Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Good thing I didn't quit my day job
'Cause blogging is officially OVER. It's DEAD. If you haven't started a blog yet, too late. Don't bother. Go do something else.
What happened is, lefty blogger Billmon, who recently stalked off his own blog in a huff, wrote an opinion piece entitled "Blogging Sells, and Sells Out, " in which he appeared to dis certain bloggers:
Adding insult to injury, and throwing in a big dollop of irony, Billmon published his anti-sellout screed in the mainstream media organ, the LA Times.
Of course Billmon's article could be seen as a thinly veiled slam at yours truly. Jealous of my Blogads, corporate sponsors, and prime time televised interview at the DNC, Billmon is lashing out with the envious loser's shopworn cry of "sellout."
Other, lesser-known bloggers (see here and here )narcissistically leaped to the conclusion that Billmon was talking about them.
Steve Gilliard is offended not only on his own behalf, but on behalf of Billmon's loyal readers, who supported Billmon's site and filled his tip jar. Mr. Gilliard asks, "Don't you think that if you wanted to quit something, a little grace might be in order?" I once quit a cocktail waitress job by putting my tray down on the bar and walking out, but I still feel guilty about it. Then at this other waitress job, I was joking around one day and I wrote on a paper napkin, "This job sucks. I hate it. I quit," and one of the other waitresses (bitch) gave it to the manager, and his feelings were hurt, and I had to tell him, no, it was a joke, I LOVE this job, why would I quit? But I digress. Mr. Gilliard has a point, if you're going to quit something, your job, your marriage, your blog, whatever, you should do it with a little grace, a little style, a little professionalism. Or at least be funny about it, like this.
Mr. Gilliard also says, in the comments to his post, "If I were to stop blogging for an active life of oh, masturbation, I would at least be honest about it with you before I wrote a piece in a national newspaper." Here we part ways. I personally don't think an active life of masturbation is mutually exclusive with full time blogging, or part time blogging - sometimes I even think they're synonymous, but that's just me. What I'm saying is, if I were to stop blogging for an active life of masturbation, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Also in the comments to Mr. Gilliard's post, one "Anonymous" proclaims, "A person who calls him/herself a blogger, yet doesn't allow comments, is a poseur and a coward." I dared Mr. Anonymous to come over here and say that to my FACE. Let's see if he has the BALLS.
Anyway . . . I hate Bush as much as the next girl, but I thought blogging was supposed to be fun. Lighten up, lefty bloggers. The righties would be laughing at you, if they weren't so busy pouting about how the recent New York Times magazine story about blogs paid more attention to the lefty blogs.
* You may notice that I recently removed Billmon's blog from my illustrious blogroll. Nothing against him, it was just that he'd stopped updating and I don't have room in my blogroll for lazy-ass bloggers who don't update, unless their name is Satan.
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'Cause blogging is officially OVER. It's DEAD. If you haven't started a blog yet, too late. Don't bother. Go do something else.
What happened is, lefty blogger Billmon, who recently stalked off his own blog in a huff, wrote an opinion piece entitled "Blogging Sells, and Sells Out, " in which he appeared to dis certain bloggers:
Even as it collectively achieves celebrity status for its anti-establishment views, blogging is already being domesticated by its success. What began as a spontaneous eruption of populist creativity is on the verge of being absorbed by the media-industrial complex it claims to despise.
In the process, a charmed circle of bloggers — those glib enough and ideologically safe enough to fit within the conventional media punditocracy — is gaining larger audiences and greater influence. But the passion and energy that made blogging such a potent alternative to the corporate-owned media are in danger of being lost, or driven back to the outer fringes of the Internet.
There's ample precedent for this. America has always had a knack for absorbing, and taming, its cultural revolutionaries. The rise and long, sad fall of rock 'n' roll is probably the most egregious example, while the music industry's colonization of rap is a more recent one.
When I say blogging is headed for a kind of commercialized senility, I'm talking primarily about political blogs — those that have, or claim to have, something to say about government, economics, foreign policy, etc. Not surprisingly, these are the blogs most likely to show up on the media's radar screen.
Adding insult to injury, and throwing in a big dollop of irony, Billmon published his anti-sellout screed in the mainstream media organ, the LA Times.
Of course Billmon's article could be seen as a thinly veiled slam at yours truly. Jealous of my Blogads, corporate sponsors, and prime time televised interview at the DNC, Billmon is lashing out with the envious loser's shopworn cry of "sellout."
Other, lesser-known bloggers (see here and here )narcissistically leaped to the conclusion that Billmon was talking about them.
Steve Gilliard is offended not only on his own behalf, but on behalf of Billmon's loyal readers, who supported Billmon's site and filled his tip jar. Mr. Gilliard asks, "Don't you think that if you wanted to quit something, a little grace might be in order?" I once quit a cocktail waitress job by putting my tray down on the bar and walking out, but I still feel guilty about it. Then at this other waitress job, I was joking around one day and I wrote on a paper napkin, "This job sucks. I hate it. I quit," and one of the other waitresses (bitch) gave it to the manager, and his feelings were hurt, and I had to tell him, no, it was a joke, I LOVE this job, why would I quit? But I digress. Mr. Gilliard has a point, if you're going to quit something, your job, your marriage, your blog, whatever, you should do it with a little grace, a little style, a little professionalism. Or at least be funny about it, like this.
Mr. Gilliard also says, in the comments to his post, "If I were to stop blogging for an active life of oh, masturbation, I would at least be honest about it with you before I wrote a piece in a national newspaper." Here we part ways. I personally don't think an active life of masturbation is mutually exclusive with full time blogging, or part time blogging - sometimes I even think they're synonymous, but that's just me. What I'm saying is, if I were to stop blogging for an active life of masturbation, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Also in the comments to Mr. Gilliard's post, one "Anonymous" proclaims, "A person who calls him/herself a blogger, yet doesn't allow comments, is a poseur and a coward." I dared Mr. Anonymous to come over here and say that to my FACE. Let's see if he has the BALLS.
Anyway . . . I hate Bush as much as the next girl, but I thought blogging was supposed to be fun. Lighten up, lefty bloggers. The righties would be laughing at you, if they weren't so busy pouting about how the recent New York Times magazine story about blogs paid more attention to the lefty blogs.
* You may notice that I recently removed Billmon's blog from my illustrious blogroll. Nothing against him, it was just that he'd stopped updating and I don't have room in my blogroll for lazy-ass bloggers who don't update, unless their name is Satan.
