MedBlogs Grand Rounds 3:16
Posted by GruntDoc on January 9th, 2007
Another of the ‘themed’ grand rounds, here: Dr. John LaPuma.
Since it’s not on his blog, next week’s host: six until me.
Update: Bard-Parker is of the same opinion as I, though his is stated plainly.
Popularity: 4% [?]
January 10th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
I’m with you and Bard-Parker on the theme idea. I had a great post to submit to grand rounds, but I wasn’t about to re-write it to fit a food theme. I find the theme constraining rather than inspiring. I think it limits quality posts.
dr. nic
January 10th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Not that I’m some huge blogging powerhouse or anything, but I considered submitting this week.
“Emotions in Healthcare” theme?
I feel like I’m writing a paper for school. Unless I can submit an old post.
January 10th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Geez, I didn’t realize next week’s is also a ‘theme’. I swear some of these hosts think we’re part of a writing school.
OTOH, it’s a clever way to keep the number of posts down, making their job of hosting a lot easier. Which begs the question why many hosts need 36 hours to prepare.
January 11th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Not a fan of themes either, and hence why I didn’t submit this week. When I read the amount of time some bloggers spent on grand rounds it made me feel inadequate. sheesh
January 16th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Wow! I didn’t realize there was so much disgruntlement (heh) over having themed Grand Rounds. A theme seemed like a good way to collect a bunch of talented writers in blogging about something that all of them can easily write or have already likely written about. It also seemed that, to the reader, a themed collection can make a stronger point as a whole than a non-themed collection.
I know I can’t please everyone, and I’m not going to try to. However, I do urge you to consider the advantages of a themed GR–and considering how incredibly likely it is that your work could fit into it–before writing it off wholesale.
January 16th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Themes are very empowering to the host: their number of submitted posts is a fraction of a non-themed GRounds, and therefore makes the job easier.
My problem with themed rounds is that a) it excludes a LOT of excellent writing on blogs that, for whatever reason didn’t write about that weeks’ theme, depriving them of links, traffic and comments, and b) if the theme chosen isn’t interesting to some readers they aren’t going to read any of it. Frankly, none of the themed rounds have been remarkable to me, except for their brevity.
So, I’m still against them, and will participate only if they fit what I was already blogging.