Reading some of the Vancouver blogs today there seems to be a little mudslinging going on over some personal squabble between two people that wound up online. Right now there seems to be only one side of the story out there, but from what it says it looks like both sides need to walk in each other shoes. But why do I bring this up?
When I left here for California in 2004, no one was really blogging. If you were, then it was like being employee #5 at Google. Of course as this blogging thing took off you’d earn more and more readership, your stock would go up and then you’d become “rich and famous” online. (At least in your topic area.) Easy to do then when there’s not much competition in what would become the blogosphere.
Fast forward to today. A lot of Vancouver bloggers are just that – bloggers about Vancouver. Maybe they talk about a particular scene, but they confine it to their city. Their topic area is fairly small. And so the number of people that know them is a lot smaller than, say, Daily Kos. Well, a few Vancouver bloggers that I’ve met seem to have an inflated sense of their place in this world. After meeting them, I’ve stopped following them or trying to talk to them. For some reason, the meeting was just as warm as if they were a movie star in a bathroom stall and I was trying to get an autograph.
They have a nice little following and attention in Vancouver. I don’t deny that takes dedication to your blog. But if anyone is honest, Vancouver is really just a big small town. Everyone knows everyone else. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. And if you’re an expert in something…most likely you’re the only one in town that’s the expert. But they’re not the “rich and famous” of the blogosphere. They’re the popular kids of Vancouver. And well…like in any small town the popular kids can get a little bitchy.
And looking at today’s blogging gossip, I’m not surprised this is happening but I was reminded of a quote that is frequently attributed to Henry Kissinger:
“University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.”
