When Time magazine recently named "You" -- the blogging, YouTube-ing public -- as its 2006 Person of the Year, it helped ring the death knell for articles that regard blogs as a fad or a novelty. Blogs are here to stay, as are their persistent, sometimes annoying contributions to current events. They give voices to any who want them, even if you don't want to hear them, and ring through the internet like prophetic -- or narcissistic -- voices, crying out in the wilderness of society.
Accordingly, Dartmouth's voices rarely disappoint.
In my journey into the diverse world that makes up the Dartmouth blogosphere, I came across all manner of blogs, ranging from the political to the social, from wild alumni musings to a blog devoted entirely to Dartmouth football.
In describing the blogosphere, I think it's only appropriate to start from the beginning of time. The 1960's.
George Potts '60 started the blog oldtraditions.blogspot.com to share legends of his Dartmouth experience in the late 1950s and to highlight the traditions that Potts thinks have been "slip-sliding away," as he writes at the top of the blog.
"I sensed a disdain on the part of the current administration for most of the Dartmouth traditions that we, the older alumni, had found an important part of our college experience," Potts said.
Reading parts of Potts's blog is like listening to your grandfather tell stories of the days when he was a crazy kid, but Potts includes the sex and alcohol details that your grandfather wouldn't tell you.
In Potts's "Homecoming" post, he wrote of when women were bused to Dartmouth for the weekend: "Others were already dry humping their steadies against the nearest lamp post. The more nave or horny females would never see the football game, attend the soiree, or even view a face other than their date's for the remainder of the weekend."
If stories about old Dartmouth are not your taste and you crave the musings of a more recent grad, then mucchetti.blogspot.com, the blog of Steve Mucchetti '06, will not disappoint.
The blog chronicles Mucchetti's adventures as a grad student at Auburn and whether he is making fun of people, describing the latest movie he has seen or reflecting on relationships, the witty, often sarcastic posts provide many laughs.
While at Dartmouth, Mucchetti was the writer of the daily comic "Lucky to be Here," along with Chris Mah '06.
"Most of the comics were essentially the same," Mucchetti said. "The two guys would talk about something for the first three panels, and someone would say the punchline in the fourth. That got boring after awhile. So the blog is definitely more fun."
For Mucchetti, the blog is a chance to say whatever he wants when he wants.
"I've turned it into a pretty harmless way to make fun of people," Mucchetti said, "I can say basically anything about someone and then claim that I was joking around."
In contrast to Mucchetti's lighter blog, two sites -- dartblog.com and thelittlegreenblog.blogspot.com -- examine world news and Dartmouth news. Joe Malchow '08 writes the right-wing Dartblog while Niral Shah '08 and Andrew Seal '07 write the left-leaning The Little Green Blog.
Dartblog is perhaps the most well-known of all Dartmouth blogs and according to Malchow receives an average of 1,000 hits per day, only 11 percent of which are from computers on the Dartmouth network. On days when Malchow has written an especially prominent news story he says he might get 10,000 to 20,000 hits.
Although accused of pushing conservative alumni views, Malchow downplays the importance of politics when he describes the blog.
"It is whatever strikes my fancy on any given day," Malchow said. "Lately I have been doing more writing about Sinatra. I also find so many good clips on YouTube, so I like to link to them and do little commentaries."
Malchow said the most rewarding experience he has had with his blog was last April when he posted about a marine who had survived after being shot in the head in Iraq.
"Several months later I got an e-mail from his mom who thanked me and said she had cried when she read the post," Malchow said. "She sent me pictures of him with his purple heart."
Dartblog's language often slips into the didactic, an aspect of the blog that the contributors to The Little Green Blog are not afraid to mock.
"It's sort of an agonizing thing to look at," Shah said. "It's hilariously over the top. Malchow is prematurely 55 years old."
Meanwhile, Seal criticizes the lack of a comment section on Dartblog.
"One thing I find irritating about his blog is how little he allows for other opinions," Seal said, "His blog does not have a comment section and does not allow for debate."
The Little Green Blog does have a comment section and Seal often writes unabashedly contentious posts, leading to plenty of heated comments to accompany these posts. One post, "Smurf Activity Watch: Malchow" received 19 comments after Seal wrote about Malchow, including accusations of his association with the Phrygian secret society and the observation: "I don't know how people take him seriously. I really don't."
The Little Green Blog gets 300 to 400 hits per day and the highest number of hits on a single day was between 1,200 and 1,300.
"The blog is intended to comment on different issues that affect Dartmouth students and to point out some things about the nation," Seal said.
However, Shah emphasizes that they try not to take themselves too seriously.
"In terms of politics we're definitely left of the center, but when it comes to issues on campus we are more common sense than politics," he said.
Other Dartmouth blogs focus intently on specific issues such as waywardepiscopalian.blogspot.com, written by Nathan Empsall '09. Empsall, who has aspirations of one day becoming an Episcopal priest, took the Fall term off to volunteer in New Orleans and returned to help for spring break.
"It's still like a third world country down there," Empsall said. "I can't count the number of residents who have said, 'Thank God you're here.'" Right now the blog involves narratives of Empsall's volunteer work as well as general Katrina relief news, but eventually Empsall plans to transition to a more general blog which will include his political and religious views.
Finally, for those die-hard football fans, biggreenalertblog.blogspot.com, written by Etna resident Bruce Wood, is a must-see. Wood updates the blog every day with news about the current football team, athletic department or football alums. Wood worked in the Dartmouth Athletics Department for five years and was a reporter for the Valley News for over 17 years.
"I was a reporter for a long time so I've got an awful lot of sources," Wood said, "I'm pretty good at getting stuff off the internet and I know a lot of people in the league."
"I always manage to find something to post," Wood added.
