My Skirmish at the House of Rowse
After my skirmish over at the house of Rowse yesterday I’m feeling a little shell shocked but none the worse for wear… I think.
I never intended for it to happen. Honest! I just left an innocuous comment (or so I thought) and then BOOM, the hammer came down. Punches started flying, bodies were mangled and relationships shattered.
I have a couple of observations to make from this. In the field of mediation this is what we call being entrenched in a position (i.e. a fancy term for denial and cover-up) despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
It was also very revealing when he said he didn’t like my parody of his friends. Reading between the lines this was not a case of my being too “negative“, but rather his not wanting to hear a different point of view than the cheering section.
It’s also a classic case of having no sense of humour and taking oneself too seriously.
So all things considered the backlash from Darren might not be surprising, but is certainly disappointing. Nevertheless, no hard feelings as far as I’m concerned.
How do these things happen? How did the Bloke fair? You tell me.
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Hey, man what a brawl! Any black eyes or teeth missing? Those of us sitting with our beers watching ya’ll go for it would rate it a jolly good brawl, and except for the barbs and bottles which flew by and which we luckily managed to avoid, we would rate it an 8 out of a 10!
Kindly inform us when you plan to brawl again–we don’t wanna miss one single punch, for we are the (vicarious) members of the Blog Fight Club.
So who were you cheering for? Did your favourite win or lose? I’m all ears.
Yes please, I’d also like you to notify us when you get involved in a blog-brawl somewhere. That was fun!
Seriously, you’re far more down to earth than Darren. I feel his success has given him a ‘mightier than thou’ attitude, which I really don’t like. Over the past few months, his posts have become less interesting to me. As of earlier this week I started feeling like I should unsubscribe, as his posts just aren’t helpful to me any more.
Keep up the good work BB.
Hello… I said HELLO! This is the Lord, er… Darren speaking.
Thanks for the vote of confidence Alan. As for anonymous or Darren or the Lord, well…
BB—you’re my fav of course!
Awe shucks, do you really mean it
Blokester Alert:
Darren’s minions are ganging up on me over at his blog. Troop support is needed immediately on the front lines.
Hazard pay will be included in your next paypal cheque. Survivor’s pay will be forwarded to your immediate family within 6 months after proof of death or upon capture, whichever comes first.
War bonds will also available for purchase at your local bank or favourite drugstore. (And while you’re there pick me up a 6 pack will you).
Thank you for your continued support.
Between you and me, BB, when you lower yourself to the level of turkeys, you become like a turkey yourself. There’s no point arguing with them, because then you become the same as them.
If people don’t agree with you, they don’t need to. But you don’t need to try to prove your case either. The more you argue in favour of your opinion, the more they’ll believe you WANT to be right. And that just makes you look wrong.
Don’t worry about the turkeys, mate. Let them gobble amongst themselves, and pat each other on the back. You were right when you referred to “my blogosphere”, implying that your world is different to their world. You’re absolutely correct. Let it be that way and just continue doing what you do. You’ll have your loyal fans, and Darren will have his. And that’s ok.
It is so unprofessional for Darren to have acted up like this. I always looked up to him as a role model. Now my opinion has definitely changed.
You know what I say to you BB? I say that you are rgiht. On all the blogs I visit about blogging, i visit your site the most because you seem to have a certain knack to things. You are always a bit different than the rest of the crowd and you don’t seem to be afraid to stand up for whats right and say things which are true but might cause others to raise an eyebrow. You getting me?
And about your WP blog. Can’t you keep this address? Or are you going for a different domain? And can you make your new blog look similar to this one - cause in all my years reading it I have visualised this theme with the Bloke - the big ol guy sitting behind the computer screen writing up great stuff.
Gamers World Bangladesh Blog
www.gamersworldbd.com
Mushfiqur Rahman
That’s good advice Alan and thanks for the sobering words. Sometimes it is easy to forget when you’re being swarmed at the curbside.
I couldn’t sleep last night because I have a migraine from all this nonsense. So it’s taking it’s toll on me. I have to watch myself with all of my health issues so at a time like this it is probably best to just let it go.
Thanks Mushfiqur. You just made my day. Heh, “the big ol guy sitting behind the computer screen”. I love it! I can’t stop laughing because you described me to a tea. It also reminds me that my wife keeps telling me I need to get a life besides the computer. So true… (as the Bloke keeps laughing).
I’ve known about the other side to Darren for a long time now. I think Alan Howard said it best and when you achieve a certain level of success you start to believe your own PR. Sad but true. I hope I never get that way (and from the look of things I probably never will).
It’s hard standing up for what you believe against the powers that be. But it really helps when you can count on friends like you guys when you need some moral support.
Which only proves that I think the Bloke’s community is the best dang bunch of bloggers on the planet.
I love you guys!
One more thing. I know there are a lot people who have been watching on the sidelines but are afraid to commit because like all crowds they want to see who the winner is before choosing sides.
That sort of mentality goes back to our childhood days but we are supposed to be adults now. So I encourage everyone to stand up for what you believe and make a decision for which blogosphere you want.
Do you want Darren Rowse’s vision of a blogosphere or mine? Because if you don’t make the decision for yourself, someone else will do it for you.
Sorry Mushfiqur I almost forgot:
“And about your WP blog. Can’t you keep this address? Or are you going for a different domain? And can you make your new blog look similar to this one”
Yes, I can keep my custom domain and redirect Blogger to the new host. Whether or not I can make a new template exactly like this one is hard to say. Do you like this one or should I go for a cleaner look?
Another thing. I keep thinking about Darren saying he unsubscribed me. The funny thing is, my stats show that he is still poking about my blog. So much for not reading me anymore. I’m sure it was just a ruse to try and hurt me and encourage his followers to do the same.
But ironically, just the opposite has happened. My traffic and subscribership has gone up. I mean way UP! I suppose I should be thanking him, so thank you Darren from the bottom of my heart. I appreciate the traffic and keep it coming bro.
Wow. And I thought I had problems with a blog reader. I am always on your side. I don’t even read the others. You da man, Bloke!
AND I may have to go back to monitoring comments left and not allow just any ole body to put in their stupid two cents. I always love your comments….you make me laugh. Luv ya.
“Do you want Darren Rowse’s vision of a blogosphere or mine? Because if you don’t make the decision for yourself, someone else will do it for you.”
Why do we have to choose one or the other? Why not just accept that all sides are part of the blogosphere, just like all sides are part of the world we live in?
Just make the choice to associate yourself with things that you want to, just like in real life. Changing the world starts with your own backyard. Work on that before you work on anything else.
Create the world you want by encouraging your own community to form around the values that are important to you. Don’t even worry about what anyone else is doing, that’s their choice.
And if they don’t like what you do, that doesn’t make it wrong. It just means their values are different.
If you start a community, I’ll join it.
Thanks Tica. Your blog is one of the many that never gets the recognition it deserves and I’m more than happy to visit. You write great stories that give me a glimpse of what it would be like to live in Costa Rica. Great pics too. Keep it coming.
Hi Alan. While I would agree that there is nothing wrong with community driven blogs, my blogosphere as you pointed out is much bigger than that. My blogosphere encompasses everyone, not just blogarchies that are created only for the sole purpose of driving wealth into the pockets of the few.
That isn’t part of my vision and of course like the real world with wealth also comes perceived power in the eyes of the many and before we know it a class system has been created much like the real world which we now live. Decisions and the direction of the blogosphere will be made by only by the few if we don’t stand up and demand to be counted (and I don’t just mean feedburner stats either :).
Have you not noticed how the mainstream media only highlights and interviews sites that flaunt the biggest numbers? They couldn’t care less about the rest of us pee-ons.
If we’re not careful the blogosphere will be hijacked from under our noses (if it hasn’t happened already).
Anyhow, I’ve always been a champion for the little guy, and I have little respect for the arrogant blue bloods who scoff and bully the rest of us. Even when I had a law practice I offered my services for nothing to help those in need.
That’s just the way I am and I guess I’m too old a dog to be taught new tricks so I don’t intend to change for the blogosphere either.
I don’t think the entire blogosphere could ever be hijacked! Sure, some blogs can be more popular than others, but that doesn’t mean that all blogs become the same or follow the same person or group of people. Let’s not get carried away here.
Changing the world can be a good thing, but you can only do that by educating people a certain way, and that comes from the articles you write and the material you promote. You can’t do it by arguing with individuals about their choices or opinions, as that just serves to alienate them - as you’ve discovered.
True!
Hey Alan, I can see you and I have a lot in common and love a good argument. You should have been a lawyer
But what I’m talking is about power, and if we don’t stand up to the bullies then who will?
Of course we can’t change them and this was a perfect example of that, but as you say blogs like mine have to continue being the small voice in the wilderness and hope that we can be heard above all the noise.
Isn’t it ironical that they consider themselves to be the signal and we’re the noise?
I want to have the power too and be heard for the little guy, and not just for my own selfish needs.
And sometimes in order to be heard we need to take the fight over to their blogs. Otherwise they will just continue to ignore us as we can see happened in this case.
“speaking of ads, don’t mind me asking, but where does most of your revenue come from? You have scarcely an ad!”
There’s your answer
I’ve got to be honest here, BB, and say that the whole episode didn’t really do either of you any favours.
Darren maybe should have credited you in his post and you should have stepped away once the point was made. Continuing the discussion didn’t really put either of you in a good light.
Attribution is a funny old subject in a lot of ways. Sure, if you are linking directly to a post/thread/theme then it should be included as a standard but when it comes down to discovering articles, I’m not so sure. There are many times that I discover something through deep linking on a site and then write about it. I’ll credit the author of the article but not necessarily the source of the original link. This is for no other reason than the fact that I don’t always remember how I found the link in the first place. This is particularly true when it comes to my bookmarks. If the chain of links is still fresh in my mind then I’ll include the chain but otherwise I won’t.
Hi Mike.
Two things… first off it was Rowse who came out swinging and started it, not me. Then he added insult to injury by publicly stating he unsubscribed me, which was his not-so subtle way of encouraging his readers to do the same.
Clearly his rant was designed to damage yours truly and I couldn’t allow him to get away with that unscathed.
Personally I hope he really has unsubscribed so he won’t “bounce” off my posts anymore without giving me credit. But I highly doubt it.
Secondly, he was not being completely truthful with me and I couldn’t allow that either all things considered.
His excuse for creating the confrontation was because he didn’t like my parody of his friends. But the truth is he is “frustrated” because he’s jealous of my knowledge level and writing abilities.
This little outburst of his was very distasteful and immature of him, and very revealing about his character as well. I’m glad that it’s over and my conscience is clear.
As far as I’m concerned I don’t hold a grudge, but he has shown his true colours and he owes me an apology.
I found your blog by accident but am glad I did
Dec 30th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
[…] of my skirmish yesterday at the House of Rowse I’ve had to reconsider my commenting policy. As you know I was the victim of a blogside […]