Feminist Philosophers is closing down - reflections on blogging as service to the profession

Feminist Philosophers is closing down. I'm sad to see yet another blog go. It played such an important role for me when I was an early career scholar, a postdoc with little job security navigating an uncertain environment. For me as for many other people, Feminist Philosophers was an authoritative and distinct voice in the profession, providing a valuable service.

As I wrote in a blogpost for the Daily Nous on philosophy blogs, I see the main value of philosophy blogs as service to the profession, and perhaps also as service on a broader scale, to people who are interested in philosophy and want to learn about it in a low-threshold, friendly and open environment, away from paywalls, specialist terminology, and pleasing referees.  

Have philosophy blogs run their course? I want to briefly respond to a few points by Jennifer Saul in her farewell post on FP, not in a way to contest or criticize their decision, as I think the blog's existence was already supererogatory and I'm very grateful for the service the bloggers did over the many years of its existence. I want to just briefly look at these points to see to what extent they might apply to blogging in general, particularly blogging conceived of as service to the profession.

Jennifer Saul writes "There’s just so much more going on on, online and off, that this blog is not nearly so needed– there are lots of places to go to find out about this stuff and engage with like-minded folks. There’s also the general cultural shift from blogs to social media. Blogs still exist, but a lot of what they used to do is now done on social media."

I think it's right that there is much going on beside blogs but I am not sure if social media can replace blogging. For one thing, social media requires knowing people in a network, or even wanting to be on social media which not everyone wishes to partake in. 

When I blogged at Prosblogion, another defunct site, I was for instance struck by how many people from Africa and Asia visited our site (I had access to analytics). Many of these people rarely commented, but clearly, the Prosblogion was important to them (many returning visitors). A lot of people just lurk on blogs, not commenting but still reading over the years. So I am not sure a decline in comments (as I've perceived on all blogs I visited or partook in, with the curious exception of Crooked Timber) means there is a decline in engagement. People still read, and it's valuable for them to have access to that, they just (for various complex reasons) comment less. 

A second main point in this farewell post is "Many of us, myself included, have become increasingly pessimistic about the potential for internet-based discussions of difficult issues to help us make philosophical and real-world progress. And if I don’t think blogs are a good place to discuss stuff, it becomes a little odd to keep a blog going. Not all of us agree with this, and there may be spin-off blogs by some of our more optimistic members, which we’ll link to." 

This point worries me a bit, given the toxicity of discourse on the Internet and that thoughtful thinkers are increasingly tuning out from it because of this. We get into a vicious circle where the Internet will be increasingly owned by the shrillest voices, and one of the great things about Feminist Philosophers was that it didn't engage in that way. Very rarely did any FP post descend into a shouting contest, thanks to the excellent work of moderators and the thoughtful original posts. 

I'm not sure I agree that blogs aren't a good place to discuss stuff. I say this coming from a blog (NewAPPs) which had a fair amount of meltdowns in its heydays, and other blogs I was part of also had problematic features, but on the whole I think blogs, thanks to their openness to everyone who wishes to partake, can be a fruitful place to discuss stuff. 

I am curious about what readers of the Cocoon think. Do philosophy blogs have a future? How can we help to provide better service to the profession (and beyond)? 

Comments

[Danny]

I'm not sure I have much to add beyond what's already been said, but I want to echo the idea that social media is a replacement for blogs only for those who are already well-connected, and who are willing to either be "always on," so to speak, in their social media presences, or able to figure out some way to have two Facebook accounts or whatever.

Many people have done a great job criticizing the pernicious ways in which philosophy academia has resembled (and still resembles) an old boys' club when it comes to hiring and so on, and I don't think we want to just recreate that on Facebook by swapping out the old boys for the new tech-savvy folks of all genders.