Bloggers have long used the power of blogosphere to share rants about poor customer service or even bad products. But things are definitely getting worse now as blogs are virtually turning into an ugly battleground of hyped conflicts, accusations and issues that can be easily settled without involving the whole blogosphere in the conversation.
Powerful bloggers (who can potentially make or break companies) are increasingly using their "A-list" blogs (read and followed by hundreds and thousands of RSS junkies) to either settle personal scores or denounce 'corporate' rivals.
A quick recap of some recent events in the blogosphere:
Michael Arrington vs Dave Winer, Rafat Ali & Jeff Jarvis
Mike has never been a fan of The New York Times. No wonder, when NTY added some social bookmarking pixel icons to their news stories, TechCrunch labeled this a "begrudging move".
As Dave Winer came to the rescue of NYT, Mike went a step further accusing Dave, Jarvis and Rafat Ali of "..sucking up to them [NYT] to further your own agendas." Jeff recently replied to this "unprovoked comment" from Mike - "Bullies can be wusses, too"
Jason Calacanis vs Kevin Rose
Jason is leaving no stone unturned to prove that Digg, a site owned by Kevin Rose, is destined for failure. Jason, a blogging idol for many, is also indulging in sting operations to prove that Digg users are accepting money - reminds me of those cheap TV channels that can travel any length to boost their TRP ratings.
Though his latest effort to unearth a Digg Scam went burst, Jason is still offering $100 via PayPal to anyone who sends him the scoop. All these things don't gel with a famous personality who is also an ex-CEO of Netscape.
Matt Cutts vs Jeremy Zawodny
Jeremy of Yahoo! posted screenshots of a Google page that looks like a carbon copy of a Yahoo-designed webpage. Matt Cutts apologizes but also reveals past instances when Yahoo! had done the same with Google designs. Moral: People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
If Jeremy didn't like the Google act, he could have resolved it via an e-mail or a simple telephone call to the Googleplex. Why involve the whole world in this issue just to prove that your rival is a copycat. Ultimately, Matt seems to be enjoying an upper hand in the whole "copyright violation" controversy.
Nick Denton vs Matt Craven
When Matt Craven sold The Blog Herald to another blog network, Nick Denton claimed that the site was sold at a price that was less than what it was acquired for from the previous owner, Duncan Riley.
What makes this sad it that an owner of a blog network is addressing another blog network, though not so large, as "an army of unpaid writers and breathless blog evangelists."
Matt didn't disclose the price though he did say that Valleywag "could have at least emailed me to ask" before writing about the rumoured sale price.
Amanda Congdon vs Andrew Baron
All love was lost when Amanda departed from Rocketboom making way for Joanne Colan. There has been lot of heartburn since then between these two trend-setters.
Amanda launched her own travel vlog and later joined HBO but her Rocketboom ex-producer isn't satisfied yet.
He cannot resist himself from commenting on Amanda's recent job - "After seeing what she has done with Amanda Across America (no spirit or production value) and now ABC News which is a carbon copy of what I hired her to do for Rocketboom, I give her an F for creativity and originality and a D- for effort."
Who's next ?
Am sure there are more such instances in the blogosphere but these are the ones that have hogged the limelight in recent days. But yes, there are exceptions as well like Brian Clark whose CSS was copied without permission but Brian never lost his cool and dealt with the whole issue very gracefully.
If we don't stop misusing the power of our blogs soon, we may be heading towards the dark age of blogging replete with feelings of jealousy, professional envy and hatred for others. The blogosphere will be an unpleasant place then.
Reader Comments
Sorry, Amit, this one's gonna be kinda unrelated. But I was wondering whether you can tell me how you managed to put your previous entries within the body of your post? For some strange reason, I can't seem to put them anywhere besides the sidebar.
Would really appreciate your help.
On the other hand, even gossip blogger Perez Hilton's getting into trouble too (well, with some tabloid companies, I hear).
Written on 13/12/06 9:26 PM
Hello Amit, funny I should fall on your article a few minutes after I wrote a flaming post on the fact that I can't leave comments on Blogger Beta blogs being an old Blogger version user.
Problem is lack of communication - if Google seeing that we're all frantic in Blogger Help Group, sending e-mails and faxes to them - would put up a notice to calm us down then we wouldn't have to bitch, moan and complain, would we?
Thanks for the lowdown, found it interesting obviously:-)
Cheers
Tisha
Written on 13/12/06 10:14 PM
Egos play a great deal in this entire pictures. One person jealous of the other who in turn is jealous of another.
The cycle continues. Controversy creates cash!
Written on 13/12/06 11:28 PM
Blogs are just a media of communication and there is no problem with media but certainly the communication needs to be filtered if needed (else tag it as "free speech rights").
Written on 14/12/06 12:04 AM
And the worst thing of this whole battle would be bloggers reporting about each other rather than things that will help readers !
Written on 14/12/06 12:40 AM
Maybe the dark age of blogging for A-Listers. But I subscribe to dozens if not hundreds of feeds and wasn't even aware of half of your examples.
Written on 14/12/06 2:49 AM
Amit,
I agree with you and there are a few reservations that I would like to share with you too.
Blogs convey information, expression and feelings. Hence the extent of the information conveyed should be ensured that it does not harm the other person. There is a saying that "A person's liberty ends where other persons' nostrils starts" and an interesting story like waving the walking stick which is associated with the saying.
It is upto the blogger to exercise his responsibilities very carefully and use blogosphere to the goodness and welfare of global upliftment and prosperity.
Written on 14/12/06 12:45 PM