Ramblings
Political Correctness Goes Overboard on FriendFeed
Part of me says to let this issue drop because, yes, it started out with me making a stupid ass of myself. But, the other side of me is a blogger and you don’t become a blogger by being a chicken when you make an ass of yourself.
It all started with a tweet I sent out yesterday:
Does anyone else think its kinda gay that Google used a comic to introduce Google Chrome? A frickin’ comic?
This tweet turned into a shitstorm over on FriendFeed over one word: gay. Apparently, a few people took it to mean I was referring to homosexuals. In reality, I was using what is admittedly ghetto slang to mean stupid, lame, etc. Often it is spelled “ghey“, actually, but that spelling was created mainly to avoid potential claim that it targets homosexuals.
So, here’s the deal: I NEVER meant nor intended anything remotely having to do with homosexuals. Not in the slightest. When I got berated on Friendfeed over the word, I immediately realized I had stepped into a huge pile of bad because my use of that word brought on all kinds of emotion. It is not an argument I can win, and I immediately apologized on Friendfeed. I’m an adult and I can live up to a case of drive-by tweeting.
This conversation has drawn the attention of a few notables, including Louis Gray, Robert Scoble…I even saw that Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington liked the conversation. But, Scoble is the one who reacted most harshly and is the guy whose reaction borders on dangerous. Scoble, in fact, is my motivation for this blog post.
Scoble’s reaction devolved quickly:
Simian: I think David needs to be sent on a trip to Berlin to study Germany’s history and where it went wrong. The use of language against other people is horrible. I won’t allow it to be used that way here. David is very close to getting a block.
This just earned David a block. David, you really need to go back and study Nazi world history. How you can use a perjorative against any group without expecting to see consequences is pretty over the line in my book.
So, apparently Scoble blocked me on FriendFeed. What is interesting, though, is that (1) he puts so much weight into the symbol (a word) without even once questioning my actual intention, (2) he is cocky enough to think him blocking me matters. Especially after I apologized and made clear I was not referring to homosexuals, Scoble continued to pounce on it.
This is dangerous and is political correctness to the Nth degree. Perhaps I should expect this from a San Francisco liberal, but Scoble needs to realize that censorship and the use of symbols to control people is EXACTLY the way Nazi Germany operated. Scoble can be high-and-mighty with me all he wants, but I think he, too, needs to become more familiar with history to realize the danger political correctness like this can lead to. He is reacting in a way which brings on what he says he despises, but in reverse.
A word is a symbol and should never be confused with intentions of the heart. ESPECIALLY on the Internet where you do not have the benefit of reading a person’s body language and judging his/her character.
While Scoble overreacted, many others realized that I simply screwed up:
I can relate to what the guy is going through. I went through it with a different word last week
Apparently, I’m not alone.
Wow. Godwin’s Law in response to someone saying ‘kinda gay.’ That hasta be a new record, even for you, Robert. You might as well have quoted President Bush: “If you say something’s ‘kinda gay,’ that means the terrorists win!
Loren Feldman reacted to Scoble in his usual, colorful way:
In response to Loren, I don’t think Scoble was referring to the word “David”. My name is David and I think, perhaps, you misread Scoble’s comments. He was referring to me.
Nonetheless, I think a message from “Simian DA (Amber)” on FriendFeed sums up the lesson best:
If it is slang that was never used in a discriminatory manner against a group of people, slang should be fine. Its just if its going to FF, a lot of really liberal minds are going to see it.
And that was my mistake. I was using the word as a slang, and given that it had a lot of negative weight behind it as another definition, it was stupid as hell for me to use it. Especially considering the audience of FriendFeed.
I still, however, think Scoble’s reaction was not only overboard, but extremely narrow-minded and cocky (using a frickin’ FriendFeed block as a weapon of social change?). Being afraid of a word isn’t exactly a sign of intelligence. Scoble, don’t turn FriendFeed into a case of 1984 (and if you haven’t read that book, do).
I’ve learned something because of this, but I think it also brings up a larger issue of political correctness and that is why I decided to post a response today.
EDIT: THE MOTTO
There is a motto here that I learned and I want to make clear for the benefit of others. Social media sites like FriendFeed cast a wide net and have a lot of different kinds of people on there. We need to have an environment of respect among us and, for that reason, it is advisable not to use such slang on these sites. I learned this the hard way. I didn’t mean anything by it, but some thought I did and that is reason enough to jut be smart about the words used on these kinds of social media sites. Period.
So I Tried An Experiment…
At Gnomedex, there is a lot of value in monitoring the back channel in Twitter while the people are on stage. I know Pirillo almost wishes it weren’t there (he said as much on Twitter), but it is valuable. And one of the nuggets I saw over Twitter was this:
The most inspiring speakers at #gnomedex have a phrase in common: “…so I tried an experiment.”
If my memory serves me correctly, this was tweeted by Derek Miller.
And I really like this observation. So many things that we use today and will use in the future start by some geek giving something a try and seeing if it works. In fact, that goes right to the heart of what a geek is in the first place.
Right on.
Storm Tracking Is Like Tech Blogging, Only Worse
I am closely monitoring Tropical Storm Fay down here in Florida, mainly because I am scheduled to fly out of Tampa on Wednesday to go to Seattle. I am hoping it doesn’t mess with me, but I am expecting it will – somehow.
But, in tracking the storm, there is some serious echo chamber. My God! All of the weather sites are saying the same thing, but all try to put slightly different twists on it. Some news sources are better than others. Reminds me of tech blogging.
What really gets you, though, is the sensationalist reporting. This storm is not going to be a catastrophe. Far from it, in fact. Sure, it’ll be annoying. But, to watch the news, all everybody is doing is worrying and expecting the end of Tampa civilization.
And it makes people stick to it like glue – watching, waiting, hoping. No doubt the intention.
It is very weird. If I were not traveling this week, I wouldn’t care about this thing. But, because I do have to watch in order to determine my travel schedule, I am subject to the sensationalism and I find myself beginning to worry more, get more confused about what will happen, etc.
I back off and realize this is the intention of these clowns.
Reminds me of a time I was driving across the Causeway between Tampa and Clearwater. There was a storm around us, but the weather wasn’t bad. On the side of the road, there was a news van. And, wading in the water, was a reporter and his cameraman. So, here we were, driving down the road completely normally, and whoever was watching this guy on TV would have been under the impression that the weather was serious because this clown was sitting in the water trying to look particularly wet for the camera.
So bottom line: yeah, there’s a storm coming. It’ll annoy us. It has a higher likelihood of annoying me because I have to travel. Aside from that, this is more of a media storm than it is a real storm.
I may end up leaving a day early. I’ll be monitoring flight schedules.
Who’s Going to Gnomedex?
Next week, I am flying to Seattle to attend Chris Pirillo’s annual blogger’s conference, Gnomedex. I expect to meet up with a bunch of geeks. It will probably be the most dense collection of Iphones in the state of Washington. 
This is my second year going to Gnomedex and, quite frankly, I’m using this as my decision maker for if I will attend again. See, I have a lot of respect for Pirillo. It is funny…he is one of those guys you either respect, find intriguing, or hate. There’s not a whole lot of grey. I respect him because he has managed to build up a large following and a huge online presence. And face it, anybody who can pull together an annual conference like Gnomedex every year has to have something going on. And Lockergnome is another large endeavor, even if it has little to do with what started it.
Last year’s Gnomedex was all over the board, however. I didn’t know what to make of it. It was a blogger conference, but there was very little talk about blogging or anything much related to blogging. I found it, in fact, somewhat reflective of Pirillo himself. Pirillo got his start in tech and was known as a tech guy. However, today, his subject matter is all over the place and, branding wise, the name Chris Pirillo is getting to lose it’s identity. And I’m hoping Gnomedex doesn’t begin to reflect that dispersed nature.
If I was to give Pirillo any advice, it would be to try to narrow down your niche a little.
Perhaps the idea is to become known as “that Ustream guy”. And that is working. But, trying to be in all niches at once – I don’t see how that’s going to work very well.
Perhaps I’m misreading his online intentions these days. All in all, I’m still interested enough to give Gnomedex another go this year and see how it rolls out.
A lot of techies will be at Gnomedex and I hope to make a cool networking thing out of it. If you’re going, comment below and let me know. I’d love to meet up with you.
Fairness Doctrine Apply To Bloggers?
Some very cryptic words came out of the mouth of the FCC Commissioner today. Those words were “government dictating content policy”.
These are part of comments regarding the Fairness Doctrine and how it could end up applying to Internet content. From the story:
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell raised that as a possibility after talking with bloggers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. McDowell spoke about a recent FCC vote to bar Comcast from engaging in certain Internet practices – expanding the federal agency’s oversight of Internet networks.
McDowell wasn’t coming out in support of this, but warning that the Fairness Doctrine might pick up steam under a new U.S. administration.
The Fairness Doctrine is essentially the government regulating content on the airwaves, mandating that controversial issues be presented with both sides. Conservative talk radio has long been rallying against this because they point out, correctly so, that this is a gross encroachment on the First Amendment.
Many Democrats have been in favor of the Fairness Doctrine, probably because their viewpoint, they feel, doesn’t get equal treatment on the radio so they see government regulation as the only way to do it. If Obama gets elected, it is possible that the Fairness Doctrine would again see the light of day.
So, would it affect the Internet? If we begin to see crossover into a debate on net neutrality, then we could easily see this affect Internet content.
The Fairness Doctrine is a colossally bad idea. Blogs are a form of media, too, which means we should all be vocal in opposition of this if it ever comes into the public debate in a serious way.
When RSS Feed Ads Go Wrong
This comes from the Techcrunch feed:
Looks like there is some work to do in the accuracy department here.
Seems Like Twitter Separates The Old From The New
As a person who runs a technology blog which has been around a long time, I am in a very weird position. PCMech was started back in 1997. That’s a LONG damn time ago. Before the Internet was that big a deal. Back when everybody had their heart skip a beat at the sight of a personal computer (or so it seemed).
Fast forward 11 years. The computer is just a tool. An appliance. More of our lives have moved online. In fact, computing in the cloud is becoming more the norm. Social media (in all its various forms) now are a major factor in the tech landscape. People are accessing the web from mobile phones. Fewer and fewer people are still building PCs. Most buy them, use it until it breaks, then buy another one.
PCMech.com has been around through all of it. Being that it is my job to determine editorial direction of the site, I decided long ago for PCMech to adjust with the world. There are PLENTY of other sites which fall all over themselves to post reviews of motherboards and processors. Tom’s Hardware. AnandTech. HotHardware. My focus has become a strange meld between the insides of the computer and what you DO with the computer. It is my very strong belief that what you do with the computer is much more important than what is inside of it.
So, when I talk about Twitter on PCMech, I apparently run right up against the old school culture. On a recent article bout Twitter, I got the following comment from a user:
Although I’ve been a user of this site for many years, I’m at the point of hitting the delete key over this Twitter hustle. I’m subscribe to the newsletter and use the site because I want computer knowledge,period.Not to be harsh, but I don’t give a rat’s ass about your or anyone else’s musings. Bloggers are under the misconception that they have something important to say, and everyone else wants to hear it. I’m convinced the only people who read these inane blogs, are people who have inane blogs of their own. I’m afraid it’s not your audience who doesn’t “get” Twitter, but you are losing touch with your base.
Obviously, this guy has a snotty-ass tone and is reacting to one thing: people talking about shit he doesn’t care about. And this comment is representative of the state of limbo an old-school site like PCMech finds itself in.
Am I losing touch with my base? I don’t think so. The “base” of PCMech is very wide. If this guy thinks I’m going to cater PCMech to that group who wants to sit there and stroke their computer in a sexual way all day, then he’s just got the wrong site. As tech moves forward, sites like AnandTech and Tom’s are going to die off if they don’t evolve.
You don’t buy a car so that you can work on it. You buy it to DRIVE it.
My response to him:
Here’s a hint. Back button is on the top left. Back out of the article and choose another one to read. There are over 3,600 articles on this site. If 3 are about Twitter, I think you’ll live.
PCMech is a GENERAL tech blog. Well, Twitter is part of the landscape, like it or not. As I said in my post, part of my job is to drag people forward. If you expect PCMech to talk about CPUs and motherboards all day, then you’ve got the wrong site. Sure, we’ll talk hardware. But, we’re also going to talk about what you do with that hardware.
Unless you bought a computer just so you can sit and tweak it all day. I highly doubt it.
I’m left shaking my head. And I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was a bit confusing.
Here are the facts:
- The personal computer is lessening in importance. In fact, more and more, it is becoming a mere terminal to get you onto the Internet.
- Web 2.0, social media and everything those terms represent are the direction technology is heading. Mobility. Data portability.
- The old school guys who want to build, repair and optimize their PCs all day…this group is getting smaller.
So, if you were running an older site like this, where you have an audience which is all over the board, how would you handle it?
On the other side of the equation, I don’t want to become part of the echo chamber. There are tons of sites which talk about Twitter and the like all day. So, somewhere in here is a unique niche.
I have ideas. You?
Using Ad Blockers: Is It Stealing?
We have had this debate before over on PCMech, but I’d like to lay it out here on this site as well. This website, as you can see, currently has no advertising on it. And my plan is to keep it this way. Like anybody else, I prefer to use a website with no advertising on it. It is only natural.
But, PCMech is a big site. It is a business. It costs me quite a bit of money every month to keep PCMech online (the hosting alone would probably pay the monthly rent or mortgage payment for many families). And, yes, like anybody who does this for a living, I’m looking to make a profit. I blog full time. I have a family to feed, a house to pay for, cars that need gas – you get the picture.
This morning, I had a person in the PCMech forums (will leave out names) say they were offended by my placement of an ad for the PCMech Gold membership placed in the PCMech forums. This ad is placed beneath the first post in all threads. It is designed to take up the slot usually taken by a post. This person brings up net neutrality and that he thinks he should never have to pay for communication (whatever that has to do with it).
The fact that this person brings this up now clearly tells me he was using an ad blocker. I have had an ad in that position for quite a long time. Only difference is that the old one was from a remote server and the new one is not (making it unblockable).
So, this guy has the nerve to tell me he’s offended. Well, I’m offended that he not only expects to use my site free of any ads whatsoever, but that he was clearly enforcing that by using an ad blocker. Yes, in my eyes that is the equivalent of stealing the fruits of my labor while going out of your way to make sure I don’t make any money from it.
These are just the facts:
- A site as big as PCMech means a very large hosting bill.
- I work 10-12 hour days, primarily on PCMech, the content, maintenance, business matters, etc.
- I have an employee who likes getting paid on time, and whose only job is content on PCMech
- I have other writers for PCMech, and they don’t write for free either
Where in this equation does it seem right for me to do all this as charity?
The advertising pays bills. The membership revenue pay bills. This is the real world.
Don’t Forget The Other Side of the Debate
This debate over ad blockers has been around awhile and it isn’t going anywhere. The nature of the typical Internet visitor is that they expect the world on a golden platter without paying a dime for it.
Look, I’m an avid user of the Internet (obviously). I LOVE using free sites. I don’t like ads. I’m with ya, brother! I understand!
But, what I also understand (because I am on the other side) is that no website is free to have on the Internet. The sites out there that we all use are kept online on the blood, sweat, time and money of somebody. Somebody (or some company) is paying to host those sites, to program them, to provide the support, etc.
Advertising on the Internet is a common way to generate revenue. It is no different than watching commercials throughout a television program. If you want to skip the commercials, you pay some money for a DVR like Tivo. Well, on PCMech, if you want to skip the ads, you pay for the membership. And we provide a hell of a lot more value for a membership than just no ads. And PCMech is not alone in having such a membership program.
Using an ad blocker might be advantageous for the end user, but keep in mind that you are basically using the fruits of somebody’s else’s labor while going out of your way to make sure they see nothing in return. In the dictionary, that’s the definition of stealing. Look it up if you don’t believe me.
Your Thoughts?
This debate can get heated and I would prefer that not happen on any comments that may come on this post. All I ask is for your opinion and to back it up with your reasoning.
Tech Blogging – Too Crowded? Too Hateful? No, Just Changing.
Those of us who are into tech blogging probably realize by now that this is a VERY saturated field. There are a LOT of tech bloggers out there and it is hard, if not impossible, to find a unique angle to a story.
Recently, Jason Calacanis made a very public departure from blogging. Instead of posting to a blog, he is moving his "blogging" to a private email list. His reasons? Too much pressure and constant in-fighting. He goes on…
Today the blogosphere is so charged, so polarized, and so filled with haters hating that it’s simply not worth it. I’d rather watch from the sidelines and be involved in a smaller, more personal, conversation.
Loren Feldman of 1938 Media also posted a video saying he thought tech was boring and that he is going to be moving onto other areas. Feldman has long been making humorous videos primarily for the tech audience. Feldman makes waves with his pull-no-punches style of humor. I actually find the guy pretty funny, although I think he goes overboard in how he deals with people.
Too Crowded?
Probably, although I would never tell anybody not to blog about technology. But, this is a very crowded niche for blogging and there really are only so many things to be said about anything.
Too Hateful?
Is it too charged? Too full of haters?
I think not. If Jason Calcanis attracted haters, then he needs to look at what he is doing to attract them. Is it as simple as people going after him because he is more successful? Perhaps. I don’t know what it is, but Calacanis seems to have a knack for attracting controversy and it gets to the point where you have to wonder if its all him.
From my perspective, albeit perhaps from a relative outsider, tech bloggers seem to be a pretty welcoming crowd. We’re all geeks and we all get excited about technology. A new microblogging site? We’re all flocking to it. A new device from Apple? We all want it. And, yes, we all willingly share our opinions about it, too.
Too Competitive?
It is very competitive, IF you choose to view it as a competition. There are, no doubt, many bloggers (especially in tech) who blog with the sole mission of becoming a so-called "a-lister". They want to be in the Techmeme leaderboard. They want to be in the cool kid’s club. I couldn’t sit here and tell you that I wouldn’t get a big grin if I was in that position.
But, is that what it is all about? Is it meaningless if you’re not the next Robert Scoble, Louis Gray, or Jason Calacanis? Absolutely not!
Scoble, Gray and the other notable names in this game got to where they are because they were welcoming and because they are true, through and through geeks. Louis Gray, particularly, wasn’t exactly a newcomer to the world of tech blogging. He came into this field and just started geeking out and putting out some good, quality stuff.
The rules of blogging have not changed. You put out quality, you’ll get noticed. You participate in the conversation, people will come to know you.
So, Dying or Changing?
It certainly isn’t dying. The world of tech blogging changes little with the exit of Calacanis. Nor will it change much if Feldman stops making fun of it. Both figures attract controversy and then call foul when the most vocal group in the world – tech bloggers – reacts to it.
Yes, it is changing. A super saturated niche like tech blogging is evolving into a conversation that takes place as much on social media like FriendFeed and Twitter as it does on the blog. Not all blogging niches are like that, but tech is particularly saturated as a niche. The guys who end up being leaders in today’s tech blogging are the people who offer real value on all of their communication lines (blog + social media outlets) and who are personable and actively interact with others. Any tech blogger who is looking at it as a competition or who worry incessantly about the so-called "a-list" is just not going to do really well.
If you can’t change with the community, then I guess it might be easier to bow out and start blogging about something else.
Its about being a real person who loves tech just because.
Curse Of Being an Early Adopter and Tech Blogger
I woke up to an interesting tweet from Robert Scoble this morning:
How far ahead of the world are all of us? When I showed researchers at HP my live Qikking cell phone they couldn’t believe it.
I found it, first, a bit ironic seeing as Robert recently declared blog comments dead when, as I pointed out, much of the Internet is only now catching up to blogging.
This is the curse of the early adopter. Most of the guys who converse on FriendFeed (including myself) talk about the latest tech all the time. We’ll often try something and move on by the time the rest of the Internet catches on. In a way, this is what makes us good bloggers. We’re the pioneers in tech consumerism and it is often us who can make or break a new company by choosing whether to pass it on or not.
But, I deal with the loneliness of the early adopter curse every day. My audience over on PCMECH is very diverse. We have a crowd of people who are really in tune with technology, and we have a crowd of people who are not. The crowd that is not up to speed makes up the majority. If you say the word “FriendFeed” to them, they go “huh?”. When we do our live streaming broadcast on Wednesday nights on Ustream, we field a lot of tech questions that have to do with technology that was modern a year or more ago.
In a way, running PCMECH keeps me grounded in reality, and that reality is that much of the world is still playing catch-up when it comes to what is happening online. The entire social media, Web 2.0 transition has moved forward way too quickly for all but those of us who do this day in and day out.
Tech bloggers, have you ever tried to explain what you do to a member of your family? I’m sure you have. Your family is more the norm.
I think it is good for a tech blogger to not lose touch with the overwhelming majority of the people on the Internet. It is a good dose of reality. Otherwise, all we’ll do is talk to each other in a big echo chamber.
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
