Because their views are facile and their writing immature?

More seriously, with a very few exceptions, most of the young, i.e. under 25, bloggers that I know are libertarians. However, that might be just the circles that I move in (although I do try to peruse lefty blogs, I don’t have so much time these days).

However, I would venture to suggest that young bloggers, often having little money and a lot of social awkwardness, are less inclined to turn up for such events for reasons of financial penury and a surfeit of embarrassment.

On the latter point, many adult bloggers are nervous enough at such events…

DK

Tell me, Dominic, how often do you express an opinion on matters where you have no idea what’s going on?

Still I suppose someone has to take them down a peg or two…!

PT old boy. Do play nice, eh?

Any chance of a future event taking place *outside* London?

It was great to meet people in person for a change though, thanks for organising it Sunny

Lee: I’d love to have long hair – I’d love to have hair.

Zohraa: I don’t think it’s any secret, again I spoke about this with a couple of people last night, that I hate people that have forthright views, will never change them and (worse still) won’t accept there is another view or argument. For example there were several feminist bloggers that took the stance on the abortion debate that there was no argument that could be made for supporting the anti-abortion movement, and rammed that point home fairly regularly and aggressively. Before last night I considered that to be the way feminists acted.

As I said in my article about last night though, I think a little epiphany dawned on me that like every other aspect of the blogosphere, those feminists that stick in my mind aren’t all feminists, just the most verbal and therefore stick in your mind. My point was kind of that what I thought were “feminist methods” are nothing more than methods that some bloggers on all areas of the spectrum use regardless of their cause. Listening to the rest of you I realised I was reading, supporting and perfectly reasonably engaging with many feminist articles without even realising it, solely because those feminists acted in a more respectful and engaging manner.

I appreciated the question raised by a male member of the audience which was along the lines of ‘what can male bloggers do for female bloggers’. I think there are simple steps that all male bloggers can easily take to simply pay more attention to the female blogosphere (feminist or not, mind). Of course having to remind men that, hey, it would be nice if they linked more actively to women was a bit obvious, but repeating it can do no harm.

That said – I wondered if the whole discussion about ‘paying attention’ (I don’t much like the terminology) to women bloggers couldn’t be transposed to other groups or communities. For example, bloggers of colour, LGBT blogs, etc.

Lee@18, I had my sandles on too (they were even birks), but yes, have grown out the hair.

@Lee in early responses, what are ‘feminist methods’?

Lee Griffin – “I was suprised how many liberals were there with such short hair. And no sandals”

I had my sandals on, and I’ve got short hair. Not sure I’d describe myself as a liberal though…..:)