I See Rude Bloggers

 I was surfing the 'net two weeks ago when I found this on Goldfish and Clowns:

In this odd little society of people online who blog, there has emerged a certain pecking order based on assorted factors. Who gets the most hits. Who gets the most links. Who goes to the most weekend-long parties… er, seminar/get-togethers. ..

Anyway, the aforementioned are the select few. They are the high-flyers, the ones from whom currying favor is pursued with greater passion and tenacity ... Their posts are deemed to be diamonds... They receive a daily harvest of mad props and link love by simply breathing, let alone blogging. Some of this comes from their fellow residents of the blogosphere penthouses. The rest emanate from those dreaming of an invitation to come upstairs and see their etchings.

 In this post Jerry Wilson hits on a basic truth that most bloggers know but few wish to discuss.

The political blogosphere, whose proudest boast used to be that it was the only way to bypass the gatekeepers of mainstream media, is now jealously guarded by gatekeepers of its own. 

Anyone who has the means can still start a blog, of course.  But during the past decade, as successful blogs have congealed into online media outlets and for-profit organizations have created blog networks of their own, most individual blogs have little chance of reaching an audience. 

Fishersville Mike agrees and uses Instapundit as an example of this:

Like Johnny Carson in his late night career, Instapundit can be the kingmaker for bloggers. Comics would hone their craft for a chance to get on the Tonight Show, and hope that Johnny would call them over to sit on the couch. Just a minute with Carson could launch a career - it showed you had real potential...

There's so many bloggers out there, hoping their insight gets noticed. Many toil away in their own areas, and an Insta-lanche gives hope. A series of Insta-lanche can show they've arrived.

Many small-time bloggers continue to toil away in obscurity, seeking that big-time link. Other get fed up and simply drop out of the race. 

Dennis the Peasant helped found Pajamas Media.  He quit blogging last month: 

 Six years ago, the political blogosphere was not dominated by the money and resources of mainstream media and professional political advocacy groups. Now it is. The political blogosphere has now acquired all of the defects (and none of the virtues) of mainsteam and advocacy media. With money has come self-censorship and intellectual dishonesty.

Self-censorship and intellectual dishonesty. Combine these two things and one by-product is rudeness.

And that's what I'm going to talk about today.  Rude bloggers.

I don't mean the rude names bloggers use for politicians or bloggers on the opposite side of the political fence.  I mean the rudeness directed by "successful" bloggers toward small bloggers- regardless of political affiliation.

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Salieri: Everybody liked me.  I liked myself. 

 Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

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In the early 2000's when the political blogosphere was still finding its feet, good manners were the norm in communications between bloggers.  During this era I emailed Stephen Green (Vodkapundit)- considered an up-and-coming blogger- twice.  On both occasions he responded promptly and was both gracious and funny. 

Then Vodkapundit was absorbed by Pajamas Media.

You can't email Mr. Green now; there is no contact information on the PJ masthead.  You can leave a comment beneath a post, but you can't email.

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There's no need to be nice on the way up

'Cause you're not coming down....

Genesis, Paperlate

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(I don't post an email because you really can't have a meaningful conversation with a porn spambot.)

Sometimes it's better if you don't get a response:

Two or three years ago I emailed a different up-and-coming blogger.  Days later I got a terse, one-line response that addressed me as "whoever-you-are."  Small bloggers are usually advised to participate in discussions on high-traffic blogs so I ignored the response and plugged away, regularly reading and leaving comments.  I also posted regular links to this blog on Deafening Silence. 

Then one day after at least three years I saw that this blogger had left a comment on Deafening Silence.  I was thrilled!

Then I read the comment.  This rising star of the blogosphere had decided to use my comments section to announce that he had just received his millionth comment!  Wasn't that just great?  Wasn't I impressed?

I took him off the blogroll the next day.

Another successful blogger once responded to my request that he consider linking a particular post by inviting me to join his comment section.

Not all successful bloggers are navel-gazers.  Jules Crittenden likes to present himself as a battle-scarred curmudgeon, but he was always patient and courteous with me- and generous about linking.

It's worth noting that he quit blogging in August 2010.

Don Surber is another upper-tier blogger who has been gracious and generous to me.  We disagree more than we agree, but I have no reason to criticize his manners.

In the early days of the blogosphere, smaller blogger were sometimes invited to join group blogs.  I was a member of a group blog for a while.  Various issues finally led me to stop posting there.  I had no hard feelings about this until one day I was surfing the 'net and came across one of the posts I had published there. 

The post was still intact, but my name had been stripped out.

I scanned the group blog and discovered that all my previous posts- they were many and lengthy- were still on display, but my name had been stripped out of each one.

When I contacted the chief editor of the group blog, I was informed that this bit of Stalinistic airbrushing was "just something the system did" whenever a blogger left the group.

Before going any further, I contacted some bloggers and asked if this was a standard practice. (I did not reveal the name of the group blog or its editor.)  The universal response was "no," so I contacted the editor and asked that either my name be restored to the work or the posts taken down.

I was told I'd have to compile a list of all the links myself and send it to him.  He couldn't be bothered to do it.

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 I'm your star.  And the audience loves me.  And I love them.  And they love me for lovin' them and I love them for lovin' me.  And we love each other.  And that's 'cause none of us got enough love in our childhoods...

Fred Ebb, Chicago

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 Blogging is a great job for people who have opinions, but it can be an even better gig for people who have egos. 

Sometimes the two get mixed up.

You can see this now and then on popular blogs authored by women.  There are successful female bloggers who feel compelled to interrupt their political commentary every 3 or 4 posts with a photo or video of themselves.  Then the obedient commenters line up to coo in unison: OOh, you're soooo hot!

After that it's back to politics again. Harmless enough. 

But sometimes mixing ego, politics and heavy blog traffic can lead to more obnoxious behavior.  Take this recent public spat between a 50-something web designer and an attorney:

A twitter battle takes place between these two bloggers, who both have loyal followings.  They take turns trying to best each other using terms like "liar" and "hack."

Supporters of one twitterer go digging into the blog archives of his opponent, looking for incriminating evidence.  They find it.  This prompts supporters of the opposing twitterer to go looking for personal information about the first twitterer.  They find and post his full name and occupation.

Posting the name and occupation of the first twitterer was meant as a threat.  It was expected that further digging would produce blog material so disagreeable that this man's employer would be forced to fire him.

So the threated twitterer met this challenge with a blog post declaring that henceforth he would be posting every possible crumb of dirt he ever found on his twitter opponent.

Are you getting all this?  If not, let me boil it down to its essence:

Note to bothLizards and Lawyers: This is not how grown men behave.

Unless, of course, they want their blogs to be deluged with hits and all their twitterings breathlessly followed by the masses.

This is what they call 'traffic,' folks.

Which is why I've stopped caring about it.  If the only way to increase your readership is to indulge in behaviors like those I just spent 1400 words describing- or spend your time kissing up to bloggers who indulge in such behaviors- well, forget it.

I'll stick with the 10-15 people each day who click on Deafening Silence to read a post, and the other 10-30 folks who end up here by accident while looking for something else.

Every now and then someone from the second group actually finds something to read, too.  Fine by me.

A blogger's got to know her limitations.

 

Comments

[JDW]

A freakin' men.

[Mike]

Glad you saw my post and could use the thought. Don Surber and Instapundit have been good to me in my blogging career.
I'm content to write and hope it's seen. That makes the link on Instapundit so enjoyable.

[Abigayle Soderstrom]

In this sphere, (and as long as the written platform dominates) each letter counts. At least, that holds true until you realize that you can write without having to join the "race" - that you can still write for yourself and for the few people out there who genuinely read you.

[Thomas]

Thank you for this post-it might not be directly relevant, but just to share: I had a rather bitter email exchange with this arrogant and hostile blogger Bon Crowder from mathfour.com . And yes I realised its best to simply junk her future messages to avoid wasting unnecessary conflicts.