Monday, March 07, 2005

The Light Unbearableness of Blogwhoring

Ever since julie took her bold stand against spamming at "Atrios's", I have been seething with outrage at the epidemic of blogwhoring, and have taken a firm stand against it here, and here. After taking some time to cool down and organize my fevered thoughts, I have arrived at the following highly cogent essay on the subject of blogwhoring:
Blogwhoring is bad and evil.
Do not blogwhore or Baby Jesus will cry and God will poop on your head.
The only thing worse than garden-variety blogwhoring is recursive blogwhoring, as defined here.


Actually, in all seriousness, julie failed to differentiate between blogwhoring and spamming, which are two entirely different things. Blog spammers, much like their e-mail counterparts, contribute nothing; their sole objective is to get you to click on them, usually with an incredibly clumsy and obvious enticement. Blogwhoring (and its variant, blogpimping) is considerably more elegant, and is usually undertaken by someone who participates regularly and contributes to the community.

Just as I wouldn't mind a friend e-mailing me about something cool they found, I don't mind one of my online friends occasionally and usually amusingly putting in a plug for their blog, or someone else's. It's the drive-by "Hey, check this out!" or "I agree with everything you say! Click here for more!" postings by someone who never interacts with anyone (are they a bot or just a complete ass?) that I find offensive. If you really want to promote your blog or website, then participate in the discussion and establish yourself as a distinctive personality with something to say. If you can't do that, then you might want to rethink whether you really need to have a blog at all.

12 comments:

watertiger said...

julie is stoopit and her mother dresses her funny.

ntodd said...

I don't understand how someone can make blog without being a whore.

20 points, not to mention my undying love and respect, if somebody gets that.

watertiger said...

Alas, I confess that I just looked it up. 'Course, I could've just looked up at Eli's title...

NYMary said...

I was never a whore until I had a blog.

watertiger said...

"I was a simple whore looking for an outlet."

"Have you tried tennis?"

watertiger said...

"I was a simple whore looking for an outlet."

"Have you tried tennis?"

Eli said...

That's not a blog's laugh! That's a WHORE'S laugh!

Eli said...

We really do need a blogwhorenun. Maybe Prior A can hook us up with one...

Anonymous said...

But, if you whore for views, does that make you a pross?

Eli said...

I'm not the pross of you.

charley said...

i think i agree with your point. then again, from the age of 20 when i got my first real job i've always said we are all whores. not that there is anything wrong with that.

besides it's fun to hook up. even if it is just blogging.

Eli said...

Absolutely. Whore we to judge?