State of the Baha’i Blogosphere

Published
by
Baquia
on April 15, 2006
in Internet
. 4 Comments

It seems every day brings with it more and more blogs written by Baha’is. This is a good development. Surprisingly, the mention of the words Baha’i or Bahai are not showing a concomitant rise in the wider blogosphere:

bahaiblogpulse.png

But quantity isn’t everything. Admittedly, most Baha’i blogs are rather very boring because they don’t really say anything. Or atleast, say anything new. Most of them fall under two main categories:

  • personal blogs
  • aggregators

The first are blogs – mostly by Baha’i youth – written about their lives. They are usually uneventful. Perhaps their immediate social group would read them to keep up with a friend. I don’t know about you but I really don’t care to read about the minutia of someone’s daily life; what music they are listening to right now, where they went to eat lunch, etc.

The second category are blogs which aggregate news about the Baha’i faith. Some of the more popular ones are bahaiblog.net and bahaiviews.blogspot.com. They regurgitate news or mentions of the word ‘Bahai’ from news sources or other websites, blogs, etc. My criticism of these types of blogs is that they are just cut and paste jobs with no thinking involved. Call me a traditionalist but I believe it is wrong to basically steal someone else’s content for your blog. If you’ve got nothing to say then the best thing is to shut up.

But there are a few blogs out there trying to go beyond the confines of these two main categories. Among these new blogs, Baha’i Twenties (defunct) shows some promise. The idea of a collaborative blog is interesting. But it hasn’t managed to get off the ground yet. Let’s give it a bit more time and see. It reminds me a bit of Spiritual Degrees. But I hope Baha’i Twenties doesn’t follow their fate.

For a list of quality blogs (containing new ideas, fresh thinking and actual convictions) check out the right hand side category under “Blogs I Read“.

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I’m always fascinated how people find my blog. Sometimes it’s through links, other times they hear about it from friends. But by far the most traffic I get is through the search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. Here is a snapshot of the top keywords that brought people to Baha’i Rants recently:

searchwords

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  • http://ebbf.org/blog Daniel Truran

    Would this Bahai blog be able to enter your “Blogs I read” list?

    In case you are not familiar with EBBF (European Bahai Business Forum), it is the Bahai Inspired organisation with the largest influence on the world of business, despite its name now present in over 60 ntaions.

    Important clarifiaction: EBBF is not about promoting business or just networking, It is only there to promote Bahai values into the world of business with our global vision a familiar (for us Bahais) “to promote the well-being and prosperity of humanity” .

    We do this by promoting a new paradigm of work and of economic system.

    Ok enough of the “sales pitch” if you feel it is interesting/worthwhile do promote it, if not no problem at all and I will come back with pleasure to your blog as it is a beautiful discovery that I made through my own favourite bahaiblog.net

    All the best and thanks for your work!
    Daniel

  • http://ebbf.org/blog Daniel Truran

    Would this Bahai blog be able to enter your “Blogs I read” list?

    In case you are not familiar with EBBF (European Bahai Business Forum), it is the Bahai Inspired organisation with the largest influence on the world of business, despite its name now present in over 60 ntaions.

    Important clarifiaction: EBBF is not about promoting business or just networking, It is only there to promote Bahai values into the world of business with our global vision a familiar (for us Bahais) “to promote the well-being and prosperity of humanity” .

    We do this by promoting a new paradigm of work and of economic system.

    Ok enough of the “sales pitch” if you feel it is interesting/worthwhile do promote it, if not no problem at all and I will come back with pleasure to your blog as it is a beautiful discovery that I made through my own favourite bahaiblog.net

    All the best and thanks for your work!
    Daniel

  • http://www.bahairants.com Baquia

    Thanks for dropping by Daniel. I’ll take a look at the link you provided.

    To answer your other question, yes, I’ve been familiar with EBBF for a long time. I used to be a member actually. My only criticism of EBBF, and the reason why I’m no longer a member, is that it’s all talk. I find this rather tragic since I believe that groups like the EBBF can spearhead the implementation of Baha’i principles. And in doing so, provide the world with a new model.

    The world is tired of talk. The world needs action. And examples of how to do things better.

  • http://www.bahairants.com Baquia

    Thanks for dropping by Daniel. I’ll take a look at the link you provided.

    To answer your other question, yes, I’ve been familiar with EBBF for a long time. I used to be a member actually. My only criticism of EBBF, and the reason why I’m no longer a member, is that it’s all talk. I find this rather tragic since I believe that groups like the EBBF can spearhead the implementation of Baha’i principles. And in doing so, provide the world with a new model.

    The world is tired of talk. The world needs action. And examples of how to do things better.