IPB Blogging Questionnaire: Mags Edition

Another set of answers to the IPB Blogging Questionnaire has come over the interwebs, this time all the way from the Netherlands. Mags offers a unique insight on this issue, being a regular contributer to the hockey conversation here while choosing to maintain a Live Journal rather than a hockey blog. You can read her answers here.

1. What was your motivation for starting blogging? Has that changed at all in the time you’ve been blogging?

I started blogging because I wanted to stay in contact with my friends. I have lived in a lot of places, many of which are several time zones away from where I currently reside. Keeping up a running conversation with a person who is rarely awake at the same time as you are can get very difficult. In the beginning I blogged about everything I did on a given day, and I would literally write down everything. These days I write down half of it, read it over, leave it while I go do something else for a while, re-read and then delete half again. I still blog for the benefit of my friends, it’s just not everyone who reads is a close personal friend and gives a damn what I ate for lunch or how much I miss my ex-boyfriend.

2. What do you think your blog contributes to the hockey conversation?

Absolutely bloody nothing. I don’t get to see that many live games, and by the time I’ve seen something everything has already been said. It occurred to me to just blog about the games NASN shows, but then I realised that no, I don’t give a damn about half the games they show, so what the flipping heck would I post about? So yeah, I contribute absolutely zilch.

3. What do you want to get out of the blogs you read?

Emotion, opinions, humor. I don’t much care what it is, it can be happiness, it can be fury, amusement, nostalgia, shock. If you can keep it real I’m fairly satisfied.

4. What determines which blogs you read and which you don’t?

Presentation, writing, variety, insight. If I can’t make head nor tail of a blog because there are pictures breaking up the paragraphs, or there are no paragraphs, I won’t go back to read it again. After that, if the grammar or spelling grates on my nerves, I won’t be back either. Variety speaks for itself, I’m not terribly interested in reading the same thing over and over again. Please, I go to med school, I get drilled enough. Sure, I’ll read a knitting blog or a hockey blog, but they aren’t always about the same knitting project or the same hockey game. I reckon insight and opinions matter because without them I might as well be reading a newspaper.

5. How important is the issue of gaining press access to you as a blogger?

Not at all, to me. I am a HUGE spazz when it comes to people I admire, and I admire hockey players a great deal. The fourth wall is a very safe thing I like hiding behind. It would be of no value to me, or them, for me to gain press access, considering all I would do it turn bright red, squeek like a mouse and stare at my shoes, as some of Dutch hockey guys could tell you (the shoes would be fabulous though, you understand)

To others, I can understand that in the interest of free speech and reporting all the angles, it would be important. But I reckon you would get the same spiel as the MSM, and what would be the value of that? Sure, you could present it differently, with your own opinions. But as I learned during all my classes on interpretation sources, you could do that based on a newspaper article. Then again, that is an interpretation of an interpretation, and would most likely not accurately reflect what was really said. So really, I don’t know.

6. To what extent do you feel accountable for the content of your blog? How concerned do you think readers should be about the authority and accountability of your blog?

I live my blog, so I feel hugely accountable for what I write. But in the end, they are just my opinions, just my view of what went on. Occasionally I’ll put up links to articles I found in the news that I found in some way interesting. But I won’t link to something I don’t trust (there will be no GeenStijl or ohnotheydidn’t articles counted as the absolute truth on my blog). So yeah, I have faith that everything I put on here is true, and I feel accountable for it.

7. How concerned are you about the authority and accountability of the blogs you read? Do you find it difficult to judge the authority and accountability of the blogs you read?

I’m not too concerned. I get my news from traditional sources (newspapers, radio, television) and opinions from blogs. I tend not to believe any rumours I read and treat most things as opinions instead of fact. The way the blogosphere is set up, with a system of linking and self-policing, they’re pretty good at rooting out liars and cheats. This may be my naive nature speaking, but I’ve got faith.

8. What value, if any, do you think blogging brings to the NHL?

It’s entertainment. Something the MSM is sorely lacking. It makes me happy to see someone passionate and involved in their team, for a lot of reasons. It makes me feel less crazy for being more than a little bit obsessed. It helps me stay connected to a sport I get to see in the flesh maybe once a year if I’m lucky (although we’re at 2 and counting in 2007), and a team I usually get to see nothing more of than a 5 minute highlight reel the day after the game. Blogging has introduced me to so many other fans and other teams that I would otherwise never have considered paying attention to (the Dallas Stars come to mind), and I feel that if we all stay civil and tolerant, and don’t start drawing lines, everyone benefits from this ongoing conversation about hockey.

[Originally sent in an email, 12/08/07 by Mags.]