Let's all blog about blogging about blogging

Bored. That is what us bloggers must be. Why? Because we seem to be so preoccupied recently (a phenomenon that has coincided with some interesting arrivals of late) with who is who and doing what and how often in our wondrously massive local blogging community.Those who are mentioned "seem to not care" but care enough to blog about themselves being blogged about. I have been mentioned a fair amount and I am now partaking in my own condemnation (oh the irony). I am blogging about blogs by bloggers on blogging and bloggers and who's the bestest of the best and whose daddy is bigger than whose mommy and who has the nicest fanciest shmanciest housiest home or rather, blog, and who is more influential than who and how often they influence those that influence others.Can I just chime in here and say that I actually think it's a load of rubbish. In spite of my participation in Mandy's "Top Ten bloggers" post over at MoneyWeb I honestly think it's irrelevant. Mandy asked on twitter yesterday: "Who has more influece?" and listed three bloggers for others to compare. Link. Bait. It's link baiting. Not journalism. It's irrelevant in my opinion (and only in my opinion). What does matter is that its time we refocus our energy on relevant content for the every day reader. Not the bloggers who blog about blogging.Has content become so drab and non existent that we have turned to each other, looked one another in the blog and decided that we are the only content relevant enough to blog about? Are you kidding me?I reiterate that I grasp the fact that I am doing the same thing right now that I am condemning, do not point it out in the comments, I get it, I know that I am doing it but occasionally it is unavoidable.What I am getting at is that people like to stir the pot, we like to back rub, we like to have our backs rubbed, we all do and we all know it, we just can't help ourselves. It's the old adage that people like to see themselves on TV, look at America's Funniest Home Videos. That show has never gone away and it's because there are regular people focusing on people like themselves. That doesn't make it good content though. It just makes it long-lasting.Maybe it's time I shift my focus to writing for readers, not bloggers. Writing for people and writing about things that people like to read. In my opinion readers don't like to read about bloggers blogging about blogs and other bloggers egos and ranks and pages and pageranks and technorati and lists and links... see I'm bored already.

Is the bloggers bubble bursting in SA?

Let's just get one thing straight off the bat: We are not nice people.I am not a nice person in general. I am nice to those that I care about and my friends but that's where it stops. Done and dusted.Why is it that we think the blogosphere is different? We as bloggers are all self serving. We all want hits, we all want money, we all just want and that's the truth.With this years blog awards we saw the turning of the tides. That was the beggining of the real age of the blogosphere. The truth is that we all kind of harbour jealousy towards someone else who blogs something first, who thinks of something new or who creates something that we didn't think of. Then we shut our mouths, "praise" that person and keep deep seated rage towards them.Take Mr Richard Catto for instance. I applaud him. Why? Because he is harsh and most of the time he is looking to be a mean guy and succeeds. I don't particular like him but his honesty and brazen comments are appreciated. Many of them are out of line in my view but that's my view.When we don't like something he says we pussy foot around the giant elephant standing in the sphere. What is that elephant? Fact is we all dislike someone, if not many people, most of the time. But in the blogosphere we try not to. This is not real. This is not the way the world works.Justin and I had a discussion about the "community" that we call the blogosphere. It is not much of a community if we are honest. At an extreme push there are 200-300 bloggers (real people) who are extremely active and entrenched in the local blog scene. That's it. It is impossible for us to take a liking to all 300 of these people. It wouldn't happen in real life so why would it happen online?It doesn't. And if you think that it does you are still living in the old bubble of local-blogosphere 1.0. We are now in version 2.0 of the local space. This space is not so pleasant as Jon Cherry discovered when he organised the blog awards this year. Unfortunately the events disdain was directed at him and he became the scape-goat.Now things have changed. People are talking a big game and others are responding with even bigger talk. I almost got sued, which was not pleasant either. Bolton Deventer existed for a week or two and then dissapeared. But we all still pussy foot around and act like it's OK and we are happy and "Hahahaha he got us". Fuckem. He didn't get me, I didn't link to him, didn't blog about him (until now) and commented a couple of times. I refuse to take that shit again. I wont do it.I'll tell you why I wont do it, because if this space was larger people like Deventer, Mclaren, me and my blog would all be lost in space. Because we are a small, new and fresh sphere we are trying to be pleasant and entertain every notion and partake in every conversation that pops up. If this space were bigger I would be an insipid blip on the blog-radar. In fact, I think I am an irrelevant voice in the grand scheme of things and so are many other bloggers who just don't see it the same way.Ego is an issue. Many people don't like that about our little local blog space. I love it. I love the game, I love the hype and I love the big talk. Why? Because it's the closest thing to reality that I can experience online. Egos are real, competition is real and disagreements are real to. Let's embrace it, get pissed off and move on.Why does every little incident have to be turned in to a massive ordeal that everyone partakes in and get's riled up about? Why do we even entertain the bullshit and give the likes of Deventer hits?

The internet makes me a jealous prat

I am sick to shit of reading all the tech/gadget blogs that I read (Techrunch + Paulstamatiou to name two) and know that most of the gadgets they are talking about will only be released in SA within at least, at LEAST 6 months. The iPhone, the iPod touch, the PS3, Xbox 360, games, music, movies, gadgets, you name we don't have it now. We'll get it later.I want gadgets, I want to order them, buy them, use them and I want to do it all NOW, when the reviews are out.By the time we actually receive the gadgets in review there are new gadgets, upgraded ones and better ones. This is smart I might add, because we here in SA are so desperate for the gadget that we buy it as it is available and then when the newer version is released we buy that too. What a pleasure for the capitalist bums that are taking my cash!

Social Networks AKA dating sites and crap websites

I absolutely hate it when people talk about things without doing research or knowing what they are saying. I am sure I have done this on the odd occasion in the past but it still bugs me.I just read this post that talks about social network sites as commonly known as dating sites too. Since when? This post has such an air of "authority" about it that ignorant readers would actually believe this rubbish.Then the author proceeds to include god's plan for our lives including these "dating sites". The author then mixes things up by saying that one should join social networks (or dating sites) to network with people and make links to begin to build a network of people who can help you, over 3-5 years build the sort of life you want to lead. Uhu?What a load of hogwash. And this sort of revelation comes from a website that looks like this:It is very scary to me that there are actually people out there who are:1. Promoting this sort of crap site as something people can and should use2. Using these sites as their personal blogs.I have a feeling that this is a Guy Mclaren website. This guy (no pun intended) seems to be promoting the very worst of the web as the contemporary web styles. What is he thinking? Can he not see that his user system is rubbish and outdated? Why would anyone want to use this sort of platform when even the dreaded blogger is better than this platform?I am so shocked that anyone is registering for this service and this crap. Come on people. Wake up, make a stand. Don't use this rubbish.I will offer my somewhat inexperienced services to anyone who is thinking of using the rubbish service above. If you are thinking of starting a blog, email me and I will offer you some assistance on where to go and how to do it. Just as long as you aren't using the above services.