Bullard Blogs And Makes Some Good Points...

Did I just say that? Yes. If you have been following "Bullardgate" then you will know that I am an avid Bullard follower and reader of Bullards and thus enjoy his rampant mouth and fairly slow reactions to himself.Yet this weeks column is good. It's really good in my opinion. It might be somewhat reactionary and why shouldn't it be? Bullard had lots to react to. I am impressed that he decided to follow a theme two weeks running (A near first in the history of his column I think).There was the same kind of regular Bullard banter that aims to spark some sort of rouse out of the blogosphere. Fool me once David, fool me once. I might be blogging about this but there is not a witch hunt or about bad breakfast this time.Vincent has also blogged about it and wont be falling for the same tricks twice (if they were tricks David??). I doubt any blogger will be. Alas we fell for this columnists attempt at a plan once already and I rue the day we did. Tsk Tsk Bullard lives amongst us now. He might even be one of the first to come out with his disdain for certain other bloggers by name.From Bullards latest column:

Apparently freedom of speech is not as deeply cherished in the blogosphere as it is in the print media.

I give it a few weeks, maybe a month before Bullard feels the wrath of freedom of speech in the blogosphere. I am not sure that a print columnist who receives criticism on a once a week column will be able to handle the non-stop onslaught that might exist here, online.He does have some good points, one of which is that some (he used the term "most") bloggers can't read, let alone write. I agree with this. I struggle to read some blogs, including Wild Frontier with it's strange approach to content. While other blogs are misread, misquoted and mislinked by bloggers. Come on people, get it right. However Bullard makes the mistake of using the term "most" and insinuating that bloggers suck, plain and simple.I must ask a few questions: What happens when the hype dies? Will the Bullog be able to keep up his readership? Does he and The Times team believe that one week of hype equals and eternity of fame and readers? What is there next step to ensure the Bullog lives? Where will it end, with blog destruction, blatantly offensive content or worse?I think that the first step for the Bullog is to see if he can match the skill of the bloggers in the blogoff... come on Davey boy show us what you got. If David accepts this will be a groundbreaking and interesting mash-up between bloggers and print columnists. It will be an extremely fun and entertaining event that will hopefully lay many grudges to rest in the name of writing, blogging and freedom of speech.

Controversy = Visits. So Proves Bullard

Legitimate controversy will always bring hits, pageviews, visits and unique visits to your blog. This is a certainty in my opinion much like death (I am Greek, taxes don't apply). I might have been bugged on Sunday when I broke the Bullard incident, and I think I still am, but who the hell am I to complain when looking at the Amatomu graphs?
The Graphs above clearly illustrate that I am laughing all the way to the pageview bank thanks to Mr Bullard and the Sunday Times!! So, WOOHOO to that.With that said I need to ask a few questions here with recent events in mind; Is it actually better to go straight for the controversy and maintain it much like 1000Mnms and Peas, or is it better to quietly sneak in controversy like Bullard has done? Should I now become a blogger who rants and raves and calls people names 'cause I can?I think that the answer is somewhat of a mixture of approaches. Blogs can quickly become boring and events from Sunday and yesterday clearly illustrate that bloggers are trying so hard to find interesting things to blog about. This is the crux of blogging is it not? Maintaining a level of interest for your readers and keeping them coming back.As far as I have read, every successful blog maintains that to create a successful blog one needs to find or create a niche in the blogosphere and stick with it. For the first time in a long time I understand why. Blogs can be boring, niche markets are often not boring and rake in the unique users interested in the niche.I am happy to be controversial, I really am but I think that there are better ways in the long term to create pageviews. For now, I'll take the Bullard business!

David Bullard Attacks Blogs

I am not sure what David Bullard ate this week but it has upset him and I think a blogger fed it to him. Bullard has chosen to take on the blogging community and done a great job of misunderstanding what Blogs are and the potential therein. I think that he hates us, us bloggers, us vocal individuals who are not employed by "the man".Bullard says, and I quote:

Most blog sites are the air guitars of journalism. They’re cobbled together by people who wouldn’t stand a hope in hell of getting a job in journalism, mainly because they have very little to say. It’s rather sad how many people think the tedious minutiae of their lives will be of any interest to anyone else.

What is this man going on about? I am sure that the thousands of readers on So Close and Peas would disagree immensely with Bullard. Unfortunately in my opinion he has missed the boat this week. The "air guitars" of journalism, I think not Mr Bullard. I can understand how many bloggers think that they will make it big if they simply write something on a blog. This is ignorant and naive and not true, obviously. But there are many, many, many blogs and bloggers who in fact work as journalists and many other professions who are bloggers too, yours truly for example.This seems to be a case of witch hunting, he doesn't understand something [blogs] and couldn't be bothered to actually do enough research to determine the extent of the reach of a blog, and especially of an effective blog at that. It is fairly strange to me that Bullard knocks blogs so hard when he interacts with many steadfast and established bloggers every day. I would love to know what CrazyRant, Groogle and YoungBlood think about Bullards attack on bloggers.To add insult to injury, Bullard then proceeds to attack the readers of blogs:

It’s even sadder when someone reads them.

Are you kidding me? Now he is insulting the choices that people make? Who is this print columnist kidding? Readers can read what they like, I choose to read Bullard's column every week as much as I choose to read Chumpstyle, 1000Mnms and many other blogs.It seems to me that Bullard is talking about the average Joe who thinks that he/she has something profound to say and then finds out that someone has said it before. I get it, there are millions of blogs out there that are ridiculous, but there is a market for them all.I am not even going to start the discussion of print vs. new media, old vs. new and which will prevail. It's not worth it and I think that if Bullard was to do a bit more research he would see that there are many great writers, journalists and citizens who are making use of their blogs for more than mindless ranting.I am disappointed.Update:Check out the following:http://vincentmaher.com/mit/?p=347#comment-28411http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2445995529http://www.unodewaal.com/2007/05/06/david-bullard-plays-air-opinion/http://www.henriska.com/blog/?p=162http://wiredgecko.net/2007/05/ill-just-write-some-drivel-then-bullard/http://justinhartman.com/2007/05/07/is-david-bullard-an-utter-wanker/http://www.greenman.co.zahttp://www.mikestopforth.com/2007/05/07/dont-prove-david-bullard-right/http://www.sharepointexpert.co.za/?p=17

David Bullard: Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome?

I love David Bullard. I love his brash approach to politics, life, economics and everything in between. After reading his column "Out To Lunch" in todays Sunday Times I felt as if he was suffering from depression or possibly Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS).Normally Bullard belts out words of enthusiasm and conflict, words of incredible observation and brilliant solving strategies. Today Bullard sounded like a South African on the verge of packing it in and heading to the dreaded land of New Zealand. I can only imagine what he has gone through and do not judge the actions and thoughts that he writes about in the column. I just think that he is going through the normalities of stress and depression that are associated with his type of ordeal (not that I am a qualified psychologist).He speaks of canceling his nephew and some other friends that he and his wife were going to host on their trips to SA. He also mentions not being able to host the families unless they sign legal documents stating that he and his wife are not liable for anything that happens to them on their trip to SA. This is somewhat over the top and a bit drastic if you ask me. I also think that someone like Bullard should be more careful with their words when talking about an entire country and an entire trip to SA. Not every tourist is guarenteed to get mugged, robbed, murdered or raped on their trips, hell tourists in New York City have the same things happen to them, but not every person, ever time.It seems as though Bullard has attempted to illustrate the more real side of his ordeal in this column, which is commendable. It is necessary to be grounded about the realities of our beautiful country. People get hurt, bad things happen and have happened to people we know. This is real. Yet this is not all that our country is about. I am glad that Bullard has shown his readers that he is human and he has fear after what happened to him. He often comes across as a super human that is filled with a never ending pool of concentrated positivity, which is fantastic, but not real.I have the utmost respect for David Bullard and the greatest sympathy for his current situation. I hope he is back to his normal self sometime in the very near future!