Cormac Moylan

I have just finished reading Jason Rowe’s post about the style of writing he uses on his blog. It opens up a big question on how people might perceive his writing to be aggressive by not knowing who he really is. It can sometimes be hard for bloggers to convey a message which relies on tone, and it can even more difficult for readers to understand what is meant in a blog post by interpreting the atmosphere incorrectly.

Jason says..

Its funny how people perceive a style of writing. Some might say my style is assertive and borderlines on aggressive depending on my mood. But at the end of the day it doesn’t really reflect who I am. I find that quite a scary thought.

It can be fairly hard to preach to an audience to which you know hardly anything about. For example, Irish visitors will differ from American visitors both in grammar/spelling and of course in culture. A user’s knowledge of a system or technology to which you’re discussing maybe non-existent or he/she maybe an expert in their field. Sarcasm and snobbery can easily be assumed when reading comments or posts. I have often misread situations in the comments of this blog where I have come across badly by not knowing my audience and them not knowing me properly. So how do you fill the void between personally knowing your users and preaching to a crowd?

I think the best way to over come any qualms you might have over your own public perception is to open up the media gateway a bit more. Words can only do so much. A message’s meaning isn’t as airtight when you remove facial expression, vocal pitch and basic heuristics. Making a blog post available as a podcast or a videocast is the easiest and most logical way to avoid any disillusion when it comes to a reader’s perception. I have often thought about creating a podcast, or worse… a videocast, and presenting to the public via this blog. I wonder how much of a difference it would make in how people perceive me? I don’t yet have the guts to document myself visually and vocally but I may do as part of an experiment in the near future.

And finally from Jason’s post…

I would love for people to let me know what you think about this topic. I think its a part of the online condition that is rarely spoken about. So why not share your opinion.

I just did. Hope it helps

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thank you for visiting! Cormac