Rubenerd

Saying Om Malik (tag) is the saving grace of tech network blogging that is mostly populated with loud but homogenous material may be overstating the case, but nonetheless it's been a pleasure to be subscribed to his network of sites over the years. To celebrate GigaOm's eighth anniversary on Monday I finally got around to posting a comment :).

I know I’m late to the party and you’re probably tiring of reading them, but just wanted to pass on my own congrats for an awesome job!

There isn’t much more I can add to what people have already written here, but this one line in your post resonated with me:

But there’s been a downside to this shift, too: A certain uniformity has set in, making one tech blog largely indistinguishable from the next.

I fear it's even worse than a downside, its an endemic problem that only seems to be getting worse. Tech blogs increasingly consist of hastily written posts designed to get clicks, and they're becoming so homogeneous that often citation links to back up claims merely point to other stories from another massive blog network that offer exactly the same analysis and points. There's no original material anymore.

In your post you discuss how tech blogs used to be more personality driven compared to giant networks which I must admit I miss. In the past I could be confident that each site I was subscribed to would have different opinions and takes on issues.

I think this is why I've continued to read GigaOm network blogs while largely giving up on Gawker, CNET, AOL et al, because your writers seem to offer the best of both worlds. I think the quality of the writing is also reflected in the way people are more friendly in comment threads here and there are far fewer trolls and fanboy wars. Some comment threads on the above networks are scary.

Here's to many more conversations!

PS: I'm a Cranky Geeks viewer so I was thrilled when Sebastian joined the team. Now all we need is for you to return to the show to put Dvorak back in his place again! And where can I buy my own GigaOm shirt like the one you wore on episode 162? :)