A few months ago I wrote a post that shocked and dismayed someone I would very much like to call my friend, someone who was at the time a regular reader - and I hope still is. What brought this on was a post I had written declaring my undying love for a website that, as part of its mission statement, snarks on comics - sometimes none-too-gently, and sometimes on some very popular ones, including one that was one of my friend's favorites.
I think I now know how my friend felt then, since I have just been provided with photographic evidence that someone I like and admire very much, as a person, a writer, and a blogger, is BFF's with someone I despise intensely, someone who has dismissed and called for the elimination of my blog and the blogs of every other blogger who maintains a blog on Blogspot.
I reacted to this discovery badly. Oh, I already knew there was some connection there, but I had never known it was so close. I basically picked a fight with a friend of the person whose house I was visiting, metaphorically speaking. Not a fight that I had started, mind you, but...
I shouldn't let him get to me like this. Still, according to the blogger whose site referenced this guy, and according to the guy's own self-publicity and the throngs of sycophantic followers who hang on his every word, this guy is very influential in tech circles - "reinventing the internet" was what was said of him in the post that set me off. "Passionate about blogging" is what his Wikipedia entry says - or said; I haven't checked it in a while. (Yes, he has a Wikipedia entry. Isn't that special?)
Well, guess what? I'm pretty passionate about blogging too. This punk insulted and belittled me and my blog, but that doesn't mean anything. But he also insulted and belittled Ashley, and whim, and dee, and Lisa, and Gort, and Todd, and Gareth, and Anne, and the Domestic Zookeeper, and every other blogger who blogs on Blogspot. And he has declared that he will never apologize to them. So that's that. No hope for redemption. No need for further discussion.
I am just disappointed to learn that someone I like and admire would be friends with such a person. Oh, well, life goes on. And unless this person finally succeeds in convincing Google to shut down Blogspot and all the blogs that reside there, so too shall Another Monkey. And Ink On Paper. And The Babblings of Whimsicalbrainpan. And Deteriorata. And Amazing Grace. And Gort42. And Postcards from Hell's Kitchen. And Another Chance to See. And Almost Quintessence. And The Domestic Zoo. And all the other real, legitimate, worthwhile blogs that reside here in the Blogspot domain.
The narcissistic primarily autobiographical blog of the pseudonymous d.b. echo
I remember that post. You should link back to it. Has the blogosphere now become a haven of elitist bullshit and platform snobbery? All I can say to that person is Fuck you and everybody who types like you. Please excuse my french.
ReplyDeleteWow. So very high school.
ReplyDeleteBTW - Hitler is on wiki too. That doesn't mean he wasn't a piece of shit!
So, if this guy got wiki'd, he's got company alongside: Mengele, Tojo, Stalin, Georges W and H.w. Bush, Pol Pot, Franco, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacey, Henry Lee Lucas, Richard Speck, the columbine shooters, Idi Amin, Ronald Reagan, Suddham Hussein, Osama Binladen, Bill O'Reilly, and Alferd Packer - to name but a few.
Blogger does suck, though. It's shit. Wordpress is infinitely superior. Still, that's a tech issue.
Google also sucks. They support censorship of the internet in China and have participated in actively preventign the freedom of expression and ideas in that country.
But bloggers rule. It's this simple: anyone who spites the world and culture of blogging spites the common man. They, in essence are out of touch with the real world, and hold great contempt towards free speech, freedom of expression, and the right to individuality among the masses. They cannot debate this. It is carved-in-stone fact. They are in essense against freedom for individuals.
Thus, whoever this arrogant prick is, they are a fascist. Now, where's the virtual rope for this ideological Mussolini - whoever they may be????
Hitler? Mussolini? I think of him as being more like David Duke. Or, maybe better, George Wallace - pre-change of heart. "Blogsnobbery now, Blogsnobbery tomorrow, Blogsnobbery FOREVER!"
ReplyDeleteBlogger doesn't suck. I've been using it for nearly three years and it works fine. It's grown and improved in that time. I don't have to struggle over every little detail like some bloggers I know who use other blogging software - sometimes resulting in a loss of all their comments, or a loss of the ability to add new entries, or the disappearance of the blog entirely. And it's free.
I seriously think a good deal of the anti-Blogger sentiment is being spread around by the pay-to-blog companies. It's a nifty, multi-pronged attack: convince new bloggers not to use Blogger because it's just so gauche and declasse, convince blog readers that Blogspot blogs are crap to be avoided, and convince current Blogger users that they will not be taken seriously if their addresses end in .blogspot.com. (There are even some who think that comments posted by people whose website addresses end in .blogspot.com should be automatically blocked.) Anyone who knows anything about cutthroat marketing knows that this isn't unrealistic.
I've actually had someone tell me that using a free site like Blogger shows the world that I don't care enough about my blog to be willing to pay for it. That's crap, and subsequent events bore that out - the person who made that comment stopped blogging shortly thereafter. The proof is in the blogging, and it's right before your eyes.
the comment someone made to you about not caring enough to pay for your blog is total crap. anyone who's been by here once can see how much you're into blogging.
ReplyDeleteahhh, so many idots in the world, so little time.
as for blogger sucking or not, i don't know.
i do know three people who had their blogs completely disappear. myself, i never had any major issues. it was certainly a lot easier to use that what i have now. (my own space, but powered by wordpress) still, i'm looking at it like a leaerning curve...it seems like in another few weeks i won't find it any more complicated than blogger...it's just different and i need to get used to it.
to be honest, the only thing i really like better about it is that i have complete freedom over my design. and that might have been possible through blogger, i just didn't know how to do it.
at any rate, i can definitely be accused of bowing to the pressure.
too many jokes about blogger (not from your guy...other random people who i respect *most* of the time). i kmow i haven't been writing anything great lately, but hopefully i will be again soon, and if there's ever a chance of me making any money off this whole writing thing, i don't want someone to dismiss my writing beause they have preconceived notions about the quality of content that can be found in blogger.
so, yeah.
i feel you.
there is absolutely no connection between what blogging service one uses and one's ability to create interesting or beautiful or useful or whatever content, and it doesn't appear that blogger is any worse a service than any of the rest.
i'm glad that you keep fighting the fight...i just hope you're not giving yourself too muich grief.
that guy is a loser.
you're not.
the end.