Rachel Lucas is a Cowardly Weenie!!!
Posted by: tony on 08/06/2008 03:14 AM
Updated by: tony on 08/06/2008 03:14 AM
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Expires: 09/06/2008 12:00 AM
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I guess that's what happens when you become the victim of your own success. She writes:
Also, the expectations go up. I hate being taken more seriously than I take myself, hate that things are inferred about my opinions that aren't true, hate that you can't say ANYTHING without someone taking it the wrong way and having a little *bleep*-fit, and most of all I hate that once your blog gets linked enough, people start thinking you’re just begging to be taken down a notch.
Then you have the attempted flame wars (such as when some *bleep* out there completely misconstrues something you write and tries to "call you out" on his or her own blog), which I never engage in but are starting to piss me off. It’s all so high school and thoroughly nauseating, and I don’t want any part of it.
So that's the fever, and the only cure is more cowbell. By which I mean, entertaining stuff and no politics except to occasionally mock both sides. Those of you who come here for the political stuff are just going to have to go to one of the forty trillion other political blogs out there to get your fix.
So you start a blog, you hope people read you, and you post words of wisdom day in and day out until that fateful day when you get linked by one of the big dogs. All of sudden, you have a tsunami of traffic, and people are commenting and e-mailing and criticizing and kudos-ing...
If you're in it for the traffic, this is a cool thing. You like it and it pumps up your ego (kind of like the main character of the old video game, Dig-Dug, used to do... but remember what was being inflated, if done successfully, blew up). You start checking your traffic stats multiple times a day, and you start gauging your work for the "traffic effect" and start modifying your message accordingly. At that point, since Rachel has such cute dogs, I'll use a dog analogy: "The tail is wagging the dog". You don't post what you truly believe because it might piss off a substantial portion of your readers...
Humbug!
I like having readers, but it's not going to hurt my feelings if some of them drop off because of some deeply held belief, either Catholic or political. But the day I start being "wagged" by my readers, is the day I shut down. And if this offends someone, well, I guess it's a case in point.
So Rachel. Don't let the readership (especially the drive-bys) dictate what you're going to write. Write what you want, the pithy political stuff, or the embarassing dog-picture stuff (do you sleep in the same room as those dogs? We'll be reading about you in the newspaper some morning with your throat ripped out covered in "dog decorations").
And see how big my ego is? I'm assuming that the illustrious Rachel will read this.
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