One thing I hope dies in 2007

Hugh Macleod cracks me up. His post about “five things you don’t know about me” was the ultimate way to stop this stupid meme that seems to be continuing to travel through blogs. Although now people are posting what kind of superhero are you. Sigh. So, I’m not optimistic that these kinds of “blog questions” will end in 2007. I wish they would, though.

Here’s his answers — you have to understand British humor, methinks to get why this is funny:

five things you don’t know about me

1. I dislike you intensely.

2. I love it when bad things happen to you.

3. When your name is mentioned I immediately try to change the subject.

4. I wouldn’t read your blog if you paid me.

5. If we were trapped on a desert island together I would kill myself.


Filed under: Uncategorized @ 2:26 am | 51 Comments

51 Comments

  1. raincoaster Says:

    Ah, thank you. I got guilted into doing this one, but was obviously not intelligent enough to come up with this, the ultimate response.

  2. PXLated Says:

    That is great…way to go Hugh.

  3. Dawn Says:

    Another thing I hope dies is the world’s and esp. Hugh’s overuse of the word “manifesto.” :-P

  4. Alister Cameron, Blog Consultant Says:

    I’m delighted to tell you that British humour and Aussie humour must be very similar. Coz that’s bloody funny!

  5. BenN Says:

    “I’m not optimistic that these kinds of “blog questions” will end in 2007″

    They’re ridiculously popular amongst non-techy bloggers, as a quick trail around LiveJournal would show. There’s no chance of them dying in 2007, but complaining they exist is silly. It’s just as silly as complaining about what’s on a particular TV channel - just change the channel / stop reading those posts.

  6. syawal Says:

    I dislike you too.

  7. Amrit Hallan Says:

    And I had almost begun to get depressed because nobody tagged me (although I have nothing much to tell that can even fill the 5 bulleted points) :-). I thought it must be a game for the who’s who of the blogsphere.

  8. Mad Tech Writer Says:

    ha ha ha ha ha ha….now that really cracks me up too. Happy New Year Scoble.

  9. Matthew Hurst Says:

    Robert - Being a Brit, I’m not sure what this has to do with British humour…

  10. Matthew Oliphant Says:

    I’ll leave essentially the same comment I did on a similar post almost 1 year ago:

    The meme spreads because people want to be involved in it. If they don’t, they don’t.

    I guess I don’t understand the angst directed at people who are writing what they want to write about on their own sites.

    But, it just depends on your point-of-view. Some memes can be helpful. Who wouldn’t want site after site talking about the [five] things they love to do with [the site/product/service you support].

  11. E.S Says:

    In Britain here but it isn’t funny, it’s no more a waste of space then the hero stuff going around

  12. Simon Heseltine Says:

    The superhero & supervillain ones went around over a year ago, but I have seen them raise their head again lately…

    Oh, and there’s no such thing as British humor, it’s British humour ;)

  13. Shelley Says:

    What a elitist attitude. What a great way to make people who indulge in a little harmless meme exchange feel stupid and “dumb hack” compared to you sophisticated A listers, who have nothing better to do than start your own continuous round of memes all favoring attention on yourselves.

    You’ve taken a little harmless end of year round of exchanges and you’ve turned it into something tawdry and silly, all because you want to prove how sophisticated you all are.

    You are both sad men who can’t stand the thought that a discussion can be about someone other than yourselves.

    Here’s a New Years eve challenge to you both: think about someone other than yourselves. Wait a sec, we’re supposed to reserve our resolutions for something that we can hope to meet, and I just gave you too difficult a task.

    Shame on the both of you for making yourselves seem big by making others seem small.

    All you had to do, was ignore it.

  14. ebenezer scoble « serotoninrain Says:

    [...] ebenezer scoble January 1, 2007 at 11:50 am | In Blogging, what-ever, stop your nonsense! | Poor Robert Scoble (who is apparently someone, like, important or something), has been complaining about blog memes. Sucks to be him I guess. [...]

  15. Kathy Sierra Says:

    While I’ve never answered these ‘tagging memes’ myself, I have learned more about OTHER people from reading their answers to this than by anything else. I basically tagged *everyone* reading my blog–by asking them to answer questions–so that I could get to know them. Some of their answers made me laugh, and some made me a little teary-eyed, actually.

    Robert and Hugh, we all *know* a lot about you guys, but it’s very unbalanced — I’m guessing most of your readers know way more about YOU than you know about THEM.

    I don’t like the idea of the “tagging” thing, though… it’s pretty lame to have to wait for someone else to *choose* you. And yes, I get a little tired of hearing bloggers talk endlessly about themselves, but learning more about my readers? Gold.

  16. LayZ Says:

    Remember, people…Scoble wrote the book on blogging. Everyone MUST blog according to how he dictates. So, it’s no surprise this frustrates him as people are not following his guidelines. Blogo-facism rises again!

  17. Marti Says:

    Is that a meme in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
    *snicker*

    Happy New Year to you (and to Hugh, who doesn’t give a damn - lol)

  18. Eric Eggertson Says:

    While I find a lot of the other memes less interesting (I don’t do a lot of quizes in Cosmo, either), the five things meme is actually a good icebreaker that gets people out of their zone of comfort for a few minutes.

    I’m thinking of starting “Five reasons to unsubscribe from my blog”, but I doubt it will take off in a big way…

  19. Eric Rice Says:

    It’s kinda funny how old some of those memes were, just outside of the tech blogosphere. These thing are HUGE in ordinary parts of the Interweb.

    It’s okay, the unwashed masses will rinse off with a little water. ;)

  20. Robert Scoble Says:

    Oh, I forgot the first rule of blogging: you must check with LayZ and Shelley first to see if something you’re about to write is idiotic or elitist. Sorry for forgetting this rule.

    I forgot to put the disclaimer on it: that this was funny, not meant to hurt anyone’s feelings, or anything like that. You might remember I participated in the “five things meme” too a few weeks back. So, if anything I was poking fun at myself.

    Oh, and I’m a Green Lantern, just in case anyone was wondering. ;-)

  21. Robert Scoble Says:

    Oh, and my wife did it too: http://maryamie.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9592F3DEF41537A3!2721.entry

  22. Toby Says:

    Hey Robert et al .. lighten-up. Memes are simply online games. Play or don’t play it’s up to you. But they do tend to give a bit of insight about the person. And if anyone was surprised by hugh’s response guess they don’t read him much. It was so very hugh. Happy 2007 by the way!

  23. semcertification Says:

    “five things you don’t know about me”. Robert shouldn’t this read; “Loren, five things you don’t know about me”.

  24. Anonymous Says:

    Whoa that’s kinda trippy seeing both Kathy and Shelley chime in.

    Personally, I thought the meme was just a way for A-listers to pump their pagerank. Basically, a sort legitimate spamming. if you will.

    No matter though, in a world of wikiality it ain’t spam if the readers don’t think so :)

  25. Oyvind Solstad Says:

    I’m not sure if your writing comes through as “poking fun at myself”. Maybe that’s why people call it elitist? Good to see that we are two Green Lantern! I would never have guessed…

  26. raincoaster Says:

    This meme game never smelled A-list to me; for one thing, I got tagged early and often, and I’m Z-list. For another, well, a chain letter is a chain letter, even if it’s about you.

    If people want to learn about me they can straight-out ask me questions. I vastly prefer that to some “here, play this by invitation only chain letter game”.

  27. danielmcvicar Says:

    I got hit twice for five things….so I figured that I didn’t need to pass on the chain letter…they cancelled each other out.
    Happy New Year Robert.

  28. LayZ Says:

    @20. Hey,no need to check with me. Your default setting is elitist.

  29. hugh macleod Says:

    Oh, Dear.

    Looks like I’m going to have to link to “The Shelley Cartoon” YET AGAIN:

    http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/003384.html

    I’m sure LayZ can also relate…

  30. Evil Genius Chronicles » What to Blog About Says:

    [...] Here’s an odd contradiction from Scoble in a very short time, less than 12 hours. First, he hates the 5 things meme and the superhero quiz (both of which were blogged here) and today he says he loves that you can blog whatever you like. Uhhh, dude, I for one was doing just that when you weren’t happy with our subject choices. That’s life, baby. I’m just doing what I want here, I have no particular obligation to be particularly profound at any given time. To me the value of blogging is that I can talk deeply about what makes life worth living, and then an hour later about the various effects of red kryptonite. This is, like, very similar to how my conversations go in real life, so if blogs are to be a conversation why should they be distributed differently than my literal conversations? Sorry Robert, one of your two positions is all wet. Which one is your call. I support your right to blog them all though, as long as that’s what you want to be writing. [...]

  31. Shelley Says:

    Yes and it’s time I talk about two men who have so much already, and are still unhappy with what they have, isn’t it Hugh?

  32. Robert Scoble Says:

    Unhappy? I’m very happy. Or maybe it’s just the banana pudding flashbacks I’m having tonight.

  33. hugh macleod Says:

    Oh, Shelley, [*sigh*]

    ANOTHER cartoon…

    http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/003251.html

  34. Shelley Says:

    Well, good for you then Robert. Then perhaps the next time when you want to make fun of folks who are just having grins and giggles, you’ll remind yourself about how happy you are, and how much you do have compared to most, and just. Let. It. Slide.

    Hugh, someday we’ll get you to a point where you can have a discussion with words instead of pictures. Maybe therapy? Perhaps big lined paper instead? It worked for my niece when she was five, so I have hopes for you.

  35. Shelley Says:

    PS and one bit of good news for you both that will make you even happier and that’s that I doubt I’ll be back here for a good long while. There a Happy New Year present for you both.

  36. Robert Scoble Says:

    Shelley: you seem to like attacking people who are just having grins and giggles (like the Blogher conference) just as often as I do. In fact, I was just having a grins and giggles at the beginning of this post. But, I guess, my reality doesn’t matter as much as those of other bloggers to you.

    But, I’m not happy you won’t be back here. I like your point of view cause it often is different than mine and it gets me to question my own point of view, which almost always is a healthy thing. I do subscribe to your blog, though, so I’m sure I’ll continue to get a healthy dose of your reality.

  37. Joe Bloggs Says:

    Classic!

  38. I’m Green Lantern | brilliantdays.com Says:

    [...] Update I’m in the “Green Lantern Club” with Michael Arrington, Jason Calacanis and Robert Scoble (who really doesn’t like memes like this - I think that’s what he’s trying to say). [...]

  39. getsheila Says:

    Well, as to Hugh’s #5, I say: Better him than me. Heh.

  40. Glenn Says:

    Sorry, I guess I never read “Proper ettiquettes of blogging 101″.

  41. Ben Scoble Says:

    Wow, I think Shelley needs a boyfriend.

  42. BarelyBlogging » Blog Archive » links for 2007-01-04 Says:

    [...] One thing I hope dies in 2007 « Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger (tags: funny meme blogging) [...]

  43. Kenny Kerr : Those Five Things Bla Bla Says:

    [...] find it interesting that the self-assumed chancellor of blogland has a problem with the “Five Things” meme. How dare we waste RSS on such silliness as if it were a precious [...]

  44. Paul Watson Says:

    British humour soars to much greater heights than this.

  45. One Man & His Blog Says:

    Five Things (times 3)

    I surrender. I’ve now been tagged three times for the same meme, by Tom, Anthony and now Nathan, so I’m going to have to do it. Here are five things you (probably) don’t know about me: I took my first photograph when I was 3 years old and created my…

  46. Prokofy Neva Says:

    I was so proud of Richard Bartle for breaking the chain even better with “One Thing You Don’t Know About Me”

    http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2007/QBlog030107A.html

  47. blogging: act III, scene 1: an allegory in iambic pentameter (more or less) « raincoaster Says:

    [...] And by contacting their ISPs, end it? To ban: to delete; No more; and by deletion to say we end The meme-pests and the thousand spam comments That blogs are heir to, ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be [...]

  48. mojqunby Says:

    That’s friggin’ awesome. Thanks to all those involveds

  49. bzimyxmo Says:

    Aloha,great page. Congratulations and keep on the work1

  50. hazel8500 Says:

    I wish I wish I wish, I used your list of five!

  51. In The Transition » 7 Things Meme from Frank Hamm Says:

    [...] use them as a ploy use it to get links into their site. Some are just plain bored with them. Others are truly interested in the connection it creates across the blogosphere. So once [...]

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