I've been suffering from writer's block of sorts lately. Just can't drag the muse out of her funk, and no amount of trolling the net for ideas helps to string a few words together for a blog. Heck, I can't find enough words for my FB Status update. When I can't write - I read, and I've been reading an awful lot in the Rain lately.
With members calling the shots on features - I've been reading the dashboard again, and not just those I subscribe to.
I wonder how much consideration went into clicking that suggest button on some of the featured posts. I wonder if the promise of the purple star to add to one's collection of coveted icons is to blame for some lousy posts sporting a gold star where so many worthy ones go unnoticed.
There is a post of Jon Zolsky's that has more life in each of its long-winded sentences than a dozen or so how-to and how-not-to posts occupying the front page of this network. And then there is this gem - the self-important "I am too busy to have a conversation" post that not only got featured, but generated over a hundred mostly in agreement comments. The premise, in a nutshell - we ought to take our clues from Twitter when commenting on blogs and try to keep our conversations here to some marginal number of words, paragraphs or pixels.
Jay Thompson chose to remove all his posts from this network when his Rainmaker status was yanked for lack of contributions (as defined by the new must write a post every 60 or 90 days or whatever that number actually is). I would take one of Jay's comments over the majority of these new-er posters' blogs, but who am I to judge. So I won't.
I hope that AR considers this here blog as fulfilling the must post something every-so-often-requirement. I hope that when everyone recovers from their intellectual slumber, we can restore a bit of charm this network used to hold for some of us: where big words were not avoided at all cost, where members did not advise bloggers on necessity for clipart to make their long-winded posts readable, where people could still read a post that lacked in decoration beyond the one that mattered, having something to say and the ability to say it well.
I am sad to see many of the best bloggers on here take their content elsewhere, and be replaced by a collection of self-appointed gurus with ADD. If AR sheeple must have their clipart and monosyllabics, does the staff HAVE to cater to the lowest common denominator? Is the gold star and front page placement no longer an endorsement, whether real or perceived? Can someone with more authority than I please remind the gods and staff that there is a chance, albeit possibly a small one, that the attention span of consumers is a tad longer than of some featured bloggers, and that just maybe they are not looking for a fast-food diet of tweets-n-toons in a place they come to get to know people and places.
Maybe finding a place to call home for at least some folks is a serious and emotional decision, and they come here looking to connect, looking for a bit of transparency. For this here blogger/marketer/consumer - transparency demands a bit of heart and thoughtfulness.
I've yet to see that displayed in a 140 characters.
Copyright 2010, Inna Hardison. Don't steal from the starving artists, cause it's illegal and just plain freakin' wrong. If you want to republish this - just ask.
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