It has been interesting of late to see the response to JU's "shock bloggers". While this is yet another post on a subject that's been heavily addressed, I'd like to add my perspective. First, I find that, in principle, shock bloggers borrow heavily from shock jock tactics, only instead of an auditory medium, they use visual. The idea is simply, say the most annoying thing you can think of, stand back and watch the flames, and realize that all the negative attention is good publicity. Shock...
Now don't get me wrong; I am one who tries to make peace on JU. I will say what I have to say, but I will also try to be sensitive to the feelings of individuals on here. But I have found that a good number of people on joeuser fall into one of two categories: the JU "preps" and the JU "rebels". The JU "preps" are just like the preps in high school or college. They will present a pollyannish world view and will avoid controversy at all costs. They're not good subjects to solicit an opin...
...and so it goes. Recently, we've been "blessed" with another new blogger who basically creates a caricature of all the decent, well reasoned liberals I know. The person basically is pure vitriol, and it amazes me how they can't see it. I won't give specifics, but there are so many contradictions to this individual it isn't funny. This brings me to the title of the post. While I have seen some rather antagonistic joeusers, the majority still "play nice", and will back down if they're g...
Apparently, there is at least one joeuser who has a very serious problem with the content of my blogs. Fortunately, that user was swatted as effectively as I might down a gnat (thank you for the tools for this, Brad!). It did get me to thinking, though, as most critical posts do...and I quickly reached a conclusion. The conclusion I reached is, this is MY blog. While I will "play nice" while venturing on other people's threads, the topic and content of my blogs is something I choose. I ...
This is going to be one of my reflective posts, but I hope it to be inspirational as well. It has been said that what matters is how you've lived "the dash"; that is, the dash between the birth and death dates on your tombstone. While I intend to have a memorial marker when I pass (I intend to be cremated and have my ashes sprinkled in Lake Itasca, Minnesota --those who know me, know why, those who don't...ask). So I was stopping and thinking today about how I've lived the dash. I have ...
Warning: this is just another rant. If it's not to your liking, you may want to move on...lol. I recently put up an article that was a bit more of a piece of "me" than some of my regular pieces. It sunk like a stone. It seems to me fascinating that there are numerous blogs that are posted on the way JoeUser is going downhill, and yet, the articles that get the points aren't the insightful, well written articles. They're the "shock blog" articles with the inflammatory titles (Two such "a...
OK, folks...this is where I need your help as more veteran bloggers. I want to launch a good google bomb, just to say I've done it. Can anyone give me good articles on how to do this? I would appreciate your input. signing off, Gideon MacLeish
Ok, ok, I know. Many of us on here have our own psychoses, delusions, etc, with which we deal every day, and those often spill over onto our blogs. I was, however, extremely surprised to see that one of the most delusionary people I have ever encountered online now has, not one, but TWO of the "daily top articles" spots. He is still fairly low ranked, but is climbing quickly as people keep viewing his blogs to see him repeat the same stuff over and over, using the same title for every a...
For my tenth "A Blogger You all Should Know" article, I thought I would review bloggers 1-9 so they're all here on one page if you choose to read them. I also thought I'd give a little background. I got the idea of this from a few sources. We were dealing with someone whose posts were infuriating a great number of readers, and mignuna suggested that what we should do in those cases, instead of responding and giving them points, is find a blogger we like, comment on their most recent articl...
Ok, first of all, if you were expecting a treatise on fine tobacco, I refer you to an earlier thread, entitled "Capacity for Abstract Thought?" That may be found in my archives. I was recently replying to someone and I made a joking reference to purging. After the post, I hesitated, wondering if I should edit that part out. The fact that I even considered editing disturbed me. Don't get me wrong, I really want to be sensitive and understanding, seriously. I would never consider any s...
OK, here's the scoop: I was 21 years old and finally freed from my legal obligations to the state of Washington for my 1988 royal screwup, and returned to Oklahoma to get on with my life. After some time there, I began looking up some of my old high school friends. I very easily located a girl who had been a close friend in high school, and was pleased to discover she was only six hours away in Lawrence, Kansas, attending KU at the time. Now, I had always had a tremendous crush on this you...
As I have alluded to in earlier posts, I come from a dysfunctional family. This is probably the chief reason I feel "at home" on joeuser despite being utterly pissed off a decent percentage of the time. The anonymity of this site gives us freedom to vent readily, sometimes before engaging our brain, and feelings get hurt. Once we put our brain in gear, however, things get back to normal. The things we right are things about which we are passionate; and the responses we get are from p...
Just a few thoughts to clear up some misconceptions on blogs. First, I do value the opinions of my readers, as long as there's a degree of respect given to my blog. In all of my time on joeuser, I have only deleted one response, and that was because the response was so vitriolic it wasn't worth commenting on. I won't allow such blogs to stand on my thread. If I feel it is important enough for me to respond, I will leave the original post. That is only fair; taking snippets out of contex...
Forgive me, father, for I have sinned. In a response post to beebles' "Cows are Evil" Thread, I planned to post a hilarious sign holding smiley with a sign reading "don't feed the trolls". Unfortunately, I typed the url in wrong, and got his brother, an equally demonstrative smiley with a sign reading "I'm with your mom". This completely changes the context of things. For the record, I do not know beebles' mom, nor do I have sexual designs on her. I feel dirty, and condemned to wande...
I am so proud... One of the featured bloggers in my "A Blogger You all Should Know" series has cracked the JU top 20 blog sites. Texaswahine, who we all know and love, has earned that distinction. I don't know if my article had any impact on that, but I'd certainly like to think it didn't hurt. I started the series in response to the JU drama; instead of badmouthing people who pissed us off, I figured, why not help new bloggers get established and get recognition on the site? I am pleas...