{"id":6197,"date":"2012-05-03T19:48:45","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T00:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=6197"},"modified":"2012-05-04T17:33:45","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T22:33:45","slug":"internet-scofflaw-breaking-the-blogging-commandments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=6197","title":{"rendered":"Internet Scofflaw: Breaking the Blogging Commandments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have the bad habit of site-jumping when a topic snags my interest.\u00a0 Recently, starting with a tale of blatant plagiarism<\/a> by a top YA book reviewer (who issued the standard non-apology and accused her victims of being mean to her, thereby setting up a bullying spree by her followers), I found myself skimming the plagiarized pieces.\u00a0 Two dealt with blogging don\u2019ts.\u00a0 Those who know me will guess the rest: I looked up \u201cblogging no-nos\u201d in Google.<\/p>\n

Several sites later, suffice it to say that the advice is as harmonious as a skua rookery.\u00a0 There are, however, a few near-consensus points for non-business blogs:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. content \u00fcber alles (if only);<\/li>\n
  2. fast loading good, pop-ups and multi-clicks bad (unless they help the site\u2019s hit count);<\/li>\n
  3. also bad: spelling mistakes, eye-hurting design and music autoplay (the latter makes it hard to secretly net-surf at work, for one);<\/li>\n
  4. well-chosen pictures are mandatory (a thousand words and so forth);<\/li>\n
  5. so is replying to all comments and having painless spam filters (everyone\u2019s whims must be catered to the max, otherwise they won\u2019t keep reading the blog);<\/li>\n
  6. don\u2019t exceed a certain length (below 1,000 words good, below 750 even better \u2013 after all, people are busy surfing);<\/li>\n
  7. use social media \u2013 newsletters, Share buttons, Twitter (establish a presence!);<\/li>\n
  8. do 10-Things lists, polls, contests (with awards);<\/li>\n
  9. update frequently or risk being forgotten (people must be constantly entertained, after all);<\/li>\n
  10. find a content niche and stick with it like a burr (or else no community for you).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Now, the first four are commonsense and should be obvious \u2013 though judging from what I saw during this particular dip, they\u2019re not.\u00a0 This observance-in-the-breach includes the common associated clause of \u201cdon\u2019t be negative\u201d for point 1: if anything, flamewars seem to feed blogs like dry twigs feed brushfires.\u00a0 However, I break the last six with abandon and in full consciousness.\u00a0 This may explain why my blog flipflops wildly at various ranking sites, and why I haven\u2019t yet been awarded a Pulitzer or a regular column at, say, Nature or Tor.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>Points 5-9 can only be followed if your blog and the activities it promotes are the focus of your entire existence \u2013 or you\u2019re paid what passes for a pro rate (whatever that is, in today\u2019s \u201ccontent yearns to be free\u201d mindset). \u00a0It does so happen that I don\u2019t live in my parents\u2019 basement pushing XBox buttons: I have a research lab and an academic job that demand more than passing attention.\u00a0 Besides, I\u2019ve seen Twitter, Facebook and Livejournal close up and found them less than enticing<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cLoyalties\u201d that spring from social media are shallow and brittle.\u00a0 It takes more than exchanging snarky soundbites to build sturdy alliances that go beyond \u201cLike\u201d or \u201cHeaddesk\u201d.<\/p>\n

    More fundamentally, having entered the last third of my life, I sometimes tire of old issues springing up again and again like dragons\u2019s teeth: the relentless fundamentalist war on women\u2019s rights<\/a> in this country and elsewhere; grittygrotty SF\/F authors calling their pornokitsch fiction subversive<\/a> and invoking \u201crape modules in male brains\u201d (although I and several others tackled this from the writing angle and I intend to discuss it in a near future post from the biological angle); young women and self-labeled \u201cprogressive\u201d men saying that feminism is pass\u00e9<\/a>, having achieved its goals (equal pay? easy access to contraception?); fanboiz whining that I\u2019m elitist<\/a> because I don\u2019t like Avatar, Accelarando<\/em> or the pronouncements of Kurzweil, or that I\u2019m hard on armchair tourist authors who get famous (or at least solvent) from tone-deaf depictions of non-Anglo cultures<\/a>.\u00a0 Which brings us to the major issue, point 10: content focus.<\/p>\n

    What people write on their blogs depends on their goals.\u00a0 Some use them as pulpits, others as public diaries, yet others as marketing tools (\u201cHere are my Hugo nominations, now go vote!\u201d).\u00a0 Focused-content blogs tend to become watering holes for the like-minded.\u00a0 In some cases, their owners become oracles to a worshipping group of reader-acolytes.\u00a0 Personally, I\u2019m interested (more than casually) in several domains: science, history and language, literature and the arts, space exploration, politics.\u00a0 I also believe that none of these strands can be examined in isolation.\u00a0 To give a recent example, my critique of the John Carter film<\/a> included all these angles \u2013 and when I was asked to take out \u201cthe review bits\u201d for possible reprinting on a popsci-oriented blog, I realized I couldn\u2019t do so without essentially rewriting the entire piece.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019m also allergic to acolytes because at some point they take you over.\u00a0 Not that women attain prophet status without becoming Ayn Rand or the equivalent, mind you \u2013 women who denigrate their own, thereby becoming pillars of the status quo.\u00a0 Being a non-Anglo woman who is a non-joiner by temperament and falls between more stools than I can either avoid or count, I\u2019m reconciled to the idea that if I were a man I would probably be knee-deep in accolades, awards and groupies eager to have my babies.\u00a0 But I\u2019m happy to be a feral nomad instead.\u00a0 \u201cI cannot be tethered, while I still hear the night winds moan and call.” [1]<\/p>\n

    So here we are \u2013 done in less than 1,000 words this time!\u00a0 Bottom line: this blog will continue to be unapologetically eclectic in topic selections but neither a diary nor a collection of laundry lists.\u00a0It\u2019s a salon where friends and passing guests gather for conversations, subject to my tides of mood and health; a review along classic lines that reflects its opinionated editor\u2019s interests and viewpoints.\u00a0 For me it is a window to the world.\u00a0 All kinds of neat things alight here as I sing for my own pleasure.\u00a0 And that\u2019s good enough for a pagan outlaw loner like me.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    [1] From Though I Grow Old with Wandering…<\/em> in Realms of Fire<\/em><\/a>
    \n<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Images:<\/strong> 1st, Curious Cat<\/em><\/a> (Jane Burton); 2nd, self-explanatory; 3rd, how I see the blog.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I have the bad habit of site-jumping when a topic snags my interest.\u00a0 Recently, starting with a tale of blatant plagiarism by a top YA book reviewer (who issued the standard non-apology and accused her victims of being mean to her, thereby setting up a bullying spree by her followers), I found myself skimming the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-science","category-writing-and-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}