Ethical Blogging: Blog Integrity Goes Hand-In-Hand
Ode to the Every-Day Blogger
We bloggers blog for various reasons.
Some of us blog to feel connected to the world because we may be isolated geographically, or shut in due to poor poor health.
Some of us blog because we want to be heard. Most of us will never be on TV or quoted in the newspaper, and blogging technological gives us a voice.
Some of us blog for notoriety. We strive to reinvent ourselves as an authority on a topic, or we blog to further our careers for our chosen field.
Some of us blog just to make money. We scrape information from the net to keep the content flowing and the search engines happy.
But let us not forget in our quest to become rich or famous — keeping our integrity and self-respect. For without that we are nothing.
Most of us blog just for fun. The vast majority of bloggers fit into this category. They are the unsung heros of blogging who some blog snobs have the temerity to call the “noise“.
For shame. Remember this … without the “noise” you would be nothing, because without them who else would read you?
So be respectful to the every-day personal blogger, because they are the real bloggers in its purest sense. They have no agenda or reason to blog except for the shere joy of it.
That is their reward and your salvation.
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Thank you! The blog snobs forget that personal bloggers are the ones who started it all. The blog snobs (shall I call them blobs?) found the opportunity to make money and exploited it, some rather successfully. But I bet the personal bloggers like myself are the ones who get the most enjoyment out of blogging.
BLOBS! I like it!
Nicely said Bloke. The so-called “probloggers” are so engrossed in their popularity that they tend to forget their humble beginnings and readers like us - with small personal blogs who blog just for fun. Without us there wouldn’t be anyone to read their blog. It is ironic, that long ago, they were just like us - small and obscure - yet they forget the fact.
It’s no different than the real world. People believing their own press.
Very well put Bloke! Nice post.
Thanks Curtis. This post has been sitting in draft mode for almost a year. I just never got around to publishing it until now.
Holy crap, a year? Either you are one busy guy or one monsterous procrastinator!
Unfortunately, I am #2.
Jeremy G.’s last blog post..MTV: Pimp My Computer!
Don’t you know it
Blog Bloke reply on June 22nd, 2008 11:37 am:
Jeremy G. reply on June 22nd, 2008 4:04 am:
There are very few pro blogs that I read on a regular basis because, frankly, I find them boring. They are so tied to an agenda that they can’t write much that is interesting. The need to keep their sponsors happy and that results in self censoring what they write. I much prefer the folks like me who blog because they can and have fun at it. I don’t have to worry about upsetting anyone and that allows me to be more interesting. At least that’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.
I resent they call themselves “pro” bloggers, i.e. professional. I consider myself a “professional” blogger because I’ve attained a level of expertise in blogging which is a far better use of the word in its truest sense.
Perhaps they should be called “money” bloggers, or even more appropriately “greed” bloggers.
Hi, because I believed that surely there must exist such a thing as “blog integrity”, I hit Google and found you. I Recently happened across a blog on Cookie Magazine, which includes a forum for “mommy” and a link to the posts of Crabmommy. Curious, I read it and was appalled, shocked to my toes, horrified! Why?!?! Because this lady posted below-the-belt cheap shots at her three year old that she wouldn’t dare post towards someone her own size. So I added my negative comments. During the brou-haha that occurred, one of crabmommy’s supporters defended her by revealing “it was just a job” not reflective of her real relationship with her child. WELL!!! Soooo, that was even more revealing. Not only was this mom willing to sell-out her three year old (whether real or a farce) but the magazine is paying her to write these horrible posts. All of this has happened in the last two days - is it acceptable for a magazine to do this without disclosure? How patronizing, unscrupulous, and outright fraudulent will a business go to build an online customer base? Am I right in being absolutely outraged?!?!?
http://www.cookiemag.com/magazine/blogs/crabmommy
POST & COMMENTS: When Mothers Attack
Hi there. I’ve read it and I’m assuming that you are “cookiecrumbs”. Yes?
From reading Crabmommy’s blurb I don’t think you should be surprised with the response that you got:
“Becoming a parent doesn’t automatically make you selfless. She is mother.”
That pretty much says it all and I don’t think her blog is meant to be taken seriously. Blogs like this are written primarily for entertainment purposes and are not giving real-world advice.
When you take an opposing view to the reader you run the risk of being shot-down in flames by the reader and her groupy fans. It looks like that is what happened to you.
It’s been my experience the more that you engage with the flamers the more you will lose because they have all the advantage. The blog will have fans who are more than happy to come to the aid of the writer. The writer of the blog has an advantage because she can easily delete any comments that are favorable to her side to give a one-sided impression.
So it’s a proposition that you can’t win no matter how much you try to reason with them. Believe me when I say that I have had more than my share of online brouhahas and I still have the scars to prove it.
Having said that, when it comes to magazine/entertainment-style blogs you shouldn’t expect ethics any more than you would from reading the National Enquirer. It’s junk food for the brains.
I would also add that it is incumbent upon the blog to make it clear the writing is intended to be humorous, or in this case they seem to be pleading “satire”. I have written many satire posts myself, but I also made it clear by adding a “satire” and/or “humor” tag on the post.
In this case the blog did not make that clear and is perhaps a reason for the confusion. You might want to consider writing to the owner of the blog and ask them to do that in the future.
I hope this helps and don’t worry, we’ve all been where you are at one time or another. It’s just a part of the reality of living in the virtual world.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful, reasoned response. My engagement ceased with the e-mail to the editorial staff requesting full disclosure on each post. I haven’t received a response from Cookie Magazine, Hearst Publication, nor do I expect any. I must add, though, that having made the request, couched very simply, made ME feel much better. I do wish we had a “kinder, gentler” cyberworld where all would draw the line at targeting a toddler in the most vicious of verbal descriptions, whether hawked as “satire” or not, for marketing purposes.
They don’t call it the (W)ild (W)ild (W)eb for nothing.
Blog Bloke reply on May 8th, 2008 11:40 pm:
cookiemommie reply on May 8th, 2008 8:20 pm:
Blog Bloke reply on May 8th, 2008 7:39 pm:
Feb 18th, 2008 at 3:58 am
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