Sat, 10 Dec 2005 00:58:16
Low and inside
Here’s some inside baseball in the blogosphere… Go read it, I’ll be here.
Done? ‘K. Here’s my reaction:
STOP FIGHTING! I don’t want to live with either of you! I’m going to live with Gramma!
::stops off to his room and leaves the adults to continue fighting::
Jokes aside though...Why does any group of people eventually feel the need to have a popularity contest? Are we all so needy that we have to have contests to see who is better at suckling off the mainstream media teat? Because in the end, that’s all any of us are doing. There hasn’t been a true story broken...I mean from the ground up...by any blogger anywhere. It’s ALL reactions and extensions of the media. Rathergate? Reaction to Rather & Mapes. That’s it. That’s the big blog triumph, and it cannot have existed without the media...the media was the story.
Michael Yon is the only true reporter in the blog world, and he’s only using blogging as his medium because calling it “self-publishing” sounds funny. The fact is, Yon is out there finding stories and reporting things no one else is reporting. Every other blogger is simply regurgitating opinion on media stories, something they saw on the news, heard on the radio, read in the paper, etc. Bloggers react to the media. It’s the very definition of the thing. We need to curtail this self-indulgent preening for attention.
We mock the media when they primp and preen about their own importance, and yet here we are. Bloggers primping and preening about our own importance again. I pulled out of the voting-for-popularity system in the podcast world for a reason; It’s asinine self-indulgent crap. Stop worrying about how fucking popular you are. It was trite and ridiculous in high school and it’s even sadder now to see grown men and women so wrapped up in it. Concentrate on your content.
I don’t get it. What ever happened to the work being the reward? Blog because it’s fun. Blog because you feel the need to speak. Blog because it’s cathartic. Blog because you like to write. Blog because you believe your cats are the cutest fucking cats EVER.
Don’t blog because someone voted for you in a popularity contest, or because you wish that they would. Don’t blog for the approval of others. The big boys and girls in the blog world don’t give a fuck about you. You’re just another hit. Another stat. Another reason to raise the price of their BlogAds or PJOSMABCDEFG ads or whatever. You’re cannon fodder to the general officers. Trust me...I have had ideas “borrowed” and posts ignored enough to know. They don’t give a shit about stories. They don’t care about truth. Most of them, with rare exception, only care about stats and stature.
Blog because you like to do it. You’ll never be what the big boys & girls are looking for, so stop trying. Be you. This is supposed to be about having conversations with people to which you would never had access were it not for glorious, magnificent Internets! Blessed be Internets! Long live Internets. All hail Int3rw3bz.
Wow. When this started I had no idea it would pair up with this post from Helo over at Drum’s. And it, like every other thing I post, will be ignored by anyone who is ranked between 1-1000 in the Ecosystem, and I’m OK with that. Because I’ve said my piece, on the record, and it’s out of my head. That’s why I do this...to get these words out of my head and clarify them into an actual opinion. If you enjoy it...thank you. I appreciate your readership.
If you don’t? Asta la Vista, baby. Don’t the the door hit’cha where the good Lord split’cha.
Posted by JimK at 12:58 AM on December 10, 2005
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Categories: The Blogosphere
Tags:
Technorati: blogosphere Weblog Awards Wizbang Laurence Simon
Comments:
#2 Posted by Drumwaster 
on 12/10 at 02:58 AM -
Oh, BTW, I rank (as of this entry) #454, and I’m not ignoring you.
#3 Posted by JimK on 12/10 at 03:54 AM -
Drum, as always, you are the exception(al) to the rule. ;)
Here’s something funny...I went from a Large Mammal ranked around 700-ish to a rodent at 1700-something. Guess I pissed some people off recently. :)
#4 Posted by Joe R. 
on 12/10 at 10:31 AM -
I moved up about 300 spots when TTLB quit counting circle jerks. Not sure why I care anymore though.
#5 Posted by putzboy on 12/10 at 11:27 AM -
I’m not really a blogger, nor do I comment much, but I do come here at least daily to see what you have to say JimK.
Not sure its worth much, but you can rest assured I’ll be coming and reading daily.
#6 Posted by Helo on 12/10 at 01:50 PM -
Large Mammal? Hell, Kilroy and I post more than anyone in the world and we’re ranked on the top of most search engines, and we rank somewhere between Insignificant Microbes and Flabby Birds.
#7 Posted by CaptCBleu on 12/11 at 06:18 AM -
Blogs are ranked? then my blog must be really low. not thaat I care. my five regulars is satisfying enough to me.
Evan
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#1 Posted by Drumwaster
on 12/10 at 02:52 AM -
Damn straight. Helo put it well, and you did just as well for exactly the same reasons: when you’re right, you’re right.
I love having an audience, and I love the input from my readers, but blogging is a means to an end, not the end in itself. I’d do it even if I didn’t have a single regular reader.
If I get an audience that agrees and enjoys, that’s just gravy.
But my wife is allergic to cats. :-(