Educating Kent: The Single RSS Enclosure Thing

Paging all RSS gurus.

I have a question.  In these media driven days, why do RSS feeds only have a single enclosure?  I’m sure there are plenty of good and/or bad reasons for this, and I suspect the topic has been beat to death by those more learned in RSS than me.  But I couldn’t find a satisfactory answer when I googled it the other day.  It just seems odd that I can do a music post that looks like this on my blog, but only has a single enclosure in the feed.

It’s sort of a disincentive for further music related posts.

What is the reason for this?  Will it ever change?

Can any of my RSS gurus (or anyone else knowledgeable) explain this to me?

Technorati tags: , ,

Evening Reading: 7/9/07

Blender has 100 days that changed music.  Like all of these lists, it’s very biased towards the present, but it’s an interesting read.  I can’t believe Justin and Britney splitting is number 12.  Are you kidding me?

Now you can post to Twitter and Pownce at the same time.  I’m not sure why I’d ever want to do that, but I’ll sleep better tonight knowing it’s possible.  If someone wants to do something useful, figure out a way to associate a Box.net account with a Pownce account, so you can automatically save files sent to you via Pownce.

Dave Wallace has the best post I’ve ever read on technology access, with emphasis on access by people with disabilities.

Micahville has a list of 69 tech sites that don’t suck.  Many thanks for including Newsome.Org on that list.  It is an honor to be included. even if I am number 12, just like Justin and Britney.  Also, many thanks to Steve Spalding for including me on this list.

Tris Hussey on moving beyond blogging to community: “So if you’re wondering why no one is reading your blog, or linking, or commenting… step out, find other blogs in your niche.  Read them, leave a comment or three, start a conversation, link to them, send an e-mail, just start that friendship building process and the rest will follow.”  Good advice.  Here’s some more good conversation advice from Penelope Trunk.

Someone please (really) explain to me how Ning is worth $214M.  If you follow the money in Web 2.0, where does it go?  In other words, who is pushing all the product that is actually getting sold as a result of all the ads that are served by all these web sites?  Or are we just moving money around like furniture…

Tom Morris has moved his blog to Tommorris.org.

I outsmarted them this time- I never watched a second of Traveler.

Chris Brogan explains that Twitter is the Matrix.

Groundhog Feed: this post from Jake Ludington has appeared in my reader as a new post almost every day since he wrote it.  I don’t think he’s tweaking it like a manuscript, so there must be some higher force at work.  There are several other feeds gone wild in my reader doing more or less the same thing.  Is this just a Bloglines problem?

Paul Lester has written the blogosphere equivalent of Free Bird.  I’m dead serious- that is one beautiful post.

Paging William Meloney.  I want to subscribe to your feed, but auto-discovery doesn’t work and the feed link at the bottom returns only some old posts.  What is your feed URL?  And why isn’t it at the top of your excellent blog?

Technorati tags:

The Gillmor Gang Rides Again?

I’m not one of those complicated, mixed-up cats.
I’m not looking for the secret to life…
I just go on from day to day, taking what comes.

– Frank Sinatra

Steve Gillmor writes that he is about to launch a new show (which I interpret as a podcast) called Bad Sinatra.  It looks like this is the web site.  I wonder if the name was in any way inspired by the hilarious, and completely kid-unfriendly, movie Bad Santa?

bsinatra Steve (hopefully with Doc Searls) doing a podcast is very good news and I look forward to hearing Steve and his guests talk about whatever they choose to talk about.  It got a little weird near the end, but discovering the Gillmor Gang podcast was the online equivalent of a before and after experience.  Some of the conversation on that show was as witty, intelligent and entertaining as a podcast can be.  I realize, as someone who created and then abandoned a podcast, that the reach of a podcast is an open question, but suffice it to say that when it was good, the Gillmor Gang set a podcast standard that hasn’t been matched since.  And I continue to wonder why no one else has tried a similar format in Texas or other locales.

I’m looking forward to Bad Sinatra.  Now if we can get Steve to blog a little more.

So we can read more of his thoughts on the whole social networking mess that we’ve been wrestling with.  Spot on thoughts like this:

[W]e all make contributions to the state of mind we call this social network of ours. You can call it attention, or intention, or VRM, or Twitter, or whatever.  But it still represents our hope to make some difference, to leave a footprint in the cement out in front of the theatre of our lives. We take it a lot more seriously than we let on, but like high school we pretend that it doesn’t hurt when we’re insulted, passed by, snickered at, or worst of all, not noticed.

And this:

The politics of personality swamp us with messages that need to be triaged much like we used to parse advertising.  Is this the program wrapped in signals or signals disguised as programming?  Yes.  It’s an ugly space we’re in, and nobody holds the high ground. We’re all selling something, and of course it’s ourselves.

Yep, I’m looking forward to Bad Sinatra.

As an aside, I found the iPhonomics and podosphere domain stuff Steve wrote about interesting.  I remember when Stowe Boyd auctioned off the Podosphere.com domain name on eBay last year.  He got a whopping $103 for it.  Not much has happened with it since.

Technorati tags: , ,

Evening Reading: 7/8/07

Richard MacManus on how to turn a blog into a career.  Kent Newsome on how to make a small fortune in the blogosphere: “Start with a large fortune.”

I love me some Mashable, but Pete Cashmore seems to be calling for more serious articles about serious tech and less blogospats about who did what to whom.  Where’s the fun in that?

Consumerist says it caught a Geek Squad technician stealing data from a customer’s computer.

I can’t even decipher what this means, but I’m pretty sure I don’t agree with it.  I’m also pretty sure there’s a finger pointing pot in there somewhere.

Pramit Singh has some good thoughts on citizen journalism.

Chip Camden gives us a preview of Web 9.0.  There are sites today, Zooomr being one of them, that I would love to use, but can’t log in.  And Chip is right- it’s only going to get worse.

D’Arcy Norman on owning your contentAmen.

Dan Santow has some more good grammar tips.  I often get the titled/entitled thing wrong.

Get your Blogging Tips from Douglas Karr at The Marketing Technology Blog.  I’m getting mine (maybe) via his blog-tipping series.

I vote for lima beans, which we call butter beans.  Great blues song too.  Hey Frank, who is that?

I’m still not feeling the cats, but this made me laugh out loud (as opposed to cringe).

Psychology Today has a list of 10 Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature.

Earl Moore has 10 really good tips for connecting with others, both online and off.  This is a must read.

That sinking feeling: I currently have a RAID 0 configuration, but I’m not sure I’d do it again.  I’d probably use RAID 1 for my data and a separate, regular hard drive for my OS.

Couldn’t do the Presidents?  How about the states?  I get hopelessly lost on the New England states. (via Rob Gale)

Time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana (that’s one of Townes Van Zandt’s old jokes).  Here’s how to get rid of them with a soda bottle trap.

Liz Strauss on compliments and apologies.  I spoke with Liz the other night as a part of her BAD blogger series.  She’s a smart and thoughtful person and a very good writer.

Dwight says the first beta for Vista SP1 will be out next week.  If they’d just fix the jacked up way Vista deals with the importation and review of digital photos, I’d be happy.  I find Windows Photo Gallery to be virtually unusable, mainly because it seems to advance through photos by eights (from 12 to 20 to 28, etc.) and I have seen entire civilizations rise and fall in the time it takes to move a large set of photos from a flash card to my hard drive.

Technorati tags:

Life in the Ant Farm


(by and via Hugh)

I think I see a lot of people I know in there, probably because I have been their neighbor at times.  I suspect there will be psychology text books written one day analyzing the evolution of the blogosphere as the greatest social experiment of this century.

And we’re still in the hunter gatherer stage.

Technorati tags: ,

The 7 Quickest Ways to Get Deleted From My Reading List

delete-key As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve read a lot of blogs over the years.  During that time, I’ve developed some serious likes and dislikes.  My personal belief is that every reader is important, and unless you are at the very top of the Technorati 100, you should work hard to retain every reader.  Conversely, you should avoid things that may cause readers to unsubscribe from your blog.

I’ll cover the likes in a series of posts when my swivel feeds experiment is over.  For now, in honor of 7-7-07, here are the seven quickest ways to get removed from my reading list.

1) Use partial feeds.  Unless you write like Cormac McCarthy, you are generally pissing up a rope by trying to force me to your web site in the name of ads, or whatever other illogical and self-defeating reason led you to use partial feeds.  This is especially true for newer and less known bloggers.  Darren Rowse may be able to get away with it, but you almost certainly can’t.  If Scoble can push a full feed out the door, so can you.  When my swivel feeds list is complete and I start pruning my personal reading list, partial feeds will be the number one reason blogs get axed.  Not only will these blogs lose a reader, they will also lose the potential for links and cross-blog conversation.

2) Engage in excessive self/blog promotion.  When someone tells you how smart they are, they are almost always lying.  I don’t want to read post after post about what a genius you are.  Let me make my own decision based on your writing.  I also don’t want to read post after post about your latest give-away or whatever to get people to visit/link/subscribe to your blog.  Don’t misunderstand, occasional give-aways, contests, etc. done the right way are both appropriate, fun and productive.  But if you’re spending more time acting like a carnival barker than a writer, you are not going to stay on my reading list- or many others.

3) Don’t reciprocate conversation/links.  While linking to me and/or commenting here is a very good way to get on my reading list, it’s in no way a prerequisite.  It’s simply a polite way to tell me about your blog (I subscribe immediately to the large majority of people who link and/or comment, and those who keep my attention get a permanent place in my feeds).  Once you get on my reading list, I will likely reach out to you conversationally.  But, over time, if you don’t respond or, even worse, tend to link around me, I’ll conclude that you aren’t interested in conversing with me and I’ll move on.

4) Add scads of junk or filler to your feeds.  One common example of this is posting a big series of photos on your otherwise non-photo blog as separate blog posts.  This results in the Engadget Effect, whereby I get overwhelmed by the sheer number of posts.  Get a Flickr account and post a link to a photo set instead.  You might think the photos of trees and buildings and whatnot from your recent trip to Peoria are fascinating.  I probably don’t.  And even if I do, I can see them better via a Flickr set.

5) Bombard me with ads.  I understand about the need to make a little money.  Really, I do.  But just like TV, if the ads overwhelm the content, I will turn the channel.  I am willing to suffer through an unobtrusive ad or two – even in feeds – but I won’t suffer through a bunch of ads for a bit of content.  And if you want to get deleted from my reading list immediately, combine partial feeds with banner ads in your feeds.  I dive for the unsubscribe button when that happens.

6) Use a lot of gratuitous profanity.  Anyone who knows me via my job knows that I have been known to curse like the proverbial sailor when provoked.  It’s not one of my better qualities, but it demonstrates that I am far from a prude.  Nevertheless, when I’m reading a blog post or watching a video post and every other word is an F-Bomb, it really turns me off.  If you can’t make your point without a bunch of gratuitous profanity, then either your point or your writing skills are lacking.

7) Ignore/dismiss the other side of the issue.  I can’t stand most talk radio simply because the hosts can only see one side of the issue and either ignore or attack those who feel differently.  If there aren’t two sides to an issue, then why write about it?  And if there is another side to the issue, then address it logically and rationally.  It’s OK to feel strongly, but if you really feel that way (and are not merely regurgitating what someone spoon-fed you), you should be able to explain why.

Those are the fastest ways to get deleted from my reading list.

What are the fastest ways to get deleted from yours?

Technorati tags: ,

Swivel Feeds, Group 8

This is an update on my swivel feeds experiment, in which I ask bloggers I read to help me rebuild my reading list by adding 5 of their favorite blogs to the list.  I’ve had a very positive response so far, and my new reading list is coming together nicely, with a diverse and interesting mix of bloggers.  When the list is complete, I will share it and upload an OPML file for those who are interested.

Here’s how it works.  Every few days I ask a group of 8 of my favorite bloggers to each recommend 5 blogs to add to the list.  I post the recommended blogs in a subsequent update, and add them to my swivel feeds list.  Each update has a list of the recent blog recommendations, followed by the next 8 bloggers I am asking to add blogs to the list.

Here are the swivel feeds recommendations so far from the seventh group, plus any stragglers from prior groups.  Note that, when possible, I designate blogs by the name of the blogger, because I like to know who I’m talking to.

There has been some confusion about who is supposed to recommend what.  The single column list below are the new blogs that got added to the list by the last group of bloggers.  The new list of bloggers I am asking to add blogs to the list is near the bottom of this post.

RECENT ADDITIONS

Blog Business Summit
Brian Oberkirch
Dogster Blog
FresHDV
Giovanni Rodriguez
Imagethief
Mike Manuel
One Degree
PaidContent
Paper Ghost
Shel Israel
Stuart Brown
TED Blog
Think

I have subscribed to all of the recommended blogs, and all but one are new additions to my reading list.

The blogs listed above join the following prior recommendations and participants in the sixth edition of my new reading list.  Links to inform others about our swivel feeds collaborative reading list experiment would be much appreciated, but are by no means a condition to inclusion.

SWIVEL FEEDS LIST TO DATE

A Cons. Experience
Adam Gaffin
Adam Ostrow
Ah Soon
Alan Levine
Alan Patrick
Amyloo
Andy Abramson
Anne Zelinka
Assaf Arkin
Ballastexistenz
Beth Kanter
BldgBlog
Blogging Pro
Blognation
Blonde 2.0
Bob Meets World
Bonnie Staring
Brad Feld
Brad Kellett
Brian Balfour
C.C. Chapman
Chip Camden
Chris Brogan
Chris Marston
Christine Thurow
Christopher Carfi
Claus Valca
Corey Clayton
Crystal Jackson
D’Arcy Norman
Daily Cup of Tech
Dan Santow
Dave Rogers
Dave Taylor
Dave Wallace
David Cohen
David Rothman
Deborah Schultz
Dennis the Peasant
Don Dodge
Donna Bogatin
Doug Karr
Dwight Silverman
Earl Moore
Ed Bott
Engtech Lite
Eric Olson
Ethan Johnson
Ewan McIntosh
f8d
Father Bob
Fear Not the Gods
Frank Paynter
Fraser Kelton
Funny Junk
GAS Tech. News
Greg Hughes
Greg Sterling
Haydn Shaughnessy
Heise Security
Hilary Talbot
Howard Lindzon
Hugo Ortega
ICH Cheezburger
Ian Delaney
Ian Forrester
Ilker Yoldas
IT|Redux
J.A. Konrath
J.P. Rangaswami
Jackson Miller
Jake Ludington
Jay Neely
Jeff Balke
Jeff Masters
Jennifer Slegg
Jeremiah Owyang
Jessica Hagy
Jing Chen
jkOnTheRun
Joe Wikert
John Tropea
John T. Unger
John Walkenbach
Jon Udell
JonnyB
Josh Kopelman
Joshua Porter
Just Elite
Justine Ezarik
Kate Trgovac
Kevin Burton
Kfir Pravda
Les Orchard
Lisa Stone
Liz Stauss
Long Zheng
Lost and Gone Forever
Madame Levy
Marek Uliasz
Mike Miller
Nancy White
Nashville Is Talking
Natalie Goes to Japan
New Scientist
Nick Carr
Nick Hodge
Nick O’Neill
Official Google Blog
Opacity
Paddy Johnson
Paul Colligan
Paul Greenberg
Paul Lester
Paul Stamatiou
Penelope Trunk
Phydeaux3
Quasi Fictional
Read/Write Web
Reg Braithwaite
ReveNews
Rex Hammock
The River
Robert Andrews
Robert Hruzek
Robert Nagle
Rod Begbie
Rory Blyth
SBWLTN
Scott Adams
Scott Hanselman
Seamus McCauley
Stereogum
T-Critic
The Struggling Writer
ThoughtWorks Blogs
Tina Roth Eisenberg
Tom Evslin
Tom Matrullo
Tom Moody
Tony Hung
Tresblue
Trevin Chow
Tricks of the Trade
Twangville
UNEASYsilence
Valleywag
War on Folly
Will Truman
Wonderland or Not
Wondermark
Yes But No But Yes
Zen Habits

From Group 7, I haven’t received recommendations from John Dvorak, John Watson, Karl Martino, Kevin Briody, Kevin HalesKevin Maney or Larry Borsato.  From Group 6, I haven’t received recommendations from JD Lasica, Jeneane Sessum, Jeremy Zawodny or Jimmy Huen.  My general policy is to assume non-participation after 2 weeks.

From Group 5Guy Kawasaki, Henry Blodget and Hugh MacLeod did not make any recommendations.  All have been dropped from the swivel feeds list.  Hugh and Guy get a “sponsor’s exemption” and will remain on my personal reading list.

Now for the next 8 bloggers each of whom I am asking to add 5 blogs to the list:

NEW LIST OF BLOGGERS TO ADD 5 BLOGS TO THE LIST

Louis Gray: We certainly don’t always agree on everything, but I enjoy his blog- even when he is crapping all over me 🙂

Marc Canter: Marc is a long time read and the CEO of Broadband Mechanics, the company behind People Aggregator.

Mark Evans: Another long time read who writes about tech, telecom and other interesting issues.

Martin Gordon: One more long time read, who writes about tech, social networks and other interesting stuff.

Matt Moran: A relatively new blog in my feeds list, Matt is into family, tech and music- also my three favorite things.

Michael Parekh: Even though he’s a Tarheel (Go Deacs), I’ve read his blog for a long time.  He writes about lots of tech-related topics.

Mike Seyfang: I met Mike through Dave Wallace, and enjoy both this blog and his podcast.

Niall Kennedy: I started reading Niall when he was at Technorati.  He’s now a web technologist living in San Francisco.

That’s the eighth group of bloggers I’m askin

g to help rebuild my reading list.  If you’re willing, please recommend 5 of your favorite blogs to add to the list.  Use your blog, the comments or email, whichever you prefer.

Evening Reading: 7/6/07

SiliconUser has an interesting read about the history of the compact disc.

Here’s a neat little quiz.  Can you name all the U.S. Presidents in 10 minutes?  I thought I’d be able to, but nope.

Donna Bogatin: “As the virtual social networking ‘friendship’ race to claim more ‘friends’ than the next Web guy (or gal) intensifies, the real value of REAL social networking is obscured amidst the online popularity game.

Paul Stamatiou reviews the Slingbox AV.

I generally avoid political and religious topics, but this is about as messed up as something can be.

Rick Mahn on the Twitter advantage.   

Mike Malone on how Pownce came to be.

Here’s the iPhone Musical.  Very clever.

Valleywag: When all else fails launch a social network.  Ain’t that the truth.

Yahoo Bill Pay joins the deadpool.

Technorati tags:

Why Backfence Tells Us Nothing About the Viability of Citizen Journalism

Rafat Ali reports that Backfence, once the poster child for aggregated citizen journalism, is shuttering all 13 of its local-news based web sites.

citizenjournalismYou remember Backfence.  It is/was, to quote the American Journalism Review, “a series of hyperlocal, news-oriented web sites whose tone and content – news, commentary, blogs, photos, calendar listings – would be supplied primarily by the people who knew each community best, its residents.”  It was one of 6 citizen journalism ventures that were mentioned in a December 9, 2004 article in the Washington Post that said:

Several notable ventures have launched or raised money this year to create local news sites online in which readers contribute all or most of the news. The big idea is that citizen-generated content lowers costs and creates more loyal audiences.

Of the 6 notable ventures mentioned in that article, here’s how they fared in the ensuing two and a half years:

Three of them: iBrattleboro.com, NorthwestVoice and Wikinews are still in business.  The first two have overcome My-Space-like design problems and are still accepting submissions.  Wikinews doesn’t seem all that local to me, unless North America is local, but is still going strong.

Advance Internet seems to have evolved into merely a directory of NJ-related blogs.  I can’t tell if there is a more formal relationship between the blogs, thanks to a most unhelpful About page.

GoSkokie seems to have joined Backfence in the deadpool.

Which translates to a 50% survival rate.  That’s probably better than the survival rates for a lot of other businesses over the same two and a half year period.  And, unlike Backfence, many of those businesses didn’t have $3M in venture capital funding to work with.  That fact being the epitome of both a blessing and a curse.

More significantly, I don’t believe the failure of Backfence or the survival of iBrattleboro.com and NorthwestVoice says anything one way or the other about the future or viability of citizen journalism- at least not the way I view true citizen journalism.  All of those web sites, as well as more than a few others that have attached themselves to the citizen media movement, have the very distinct look and feel of old media- old media that is still not entirely comfortable with the whole online thing.  Sure, accepting submissions for publication is a neat idea (and no doubt helps lower expenses), but lots of old media offline publications do that.  True citizen journalism the way I view it is journalism by citizens, for citizens, published by citizens and controlled by citizens.

Not so much people writing and submitting articles to the online editions of a dying newspaper industry.  Or to web sites that look more like a newspaper than a blog.  Everybody always blows right past this point, but the citizens who create the journalism should demand the right to serve and control that content from their own platform and for their own benefit.  Not from some online quasi-paper, not behind the walls of some ad-happy social network and not for the pecuniary benefit of third parties.  A story submission button and a comments section does not equate to citizen journalism.

It’s the combination of content creation and aggregation that mucks everything up.  Just like musicians don’t need the record labels any more, journalists don’t need the newspaper platform- or a semi-collaborative photocopy of one.  The aggregation of content is better left to the Diggs, Techmemes and blog comments.  Or even better, to feed lists tailored to the interest of the reader.

Let me say it again.  If you are are a citizen (as opposed to a member of traditional media) working your tail off to create content to then turn around and give that content to others who control its distribution and/or make all or most of the money off of it, you are neither citizen nor journalist.  You are at best an employee and, more likely, an indentured scribe.  You are an ant in another’s farm.  Why do people not get this?  Someone queue that Apple commercial.

Rather, the true citizen journalism is occurring simultaneously on distributed blogs of thousands of learned bloggers out there.  Bloggers like Scott Karp, Phil Sim, the guys and gals at Mashable, Nick CarrDonna Bogatin, Mathew Ingram,  TDavid, Tony Hung, Twangville, Don Dodge, J.P. Rangaswami, Jeff Pulver, Stereogum, Rex Hammock and Rafat’s PaidContent.Org.  And those are just a few that I noticed when glancing at my feeds list.  There are easily a hundred more on that list.  Maybe two hundred.

The future of citizen journalism is in the hands of people writing the blogs about the events that are happening around them.  The path of citizen journalism will be mapped starting from the citizen/blogger side of the phrase, not from the journalism/old media side.  At its core, citizen journalism is about learning how to distribute reliable information without being chained to a platform or gateway.  It’s equal access reporting where the readership picks the winners.

Maybe Backfence was a pioneer and, as the AJR article says, destined to be the one with arrows in their backs. And maybe Backfence led the way for a segment of the trip.  But the journey has just begun and citizen journalism as it looks today is merely a working sketch of what citizen journalism will become.

Technorati tags: ,

Declaration of Blogging Independence

When in the Course of online events it becomes necessary for alienated and isolated bloggers to dissolve the existing blogging hierarchy and exclusionary behavior which have disconnected them from the A-List and made them feel even more nerdy, and to assume among the multitude of powers they wish they had, the equally unattainable station to which the Laws of It Ain’t Fair entitle them, a decent respect for The Onion and Al Gore requires that they should write yet another post no one will ever read to declare the many real and imagined causes which impel them to the third party affected and now ironically embraced separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evidently pie in the sky, that all bloggers are created equal, that they are endowed by their Computers and iPhones with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are lots and lots of Links, Thoughtful Comments and the pursuit of AdSense Dollars. – That to secure these rights, lots of Wailing and Moaning is inserted into Blogs, deriving their literary powers from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical video-blogged nerdathon, – That whenever any Ze Frank or Ze Frank equivalent becomes destructive of these ends by monopolizing all the viewers who would otherwise be watching videos of Star Trek impersonations, it is the Right of the Bloggers to use their webcams, lightsabers and YouTube to alter or to abolish it, and to achieve new levels of self humiliation, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their rapidly diminishing Technorati Ranking and Google Juice. Technorati, indeed, will dictate that the Blogosphere long established months ago should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that new bloggers are better suited to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to deny the A-Listers the celebrity to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the Mythical Endless Ad Dollar and a link from Om evinces a design to reduce them to absolute Isolation and Silence, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw another Blogofit, and to demand a new relational structure for their future security. -Such has been the patient sufferance of many Bloggers; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to start posting cat pictures with misspelled and allegedly funny cat quotes. The history of the present Gatekeepers is a history of repeated exclusions and the turning of deaf, furry ears, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the Blogosphere. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a sleepy world.

They have refused to respond to conversational overtures, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

They have ignored posts of immediate and pressing importance, unless emailed till their Attention should be obtained; and when so emailed, they have utterly neglected to reply.

They have called together ludicrously entitled conferences and unconferences at places unusual and uncomfortable, for the sole purpose of fatiguing us into believing that they were right not to invite us.

They have refused for a long time, to cause others to be admitted to Techmeme, whereby the Aggregating Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the Bloggers at large for their exercise; the Blogosphere remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from cat blogs within, and convulsions of laughter from little old ladies without.

They have made all of Web 2.0 dependent on Advertising alone for the tenure of its offices, and the amount and payment of its salaries.

They have combined with others in formal and informal affiliations to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our desires to be popular, and unacknowledged by our moms.

They have plundered our right to bigger feed counts, ravaged our prospective link counts, burnt out our minds, and denied us links from lots of other people.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Posted for Redress in the most irritable terms: Our repeated Posts have been answered only by repeated silence. An A-Lister, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a meanie, is unfit to be the ruler of a utopian and unrealistic blogosphere.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Old Media brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their laid off and soon to be reporters to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here at the end of the long tail. We have appealed to their journalistic standards and arrogance, and we have conjured them by the hair of our chinny chin chins to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our reader counts and inbound links. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the so-called New Media, Enemies when they ignore us, in Linkage Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the New Blogosphere, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Scoble of the internet for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the solitary bloggers, solemnly publish and declare, That these disjointed Blogs are, and of Right ought to be Free and Incoherent Blogs, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the old Blogosphere, and that all  connection between them and the old Blogosphere, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Incoherent Blogs, they have full Power to converse with each other, conclude open and free blogging Alliances, establish Cross-Blog Conversations, and to do all other nerdly Acts and other geeky Things which Independent Blogs may of right do. – And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of our day jobs, we mutually pledge to each other our Blogs, our Links and our sacred Attention.

Technorati tags: , ,