As the blog-o-sphere continues to expand and mature, the intimate conversations that these folks are missing are now going on in the niches, such as our little corner of the finance world.

If you clamor to have 30,000 Twitter followers, you can’t turn around and complain about the bed you have made!

The conversation goes on both in the real world and virtual worlds. You I’ve met personally, and most of the rest of your list I’ve at least spoken to on the phone. And that’s the same for so many people who this stuff I think.

I was in a meeting today when a senior exec wanted to know what one of our competitors was doing… I just said I’d ring up and find out, and because of relationships built here, I could do that. In the days before the conversation, such interactions would have been impossible.

More importantly, you’ve verbalized something I’ve thought but haven’t said: That some bloggers are too caught up in their own importance. Funny, but before I read this post I hadn’t even heard of Jason Calcanis. And reading his post of his “retirement” from blogging made me want to puke.

The issue here is that somewhere along the line an “A list” was created, and, it seems to me, has never been updated.

Unfortunately for the A-listers, the blogging world has changed. With millions of blogs, and millions of blog readers, it’s no longer the tight little community it might once have been.

I’m sorry, but the “A-list pressure” that Mr. Calcanis alludes to is his own making. If he wants more intimate conversations, he should simply talk to a more narrow audience.

Well, I guess there is some good news in Mr. Calcanis’ “retirement”, Colin: One less blogging body for us to have to climb over on our way to the top! (joking)

To me, you grab/use/dive into whatever tool/site/platform is the right one to do what it is you want to do. Usually the right answer involves more than one site.

Same goes for people, topics, and conversations, as CUWarrior responded. I care only a little about general topics and news; what I really am interested in is the credit union and financial services world, and my real and imaginary, errrrrrrr virtual friends (both peeps and tweeps) in the field. I also am interested in the broader social media/networking and marketing fields, but to a lesser degree than the CU and financial world.

Ditto your thoughts below:

“What I enjoy about my blog, Rons blog, Jims blog, Williams blog, James Blog, what Brad is doing with Banktastic etc, is that they are all written by a person, speaking about his area of interest and expertise.

On the other hand we all agree, disagree, whatever, but we know and respect each others opinion, and at least for me, I learn and advance my own thinking from those conversations. Thank you by the way.”

I enjoy a bunch of the A-Listers blogs and sites and I do learn from them, but being passionate about banking, I read as many banking blogs and sites as I possibly can. This is where I really learn, from my peers.

Keep up the good work.

@dmgerbino

To me, it’s a scale issue. Calacanis and Scoble can’t keep up with the volume for one and despite being claimed (or claiming themselves) as A listers can’t keep up with profound/thought provoking posts either. It’s just really hard to do.

I think Scoble, today, doesn’t really care though. He plays the long tail numbers, keeps talking to people and having a good time at it and what else can you ask for, right? Calacanis has always drank too much of his own Kool-Aid and it just ran out so he needed a stunt. Kudos to him for it at least working a little bit though, eh?

Thanks again for the mention Colin.

I think blog readers are a fickle group. An A-lister today, may certainly be forgotten tomorrow. I don’t care so much about blogging aristocracy…I care about the conversation. If I no longer want to have a beer with you, I no longer want to read your blog. And I certainly don’t want to have a beer with someone who, like you said, is too wrapped up in his/her own importance.