Towards the end of an interesting piece about Weblogging in The Register, Nico MacDonald rightly points out that: "The ‘blogerati’ rightly present Weblogging as opening up writing and communication to the masses. However, this populist and laudable attack on the mass communication sector disguises an elitist tendency at the centre of the blogosphere. This tendency is most obvious in the habit of using first names only (or even nicknames) when referring to fellow Webloggers. For a movement that aspires to (and has achieved some) intellectual leadership, this is inappropriate."
Which got me thinking... we 'talk' to so many strangers, and not many of them actually tell you who they are. But do we really want to know? Personally, I'm happy following the saga of Andre's love torn angst for Stone without being told his real name is Geoff and he works in a bank (it's not... I made that up), I wallow in the trials and tribulations of a Supermum, and I follow BykerSink and his progress towards his VSO like others follow Eastenders or Corrie. Why, on a blogging level I even get on Ok with the Bluenose... and I know we would fall out in no time if we knew each other better. I don't need to meet my favourite bloggers, we don't have that sort of relationship. Let's keep some mystery. Leave well alone, I say.
