I have noticed quite a bit of debate going on concerning Nicholas Carr's recent post.

Here are what I consider the major points of interest:

• "What we tell ourselves about the blogosphere - that it's open and democratic and egalitarian, that it stands in contrast and in opposition to the controlled and controlling mass media - is an innocent fraud."

• "But sometimes it feels vaguely depressing to write something, put it up and wait anxiously for someone to reply via comment or link."

• "The powerful have a greater stake in the perpetuation of an innocent fraud than do the powerless. Long after the powerless have suspended their suspension of disbelief, the powerful will continue to hold tightly to the fraud, repeating it endlessly amongst themselves in an echo chamber that provides a false ring of truth."

• "The best way, by far, to get a link from an A List blogger is to provide a link to the A List blogger. As the blogosphere has become more rigidly hierarchical, not by design but as a natural consequence of hyperlinking patterns, filtering algorithms, aggregation engines, and subscription and syndication technologies, not to mention human nature, it has turned into a grand system of patronage operated - with the best of intentions, mind you - by a tiny, self-perpetuating elite."

Someone apparently forgot to email me regarding how blogging was created solely as an opposing force to mass media. I also wasn't told that the value of my thoughts/blog is directly proportional to the number of comments I receive or the number of links I get to "A list" bloggers. If this is true, I am certainly a big loser. This isn't news to me, so I will press on.

There is no elite "A List" in the blogosphere. Or rather, there are multitude of "A Lists", depending on what you are interested in and find important. There are also B, C, and D lists. People naturally categorize content, but each individual rates the same content in different ways. Rory is in my A List, but he is not even an interesting read to my wife. I find Scoble interesting at times, but I do not consider him in my A list. Do you see where I am going here? Google doesn't have a static list of the elite A list bloggers for us to link and pander to. Any guy who wants to buy a domain and setup some blogging software can become the next big thing. All he/she has to do is provide content that people are interested in.

There are definitely some technical mechanics that affect a blog's traffic and search engine ranking. It is definitely cool to be the first or second result in Google, or to have a large readership. But in the end the content your provide or the thoughts you expose on your blog are what counts. Blogging is just a means of expression. If you are truly passionate about expressing yourself or communicating with others, people will find you if they are interested in what you have to say.