worldwide pablo

That is the question

To tweet, or not to tweet? MoDo asks the question.

Say it isn't true!

Orblogs, the great resource for Oregon bloggers great and small, has shut down, citing a growing workload in the face of a changing blogosphere. Since last last year, WWP has sensed that the role of blogs is changing, and none of it the kind that plays to the strengths of small operations like Orblogs and its devoted followers of mostly small-time operators. The trends that plague the mainstream media [conglomerations, standardization, popularity-driven content, etc.] seem to have taken hold among the blogs. What's next?

Meanwhile, thank you, Paul Bausch, for everything. You are a champ.

"They dared to cover the news and went out of business"

Depending on who you talk to, the blogosphere is either a salvation from mainstream media monopoly or it's a slippery slope to certain chaos of under- or uninformed "newsiness." Being a former newsman himself, Worldwide Pablo has his own opinions [which shouldn't be so hard to figure out], but we'll save those pithy comments for another day.

In Bellingham, Wash., the local independent newspaper -- the aptly named Whatcom Independent -- has published its last issue, a victim of falling readership and flagging advertising revenues. This is the sort of "death to the dead-tree media" rallying cry that normally cheers the blogging class. But we wonder: Is this such a good trend? And moreover: When the last of the these newspapers is gone, what exactly will bloggers actually have to write about?

What's more, who's stepping up to the plate? Well, as it turns out, no one, really. As Editor Sheri Ward notes in her farewell column:

"Web-based news blogs may fill some of the need, and the quality and reliability of those is evolving. One can hope the bar for quality local news coverage rises enough to render news-oriented blogs useful for the general community."

She adds:

"It's time to pass the baton. Unfortunately, at this point, there's nobody on the receiving end of that pass."

Exactly. Whatcom County is something of a media test tube, when you think about it. Retrenching mainstream newspaper, other shrinking and disappearing media, no one really stepping up to fill the void. That's something to celebrate?

WWP will take Walter Cronkite over that any day.

If the blogosphere were an icon

Leave it to Vanity Fair to create a one-stop "opticon" that includes all of WWP's favorite non-local blogs. Andrew Sullivan? Check. Talking Points Memo? Check. Dlisted? Check. They're all there, the scurrilous and the earnest, the newsy and the opinionated. Check it out.

So, what quadrant is your blog?

[Really, someone should make up one of these things for Orblogs.]

Power down

Amazing how something as regular as a summertime power failure can bring ginormous websites to their knees. Even at this hour, Craigslist -- the vaunted classified "ad killer" -- is not yet fully functional [especially to its outer rings and levels]. In fact, deep in the bowels of Craigslist, one still encounters error messages that implore, "We are aware of the situation, and the happy craigslist elves are scurrying to make it better, even now."

Imagine all the frustrated couch-sellers and sexaholics tonight...

Disclosure: The afternoon meltdown in S.F. also affected WWP's host, Typepad, preventing viewing and posts to this site for four or five hours. Our apologies to those who attempted to connect here during that time. But, we must stand by Typepad. Great site, great service, terrific people. We're not leaving, and we stand by them.]

Same to you, Jack Valenti

The faux rating scheme you see above - -wherein blogs and websites like this can be evaluated and awarded an MPAA-like endorsement -- seems to be the blog meme of the day. So what the heck, we'll take the bait. Turns out, Worldwide Pablo gets a respectable PG-13 rating [which seems about right]. We'd have been rated PG but for the fact that we've used the word "death" three times recently, "fags" twice and "gay" once. [Only once?]

Apparently they have no problem with the F-bomb we dropped here yesterday [see below]. Maybe profanity on the Internet is like violence in the cineplex?

Whatever. But don't tell these folks.

Leave no blogger behind

You want tests? We've got tests! [And WWP's results, too.]

What file extension are you? Leave it to Cliffdweller to find such a quiz. [Sidenote: We've never heard of this file extension!]

Which File Extension Are You?

Eh?: This seems aboot right.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The South
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

The coat of many colors: Which Bible hero are you?

"Joseph! [Jacob's son]: Self-assured and proud of it, you're leadership material through and through. Hey, can you help it if other people think you know it all? You do!"

Take the test yourself.

Made you look

First time this has ever happened. Thanks for stopping by.

Up, up and away

Folks, especially those in the blogosphere, have long criticized, and deservedly so, the Oregonian for its truly dreadful website. And when it comes to the Daily O's blogs, the absence of comments has long been a sore spot. Apparently, that's about to change. Chris Snethen, the proprietor of Couv Operator, announces the advent of comments to the Daily O blogs. [We weren't able to actuate the feature, however; maybe it's just us.]

Welcome aboard, Chris. Any moment now, you too will be enjoying the commentary of the area's many political cranks, online poker websites and the many minions worried about the state of your manhood. God bless the Internet.

Comeback Jack

The unthinkable has occurred over at Jack Bog's Blog. Hackers apparently found their way into the server where his site [and others] reside, not only taking the site offline for several hours, but horror of horrors, erasing four years of his archived commentary. You don't have to know much about blogging to realize how much that sucks.

Jack vows to soldier on. He'd been looking forward to his 1 millionth hit until this calamity occurred. If there's any solace to be found in such a catastrophe, it might be that it occurred on the slowest news week of the year -- but that is very small comfort, to be sure.

Here's hoping your site is back up and running soon, Jack. The thought of city hall operating a moment without you gives us the jitters.

Update:  As of roughly 6 o'clock this evening, Jack is back up and running. And looking good, too. Welcome back, Jack.