A useful list!
The thing I'd add to that would be "fake" edubloggers - who are those that just embed someone else's RSS feed into their blog. 
That's where your point 7 breaks down, as then you have to go to the original site to see the whole message …
Emma
(and, right now, for me, servers that die, meaning that one has to move one's blog, and then reset up all the links to it!) 

I can't see why you object to anonymous blogging. Plenty of teachers work in circumstances where telling the truth about their school in a public forum could get them fired and brought before the GTC. Look at that journalist who exposed behaviour in a school for a TV documentary.

Hi,
interesting list, I guess it depends what you think a blog is for. After years of blogging I am still not sure I know yet.
Personally I don't mind bad grammar  or poorly written post (my own blog is full of typos and poor sentence construction so I can't complain about others), I want something interesting and exciting. That might be something I can use next week in my class or play with myself.
I've live blogged occasionally and been told it was worthwhile despite poor typing. As someone who is class based and hardly ever gets out (sniff) I have often enjoyed following a conference from afar and it is interesting getting multiple views of the same presentation. (I'd be interested in the better tools though?).
What does annoy me; lack of attribution, distortion of facts & figures.
On point 5, I share my del.icio.us links in my rss feed (as do others) rather than my blog, would this be more or less irritating for someone who uses a feedreader?

Hi, Doug. I agree with most of these things - that is to say they irritate me, too. And some of them I need to be careful I don't do too much myself. But I'm confused on one point… I had to click through to the site to read this post… your posts appear only in a truncated "summary "format in reader (and it is annoying, especially since I usually like to see the whole post in your case). Am I subscribed to the wrong feed or something? I'd love a full text feed of this site.

Yeah, partial feeds make me weep.

Just a Few Complaints…

Doug, an edublogger from the UK, has eight things about edublogs that irritate him.
Let’s see how many of his hot buttons I manage to hit around here.
1. Post anonymously or who don’t give their full names.
Well, I don’t spread it around…

Doug, blogging is for the blogger, not the reader.
 That the reader is along for the ride, and has something to say, well, ain't that special?
 Glad you had fun blogging this one!
 Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
[19] http://mguhlin.net 

Interesting. You don't feel any obligation to your readership?

[…] Belshaw, teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk August 3, 2007 [原文链接]  [ […]

[…] Belshaw, teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk August 3, 2007 [原文链接] [ […]

Not to be pointing any fingers, but gratuitous use of photos is a problem for me. I'm stuck with a dial-up connection, living on the edge of the planet as I do, and photos tend to make the pages load slowly. Embedded video without any explanation or analysis…I just click on by.
Haloscan comment windows on Blogger completely piss me off (again, maybe a bandwidth issue; they take forever to load).
The little Snap preview windows that pop up when you roll over a link are a nuisance.

I agree with you about the partial RSS. 
Personal stuff is OK, if the person is interesting.
This was interesting.

Re: Mark Wagner's question about the partial RSS. Me, too. Google Reader leaves us with a link to (more…) after the word, "picky." 

How many people actually use an rss reader or more importantly know how to? How many people actually have the time to correct all of the things that upset you?

Doug, I agree with most of your points.
I'm very happy to see there I'm not the only one to be  annoyed by very long del.icio.us  lists!!
So I'd add "very very long posts" to the list. I [20] blogged about it some weeks ago.. (in Italian, sorry..)
I don't completely agree with separating private life, work, leisure in blogs. I often like some "generalist" blogs: sometimes you can find useful info from non-strictly-professional topics. For me it is perhaps only a question of "good taste"…
Furhtermore, there are categories and categories RSS too..

My only real gripe - Edubloggers who talk about being globally connected but then fill their posts with US centric jargon and assumptions about the need for School 2.0 without any recognition that other education systems exist in the world and have worthwhile programs. Don't believe me - check out how many people have signed into Edublogger World Ning citing only their (US) state to explain where they hail from!

Dan:
Not really. I just want to document my experiences, and while I hope some will be useful to the readership, it is the experience of doing so that is most rewarding. The "readership" is wonderful, but can be an obstacle to blogging.
If I can't have fun writing, no one will read it.
Hope that makes sense, Dan.

Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
[21] http://mguhlin.net

Completely concurr with you, Doug.  However, along with the other Doug (Noon), I feel that if you are interested in the blogger then you'll read the blog & subscribe to the feed, despite the irritations!!!

Initially I was irritated by your list and was going to say something snarky about how this type of blog item irritates me because it's way too judgmental. Then I recalled the famous Voltaire quote, I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Of course, I may ignore your blog from now on. Sorry, just couldn't resist being snarky!

[…] are gettin’ hot, blowin’ up, over at Doug’s blog, with 8 things that irritate [him] with edublogs. Lotsa comments. ¶ My contribution: “people who tell me I’m wrong.” Yeah! Hate […]

Miguel, I don't know why, I just feel like that sort of it's-all-about-me attitude would spread a smile across Andrew Keen's face wherever he is right now.  Though, maybe that attitude is widespread and I just missed the memo.
[Okay, p.s., hovering over the submit button I think I got it.  When responsible people adopt that attitude (such as yrself) the result is the relaxed, easy reading you describe.  When irresponsible people adopt that attitude I feel like the result is sloppy, unfocused, what-i-ate-for-breakfast shaggy-dog stories, the sort Andrew Keen decried.
That attitude doesn't seem to inspire the question, how can I bring value to those around me?, when I feel like that question oughtta inform basically everything we do.]

En fin, soy anónimo…de los que irritate you…pero hay quienes creemos en el anonimato como producto de un desarrollo popular…la literatura de cordel, el medioevo español, …en fin una cantidad de producción literaria de primera calidad  en la que lo importante no es el autor, sino los procesos.
Escribir 1 o 5 posts no significa nada, ¿cuál es la cantidad que marca la calidad? Mon dieu, si los grandes lo supieran todos los dias escribirían 2 libros si fuese ese el número.
Olvidas el proceso colectivo y vives de la identificación yoística, de la importancia del individuo que fabrica, frente al proceso cultural que se desarrolla entre todos y que no es un invento moderno de la web 2.0.
En fin, buen blog…y que sepas que te llames Doug Belshaw’s  a mi me da igual, yo tengo mi identidad en internet, se llama eraser, no es mi nombre verdadero y que?..crees que tendré oportunidad de conocerte algún día…cambia algo eso si te llamas doug o sanani bendito.
En fin, como decía doña Margaret Thatchert:[22]
 "Ser poderoso es como ser una dama. Si tienes que andar diciéndoselo a la gente, es que no lo eres."

You write such a fantastically informative blog that I don’t
care whether or not you write it as Mr. Belshaw, Mr. Ed, Dr. Seuss or Madame
Pomfroy.  What’s important to me isn’t
open or anonymous blog authorship. 
What I look for is meaningful, connectable, entertaining, and/or thought-provoking
content.  It’s disappointing to
learn that your tolerance threshold is low on the anonymity issue.
 
Of course, I am hoping that you might change your mind on
this one.

[…] Plugins « 8 things that irritate me with edublogs […]

[…] I’m too busy, I’m too tired” etc etc. And I scarily might be fitting some of Doug’s Irritating Edublog Criteria, so I’m gonna try and suck it up and come back with some useful posts, a bit of Ed, a bit of […]

[…] way back into the “edublogosphere” when I came across Doug Belshaw’s post “8 things that irritate me with edublogs.”  It got a few people talking that I’ve traded comments with in the past, and it […]

I agree with your list.  Sometimes everybody (I read) is blogging about what someone else said–it's a preaching to the choir kinda thing.

[…] 8月3日的贴å­Â?Stephen引çâ€?¨äº†ä¸€ç¯‡ä¸Žä»–产çâ€?Ÿå…±é¸£çš„文章，列举了教育Blog中八ç§Â?让人çâ€?Ÿæ°â€?的现象： […]

Whoah. After taking a couple of days off from email and blogging, I come back to see I've stirred up a bit of a hornets nest…

Not doing this in real time, there's no way I can respond to each of you individually. Sorry. 

@Miguel: yes, I used to think that blogging was mostly about me. And that's still true, to some extent; but there's also an obligation one has to the readership that is built up. 

@Mark: I'm syndicating full-fat feeds here via Feedburner, but after reading Doug's comment, I've realised that because I have to use the <-more-> tag to produce a summary on the front page, that affects Google Reader. The blog could do with a redesign, so I'll set to it ASAP.

Update: Eric Hoefler has thoughtfully responded to this post at his blog [23] Sicheii Yazhi in a post entitled [24] Metablognitive Questions. Eric’s blog is actually one I unsubscribed from recently - not because of the content (which is great) but because he’s off travelling the world after resigning his job and I didn’t think he’d have much time/inclination to dwell on education-related issues. Perhaps I need to keep an eye on his blog after all! In that post he makes a number of excellent points and links to [25] Blog Advice from Winnie the Pooh, which has to be worth a read…

[…] to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! Many thanks to those who commented on the recent post 8 things that irritate me with edublogs. As a result of the feedback, I’ve realised that the previous design, although looking decent […]

Point #4 is a major peeve for me. There are so many self-appointed edublogger experts who have no problem declaring paradigms and delineating what good teaching is — who have not taught a real class, with real students and all the attendant problems, sometimes in over a decade. (Teaching graduate students doesn't count.) Cut out the hopping from one ed-tech conference to the next and put yourself in the trenches, and I'll start putting weight to your commentary. Point #3 is only a problem if the different aspects of the blog really have nothing to do with each other. I blog about education AND geeky stuff because I find that each one of those things drives the other in my role as a college math professor. If I were to split off the geek/tech stuff into a separate blog, I think the two resulting blogs wouldn't sum up to 100% of the original. I'm with you on #8 as well. Who wants to read somebody's notes from a presentation? Dull stuff indeed. (Side peeve: People who call presentations "presos".) 

[…] view is necessary for making sense of the information we get from blogs. As I said in my comment on Doug Belshaw’s post, Personal stuff is OK, if the person is interesting. No matter what a blog is about, I think that […]

8 things that IRRITATE? 
Interesting choice to force some into the 'bad' column, and a new list into the 'good' column. But could it have been woven together in a way that invited collaboration rather than discriminated based on pet peeves? 
Curious. 
The first questions that came to my mind as I read the list:
"How could Doug have written this list in a positive way that invites people in rather than causes them to agree/disagree based on personality differences and what side of the table they sit on? 

Could he have said, I prefer when we do not use a single country as the center of all references? 

Could he have said, I appreciate greatly when I can easily subscribe to a blog? 

Could he have said, a real name and profile and contact info allows me to engage that writer on a much deeper level? 

Could he have said, all professional experience is of value in shifting the larger questions surrounding education, and in particular I value those teachers who are still in the classroom with kids each day?

Could he have said,  I love a good link but I much prefer getting to know why it mattered to the blogger and to have them add something to the conversation?

Could he have said, humility impresses the pants off of me, especially when they could be much bolder about their past/resume? 

Could he have said, single blog posts tightly written over time allow me to really resonate, even though at times I understand that some folks write more and faster?

Could he have said, while I'd love to sit in every fascinating conference in the world, there is something that even live-blogging can't give me…which is why I appreciate when someone really finds the key salient points in a sessions and re-distills them in a new way?

After all, each of the aforementioned Q's implies the less-desirable, but re-focuses it on the 'what matters most' side of the coin. One inspires a longer conversation based on everyone have to challenge their assumptions and natural tendencies. One only inspires reactions based on our biases/preconceptions.  Or so it seems. 
Been mulling the list (and post as a whole) over for a bit, Doug, and have to say that I fall prey to the majority of points you called out as irritating.  Truth be told.  Don't recall a 'memo' going out to all edubloggers when I first started…but I acknowledge the veracity of your post. Hardly going to throw myself under the bus for it, but I do find it intriguing to look closely at the mirror.
That being said, I'm not sure what we gain — individually or collectively — by writing a list that forces folks into one camp or another at the pet peeve level.  Granted, I'll own up to failing on 5, maybe 6 of your list.  Not running from that reality check.  Sort of liberating to think through it, actually.  But what now?  
At the end of the day, on a personal or professional level, I'm curious what is gained by putting a list of irritants out there that divides 'edubloggers' (or any cohort group) into those that fail or succeed on some 'tactical' list that is more based on personal preference rather than strategic big picture thinking?  
The test of validity comes down to one thing for me: if you read and/or subscribe to the blog, it doesn't matter if they fail on one or all.
All you have to do is hit "erase", "unsubscribe"…or simply let the blog in question fade.  Since there is no governing stature that declares what is and is not a 'good' blog, the market decides.  You are the market.  Hate the blog for being any-country-centric or not having strong design sensibilities with their template or not grasping the 'obvious' RSS-imbedding structure?  No worries. Just stop reading.  Temporarily or forever.  No matter.  No worries. No regrets.
Its a moot point, really.  Reader loses interest?  Reader moves on.  To
try to shake down the tree and have all the bloggers' characteristics
fall into good or bad piles seems to be a limitation of human spirit,
not of the collective responsibility of any blogger.
We need to stop worrying about the tactical intricacies of one blog vs. another on any of these 8 items…and accept that the market — i.e. readers — will dictate if it matters.  There is NO point to trying to shape a collective 'blogging' style; on the other hand, we can focus on only reading what matters to us…and also realizing that what irritates us often leads us somewhere vital at the end of the day.
Finally, here's my over/under on where I fall on the list of 8 irritants (for what it's worth):

It's pretty obvious who I am.  The anonymous issue isn't an issue on my blog.  While I am a proponent for full disclosure, I do recognize that some will literally be fired for blogging, or for one reason or another must walk a thin line of anonymity at first.

Big themselves up to big is a problem I can be accused of. Anytime I reference something I have done in the past, or any current project, this runs the risk of being too self-reflective.  Always good to wonder if I'm crossing the line.  I probably am too often. The only counter measure that I offer is that I try to big others up even more…
I fail 100% on the personal/professional mash-up. NO apologies.  Try to find a pattern that each shares, but in truth, I'm not the NYTimes (or name the magazine/newspaper from country of choice), so I'm not held to the entirely objective/professional fire.  Frankly, blogs that ONLY talk about the latest gadget or meeting wear me out.  And I stop reading. Blogs that offer too much of what they did for dinner last night also wear me out.  A dynamic blend, however, keeps me wired in!
Should there be a rule that ONLY teachers with a paycheck from a K-12 school in the last 3 months be given blogs?  Or allowed to use the 'edublogger' phrase in direct/indirect terms?  One could easily argue from both sides.  Teachers are too close to to-do list to look at the big picture. Consultants are phoning it in.  Admins, somewhere in between have both problems.  Or, we could spend our time appreciating the 'pattern' of voices of those that are stakeholders on all fronts.  Again, we can easily unsubscribe to any non-teacher in our RSS feed.  The power of the market. Or we can let the gestalt of the stakeholder entries create a synergy of ideas to consider as we move forward on our own professional/life path.  Just a thought.  But after 3 years of being a consultant (as I started blogging) after 10+ years of teaching full-time, and now preparing to go back to teaching full-time in 2 weeks…I can say without hesitation that arguing that one or the other has more credibility is a red herring. Quality is quality, regardless of title.
I went through the post a list of links stage for a while as a 'young' blogger.  I try not to now; I also never read when others do it. But if they choose?  C'est la vie.  Their call. A 'learning' process, most claim, where they are using their blog as a way to process info on their terms, not on their audience's terms.  But again, if the reader is bored with lists of links, the reader should scram and go chase more attractive posts.
Post too much. If there is a blogging guillotine, my head is on the block, for sure!  Since people write differently — not only style, but also speed and length and topic coverage — it would seem that bloggers will undoubtedly follow different patterns.  Not sure 1-a-day suggests depth.  Nor that 15 a day suggest something insipid.  Quality is quality, and is never a quantity issue.  Granted, some do their best thinking 'on occasion'. Others, like me, never claim to be strong every time - heck, 1 out of 10 makes me happy - and frankly will blog 'at speed' in ways that others will not.  Again, put me in the front of the line for the guillotine.  Chop, chop!
Many blogging platforms make the partial feed a default, so therefore it's a personal preference.  I tried both.  I found I'd rather do the entire thing on my blog at one time, but I have other blogs I appreciate that they use a paragraph to tease your interest into reading the full feed.  Either way, click the link if interested; move on if not.
Cut-n-paste is an odd syndrome; so is live-blogging.  So tempting.  My feeling is that I derive NO pleasure from doing it myself, but I also know that some others are doing it so that they can 'capture' the notes for later consideration.  Having an audience is secondary.  Would I prefer that someone NOT just cut-n-paste a live-blog presentation?  Sure.  But again, I just don't read them.  But I'd never demand that they choose otherwise.

Again, I found myself indicted on several fronts.  No ducking that, Doug.  But I also wonder where the conversation would go if you had listed not a 'bad' list one day and a 'good' list another, but instead shifted to the "what inspires me" blend from the beginning.  Just a curiosity.
Thanks for being front-n-center on my feed team.
Cheers,
Christian 

@Christian: thanks for the lengthy response. You see the problem is (as Robert highlighted), it's easy to say that not being in the classroom gives you 'insights'. And I'm sure it does. The time I spend in the library in the holiday towards my Ed.D. certainly gives me a different view of the world. But even in the holidays I can forget what it's like day-to-day.

So even former teachers need to remind themselves from time-to-time what it's like to be in the classroom every day - with all the pressures and expectations and emotions and relationships to juggle whilst considering the latest next-big-thing. No-one's doubting any edublogger's commitment to education here. Just sometimes a reality check is in order…

Doug: Everything comes down to the thesis, I believe. 
We often get wrapped up in tactics and evidence when we should be really nailing down our underlying argument. With regards to being "in the classroom", it is vital to establish what we are trying to lay claim to as bloggers.  If one is focused on the day-to-day interaction with students, it makes sense to discredit those who are not grading papers each day.  If one is focused on systemic change, it makes sense to in some odd way to discredit those who are only in the classroom grading papers one day.  Or, if one is a bit more human on both accounts, it behooves us to seek both types of 'insights' (and all that lies between them) at the end of the day…not to force people into one camp or the other.
For me, it is about 'learning' by any means necessary, from all sources and stakeholders, and from all professional vantage points.  I am not interested in locking into ONE type of voice, nor in down-playing their strengths because they don't have red-ink on their hands in the last 24 hours.  

On a common sense and philosophical level, it is fair to say that anyone who steps away from any domain loses 'touch' with the details.  A life truism, not just a teaching nod.  At the same time, perspective — by its very natures — demands multiple points of view to remain relevant.  Yes, relevant.  The oft-used 'in the trenches' disclaimer can be lofty, profound, healthy, and down-right naive depending on how diverse the user's experiences are as an 'educator'.  
The irony for many tech-enthusiasts who teach and love the 2.0 tool shift is that if we divided those who 'use' from those who do 'not', nothing would change.  If we spend all of our time down-playing the value of those who do not blog or podcast (et al), then we'd see very little change at the end of the day.  Same thing if we divide into those who are today 'in the trenches' and those who are gathering 'insights' from a distance into 2 camps.  Again, nothing changes systemically, nothing changes in our own professional acumen, and nothing changes in the way we see/think as individuals on this planet.
Personally, every voice I consider is my reality check.  It is up to me to weave them into a larger truth, not to demand that they replicate an experience I am having in full or part.
All that being said, you also know what commitment I've made recently in terms of choosing to return to a teacher's life.  By no means minimizing the importance of what that will do for me in the coming months/years as a blogger. But also not willing to wave too large a flag of professional importance just because I'll be back in front of a blackboard again…or at least not demand that my fellow bloggers who consult, speak, manage, admin, research, or write in lieu of full-time teaching should feel sheepish for their contributions or their POV's.
Again, thanks for pushing my thinking.  Keep on keepin' on, as the good Reverend Bob Dylan reminds us.
Cheers,
Christian 

[…] to let you know how I discovered this nugget. I first read the qouted blog entry and went to the orginal entry. I read the comments of the orginal entry which led me to the post I am commenting on. I have not […]

[…] Mr. Belshaw asks what irritates about edubloggers. Here’s my list: […]

[26] People blog for different reasons:   Live and let live. Also, some prefer the "short" RSS feed: each blog entry takes up less space and you can quickly scan the few lines and decide if you want to read the whole thing or not. Google's new offline reader thingy might be just the ticket for some folks. 

Hmmm. There is no way I'm going to start a blog after this!

@Christian: OK, OK. We all accept the point that insights can be made by non-practitioners. I (and probably others) just get frustrated when things are painted in such a simplistic fashion by 'outsiders'…

@Marco Polo: Perhaps, but it's best to cater to the majority and give flexibility. 

@Nick: Why not? You know what not to do now…  

well doug… you got me to clear up some stuff on my blog. Damn you Belshaw! last thing i needed was more work

This is a thought-provoking list, and I agree with a lot of these. I’m interested in your beef with anonymity, though, and when I trolled the comments, I didn’t get a sense of why you have an issue with it. I and many teachers blog anonymously in order to protect the privacy of our students and colleagues - I wouldn’t want students reading my blog and thinking, “Hey, I remember when that happened, and that’s what she really thought about that **** kid who caused that problem!” In order to blog as honestly as possible, and to engage in self-examination without too much self-consciousness, anonymity can be very helpful.

[27] http://siobhancurious.wordpress.com/

@Dave: About time!

@Siobhan: Why don’t I like anonymous blogging? Because if you want to let off steam without everyone knowing you can write it in your diary. Despite what Miguel says, blogging is as much about the community as what you have to say. You can’t be an anonymous member of a community…

Interesting. If I thought that blogging was always about “letting off steam,” I guess I’d agree with you. But I think it’s entirely possible to be a member of a community under an assumed name. I don’t imagine it matters much to the person reading my blog regularly in Saudi Arabia what my actual name is. I hope that the content of my ideas, experiences and reflections is what matters.

That being said, I fully support your right to be annoyed!