Ah yes, another one of those Episodics vs Editorials post…how lovely. Yes I’m aware that this has been discussed, debated, abused countless times in the past across the blogosphere; but what am I supposed to do? Bloggers will eventually come across this inevitability; my time just happened to be now (or more specifically, around the time after Gargron’s post was published).
So why put Episodics up for discussion? There are two reasons: (1) a response to Icystorm’s lists of ‘boring repeats’ of K-ON bloggers (where boring is something I wholeheartedly agree with…and yes. I’m one of them) and (2) my constant pursuit of anything new, be it an object, a trick, or methodology; in this case, my style of blogging. Indeed, I’m aware how a significant amount of the masses immediately associate Episodics with aggregator spam, excessively mundane summaries, and original content whose originality is lost as a product of similarity (to other posts) and their multiple instances. Adding to the list, there’s also a very high potential where Episodics cease to be something of the fun stuffs, and in some extreme cases, become the reason why people quit blogging. If anything, I should know that the best since I myself am currently (though temporarily) an Episodic blogger. I have traversed the classical format of Episodics, best described by animanachronism as sonnets…shit didn’t work out since blogging became a drag and sent me to a two-month hiatus; and then I tried a modified version by eliminating summaries. The latter worked out for a while until blogging lost its fluidity and eventually became another drag. Long story short…shit also did not work out; and just in time, since my self-imposed quota of trying things anew just sounded off.
So why go about (sort of..not really) defending Episodics after all the dissecting efforts made to reveal how its shortcomings outweigh any good that comes out of it? The answer is simple…a lot of us seems to have forgotten that Episodic blogging has found its way to becoming the default style for newbie bloggers. I feel uneasy whenever somebody shoots down somebody else just because they’re doing what almost every other newbie is doing. I feel even worse when the aggressor is one of those seniors, folks who have been aniblogging for a while. Way to go…that’s one way to give off a public perception. I don’t mind constructive criticism, or even no criticism at all. I do mind when episodic bloggers get treated like tumors just because they seem to come about everywhere nowadays with redudnant posts.
I’m not asking the bloggers of the editorial genre to change their preferences as to which of the two styles is superior; I simply want you to put some sense of leniency towards them. If any of you absolutely have to treat Episodics as a problem, then at least think of them as a self-solving problem. In a typical case of Episodic blogging, there will be a point of time where weekly routines of posting will become grueling to which any of the three things can happen: (1) blogger quits, (2) blogger reconsiders an alternative to Episodics, and (3) blogger will become a prominent Episodic blogger. Regardless of what the outcome will be, either Episodics will get rid of itself or transcend into one of those exceptional Episodic blogs. Among the three cases, I think the second one is worth mentioning, not to mention how it introduced me to a new concept on all things Episodic and Editorial. I really hate to think of the two as two separate entities; rather, I’d like to think of them as two phases to one system where Episodics become obsolete and be eventually replaced with Editorials. Want proof? Go look around the blogosphere; you’ll find a signficant number of people who do Editorials that have roots as Episodic bloggers.
Bottomline, it looks to me as if the net merits (merits minus shortcomings) of Editorials do exceed the ones of Episodics. In any case, I’m itching to see how it would be like if every blog were Editorials. On the other hand, I strongly believe bashing about unsuspecting Episodic bloggers is incosiderate and/or unmindful. Seeing the ‘light’ of which many of you call Editorials is a wonderful thing, but only when Episodic bloggers realize it by themselves instead of being coerced indirectly through negative criticisms.
And for fairness’ sake a message: to all Episodic bloggers out there (especially the ones who just started out)…do whatever it takes to retain the fun factor in blogging. Just so you know, if Episodics cease to function, why not evolve consider Editorials instead.
Let the conflagration begin…
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