It’s July 2008. Robert Scoble walks the early morning iphone3G line yelling “you’re live on the internet” while broadcasting live on his Nokia phone via Qik.com. But does anyone care what he’s doing or knows who he is? From the looks of the dreary eyed people in line, the answer is no, they just want to get their iphone and go home.
Later that same day, Jason Calacanis decides to tell the world he’s quitting blogging in a dramatic long-form blog post. Six months ago, this might have caught on and made the front page of Techmeme (for those who still read it), but right about now, most people are calling drama or bullshit.
Are you catching my drift? The thing we like to call “the a-list” is fading away. In fact, I think it might be already dead. Guys like Scoble and Winer and Calacanis and Arrington, and the rest, well, someone stole their mojo and they’re trying really hard to get it back by grasping at straws by trying to build the hugest Friendfeed list, for example.
But they’re not going to be able to get it back, even with a biggest list of subscribers. Their mojo has been stolen.
The a-list, if you ever believed there was such a thing (there was), is dying. No, let me clarify, it’s dead. It’s been eliminated. Not because those are bad people or they did anything wrong…
But because it’s just not needed anymore.
Years ago I was the publisher of a group “meta” blog called Revenews.com. When I took over the blog, we were still at a point on the Internets when it wasn’t common place for everyone to have their own blog. Because of that, Revenews was a sought after place to blog at because of its reputation and reach. It was needed by many.
But guess what happened to Revenews after a while? It was no longer needed. Why? Because at some point in time the bloggers who once needed Revenews to get their name and thoughts out there figured out that they didn’t really need Revenews anymore and they could simply do it on their own.
It was about that same time when the a-list was born. These titans of tech and attention weren’t stuck working on “meta” blogs like the rest of us. They instead stood out and took risks and put themselves out there and made personal names for themselves.
They were needed.
In fact, it can be argued that we, their audience, created the a-list out of a want of leaders and innovators. It became our own Frankenstein, and we loved our baby Frank. We coddled him and praised him and wiped his ass, and yes, scolded him when he made a mistake, but like any child, we forgave him in the end.
So here we are, years later, watching our Frankenstein grow up, grow old, and fade away into oblivion. It’s not because we don’t love him anymore, but simply because we just don’t need him anymore.
So why did the a-list die?
I’m sure you’ve got your own reasons. I don’t presume to have the right answers, but I have opinions. Here are some.
The a-list died because of social networking tools. It used to be that connecting with thousands of people could only be done if you had massive reach like an a-lister. However, with tools like Friendfeed and Twitter, anyone can reach out and “friend” up with anyone, causing millions of new connections of regular people.
The a-list died because the sharing of information became easier to do. In the past, the a-list was in charge of spreading the virus, but today is no longer needed, we can do it ourselves.
The a-list died because we used to have to rely on them to innovate and guide us to the new things. But we don’t need that anymore. We’ve reached a point where we have the knowledge and the tools to try things ourselves.
The a-list died because we’re tired of them and their incessant drama and posturing for attention. We all just decided enough was enough and called bullshit. It was bound to happen.
The a-list died because guys like Loren Feldman exposed them and made them just regular. You may or may not like Loren or his shtick, but there’s no denying he was a big part of satirizing them and bringing them crashing down to the ground.
It’s over. The revolution happened overnight and we didn’t even know it. We’re all now in charge, together, as one big group collective.
The a-list is dead.
A-list or not, I find TechCrunch interesting and even valuable sometimes. Scoble — iditotic, self-agrandizing windbag. Calcanis, never bothered reading. Winer, read once or twice and found nothing interesting (he seemed pissed off in both the visits I made in fact). I'm not interested in celebrity in the slightest. Provide useful and interesting content that is original and not just repeating what others say (a la Scoble) and I'll read.
Somewhere along the way, many of the (self) annointed A-Listers forgot that it's social media, and started using these wonderful tools as BROADCAST media. They stopped promoting smart ideas, and started promoting themselves.
And that just ain't too interesting…
Meh, there are far more people willing to lap up any content created by Kevin Rose than those living in the social media world. There's still an A-List (for now). I don't even see it as wounded.
In the future, I think I will see a lot of independent and niche-driven “Mini-A-Lists” if you will… but looking to a small group of people that end up as celebrities will never go away. It's the way of the world.
There's an a-list? Wow, ok so what happened to reading and following those who happen to have the background, experience and perhaps a little bit of difference to them that your attention is grabbed regardless of whether or not they are well-known or well-loved by all around them? It's high school all over again.
No freakin comments? Well, I for one enjoyed the piece. Right to the point, not a word wasted and no blame attached. I don't know if it's because I just don't care or what but these A-listers have not factored into my life AT ALL. The same as network primetime news – never watched em, never cared.
PS. oh the comments are down there below this field. Nevermind.
PPS After reading the comments, some people are in serious denial. These peopler didn't get to he A-list by being self-appointed. They got the traffic from somewhere. … I am not in a tech / geek (used in the nicest possible way) industry and simply had no need to follow these people.
The a-list died because individuals with minimual journalistic talent and/or experience adopted the blogging medium early. Because it was novel and because a lot of people were out of work due to the dot com bubble bursting, they garnered a following.
Now its five years latter. The professional journalists have adopted the medium, writing quality content on a regular basis is hard, and for most of the audience the novelty has warn off and they are back to work and don't have the time or interest to read sub par content.
True,as social media has changed, the present 'A listers' have failed to change with it.
There's probably a natural arrogance that tends to go with being on an A list of any sort, but if those on it don't learn to flow with the tide, they go the way of the dinosaur!
It's a little black and white but I like Steve's answer.
excellent – the d-list is the new A-ist ;-) shades of but for a typo in the original, “the geek shall inherit the earth.”
I agree – the social network and the ease of the tools gives everyone the opportunity to make their point “pimp” their blog and have their say. The mere fact that I came to this via a “re Plurk” makes the point entirely. Welcome to the new age – but please learn the etiquette. That is the message – despite what we think there are rules and if broken like any form of communication you will be excluded.
Great points Mack.
LOL. How prophetic!
Yeah, I thought about not using it Steve, but there it was in the #3 google images result for Scoble. I figured it was fair game?
That's pretty much what I alluded to in my piece Mark, we agree.
But will these new stars be as big as the old stars were? I don't think we'll duplicate what happened once do to the reasons I stated above.
Yeah, people are still paying attention to guys like Scoble. There's nothing wrong with that. I follow him and I like reading his thoughts My point was that “his kind” is not needed as much anymore.
GREAT points Shawn.
Select blog stars will become much larger and morph into global columnists. Makes me think of HuffPo, that's not even a blog anymore.
Some bloggers will always post 10x a day, the usefulness of this schedule will become less important to most readers. Think NYT op-ed page.
People love the quickness of blogs, but I would does that help them do you job better or become more efficient or make more money? Not for the majority of readers.
Maybe I'm too focused on the post-anytime nature of blogs today, but still, I'd rather read and write longer though pieces than 150 words several times a day. Still, I think today's A-listers are brealy breaking the surface. Just wait until blog translation services start to emerge and China is reading you.
Absolutely fair game, and very funny. I had the opportunity to get to know Shel at the SNCR New Communications Forum in California in April. He and I are both Senior Fellows of SNCR, so it was nice to meet in a peer setting. He's quirky, snarky, and very funny. Don't know Scoble, but he's made a very successful brand of himself.
Great post Jim. I think the one point you don't address is that tech used to = blogging. Now it doesn't (not even close), but the tech guys don't realize that most people could care less about geekery… blogging is not about technology, it's about people. The more “normal” the blogging demographic looks, the less relevant the nerd herd.
Good post there..
This is what i agree with entirely -
The a-list died because we’re tired of them and their incessant drama and posturing for attention. We all just decided enough was enough and called bullshit. It was bound to happen.
Yeah, great point Brian. Tech used to “be” blogging mainstream, you're right.
Not sure I consider myself a geek, just an accountant who has an interest and aptitude for technology more than the average CPA. I heard about this post from Twitter, which all of my accounting readers are scared to death of. Except the ones at the beginning of their careers (and a few other hybrids like me.) The 20-somethings are into everything , 24/7, and don't call it “social media.” It just is. And they don't wait for permission from anyone to reach out or to give their opinion. I like that and they push and pull me to to do what I've always done, network, only using new tools. Scoble, Calacanis, Arrington? Might as well be Rocky and Bullwinkle to me and to the 20-somethings. As obscure as those cartoon characters except for the fact sometimes they show up and assume everyone is going to be entertained.
What about the concept of the A-list now being supported by the media? Mike Arrington remains large because he jumps on TV every so often. Maybe the A-list isn't as strongly defined as it used to be, but I still think getting on CNBC is a milestone that separates you from those who haven't been on.
Shawn, tacky and entitled is SOOO true.
Man you did a very good job of putting it in perspective.
Paul
Great post and so true. The numbers game is getting kinda weak – time to put up or move aside.
And btw – that picture is going to scar me for the rest of my life.
Thank for such a wonderful idea.really thanks.
Stupid question of the day. You are claiming the A-list is dead because of twitter, friendfeed and co, yet all the stats I see on twitter usage show power laws. Which to me imply the continued existence of an A-list.
Whether the a-list still includes calcanis and scoble I have no idea. In fact, I unfollowed scoble because he made lots of twitter noise that i couldn't be bothered keeping up with. His breathless excitement was off putting.
Until a single so-called A-lister becomes anything more than a Z-lister in the real world – I mean, really, as others have said, even within the Internet itself most of these people are complete unknowns to the majority of everyday folk – I'm not sure anything of this really matters, does it? I can't think of a single blogger who is famous outside of the blogosphere. Even Kevin Rose is a complete nobody to the non-Digg user. David Spade owns him. Heck, Freddie Prinze Jr owns him.
Relatively, we're talking 'A-list' inside a very small bowl.
I wish you were right… I really do
Jim..Thanks for your thoughtful ideas on this. I love to read it. I will be waiting for the next posts. Make Quick Cash John.