It seems that there is an initiative to get newbie bloggers to start blogging in the blogosphere. My immediate reaction is along the lines of, why on earth would people want to do this? Then I remember that human beings have an amazing capacity to want to legitimise their every waking act. Obviously being a person who blogs about videogames is not felt to be high on the legitimisation scale. So they believe that if they pull lots more people into their chosen activity, then by default of weight of numbers their activity, (blogging), will now be somehow more respectable.
The next step along this line is the desire to partake in the imposition of new rules concerning bloggers in an attempt to “raise the bar” and “clean up their act”. Now the true control freaks will rise to the surface much like scum floating on top of your nice pot of fresh chicken stock. Stay tuned for this one.
My way of legitimising my activities is to tell people in the actual real world that I do it. Take for example my new job. I have been there for four months and I had no hesitation when someone mentioned that they play Skyrim, that I have a blog dedicated to videogaming. My reply was roughly along these lines:
“Ohmygodzbottom! I haz a blog all about that and I get so many hits and so many people know me and we should get togetehr and playz all these games just you and me and maybe if you’re lucky I’ll write about you on my blog!!”
On reflection, perhaps there is something to this blogger initiative after all …
My real concern is for the newbie bloggers out there, (poor dear little lost souls). I suppose if they can come to terms with the fact that they are being underhandedly used by other bloggers to make themselves feel better, well hey, whatever floats your boat, kid. If I were going to give advice to newbie bloggers it would be along these lines:
1. If you need encouragement to do something as simple as writing from the comfort of your own home then perhaps you need to rethink this whole blogging thing.
2. The world will have you believe that your voice is special. My cat was considered special after he got his head slammed in the fence gate. Is that the sort of special you mean? Lets be honest, you’re almost certainly way less special than you believe yourself to be.
3. You think you have something to say? Well, if you had something to say you’d be blogging about it wouldn’t you, not requiring artificial stimulation to get you going.
4. Some people will say that your chosen topic has been done to death. Let me tell you that unless your topic is dwarf wrestling, mud-dancing, tightrope-walking, barefoot cream buns playing WoW, then they’re probably right.
5. If you believe that grammar isn’t important but getting your ideas out there is, then I would reply that knowing how to operate a motor vehicle competently isn’t important but getting to Burger King fast right now is as well. Did ya like that grammar there then?
6. You want to hold your best ideas back until you have lots of readers for your blog so those ideas aren’t wasted? Yeah, I can see the logic in that …
7. How do you get comments? Virgin sacrifice, my friends, virgin sacrifice.
8. If you get through all this and blog, chances are you’ll last about 3 posts, then there will be a break of about a month, then you’ll do another post, then there’ll be a break of about 2 months, then you’ll do a post about how you ‘haven’t forgotten us’, and then we will never hear from you again.
Happy blogging!
May 11, 2012 at 7:23 pm
i approve. +5 bastard points. =)
May 12, 2012 at 12:17 am
I was hoping for 8. You have failed me for the last time.
May 11, 2012 at 7:50 pm
OMFG I totally blogged something similar earlier this week! That must make it both relevant AND good if someone else thinks the way I do!
But seriously folks.
“The next step along this line is the desire to partake in the imposition of new rules concerning bloggers in an attempt to “raise the bar” and “clean up their act”. Now the true control freaks will rise to the surface much like scum floating on top of your nice pot of fresh chicken stock. Stay tuned for this one.”
I see where you’re going with this and I agree there are those who would likely try. I don’t think, however, that it would work in an internet environment. The North American Association of Bloggers for Bloggers Who Want to Do Good and Stuff just wouldn’t take because there are too many of us who wouldn’t give a shit and would keep posting what we like.
May 12, 2012 at 12:16 am
I agree, but it won’t stop them trying. Which will hopefully be a lot of fun.
May 14, 2012 at 7:55 pm
That reminds me I’m out of Virgins…Know any?
May 15, 2012 at 8:43 am
“…Let me tell you that unless your topic is dwarf wrestling…” Your obviously not a regular reader of http://extrememidgetwrestling.com/blog/ then ?
Sadly, raising the bar will lower the appeal. The anal-retentive, self appointed standards police are after us everywhere.
May 17, 2012 at 11:07 am
You got a blog!
May 17, 2012 at 11:33 pm
Yes, but it was a fledgling idea of monumental pretension… I realised just in time.
May 18, 2012 at 10:57 am
Whew … close shave that.
May 24, 2012 at 2:10 pm
I see where you’re coming from. I must admit that I always wanted to have a blog, but I just thought that nobody would read it. Therefore, I didn’t make the step. For me it was my internship blogging at iQU (2 posts) made me take the first step and this turned out pretty good. I think initiatives like these can stimulate people who are not sure whether or not they should start, but then again, most of them will indeed stop when they realize nobody reads their blogs.
Especially for English bloggers. I’m blogging in Dutch (http://ubiy.wordpress.com/) and because there are only a few Dutch gameblogs, it’s easier to get readers.
October 3, 2013 at 7:04 am
[…] become MMO bloggers, and now they have their very own site so it’s official and everything. I wrote about this last year when this syndrome rose its ugly head, and my views have not changed in the last twelve months. […]