Dumb and dumber

Hmmm... a site that spreads rumours about people spreading rumours? Quaint.

Y'know, I am sorely tempted to do a post on the whole "Anonymous Bloggers" thing. No one seems to get that by accepting anonymity as a factor it imposes limits on the writer her/himself. One can never, for example, author a book and claim to have a writing background based on the contents of a pseudo-anonymous blog. I can't spill off clip sheets, take them to a newspaper and tell a managing editor, "That's my work."

There is no possible career springboard from anonymous blogging and, while some of the public bloggers may not have started out with such an intent, people like Cherniak have made it quite clear that they view their blogs as a part of their career management.

That's fair enough, as long as they don't cry when they screw up and get called on it.

I find the concept of a "Stop Cherniak" site laughable. Stop him from what? He's entitled to express himself. I don't pay much attention to most of what he says but when he attracts my attention, I'm more than willing to point it out. I don't want him stopped. Although I rarely use it, he occasionally provides some pretty good feedstock for the refinery.

I think the best way to stop the "Stop Cherniak" site is to pay it no attention. No traffic, no comments, no following, and it will go away.

I agree, POGGE, it's time to play with a happy critter for a while.

I don't think the following is true Dave: "One can never, for example, author a book and claim to have a writing background based on the contents of a pseudo-anonymous blog."

Of course one can, one would simply have to acknowledge that they were the author of the pseudo-anonymous blog.

This isn't remotely why I blog, but if I ever needed to take credit for the writings of Lord Kitchener's Own, all I would need to do is simply step out from behind the pseudonym.

If people who blog anonymously want to take public credit for their work, they'll drop the anonimity. I can't see a situation in which a person would want public aknowledgement of their work AND want to maintain their anonymity. How would that even work???

Seems to me one advantage of anonymous-ish blogging from the reader's point of view is that it cuts out arguments from authority at the root. Nobody's going to believe a stupid argument just because it comes from (some real-world famous person or top expert). People's basis for judgment is basically just what the blogger actually writes.

skdadl is not an anonymous blogger. skdadl is a pseudonymous blogger. See? It says "skdadl," not "Anon."

I will never get the issue of our names, y'know. Maybe a few bloggers manage to remain seriously below everyone's radar and thus truly mysterious, but I suspect that most of us could indeed use our clippings if we wanted or needed to (because enough credible people know who we actually are). The question that matters is whether what we've written is worth using, not whether we signed it at the time. If somebody who signs his name writes something stupid, I react to him because he's written something stupid, not because I know his silly name. And if a pseudonymous blogger writes something beautiful, I love her for that whether I know her name or not.

Most bloggers go pseudonymous for the obvious reason that we write for free. Most of us have day jobs, and then we also have families and neighbours, and there are a gazillion reasons why people who are economically vulnerable may not want to go public with their politics, eh? Give me the front page of the Grope and Flail and I'll sign my real name, eh? ;-)

Rumours are rumours. If someone can demonstrate that she is personally doing a serious investigation into a rumour that seems to have some substance, then that's worth listening to. But just repeating rumours is childish.

I don't blame the Libloggers for being bothered by their bloggy leader, though. I think that's what this latest site is about. Little clumsy in the start-up, but feelings have been running high and Young Liberals are not famous for grasping issues of democratic principle real fast or without instruction.

PS: It's funny this should come up the day after a distinguished member of progblogs, liberal catnip, found herself fending off what looked like a death threat.

That stuff does happen online, and even when you mostly think you're dealing with a flapmouth, it still disturbs your peaceful enjoyment of life. There have been incidents that have driven bloggers to silence entirely. Nobody wants to be stalked, but stalking has happened just enough to make a lot of people careful.

Frankly, I have invested about, oh, 12 years or so at least in the Mandos persona. It's almost as much me as my real name. It's a little harder to *threaten* me using that name (but only a little). But I definitely worry about credibility issues as Mandos, because I have so much invested in it. I may not have a large readership on my blog, but I have high notoriety as an Internet participant.

If people who blog anonymously want to take public credit for their work, they'll drop the anonimity. I can't see a situation in which a person would want public aknowledgement of their work AND want to maintain their anonymity. How would that even work???

It wouldn't and that was my point. Echoing your statement, it isn't why I blog in any case and I suspect that any pseudo-anonymous bloggers are probably close to being in the same boat.

If you want to remain anonymous in one area it would be extremely difficult to be public in another.

Ok, let's do a head count. I'm in the garden eating worms. pogge has gone off to play with the dog. PLG seems to be feeling pretty chipper, though. mahigan? you feeling fed up with anything?

Going for a coffee to watch all the investment advisers and stock brokers bitch about being audited.

Really. It's fun.

Y'know what I eckshully did this aft, Dave? I watched Kyle Sampson testify to the Senate committee.

I'm still trying to square all the dewy-eyed repentant innocence of that testimony with the job he held ... I mean, it is not possible to believe that he did nothing but "aggregate," and yet he put on quite the performance, played pathetic, threw hisself on the mercy, etc etc etc, and will probably get away with it (since we all know there are bigger fish to fry). It was probably a smart thing to do; the man may have saved hisself a jail term today.

For anyone who's interested, Muckraker is getting the best highlights up in video.

Watch Senator Whitehouse. His second attack was even better than his first -- he's been a USA.

mahigan? you feeling fed up with anything?
skdadl - You should know better than to ask that.

I'm fed up with the weather. After temps in the high teens, it's around freezing and snowing again.

I'm getting pretty fed up with working on my website 'til I have to soak my eyeballs in Visine.

And, frankly, I'm getting fairly fed up with politics to the point I'm looking forward to having a conversation with a politically unaffiliated gopher. At least people don't object too much if I talk to them while I'm lining up the cross hairs.

"G!D, I hate anonymous bloggers!"

It's called a generalisation. And, apart from my impulsive blog-reaction about the discomfort, I'm personally quite far from calling it an outrage. As others said before me, anyone is entitled to express himself/herself the way they like. I just think anonymous bloggers tend to be more trouble than useful; -which is another generalisation - happy now?

PS I hate spam too. Yes, not all spam is bad, but I still enjoy pressing the delete button when it's spam to me.

Yep, I'm happy now. So was the critter. But he's barely more than three months old and pretty much the only time he's not ecstatic to have someone pay attention to him is when he's too tired to keep his eyes open.

I'm personally quite far from calling it an outrage

It's called hyberole.

I just think anonymous bloggers tend to be more trouble than useful

Thanks for the vote of confidence. (See, that's the trouble with generalizations. People who get swept up in them aren't really sure whether they're the intended target or not.)

(And seriously, I wrote to the subject without the snark two years ago.)

Yes, not all spam is bad

Sure it is. If it's bad, it's spam. If it's spam, it's bad. It's called ... actually I forget what it's called.

Wanders off to sit in the corner and play with his lower lip.

On a related topic (well: distantly related): Why do people make fun of cat ladies?

I've just read two mean comments about cat ladies, and my ruff is beginning to get a little ruffled.

Jealousy, I think.
Fact is, young anime and fantasy fanboys salivate over 'em excessively. Some of the non-cat ladies aren't necessarily thrilled with all the conceptualized competition.