Last week I got into a small pissing contest with a so called major blogger about content, quality and how we should be blogging. If you are among the 17 long time readers you have seen me wade into these silly melees with reckless abandon.
Some of those were worth the price of admission and some were nothing more than three or four men trying to prove whose dick was bigger than the others. Not really something to be proud or nor something that I teach my children to do but sometimes we fathers like to advise the kids to do as we say and not as we do.
Anyway, I am not impressed by how many followers you get, how many comments you receive or most of the standard metrics people use to gauge their self worth. Nor am I bothered by the efforts of lackeys, groupies and minions to chastise me for disagreeing with their hero. Sorry fellas, if you stick it in my mouth I simply won’t swallow and most likely I’ll chew.
I am funny like that.
If you haven’t noticed I am in a droll sort of mood. You can blame it upon my candy corn addiction (please don’t send me anymore I can’t stop eating them) or you can just say that Jack is a grumpy Taurus. It might all be true.
What is also true is that I don’t see blogging as being an obligation. I am not obligated to provide you with scintillating content that stimulates you mentally, emotionally and or sexually. I write for me first and then for you. It is part of why you’ll find posts where I complain about bloggers who insist on posting about their cats and kittens. Not interested. When I see that crap I point, click and surf elsewhere.
You Can Do It Too
You can do the same. If you don’t like reading my words than don’t read. If you don’t like reading someone else, don’t read it. If you refuse to click away than you deserve to be irritated and should be punished for your stupidity.
You can do it too is a line that I keep reading in some email newsletters I receive. It makes me shake my head because I don’t believe that the author means it. I don’t think that they want that at all and I am sure that they hope that it doesn’t happen.
Why? Well their newsletter is designed to teach others how to become a competitor of the author and I don’t think that they really want that, at least not on a large scale. Maybe I am wrong, but I just don’t think so.
Feed The Beast
If you are going to be a blogger than you need to feed the beast. You have to update your blog on a regular basis not because of the readers but because you have an obligation to yourself to try to become better. You have an obligation to work on your skills as a writer and the only way that you can do so is by writing.
I’ll share more about this in an upcoming post. In in the interim, tell me what you think in the comments.
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