second wind.  In any case, I guess you will have me here, for good or for ill, until I find I have nothing to say.  Ask my family and the folks in my parish, that might be a long time!