Damn, I wish I hadn’t read blogs today. I took yesterday off. I might take the rest of the week off. Blogging for me is at an inflection point. Blogging for me had the opportunity to become something magical: where the reader gets smarter and more informed. It seems that lately it’s become the worst of the Usenet — just straight up street fighting. My guy vs. your guy. My cause vs. your cause.
So, why do I wish I hadn’t read blogs today? Cause I saw a lynch mob beating up my friend, Dave Winer. As I read their posts (and the even more vile comments on those posts) I realize that this isn’t the blogosphere I signed up for.
Although it’s one I helped create.
No one kept their head — the knives and guns just came out in this street fight. No one called both sides and did some real reporting. No one added any value. Built anyone up. No, all I read was “Dave’s an a++hole” kind of comments. Update: Nick Bradbury kept his head.
Worse, some bloggers are asking me to join the mob! Um, no.
First, throwing out the fact that Dave’s a friend of mine and has done more for me and my family than the entire lynch mob put together, there’s the little thing of my philosophy.
My philosophy? I want better software. More software. More geek toys. More things that improve my life.
So, what does my philosophy tell me to do? Protect the inventor. Protect the guy who brought us SOAP, XML-RPC, RSS, OPML, podcasting, and a few other things here and there. Against the angry mob.
Why? Cause if I don’t, then maybe some new inventor will say “this space sucks, I’m gonna go somewhere that they appreciate inventors.” And if that happens I’ll lose. We’ll all lose.
Now, read very carefully. I have no idea who has a good legal case here. I have no idea who is in the right, or who is in the wrong. I know it’s fun to pick sides, but when there are two sides to the story we MUST stop and put on our thinking caps and MUST stop behaving like a mob. Even a guy accused of crime deserves a fair trial (and I’m not trying to tie either Dave or Roger to that).
Why?
Cause I know how this game is played. Once Dave is outta the way, they are coming after me. Or you. Or your friends.
One thing on this case: one guy called in the mob, the other guy didn’t. That says volumes to me.
I wish I had never looked at the blogs this morning. I’m sorry for any part I played in helping create this new “A list.”
Ever notice that the new A list only tears down people and ideas but never puts new ideas, new products, new tools, out there to attack?
This is why I’m trying to get away from Memeorandum and other memetrackers. I am getting pulled into this new “A list” world. Why? Cause the new A list is getting huge audiences. They are getting more comments on their blogs. More inbound links. Moving up the Technorati popularity list.
I almost bought into it myself and thought I needed to join the “attack mob” too.
If that’s how the game is gonna be played, I want off the Technorati list now.
I wish I had never looked at the blogs today.
Oh, and the “A” in the “New A List” stands for Attack or, maybe, “Ad Hominem.”
Add a Community to Your Blog with BlogFrog
Posted by Kat Armstrong.
I recently met with BlogFrog CEO Rustin Banks to discuss adding communities directly to your blog. Your readers want to interact with you and with each other. Adding a customized BlogFrog community to your site allows your readers to ask questions, share photos and chat live with each other – without ever leaving your site.
With comments, your readers can only leave their thoughts about whatever it is YOU have to say. They don’t have an easy way to interact with each other. Your subscribers are obviously like-minded. After all, they are each interested in whatever you are talking about. Using BlogFrog compliments whatever blog comment service you are already using. The comments section is there for people to leave feedback and additional thoughts based on what you have written. Adding the additional components from BlogFrog adds a whole new layer, allowing your readers to talk to each other and spark new discussions.
My first instinct was to ask why we should use BlogFrog. After all, we have sites such as Google+, Facebook and Twitter to discuss things on with other individuals. Rustin was quick to point out that we are limited on these sites. We only have the capability of talking with our followers. We aren’t really giving them a way to talk to each other unless they want to jump through hoops and figure out how and where to follow the other parties on various social sites.
Believe it or not, it won’t cost you anything to use BlogFrog. The beauty is that you will be getting paid to use the service in a manner of speaking. You can enable high-quality advertising and make a higher CPM in most cases than what you will be able to find on your own.
Once you have signed up with the service and chosen your elements, it’s very simple to add BlogFrog to your own site. You’ll basically add a widget to your main page. The components are platform agnostic… install your new community on any template which allows JavaScript.
My assistant Kat is fond of saying that building a community isn’t about connecting people to you – it’s about connecting them to each other. BlogFrog has created the perfect way for you to give your community the tools they need to interact with each other, build upon what they already know and perhaps change the world.