This topic has been brewing for a long time and could easily turn into a never ending rant but I will try to resist.
Do bloggers need to have an opinion on everything and can being opinionated turn against you?
Of course this entry is nothing more than just another opinionated piece, a rant.
It is time that bloggers use their grey mass a little and look in the mirror before ridiculing themselves. Being opinionated is easy but being opinionated AND making sense is a different game all together.
Especially because blogging has to be opinionated it becomes a very thin line to walk.
Am I Just Ranting to Rant and To Be Heard?
He that sees another in error and endeavors not to correct it, testifies himself to be in error.
To have an opinion on things is a natural phenomena for us humans(1) and there is no one who seems to escape being opinionated. How many times haven’t you had thoughts about news you heard, about the politician you voted for a while ago. It’s normal, we all do it and there’s no hiding from. It’s what differentiates us from animals, we’re the smart ones. At least we think so.
When Does The Need to Share Your Opinion Kick In
Maslow clearly recognised that humans are in need of esteem to feel well. Whether it be self-esteem, esteem earned by achievements or respect won from others. When blogging these three go hand in hand, it is important to be satisfied with your own content before others might even value your blog. If you are not satisfied with what you wrote, why would your readers be?
It is important to feel good in your skin when you want to be a good blogger. Frustrations, dissatisfaction and generally being uncomfortable with things will shine through and could easily be the reason why your rants become non-sensical.
Acceptance and Tolerance Are The Prime Weapon of Every Self-Respecting Blogger
Everyone knew this entry would contradict itself
More important to continue walking the thin line between delivering quality rants and being on PMS is to understand facts and accept things before penning down your thoughts. A serious and well constructed rant can bring you lots of attention, a quick fire rant might result in ridicule and not bring you any respect. Like the example that drove me to finally blog about the topic: Buck up Google or we need a Feedburner alternative.
In the example the author goes on a rant about the failing services of Feedburner, a service owned and operated by Google.
Many bloggers use Feedburner, mainly because Feedburner one of the only services is which delivers statistics for feed subscribers and even click-through rates. Feedburner can also be easily integrated in Google Analytics but most of all, Feedburner is free.
Over the last 18 months, actually ever since the acquisition by Google, there have been many issues with Feedburner and many users have complained. A quick look at the Feedburner group shows that there are tons of support requests and most of all, no one at the Plex seems bothered to reply. Basically… Feedburner has gone down the gutter.
Besides saying that the author probably spends way too much attention to statistics to notice the issue over the festive period, a time with dropping statistics every year, there is a big, bold But to this story. It’s very easy to forget it, especially if Feedburner has become part of your daily working routine, but at the end of the day Feedburner is a free service offered by the Big G. A service which does not need to work, a service without SLA. A service Google could arguably kill like it has done with many services before or as Yahoo! is actively doing to several of its services. It’s a service which offers us a free alternative to (not very much).
Think. Could You Deliver Better Than The Subject of Your Rant?
Once more the armchair critic has hit out
If bloggers want to raise our game to another level, we have to stop being armchair critics. Instead, we have to go out there and deliver. Build an alternative if we need one. Prove that we can deliver better work and services.
Being the raving ranter is too easy and sometimes it is better to be acceptant and tolerant, AKA STFU (an example of when it’s better to STFU can be read here). Instead, show what you can do. Just do it!
Yes, you can. Esteem and recognition will follow, through acceptance, creativity, problem solving and mostly through respect earned from others.
- Probably animals think that we’re the dumb ones.(↩)
people like to be heard. even when they have nothing useful to contribute. take this comment, for example :o)