Friday, January 29, 2016

Look at this Guy

I have another blog that is more sports-related as most of you know. Many matters have led me to stop posting on the site for the time being. But as I go through the comments periodically there always a few odd ones. The Internet is full of assholes and that tends to show in comments sometimes. So I wrote this post on my sports blog and one of the comments from "jkfan87" said the following:

"Do people REALLY still write blogs these days? Even when it is clear that no one reads them? It'd be one thing if you had a following and actually made some money off it. Or thought that maybe you could make it a career. But that is obviously not the case" 

I try to be nice in response to comments like this, or at least have in the past, but it's not easy. This is a doozy of a comment for several reasons though. So I felt the need to answer his questions and give a little commentary. Because let's be honest, the Internet is full of assholes and some of them need responding to.

1. Yes, people "REALLY" do still write blogs these days. They are everywhere and you can find blogs about all topics. The fact you found my blog essentially proves this.

2. How does he know no one reads the blog? Does this asshole have some sort of magical ability to see the statistics for the post without access to the blog? 139 people read this post I linked. That's not a lot, of course. It's not no one though. Supposedly the blog I wrote for has had about 500,000 unique visitors. Again, that's not a lot, but it's also not "no one." I'd love to know how he knows "no one" reads without having access to the blog's statistics.

And also, he made this comment on a post on a blog that he had read. Like, he read the post and then said no one reads the blog. Interesting.

3. "It'd be one thing if you had a following..."

Irrelevant. Why can't someone write for fun and because they enjoy it? Why does someone have to read what is written? I'm NOT trying to make a career out of it and therefore I don't give a shit if anyone really reads. If they do, great. If they don't, I'm not going to go into my room and cry into a pillow. So how would one start to write a blog and already have a following? Because there's no point in starting a blog if you don't have a following, so the following has to be there before you start it, right? Chicken v. the egg, I guess. Have a blog and no following? Stop writing. How do you get a following if you don't write on the blog though?

4. "...actually made some money off of it."

This is remarkably irrelevant as well. Who cares if money is made at it? There are plenty of people who make a living writing and have a blog they make $0 off. They are writers but make no money from their blog. Again, if the point of writing isn't to make money then the idea of needing to make money to write is irrelevant.

5. "Or thought that maybe you could make it a career."

I don't want to make it a career. The assumption is that no one should do anything if it doesn't make money and lead to a career. Therefore, pretty much anything that is done outside of your direct job which doesn't give you money is pointless and a person should immediately stop doing this. I'm sure "jkfan87" doesn't play video games though. Of course not, because what's the point if he doesn't make money at it or it leads to a career? Pure stupidity.

6. "But that is obviously not the case."

Yes, it isn't my career. I do okay for myself at the thing that is my career, but thank you for the warning about how my writing is pointless. And also, thank you for reading my blog and then telling me that no one reads it. That's not ironic at all. Maybe you should start a Reddit threat about the irony of this.

Of course, no one is reading this and my writing this is pointless because I'm not making money. So what's the use in even responding?

I can't figure out if some people on the Internet are more stupid or more assholes...

6 comments:

  1. I'm not even sure if the guy knew he was trolling you, but that's what it seemed like. Great response, especially on that first point. And FWIW, I'm sure I'm not the only one that misses the more regular updates on your sports blog, I still tell people it's worth reading for the King and Easterbrook columns alone. But, like me, you have kid(s?) now, and while I love writing, I never came back to it regularly.

    One interesting tidbit that the commenter did touch on, though - there are still great blogs out there to read, but in a world of Facebook status updates & Twitter, it's hard to reach a wide audience with a blog. Not sure if you agree, just something I thought of while responding here.

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  2. Frank, he probably didn't even know. I've always been really lucky to have good commenters on my two blogs. This guy was an outlier.

    I miss writing on it. I really have started writing posts and then quitting. It took more time than you would think. I got a new job and it's taken all my time, plus I have three kids now. It's way too many kids and I'm definitely looking to "right size" the amount of kids that are legally mine since it is helping to cut into my writing time.

    I'm just pissed I stopped writing in the middle of NFL season. I do want to come back and plan on it. I'm pretending I tore an ACL and I'm rehabbing for a few months. I would love to keep doing it, but it's easier to write here where the info I write about isn't as time sensitive.

    It's very hard to read a wide audience with a blog, especially when you don't go out of your way to publicize the blog. I'm guilty of that. I could have done more with it, and still could, in terms of getting it out there.

    What's also hard is I know some "real" sportswriters read it, but I have no idea how regularly. Given the nature of it and how I was actively writing 3-4 times per week, I'm not sure they could have linked it to get a bigger audience. One sportswriter did. I don't really care honestly, because I write to write, not to get attention. Therein lies my issue.

    But yeah, he does have a point in terms of a wide audience. It's hard to get that audience with a blog. The most read post on BotB is about Scoop Jackson and crack cocaine. I didn't even write it.

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  3. *three* kids. God Bless...good for you. Understandable that there are many more important things than maintaining the blog.

    Looking to right size the # of kids...good one :) They never right-size. Their appetites get bigger, your wallet gets smaller.

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  4. I don't think right-sizing works well for kids, but I may give it a shot. If the wallet gets smaller then it won't exist at all and then it's someone else's job to pay for everything. Right?

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