Let’s say you found out that Ingrid Bergman was hosting a big do, to which hundreds of people had been invited including one Albert Einstein. Let’s also say you’re a keen physicist but Bert’s name meant nothing to you. What might happen in the real world is this: you turn up, you chat to your skilled hostess Ingrid for admittedly longer than you mean to, and, to be quite honest, longer than she can really bear. She realises that you’re interested in physics, knows that Bert and friends are munching away having a relativity pow-wow over peanuts, and takes you over to their group, introduces you and returns to look after her other guests. You, Bert and his mates have a conversation. Good hosting, good conversation.
What happens in the world of blogs is very different. Ingrid hosts a party and you can tell it’s a big do because Technorati lets you see how many people are coming. Ingrid provides a whole load of links, some interesting, some not. She doesn’t really comment much on who’s there other than Chaplin said something funny the other day, or that Bert is doing something completely oblique to do with relatives. But - and here’s the rub - because she’s such a popular hostess, her parties are so famous and well-publicized, she brings together such an interesting blend of guests, that you talk to her and her alone. You listen to what she has to say about physics. Poor hosting, poor conversation.
Ingrid becomes the de facto interesting physicist, Bert gets lost in the crowd - the conversation happens at the wrong place. Worse still, as and when you host your own parties and talk about that relatives theory others, Ingrid’s status as the best thrower of parties for physicists grows. And it grows in a power law fashion.
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