The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
What is a Blog? Really!
A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. ...
So I put it to you, the members, are we seeing blogs written by bloggers or are we seeing messages left on a message board by messengers?
When a "blog" is written without sentence or paragraph breaks, no use of upper or lower case letters, misspellings and text code, is it a blog, an elaborate text message or someone who ditched English class?
Make an effort, people.
If what I am reading is the wave of the future, then our civilization and the English language as we know it is in deep trouble.
I am all for sharing your thoughts, but frame it so that it can be understood with minimal interpretation skills.
I have written about 65 blogs since joining the website. Many here have posted ONE blog/message-never to be heard from again. Blogger, my a**.
No; it doesn't have to be Shakespearian. Some of you know who William Shakespeare was, right?
But please, it's "I"; not "i", "you" and not "u"; "are"; not "r". And if it's not too much trouble, a period, comma or semi-colon would add texture to your "blog".
F.O.G.I.E. and proud of it.
TCSS.
Art
So I put it to you, the members, are we seeing blogs written by bloggers or are we seeing messages left on a message board by messengers?
When a "blog" is written without sentence or paragraph breaks, no use of upper or lower case letters, misspellings and text code, is it a blog, an elaborate text message or someone who ditched English class?
Make an effort, people.
If what I am reading is the wave of the future, then our civilization and the English language as we know it is in deep trouble.
I am all for sharing your thoughts, but frame it so that it can be understood with minimal interpretation skills.
I have written about 65 blogs since joining the website. Many here have posted ONE blog/message-never to be heard from again. Blogger, my a**.
No; it doesn't have to be Shakespearian. Some of you know who William Shakespeare was, right?
But please, it's "I"; not "i", "you" and not "u"; "are"; not "r". And if it's not too much trouble, a period, comma or semi-colon would add texture to your "blog".
F.O.G.I.E. and proud of it.
TCSS.
Art
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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This proves that there is still intelligent life hiding on the internet. Now to convince the younger generation that they will use what they learn in school after graduation, or more to the point when communicating with us. If they are not capable of composing a sentence, are they able to read and comprehend a manual? I realize that much of what we do is hands-on-training but they still publish textbooks for a reason. We have one young man in firefighter training who's ability to learn skills does not concern me as much as if he will be able to pass the written exam or to study on his own.
In certian courses at the university where I work, blogging is encouraged or is assigned and graded. It amazes me how many students have no idea how to use a library. All incoming freshmen, returning or nontraditional students are now required to enroll in Uni 101 were they are taught to do research and write papers. However, the "one book" that is required READING for the class is also available on CD.
I find myself abbreviating words like you, be, in, are, see, one, too & for without thinking about it. This is not necessarily a habit formed using text messaging but more from having used speedwriting for many years. My mind thinks "You" but my hand writes "u" on the page. Of course if I transcribe it the same way, spellcheck catches it for me. Ahhh technology!
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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
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The no child left behind law shines through again based on what you typed there about the new wave of college students. I'm sorry, but in my opinion if someone can't read or do basic math, WHY are they graduating?!?! It repulses me to see people who don't have learning disabilities and yet can't pick up a book and read it without sounding like my son when he was five trying to read, yet they tote around a high school diploma.
The school teachers of today have an easy job now. Any child who just "doesn't get it" no longer requires extra help, they just require a free pass for they will be in another teachers hands next year. Standardized tests taken throughout the country show this through the scores achieved.
Look at most of us. Most of us are years beyond high school, and yet we learned how to blog on the fly. Most of us have maintained a level of intelligence when posting subject matter to a website. Most of us have also maintained the ability to spell, use correct punctuation and grammar. People need to SLOW DOWN and complete thoughts the best they can (correctly) to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy their thoughts without ripping their hair out to uncode it. It really ISN'T that hard to do.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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Hmm. None of the people we're talking about have posted here. Can't understand what we're writing maybe? Too much punctuation? Not enough abbreviations?
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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Tony:
I can't believe that there is any wonder.
Why; they are all over in the BLOG section, blogging away.
I can't wait to find out about the most recent break up or to see another "why we are heroes" or "why i m a farfarter" or "I am here because I support firefighters (but really, I'm looking to hook up!)" blogs. The best one I have seen is where the young lad got his then-girlfriend interested in the fire department; so much so, that she joined. Then, she decided that she liked someone on the department better than him and dumped him. Guess how that turned out?
Hey; and look at the legs on that virtual saloon? It has already set the record for most replies. Amazing, ain't it? You can't get 20 replies to a serious discussion about firefighter safety, but mention "saloon" and they come staggering out of the woodwork to post. Man; I wish I had thought of that.
Hey Web Chief; remember cdevoe and trojanhorse? Could they argue the whole alcohol in the firehouse thing or what? Ah; the memories.
Where was I? Oh yeah; I'll have a Diet Captain and Coke.
I here that there is a "fireman's prayer" out there somewhere. I have never heard of such a thing. Could someone please post it for me?
TCSS.
Art
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Cap:
Retaining what I read has always been a big problem of mine. What I found is that my mind started wandering while I was reading. Consequently, I was seeing "words", but I wasn't "reading". I was thinking about something else, other than what I was reading. So, I didn't retain it. I would have to go back and read it again.
I have found that, for me to retain what I read, it has to be interesting to me. I have to enjoy it and it has to engage my brain. I have a whole list of stuff, but in your daughter's case, get her stuff that interests her. It should have a spillover effect at some point.
Sometimes, I can't remember what I read 10 minutes ago and yet, I can tell you that Jack Kelly played Bart Maverick, brother to Bret Maverick in the "Maverick" TV series, played by James Garner, who you might remember as Jim Rockford in the TV series, "The Rockford Files". I can remember TV trivia from the 60s, but not who played in the World Series last year. Weird.
The mind is funny sometimes.
TCSS.
Art
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Permalink Reply by Firefighter Nation WebChief on
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Yes, Art, those are long gone from here (and the other place I guess) ...
If you want to ignore all the 'nonsense' blogs as you guys want, then just visit the Featured Blogs which we'll be updating daily going forward ... that's more the 'serious' focused "blogs." (Although I just featured Art's blog about his age, so not sure how that is relevant here...so..lol)
The fact is this is a SOCIAL and PROFESSIONAL site and compared to MySpace, Facebook, etc. the stuff that happens here is far from anything that is crazy. There are no 'bulletin' type features so blogs are less true 'blogging' and more freedom of expression, sharing things, etc. They all don't need to be legitimate edited posts. If you don't like the subject line, IGNORE IT, instead of thinking you need to police it and bash someone for what they posted. There are over 25,000 people here... there is a wide array of lifestyles, people, issues, etc. They are all welcome here.
There are MANY legitimate, "serious" discussions that have lots of replies. No, it is NOT the masses. But as a percentage the ones that are just totally off the wall are a small amount. Just like at the REAL firehouse you have a bunch of people hard core into training, and a bunch who are less about that and more about the social aspect.
Those those only seeking professional stuff either need to comes to grips with both do CO-EXIST here, or move on. Stop worrying about how many are legit, vs. not, etc. The more people who join, the more the mix will adjust. The more people who spend time 'socializing' here....the more opportunity in the long run they will all learn, pick up tips, educate themselves about the fire service, etc. They MAY be less likely to 'participate' in the 'serious' discussions and blogs, but that does NOT mean they are not reading them and learning from them. In fact, they may frankly not want to say the wrong thing and seem uneducated about something, and thus not post. But that is a good thing...rather they watch and learn anyhow, no? At the end of the day, just like other sites, the content here is awesome and there are MANY things to learn -- about the fire service and life in general.
There are plenty of ways to ignore the content you don't want to browse and drill down to legitimate topics quickly than spend a bunch of time thinking this ONLY has to be a place for serious discussion where everyone's posts are scrutinized for content. Look at which blogs get comments, most of the more legit ones get more comments (and more read). It's not that big a deal. No one forces you to read what you don't want to, so don't sweat spending a bunch of time bashing blogs you don't like. If the 'nonsense' posts and such get people coming back over and over and thus they are around for the more serious topics and the new stuff we're launching soon, all the better. Today's punk kids fooling around on the Explorer forums and posting junk are the leaders 10 or 20 years from now.
We're going to be launching some exciting things (here and elsewhere) in the coming year, to better break out the 'social' from 'professional' but at the end of the day, both can co-exist and both can support each other ... this is a 'MySpace for Firefighters' just as much as it is a serious community for firefighters to network. If you drill down into groups (like Cancel the Engine) and more, there are some great things going on.
Dave
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JACKPOT!
I bow in your presence!
I stand in your shadow.
I fart in your general direction!
That last one was for Mel.
I am politely clapping as only a F.O.G.I.E. can.
Good job, Cap.
TCSS.
Art
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Permalink Reply by Kimberly A Bownas on
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You are so right Art. I have to agree that lately there have been posts that have gotten away from what this site is. There are times that I give up on reading a post cause it just hurts to read it. I am not the guru of grammer and I give people a break on that but there is only so much I can take and spelling is a big thing. When it takes me longer then it should to read a post cause of misspellings then I just don't finish. I am not commenting to piss people off so if this does oh well, I am not going to apologize. I love the post Art, great job. Stay safe..
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Yes....if there were forums 20 years ago I woulda been that punk kid ..I assure you :)
As I said, ignore 'em or don't. Your choice. But there will always be both....and we'll continue to work on ways to streamline how the site and others we create segments it so its easier to discern one from the other.
-Dave
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Dave:
You brought a lot of stuff back from California, didn't you?
I can't debate anything that you said.
Yes; I have been critical of some "styles". I see nothing wrong with asking someone who posts to clarify or put it into a format that I can read.
The only thought that I will give you on this is:
I can detect when it is a serious post about real serious stuff. I can also detect when a post is a humorous post and respond in kind.
The posts that bothers me are the ones who post who want to be taken seriously, but because of the many errors, the post comes off as humorous or at least, not taken seriously. And it may also contain bad or wrong information.
So, how do you filter that? You can't ignore it. And you know that you can't read and edit EVERY discussion thread, can you?
I like funny. I like serious. I like order. I like chaos. I like reading other people's stuff, but if I want a soap opera, I'll watch TV. If I want to cry, I'll watch Extreme Makeover-Home Edition. Ty Pennnington is my hero.
You caught some of the sarcasm in my original discussion post, right?
I mean, we can't be serious ALL THE TIME, can we?
TCSS.
Art
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Permalink Reply by Mary Ellen Shea on
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:) Thanks Art.
Was that an African Swallow or a European Swallow?
Enjoying the crap out of this post btw.
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Also just FYI, the Featured Blogs are at the link below and can be found via the drop down under blogs as well. Starting this week we'll be updating this daily:
http://www.firefighternation.com/profiles/blog/list?promoted=1
I just added two new team members to assist with FFN and other 'new' projects as well (does anyone sense I'm teasing fun stuff coming soon? lol) ... Paul Andrews, formerly VP of Sales/Marketing at Firehouse.com (and more recently at FireRescue1.com) has joined me as well as another key member of my past who will be announced soon :)
Dave
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