- Image by brownpau via Flickr
Over the past few days or so, I’ve watched the various blogs that I tend to watch from the corner of my eye posting about how serious blogging apparently is. From Tobold running off on Twitter-pated bloggers to Dragonchasers taking a break, and a few others not related to the topics of this blog feeling a bit down in their writing, it’s just seems to be a grey, cloudy atmosphere in the blogosphere lately.
I’m with Ysharros, who scratches her head at the whole idea, or Cuppycake for wondering what’s so serious lately. I’d like to insert a little bit of bright, sun-shiny day into the whole thing, frankly. I’ll start by saying something that in a puzzling way, seems to make people more angry than relieved, especially when you’ve beaten them 6 rounds in a row with cheap Dragon Punches and Fireball combos. But I digress. Ahem.
What I’m trying to say is, much like “it’s only a game”, I think folks need to realize that “it’s only a blog”. Much like games, I think people write blogs because they somehow on some level personally enjoy doing so – whether it’s to have the rather cathartic notion of thoughts spinning in one’s head on (digital) paper or to perhaps shoehorn it into something greater. If you’re not blogging as a means to be paid for it in a journalistic role, then in essence it’s on some level a side gig. So the question is, why be so upset or confrontational about something that is supposed to be peripheral? I get that in some cases, blogs are a personal extension of oneself, and that to be attacked on it is to be attacked personally. But until someone appoints a bunch of folks to have the very thankless, headache-inducing, masochistic job of policing/moderating the Internet, the fact that people don’t like what you say on a blog is just going to happen.
To be hilariously crude for just a second, I’ll just modify an old saying – “Opinions are like assholes, everyone has them – but on the Internet, no one knows who the crap is coming from.” Anonymity is a shield behind which many hide themselves to make some of the most deplorable commentary ever. This is why it’s ultimately not a big deal. I like what I have to say, believe in just about every sunny, wonderful, optimistic word I type, and know that there are far more pessimists than optimists out there. I welcome them to leave comments because it gives me the opportunity to elicit a laugh or at least a /facepalm with my coffee-fed, blindingly bright responses. And at the end of the day, I hit Publish, drop an update into Twitter and Facebook, and go about my day. Honestly, I have more important things to stress over, like why is my laundry all pink today, or what I was thinking when I bought the entire Generation One line of Transformers off of EBay.
Compared to those very real things, blogs just don’t make the cut.
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“what I was thinking when I bought the entire Generation One line of Transformers off of EBay”
Clearly so you could invite me over and we could stage the greatest robot battle the world has ever known!!
Yea, I just like talking about video games. That’s all my blogging comes down to
“what I was thinking when I bought the entire Generation One line of Transformers off of EBay”
Insecticons 4thwin!
I just know that inside you’re a misanthrope seething with fear and loathing. I know it!
Bloggin is t3h sureus business! Rawr :3
Nah, I just blog about what happens to take shape in the vortex of infinity that is my brain. If you don’t enjoy blogging for the sake of blogging, then you’re doing something wrong.
You lost me on the part about MMOs and blogging being fun. It is suppose to be fun?!
What have I been doing this last decade!
(Good article!)
Even scientists know it’s important to lighten up and have some fun every now and then..
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55767/
If a panel of ‘leading bird biologists’ at a science conference can loosen up long enough to dance with a cockatoo, then maybe gaming bloggers can develop their sense of humor
I should engage in dialog with my readers now that I have enough of them to talk to. Woo!
Any generation 1 Transformers battle will have to be fought with my broken Devastator, who doesn’t stand quite right.
Am I a misanthrope at heart? It’s possible that I have a dark side, but will you ever see it on this blog? Probably not. I keep it locked away in a safe somewhere and I swallowed the key, too.
I do think blogging is terribly serious to a few folks – if you guys remember there was that whole thing about the WoW Paladin blog that was a girl masquerading as a hot girl who may have been actually a guy. Sure, the blogger took their appearance perhaps a bit too seriously, but it doesn’t invalidate the insightful posts that were made.
…wait….shouldnt that pic say “Please you step into my office meow”
?