The subject of A-list, Z-list bloggers may be getting a bit long in the tooth, but it does strike a nerve with many. I’ve had a fairly compelling comment exchange with Elaine Vigneault on this Blogging Class Warfare post I wrote. She wrote her own post that’s worth checking out to get a slightly different take on the issue, that made me think a bit more about who has certain privileges in technology and blogging.

Some of her points:

• In many countries, even in wealthy parts of Europe and Canada, many people still do not have home computers. They are a luxury item, not a necessary work related need.
• I came across a “blog” the other day submitted to 2k Bloggers. The blog was a series of articles written in HTML tables. This guy doesn’t get trackbacks or widgets. He doesn’t tag his posts or check his Technorati rank or see who’s linking to him and go over to their blogs and comment. Technorati wouldn’t even recognize his website as a blog! My point is that the web has developed so quickly and it’s so exciting that some of us forget about who gets left behind and how.
• Do you think A listers turn off comments on a post because they can’t afford to pay the hosting bill for 300 comments? Blue collar bloggers do.

Her observations did make me take a step back and realize a few things about my own blogging experience. I have a master’s degree and my profession is web design - I do HTML hand coding and Flash stuff every day. I was introduced to WordPress by a friend because I wanted to learn more pHp and MySQL. I already had a domain name, and the technical aspects of blogging has proved to be nearly effortless. Tweaking a theme, uploading it to the server, getting it all running, wasn’t anything I struggled with, and was just that - tweaking.

Because I found the technical aspects relatively easy, I obviously had more time to start jumping into the writing aspect and study what I didn’t know (SEO, blog etiquette, feeds) right off the bat.

Worrying about a computer, affording hosting, high-speed access, or time to blog has been a non-issue. And that’s worth noting.

While I may not agree with Elaine’s 2000K bloggers project to where I’d participate in it, I do agree that the blogging A-List exists (it’s the whale), and there’s a lot of advantages many of the A, B, C list has that aren’t really being acknowledged.

Even just sitting here, in a hotel room in Tokyo, able to afford high-speed Internet and blog rather frivolously while on paid vacation is a statement in itself.

The least I can do is link to people who write stuff that makes me think, which is the purpose of this post, and a big part of blogging.

Additional Reading: Neomeme

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