Judging Gun Blogs, Part 2

gun blogs, the good bad and ugly, part 2Yesterday’s post on judging a gun blogs was intended to lay down the groundwork, so that today we could get into the dirty details. Think of these two posts not as tearing down other bloggers or sites, but as public service announcements.

They just want to get the best information out there.
I wouldn’t expect any writer to have purely altruistic intentions, but when it comes to gun bloggers, I often look for signs that the site puts content ahead of other distractions. This may mean that ads and endorsements are kept to a minimum. This is not to say that ads are a sign of a bad site; On the contrary, ads can be good for establishing that a manufacturer believes in the content a blogger is offering. However, readers should be sensitive to biased reviewers.

Putting out the best information can also mean, admitting that one doesn’t know everything.

Caleb once said to me that one who starts a blog, probably has at least a little bit of an ego.

Of corse this has to be true. Anyone who writes down their thoughts, and places them in as public a location as the inter-webs, must think that their thoughts are worthy of being read by anyone who had access. The thing is, there are a lot of gun-blogs out there. If we just counted up the blogs written by “certifiable” “experts” there would probably be enough to cover as many types of shooting techniques as we can list. So if someone else wants to throw in their two cents, rather than repeating information that is already available, they should be willing to direct readers to quality sources.

Repetitive content is not only wasteful of readers’ time, it also shows stagnation. Remember “tea-cupping”? It used to be the grip taught by most instructors and there are still some grandfathers out there teaching it to kids. However, if I saw a lesson that included this method of grip, I wouldn’t trust any of the information from that point on. The same goes for shooters and blog writers. We must grow and growth takes time. Therefore, over time, a reader should see a gun blog develop. The beauty of blogs is that one can usually go back and read a bloggers very first post. A reader should see growth of skills, topics covered and choices in products reviewed. A gun blog may add writers and develop their site with design and structure. Still, these changes should not shadow the main point, offering up good content, but they can be a sign of good things to come.