Beware the Blog Snobs

By nickwBlogging

Ever come across a blog snob? Sure you have, they abound in the ‘sphere, and they’re as annoying in the blog world as any kind of snob is offline. From the wikipedia definition for snobbery: “A snob, guilty of snobbery or snobbism, is a person who imitates the manners, adopts the world-view and affects the lifestyle of a social class of people to which he either belongs or aspires to.”

I keep coming across the blog snobs, I just can’t seem to avoid them. They’re the ones patting eachother on the back about “what blogs are”, and what they should be. Judging what others are doing with their blogs and pronouncing them unfit or suspect if they don’t fill the blog snobs particular view of how the web should work.

They’re arseholes basically. Arseholes in the blogosphere, and most likely aresholes in offline life also.

Dont Tell Me How to Blog

One of the truly great things about the blogosphere is its diversity. There are so many different kinds of blogger, from the personal blogger, to the professional blogger, to the business blogger and all manner of things in between. As far as im concerned, there simply isn’t any “right” way to do this, there are just lots of ways to do it differently.

For a personal blogger, blogging for friends and family to read, its easy to start a blog. It’s as simple as getting a WordPress account, choosing a template and starting to write. For a business blogger, it can be a lot harder, as there are all sorts of considerations to take into account:

  • Where should it be hosted?
  • Should the design match our company site?
  • How “edgy” can we be on this thing?
  • Dare we let the CEO near it?

For a professional blogger, one who makes a sole or partial living from their writing there are additional concerns over business models, advertising programs and many other financially related items.

Guess what though? They’re ALL bloggers.

There’s room for anyone who wants in, and no amount of echo chamber commentary from idiots who’re just trying to suck up to more popular snobs than they will change that. Blogs are for people, and people will be as diverse in their blogging, their motivation and their content writing as they are in all other aspects of their daily lives.

The particular inspiration for today’s little rant doesn’t even warrant a negative mention from this site, though i do thank him kindly for giving me something to be grumpy about today! heh…

19 thoughts on “Beware the Blog Snobs”

  3. too many comments on that topic.
    All these snobbish insiders in this threat 😉

    As always just my 2c …

  6. Well, Brian. I actually was just talking out of my ass ;> But seriously, I’m not going to diss Amy. I may have been too subtle; I really wasn’t putting Steve Rubel down. Dammit. Did someone turn up the heat 😕

  7. Well, Chris, what Amy doesn’t seem to grasp is that conversations occur in context. In the comment section she points to, she fails to get that Chartreuse and Raj are people I consider to be my friends, and friends speak to each other in often overly familiar ways. Especially guys!

    Amy is like someone who shows up to a party she wasn’t invited to, where she knows no one, and butts into a conversation without understanding what’s going on. Conversations and communities are highly contextual, and if you don’t know what’s going on, you had better lurk for a bit. That’s a rule that goes all the way back to Usenet, but unfortunately many corporate blogging consultants don’t have the history.

    There’s no such thing as a correct way to have a conversation, and only the most totalitarian P.C. tyrant would say otherwise. And I agree that calling a blog “The Right Conversation” is just absolutely *wrong*. For all her self righteousness, you’d think that would have occurred to Ms. Gahran.

  8. Speaking of snobby bloggers, check out the hypocrisy over here. The tagline on the site reads “The Right Conversation,” and no, this isn’t a Republican blog. It’s someone who actually thinks she’s the definitive resource for this sort of thing, apparently. To top it off, she trashes the essence of the blogosphere, which is essentially the coupling of a post plus ensuing, well-rounded discussion in the form of comments. And here she’s preaching to “embrace the public conversation and thrive”

    Can I get an e-slap?

  10. My article was written like two years ago, and was more just about being funny than being a jerk. Snob-bloggers unite! Someone buy that domain? Let’s start a blog-snobbers network!

  11. If you would stop publishing your blog because you knew nobody was reading it, you my friend are most likely a Snob-Blogger.

    Not everyone is a poet, toiling on in obscurity, living for their so-called art.

    Especially not you!

  12. Interesting and fun post, Nick. I’ve noticed that people who tend to participate the most online share a number of negative as well as positive characteristics. (Since I make myself heard a lot online, that includes me, of course.) Snobbishness is certainly one of them. Contentiousness is another. Condescension, an offshoot of snobbishness, is a third.

    I think you see this kind of person a lot online for a variety of reasons. One, geeky people spend a lot of time online and tend to answer to this description. Two, when you’re online, you feel in control and very remote from the people you’re talking to, and it’s eary to be a bit megalomaniacal. Three, the people who tend to speak up the most wherever they are tend to think highly of themselves and be opinionated.

    I’ve issued calls for feedback and participation on umpty of my podcasts, and I hardly ever hear from anyone. After testing the waters a little, I think that may be because my show appeals to aspiring writers more than practicing ones, and “wannabes” are less sure of themselves than practitioners. Hence, the silence.

    This is all theory, of course. I may be completely full of it.

  14. By jim’s defn, everyone who writes a blog about blogging is a snob-blogger. Which means everyone that writes anything on Performancing regarding improving your blog 😀

  15. Too funny, I wrote this piece in 2004 entitled “You Might Be A Snob-Blogger If…” I believe this is highly relevant to this post 😮

    http://www.jimkukral.com/jimkukral_snobblogging.shtml

    You Might Be A Snob-Blogger If…

    According to Jupiter Research, about 2 percent of the online community has created a blog. That works out to millions and millions of blogs, and in turn, millions and millions of snobs who publish them. That’s an awful lot of Snob-Bloggers!

    You see, in order to care enough to publish a blog, you really need to be somewhat of a snob. Before we get into the reasons why, let’s look at the definition of snob.

    Snob – 1. One who tends to patronize, rebuff, or ignore people regarded as social inferiors and imitate, admire, or seek association with people regarded as social superiors.

    2. One who affects an offensive air of self-satisfied superiority in matters of taste or intellect. (As defined on Dictionary.com)

    Combine that definition with the definition of a blogger, and you get a Snob-Blogger, defined as ‘anyone who blogs, period’. Yes that’s right, bloggers by nature are snobs.

    Not me you say! Yes, you too! ALL bloggers are Snob-Bloggers! Do you publish a blog? Don’t believe it? Take this handy dandy quiz to see if you fit the mold.

    Have you ever commented about someone or something in a negative or superior manner on your blog? If so, you just might be a Snob-Blogger.

    Do you and your blog readers commiserate about topics together on your blog comment system? If true, it’s possible you might be a Snob-Blogger.

    Does your blog link to all of your other blog friends who link back to you? On that occasion, you are most likely a Snob-Blogger.

    If you have ever ranted about something that is only interesting to you and your blogger friends, you, I’m afraid are a Snob-Blogger.

    If you know what RSS means, I’m guessing you are a Snob-Blogger.

    If you would stop publishing your blog because you knew nobody was reading it, you my friend are most likely a Snob-Blogger.

    Do you recognize Wil Wheaton as someone other than the geeky kid from Star Trek: The Next Generation? If so, you are certainly a Snob-Blogger.

    Other Snob-Blogger characteristics include:

    Writing rants and opinions about things you never bothered to learn about first

    Thinking that your blog is just as, or more powerful than the mass mainstream media

  16. >>snobbish bloggers are also bloggers

    I just KNEW someone was going to say that. heh!

    I think what really, really annoys me about the current set of blog guru wannabes is that they’re so crap at it.

    Clearly needy, sensitive and “carefully opinionated”. Their blogs read like someone explained the concept to them, but they’ve never actually seen one in the wild….

  17. I’m with Nick on this one, it’s an unfortunate downstream effect of a prevailing IT mindset. There is a subtle but important difference between ‘I know this better than you’ and ‘I am better than you because I know this’.

    Unfortunately, many people in this field just don’t get that.

  19. Following Wikipedias and your definition snobbish bloggers are also bloggers 🙂

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