[msm commenters] wot us illit ... lit ... er ... wottev'va

Not everything is as it seems. Predictable MSM blast here by James Farmer, of The Age but this time not at the bloggers themselves:

Comment is twee

I am utterly sick of blog comments. Honestly, I've had enough.

Enough of the flaming, the trolling, the moderation, the spam, the 'who's-got-more' syndrome, the inanity and the sheer stupidity behind allowing them on sites like theage.com.au.

They devalue our content, insult much of our readership, piss off our advertisers, waste massive amounts of our time and place us at an enormous legal risk.

They're also perhaps the least web-savvy thing we, as a large media organisation, should be doing. They're yesterday's online communication forums, they're twee.

This, needs revisiting. Let's get rid of them now.

Thing is - this blogger half agrees with James Farmer. I've seen the comments on my own site and on my fellow bloggers' and the worst they get is incorrect but still readable. But at the newspaper just mentioned, you just need to look at any regular lifestyle column and the illiteracy of the average commenter is staggering:

Not so fast: a lot of 'splaining to do when your teenage son finds it accidentally. "Ewwww" he says.... [Migs is a bit sheepish at June 6]

puts up hand*...ooook...i'll join yours then...[ecboy under a thumb at June 5]

what do I tell you people....research, research research practise, practise an then some … [KARMA at June 6]

*whisper* just between you & i, bornagirl...it's only to keep the peace...i'm not surrendering...[ecboy keeping the peace at June 6]

Tea spluttering out the nose moment, here.Yes, where do you keep it, flightless bird? It's a bit like 'where to put the jewelery' - every place you think of you imagine a burglar finding easily… [bornagirl at June 6]

Rivetting stuff. I don't know how James Farmer finds the exchange above incoherent, near-illiterate and pitched at the lowest common denominator. The pathos is moving and the creative use of the written word poetic.

Bloody MSM snob!

[rest their souls] v-line crash

I'm not going to say one word about Connex.

[awards] sleepless but smiling

I went into this Blogpower Awards thing thinking it would be fun to do and would expose lots of people to other blogs.

Personally, I'd hoped I'd do respectably in Category 11 but never dreamed I'd get anywhere in Category 3. I wish I wasn't there now because I'm getting a little nervous. My little circle has already nominated me and now I'm watching late nominees surge.

Don't think I don't appreciate Category 18. I'm a bit stunned that it's gone as it has against such powerful blogpowers as Iain and Doughty but it's still early days. But even if I'm swamped here at the end, I'll never forget those nominations.

There are so many really good things happening. There are some bloggers we all love, self-effacing and yet hopeful and now people are putting them in and I hope it gives them a real lift and makes their day.

From the e-mails, I know many people are enjoying it and that is great for the soul. I'm b-gg--ed but happy. Except for Category 3, where I'm biting my nails.

[visits to blogpower site] today should be interesting

[nour-obscur] my blog's feeling neglected

Don't know if I can post here today, given the state of the nominations over at Blogpower and day-job commitments but I'll be back with a vengeance a.s.a.p.

Of course, the sharpest of you will have picked up that I am, in fact, posting now.

I know I'm biased but it's good to see the Blogpowerers doing so well and nominated, not only by our own kind, but by non BPers as well. And a heck of a lot of BPers have nominated heathens ... er ... sorry ... I mean non BPers.

Phew! Have a good Tuesday!

[not long now] posts will be back

Normal service will be resumed after the Blogpower polls are put up on Wednesday evening and there's some breathing space.

There's been comment and some people have been good enough to communicate it to me. What will I do if this or that happens? Wouldn't it be better to ... ? Most of the suggestions and banners and so on have been taken on board and the feedback has been great.

None of which explains why I took the Awards and just ran them. Doesn't seem too democratic. The thing is, I am virtually my own boss over here and I tend to seize opportunities. As the majority of my clients were taking breaks for a few weeks, the opportunity was too good not to seize, particularly as my blog hiatus is coming up soon.

It had to be now.

As for opening it up to the known universe instead of keeping it cozy and clubby, there seemed little point in running some transparent awards if no one was going to be around to experience them. So if the Blogpowerers get shut out of most categories, then this blogger is going down in flames. He'll be hung by his groupmates. The test will be tomorrow.

There's been criticism of two kinds - that expected, for example by the politically opposed blogger who just said "here's my list" and not one Blogpowerer was on that list. Ho hum. But one which did rankle was the fellow Blogpowerer who sent me an e-mail with the header "[SPAM] Blogpower Awards."

That was constructive of him and I'd like to point him to the 237 e-mails, last time I checked - on the whole people who took it seriously and thought through their nominations. There are 24 waiting now.

I think it's all worth it but we'll see tomorrow.