I’m going to bed now, but before I want to say something and I hope I got the point because I do believe something is very wrong with the whole blogging scene and how some people are making their way in the public life*. I had to see a few well known bloggers’ very unfriendly comments on a friend’s post today, so the whole issue comes handy. Long post ahead!
Bravo Jennifer and Christine (two well-known bloggers) for their last posts about the blogging scene!! My thoughts are in their comments, and I also pasted them here. It was about time things like these were told and I want to thank both of these girls, for actually voicing the feelings of many of us who feel trapped in a weird blogosphere where the most linked is the coolest and viceversa, and if you are last on the Blogrolling Top 100 List, then you better shut up. Not to mention all those cliques mantained by people who want the rest of the world to be at their feet, and the minute you say NO to them, then you better run and hide (I personally “prefer” the first option).
No, it’s not about being popular itself, it’s about the popular people knowing how to have charm, practice it, keep their audiences and not make others feel as if they are not worth it, simply because their stats show less than 100 hits per day, or because you don’t brush their backs all the time.
Comment on Christine’s:
Very interesting post, Christine. I actually read the one at Jennifer’s blog first and came to see what you had to say. Just a few days ago I was asking in my blog if my posts were too boring because I didn’t get any comments and that I knew I wasn’t popular at all, but that I liked to get feedback. The point is, some of us feel like there is only a little crowd that deserves attention in the blog world and I’m sure it’s a wrong impression.
In fact, your blog is really popular, but I’ve always considered you different from others that, well… I don’t know what to say, except that they think they are “the last Coke in the desert”, like we say in my country. We all are full of prejudice and decide by ourselves that someone popular simply won’t care about us. It’s silly, I know.
Munin says she feels shy to leave a comment sometimes and I feel like that too. When you’re not in the circle, you tend to think you’re not as funny or witty, so you simply don’t bother. And since I’ve seen some of the popular bloggers attacking those who don’t share their point of views, then I prefer to avoid trouble :-)
But thank you very much for your words, Christine. You’ve touched a very important issue, not only in the blogging scene, but the general society as well. It is always nice to know the human being behind the blog.
Comment on (original) Jennifer’s:
I really liked your post, Jennifer. Usually when we see someone in the “cool crowd” we tend to think that they are actually the same “empty heads” and it keeps us from getting to know really wonderful people.
I, for one instance, have thought if maybe it’s jealousy the fact that I don’t link or read any popular blog on a daily basis because I got tired of the non-sense and the way some of them make fun of the not so popular people who dare to say anything against them. In fact, when I saw that site against Wil Wheaton’s blog I wondered what was wrong with that poor guy having a blog and why were the popular people complaining about it. I still don’t understand, but well… we all have the right to read what we want and leave what we don’t.
As for your blog, like I said before, I have kept myself from truly getting to know you under the impression that you’re just like “them” and that you certainly won’t care about what I have to say. I’m speaking about my personal experience here. But you give a lot to the blog community and I’ve never really thanked you for that, so thank you! Look at how wonderful Scripty Goddess is, I use it all the time!
Anyway, I think I’m babbling too much here. I’ll put my thoughts in a few words: I wish all the popular bloggers were like you and Christine. You always show a very human side.
* A few days ago I happened to check a blog of a girl who dared to post some stuff contradicting one of those A-List people (whatever that term is!). What did I see? Groupies making fun of her, mocking her, telling her that she wasn’t even in the Top 100 Blogroll, that she was some kind of loser only looking for attention and hits, and, what is worse, criticizing her because she doesn’t make much money on the job she’s in. It made me really sad… Really sad. And then the A-List blogger saying something like “I’m popular, but I’m really nice to everyone”. Errr… No, it is not nice to send your pitbulls to feed on someone the way your groupies did. In life we all have to face things ourselves and in a proper and decent way, especially if you are well known.
I also saw how another kind of well-known blogger got pissed because of a friend of mine’s political views on the US (simple minded or not) and decided to generate a few nasty and insulting comments about her and threats about vanishing her of the blog scene. Not to mention that I had to read ugly things against French-Canadians and, just for the record, that friend of mine comes from Vancouver… go figure! C’mon! If I got all worked out every time someone says anything about Colombia and the drug problem generalizing and making all of us appear bad, then I think there would be a lot of insulted people out there, but heck no! I don’t take opinions about my country to heart because I know not everyone is Colombian, duh! Again, using your traffic and popularity to trash others because they happen to think different. Wrong, very wrong!
That is why I decided to make my comments on the recent posts I found at Christine’s and Jennifer’s. Some of us DO feel intimidated, I admit it. But that has to stop; some people have to stop thinking that their crap doesn’t smell. God, it feels good to say it!
firstly – i love this new look!:) yay! i haven’t had a chance to really check on blogs in the last few days.
secondly – i so agree with you. yepyep. (re the blog scene)
and lastly – i am definitely always interested in what you have to say:)
Excellent point. I have always felt this way and never understood this “clique” mentality in the blogging world, but it’s that way in real life too, right? I love finding new blogs and reading various perspectives on life. That’s what is so refreshing about blogging, and I just try to ignore the drama and chaos that some seem to thrive on. Your design is beautiful, very classic. I like. :-)
Oh, man. Can you believe some people? Crazy…
Are they going to list “most popular blogger” on their resume???? Ugh…
OK, that guy Wil Wheaton sells PHOTOS OF HIMSELF on his blog. Is his blog about him, or simply self-promotion to make money? Ugh. I’m going to bed!
Irony. That’s what it is: Irony.
Why? Because only a few short years ago this incredible invention nicknamed the “Information Super Highway” hit the world with a wake up call resonating in the range of the sound of a ship hitting ground. What was formerly a construct for and by the universities was suddenly public, accessable to all with a few dollars worth of equipment. The world was at every man, woman, and child’s fingertips; and every man, woman, and child could lend his or her voice to this growing global chorus called the World Wide Web.
Everyone with something to say could say it. Wasn’t that the promise of the Internet, and the Web especially? Wasn’t it the superhero-like power of cheap, easy self-publishing that drove the growth of the Web? Commercial exploitation of the Web fueled the technology, but the content—and thereby the Web itself—was built and powered not by Amazon.com or Yahoo! AOL or Microsoft. It was built by each individual human with a voice singing out whatever it was s/he had to say.
Here, in this whole new planet of cyberspace, we each have an equal voice. It was the meek, those too shy to step up to you at a party and express their thoughts, those shunned by the “popular” crowd, that first shouted out on the Web with wild yawps and booming voices: “Here I am! I have something to say!”
The Web leveled the playing field for everyone, giving everyone with something (or nothing) to say, a medium in which to say it to anyone, anywhere. Novice or L337 haxor, little girl or grandfather, social butterfly or shy kid, each one of us has an equal voice on the Web. Wasn’t that the promise of the Web?
I find it mournfully ironic that the nigh-superhuman power of Equal Global Voice is now being used, by the same formerly voiceless people that it freed, to exclude others. The bloggers you mentioned, once undoubtedly ignored by Real Life, are more interested in selfishly aggrandizing their own tiny, pathetic, fleeting power bases than in making the power of Equal Global Voice even stronger for all by guiding others to find voices as they themselves were once guided to find their own.
Irony.
Beautiful post Bea, particularly in regard to Wil Wheaton. I have seen much slander in regard to him. It’s all jealousy! I for one, intend to keep speaking with as much honesty as is humanly possible. I intend not to leave defamatory comments on other peoples’ blogs when I disagree with one of their posts as has always been my practice and go back the next day and see what the next day’s post is about and most likely leave a constuctive comment. It’s definitely o.k. to disagree with someone’s opinion but it’s not o.k. to call them names. I hate it when I see someone slandered and leaving their blog. I hate it even more when the slanderers try dragging me down with them. Here’s to a better year. Maybe the slanderers will leave the blogging world. Now wouldn’t that be a wonderful New Year :party:
whoops…that would be constructive not constuctive :party:
Forgot to mention what a wonderful friend you are Bea. Thank you so much for not giving up on me even when I deserved it. I hope you and Patrice enjoy a wonderful New Years’ Eve together. You are a wonderful woman. You outshine so many!! :party:
There are now nearly 1 million people just using Blogger, plus who-knows-how-many people using MT, GreyMatter, Radio, and all the other blog tools, plus people who do it all by hand.
A “Top 100″ List is pretty meaningless at this point, don’t you think?
Cliques come and go, and the people who feel all self-important about belonging to the “right” cliques now are just as insecure and petty as all the people who needed to belong to the “right” clique in school.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, blogging brings out the inner 8th grader in all of us.
This has nothing to do with the post, but I wanted to say, “Happy New Years” to you!
Sleep well.
We should not forget that blogging ain’t life. Of course our thoughts and opinions are mostly true, but this is a hobby. Up to now I wouldn’t know anyone who can blog for a living. Whoever has time and some kind of skills can write a blog – big deal. So I pity those fools who see this as competition and have to be “the best”. And I pity them even more when they have to team up with others and criticize other bloggers work.
But unfortunately some ppl see everything as competition; if they could, they would count how many times you breath in a day and breath one more time just so they can brag that they are breathing more than you. Those are poor souls, exhausting themselves with their urge for recognition. And it should leave us untouched, turning our backs to them, taking care of our own business and important stuff. We shouldn’t waste a second on those “wanna be best”-clique members.
And now for something completely different:
:party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party:
:party: Happy New Year!!! :party: All the best for 2003!!! :party:
:party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party:
First I have to say that Peter made me laugh with all of his :party: smilies. Heehee.
Second, I love what you wrote and I missed those posts from Jennifer and Christine so I was thrilled to read them. I started an online journal in November 1998 and at that time the journal community had all these rings and cliques and popular people which made it intimidating. By the time I started my weblog I was so used to it that I don’t care anymore and I read whomever I like to read and am happy that anyone reads me at all.
Good post. :smile:
Hi. I feel kind of guilty now, but I took it down – because I just didn’t feel I was saying what I wanted. You did however, in the comments of that post, hit the nail right on the head – I don’t know if you saw my reply, or my post afterwards confirming what you said.
Strangely – even though my words weren’t eloquent – people still got my point. And then went on to post about it in their own blogs – as you have done – and they did a much better job at it than I did…
Well said!… I will rewrite my post and post it again… soon…