Gabbin’ with Galrahn (updated)
June 3rd, 2009 | Blogs | Posted by Phil Ewing
One of the most-read Navy blogs on the inter-tubes, Information Dissemination, celebrated its blogiversary this week, marking two years of analysis and discussion about Navy strategy and acquisitions in the 21st century. SCOOP DECK talked Wednesday with blogger Raymond Pritchett, aka Galrahn, about the niche he has carved out of the blogosphere.
SCOOP DECK: So why did you start a blog, and why a blog about the Navy?
Raymond Pritchett: I’m interested in the Navy, and I’ve always read about the Navy; I don’t come from a direct Navy family but it is a Navy family if you consider the extended family. I just remember going over to my grandfather’s house, reading old issues of Proceedings, being fascinating by ships, what the Navy does, and those types of things. I decided when I was going to blog because I wanted to get into social software space, because I’m an IT guy, but my contract prohibits me from writing about what I do for a living, so I decided to write about what I like – naval history, strategy and things of that nature is what I like, so I wrote about that.
See more of our Q&A after the jump
SD: You initially blogged under a pseudonym, for the first few months of the blog, at least. Why?
RP: I did it from June of 07 until December of 08. It was more of a tactic — I have professional experience building online communities and oftentimes what happens is, if you’re not a recognizable name, particularly in professional communities, you can use a pseudonym to avoid the credibility problems that come from people looking for things from specific individuals. By creating this alias, [the blog] became about the content and not about me. I don’t want the blog to ever be about me — I don’t talk about myself — although now that I do things with the Navy I do talk about the experiences I’ve had.
For example, Pritchett embarked in November 2008 aboard the littoral combat ship Freedom for part of its maiden cruise after its commissioning.
SD: Who did people think you were when you were only posting as ‘Galrahn?’ Did you ever get anyone insisting you were somebody they knew, or that you shouldn’t be blogging because you weren’t ‘one of them?’
RP: I’ve heard rumors some people thought I was a professor at the Naval War College, or the Naval Postgraduate School. I even heard one where there was a former one-star admiral and they thought that I was her. Y’know, people were guessing, but it never became something that was a distraction, and all those things were all done in the background. A few people, particularly reporters who I’d trade information with and get to know, they all knew who I was. I’d hear stories about the Navy asking reporters who I was, but because you guys keep your sources so tight I was never in any danger of people finding out.
SD: You’re starting your third year on the blog and, presumably, you plan to keep going – what can we expect next for Information Dissemination?
RP: I’m at a crossroads with the blog; it took me about a year to figure out what I was really doing. Now, a year later, I have a pretty large audience and I don’t really know where to go with it. Because I don’t make money with the blog, I’m not sure I’ve always taken it as seriously as I should, based the on the size [of the readership] and who the audience is. I have to figure out where this is going and that’s something that I’m in the process of doing now.
Update:
SD: Where does the name “Galrahn” itself come from?
RP: Galrahn is an alias I have used online since the mid 90s, assigned to me to use when I was working part time as an [Internet relay chat] operator/administrator. I have used that alias (among others) for other activities online for the last 15 years or so. Originally I considered creating a new alias specific to the blog, something like Julian Corbett or Mahan’s Ghost, but I decided that would make the writers name a distraction to readers. Like I said, the alias was a tactic to make the blog about the content, not the writer, so I was looking for something that didn’t mean anything to readers. I had already registered the nickname “Galrahn” with popular sites like Yahoo, Google, and several dozen other community websites, so I decided to go with it.
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Comments
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Avo Says:
June 9th, 2009 at 10:19 pmI really liked your blog!