Real Introduction to the Bloggernacle

File under: Free Bloggernacle Tour

For all those gingerly poking around the Bloggernacle for the first time, welcome! Here's a quick guided tour — just follow the links. There are three big blogs, but soon there will be only one since one of them is near death and the other is senescent and afflicted with navel gazing, and will die of starvation once they run out of guest bloggers.

The presenters were Nate and Kaimi, of The Great and Spacious Blog, and Caroline of Exponent II, which is the blog Feminist Mormon Housewives wants to be but cannot because of all the dirty talk and recipes. Other blogs referred to by name in Kaimi's presentation include Tales From the Crib, a great place for bewbie banter, and Mormon Mentality's version of the New and Everlasting Mormon Archipelago (not a blog; an all-seeing eye of Horus that beholds all posts from all Bloggernacle blogs that wish to be beheld, so its more of a selectively all-seeing eye, omniscient but only in a decidedly limited way), another favorite of Kaimi & Nate since it put them back in Box 1 after being demoted from being a Big Island to a non-descript shoal at the True and Faithful Mormon Archipelago. But wait, there's more!

At the meeting I attended, representatives of other blogs were also in attendance: Heather from Mormon Mommy Wars (a boring grrl blog that cannot decide whether they want to be Faithful Mormon Housewives or edgy bloggers) and Carrie from Tales From the Crib (an unboring grrl blog). The three presenters talked about what they think the Bloggernacle is; how posts and discussion at Mormon blogs are largely so unoriginal in content they rely on journals, magazines, or conferences for talking points; and how some blogs focus on LDS women's issues, from very bad temple experiences to sex talk (Lesson: sex sells) to mother in heaven to circumcision to babying your whiney immature husband and party tips. I might post in response to specific thoughts of the presenters later this week, if I get bored enough and run out of toenails to clip.

Handy Abbreviations for those eager to be insiders: "Bloggernacle" is often shortened to "Nacle", or "BM"...errrr...typo there...supposed to be "BN". The major blogs likewise have short forms that are generally used in blog conversation: T&S, BCC, M0 (for Millennial Black Hole, the one noted as near death above), FMH, MA, DMI, and so forth. Standard online conversational acronyms like IMHO (in my humble opinion - meaning "I am not humble and this is not an opinion, its a fact and you are an idiot to not believe it"), FWIW (for what it's worth - meaning "I know you are going to ignore this because you are horribly arrogant but I cannot refrain from stating the obvious truth"), and TMI (too much information - meaning "the simple fact that you reveal such private details of you life into a public forum, even anonymously, shows you need a lobotomy, or heavy sedation at the very least") also appear from time to time. Other useful acronyms for noobs trying to ingratiate themselves on the BM is ILYSMYAB (I love you so much, you are brilliant), SBIADYS (stunningly brilliant, in awe at the depth of your scholarship) and ROFLMAO (meaning "rolling on floor laughing my [head] off" when in the context of a joke or in the context of an argument it means "I cannot respond intelligently to you, because doing so mean admitting I am wrong, so I will now change the topic by resorting to personal attacks").

The lack of quality represented by BM blogs is difficult for newcomers to initially tolerate — thoughtful, intelligent discussion free of political slant and self-promoting pedantry is not exactly the hallmark of the Bloggernacle. I think the degree of evident contention says something about the BM and about blogging in general (I'm not sure exactly what it says, but I'm sure it's not good). There are all kinds of blogs, and they are all pretty much the same recycled rubbish from year to year: women & priesthood, blacks & priesthood, word of wisdom/hot soup/caffiene/danish beer, patriarchal authoritarianism, polygamy, politics & religion, evolution versus creation, blahdy blah blah blah....and since there are a disproportionate number of lawyers throw in legal stuff and how it relates to the gospel via really bad analogies (RBAs) although most of those appear to have been exhausted so they are less common now, mercifully and justly.

Despite all this contentious fodder, conversations in the comments are generally friendly and pleasant, especially when the heavy hand of moderating out dissenting voices and trolling hate mongers is applied. Learning how to argue mindlessly about religious ideas in a trivial fashion with those who look at things quite differently takes little effort and practice, so most people do just that. [Hint: impulsively dash off angry rhetoric and hit the Submit button just before going to bed.] I suppose the resulting virtue (for those who persevere) might be tolerance, but that really is just wishful thinking.

More in a couple of days, if the BM doesn't implode.