I stared blogging in May 2005. This is my 445th blog post. I blog about my work, early stage internet VC investments, and from time to time, my interests, including art, literature and current affairs. SortiPreneur is not a widely-read blog. I have found out that person-focused blogging is not a high-traffic proposition, unless the person you're focusing on is already well known. In my case, the focus is me, and I am no celebrity.
Back in 2005, I chose TypePad as my blogging platform. I am a paying user, paying $14.95/month, since May 2005, which means I have paid over $700 to TypePad so far. I also neglected to set up my blog in a specific domain, such as Sortipreneur.com or Sertoglu.com. Instead, I blog at csertoglu.typepad.com. I now hesitate to change that due to search engine related concerns. I initially chose TypePad because my blogging inspiration Fred Wilson was blogging on TypePad.
I now regret this choice. A few weeks ago my U.S. issued credit card was canceled due to some fraudulent activity at a merchant I had patronized. This cancellation kept me without that specific card for a few days, during which TypePad tried charging that card and failed. A few days later, my account was frozen. I could not post to or edit my blog. When I received my new credit card, for some reason, it was still getting declined. Also, strangely, my otherwise functioning Turkish credit cards were also being denied by TypePad, I could not blog for over 2 weeks!
If I were starting to blog today, I'd probably go with WordPress and host my blog on my own domain. I may still opt for that, like Fred did a few months ago.
As a poet and a writer, I have to agree with Joe on the idea of constraints. Restrictions, parameters, forces of limitation: all of these require us to do what we as humans do best: problem solve. Like that lovely cliché, "necessity breeds invention": when confronted with an obstacle, a constraint, we invent. And we could say the constraint of 140 characters is as arbitrary as are the rules for writing Haiku. Yet the latter remains popular, fruitful, and (when done well) enlightening--after centuries. Does it replace the novel or the essay? No, it cannot serve the same function. Likewise, no novel can approach what Basho could in three short lines.
I suppose what I'm suggesting, really, is that like all hip content these days, it's generated by the user, and it's the user who determines quality. Just as I'm a better poet than I am a blogger or tweeter, there'll be people who'll bring the best out of the 140 character form. And I think, what'll continue to define the life cycle of the technology won't be whether there is portability or not, but rather whether Twitter or its confederates (like ExecTweets) enhance our ability to find those who, shall we say, Tweet with the Gods. Seems like these days there are plenty of worthy practitioners in every medium, but the media which survives does so on the basis that it's deliverable to the right audiences, at the right time.
Who tweets with gods? Do you have anyone you follow whose best is brought out by the 140-character limit? Twitter haiku is fun and interesting.