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The problem is that what you asked for is spamming. Obviously you can have whatever policy you want on your comments, I'm not arguing that. But that only means that people can pitch to you in their comments. I doubt Molly or Zeldman would appreciate it if I respond to one of their posts about web standards telling them to check out a new iPod accessory my company just made (disclaimer: I do not actually work for an iPod accessory company, just trying to come up with the most obnoxious pitch).
Right now, pitching can only be done to most people with real direct communication: email, phone, or in person. Pitching with comments is just spam unless you can somehow tie it in with a particular post.
Another worthy blog entry though would be if a pitch to a blogger is even worth it. When somebody tells me "Look, I have this great new product. Web 2.0. Ajax. Fantastic. Amazing. etc." I'm tempted to just ignore them. If instead they say "I have this great new product. It isn't ready for the public yet and I'd really like to get some feedback from respected people in your field. You can try it out two weeks before it goes public." That isn't a pitch so much as a direct invitation. It's a car salesman letting you drive the car around for a while instead of showing you some commercials and telling you to buy it.
If you sent 100 normal pitches out or 100 exclusive invites out, I'd bet the invites would be at least twice as effective. And there's nothing dishonest or unscrupulous about it. For instance, I (should hopefully) have two products/sites coming out this year. One I am going to invite you, Robert, to try out because I think you would actually use it. Another you don't fit in the target audience. Would I like you to write about that one too? Yeah, but you would be more likely to do so seeing others using it than me trying to get you to use it.
Wow, I've rambled quite a bit here. I'm going to clean up these thoughts a bit and blog them tonight.
For what it is worth, the personal aspect in blogging is nice. The individual aspect is refreshing. But I read for business and for work and I don't mind that one bit. That said, who does not love a good story? So...
As for the contest: I'll do it. Just bought the domain name http://www.storiesforblogs.com. I'll try get some kind of message up there on the site ASAP. In the meantime, you can follow developments through my blog here:
http://www.michaelmcderment.com/article/Stories...
Robert: Will you take a place on the selection committee?
That's me! Small budget, huge ideas, one-man IT dept. for 1200+ users.
I started the HelpdeskKB blog about a week ago, focusing on my quest to become the most advanced school district out there.
If there are any other IT guys who want to join HelpdeskKB as a writer, I'm open to it. All you have to do is be willing to use ingenuity to solve problems, not dollars.
And yes, I'm pimping the blog here, but my goal is to get people willing to aggregate knowledge beneficial to enable the average IT guy to do great things. :-)
"The first 5 seconds are key when people visit your website" an even wiser marketing dierctor told me recently and the same rings true for emails too.
If a product is genuinely worthy, the email subject line will be attention-grabbing. The logic being, the same mind that made the product worth the hype will be able to come up with a great tag-line in the subject email.
Robert, have you considered setting up key pitch keywords as spam filters so that the obvious watse-of-time pitches don't get through?
Harsh but fun to see how ingenious people become!
is anyone here interested in that kind of thing? i know there are a million aggregators out there.
This blogger's a little wordy (difficult and inconsistent I've found too), but I like his thank you note to an old teacher. . .definitely something you won't find on the tech sites, and I like the authors he mentions too.
http://inappropriatelyspeaking.blogspot.com/200...
Ever since I started criticising the state of Maine, I've been getting the crap kicked out of me by their PR company. Calls and emails to my clients, harassing my family, my wife at work, the whole Richard M. Nixon treatment.
One thing's for sure though, this medium has their attention, and the way governments deal with dissent is something that we shouldn't be staring all the way to China to analyze.
In the same way the big web went from info-centric to advertising-centric and now seems to be heading BACK to info-centric, so hopefully will go blogging.
As for pressure, it comes from within. If you think you have to answer every single email, and view every one of those 800 blogs in your feed, well that is all your own creation, Robert. No one should be losing sleep over whether you read their email or their latest blog posting.
It's just blogging people. Just typing characters into a TextArea control. It's not rocket science and it's not curing world hunger. Get over yourselves for a minute.
Traffic ebbs and flows. There are other ways to get yourself seen (Digg, Slashdot, etc). You don't have to be beholden to an a-lister to get attention, because as we have seen, they might just get stressed and drop off the grid anyway. :)
I'm also working on modules that try to recommend/discover possible blogs you'd like based on your current subscriptions, ones that extract keywords and do summarization, and so on. It's also extensible and scriptable. There's a lot more to it than most aggregators.
Have you ever talked to 17,000 people? If you have, you wouldn't say what you just did.
I'm talking with Graham Hill. He runs the http://www.treehugger.com/. That's my pitch for the day. Get environmental, nice blog!
Take these comments - it's a discussion, and you don't have to participate if you don't want to. If this blog didn't exist, the discussion would be going on elsewhere.
If someone complains about you not reading their pitch, or not responding to an email, they need to get a life, and realise you have one too.
Said another way, your post is speaking to the struggle to achieve blog/work balance...it is not unlike trying achieve a work/life balance...I can only imagine how being a gatekeeper tips the balance. Some of my blogging buddies here in Toronto are technology journalists for National newspapers...it's actually their job to keep up on the tech news...blogging fills the void for all they have to say that does not fit within the editorial guidelines at the papers. I sometimes forget that being a news junkie and blogging are their FULL TIME occupations for them...that that is exactly what they get paid for...
Until then, he had been a pretty radical "write-to-me-and-I'll-answer" guy. I think at some point it's not viable anymore. Maybe there are better uses of your time (for you and for us) than answering every bit of pitch-mail that lands in your inbox.
Your readers. Flacks are interested in anyone with readers. But your posts confirms my long held theory that flacks are better off pitching the low traffic blogs and then letting nature take its course.
As for your email burden, you may have to get an assistant.
I think you're seeing the same effect with what you read.
Ovid has something to say about this, curiously.
BTW, I feel the same way about my inbox--I can't keep up with it--I'd rather go take a walk too :-)
"Dell acquires Alienware" yawn
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Wired Magazine: Digg.com - Man vs. Machine in Newsreader War "Oh God!!! Blech!"
Anything blog technology related I would not read.
Recruit an assistant (or five) to screen submissions. Use voluteers, kind of like a guest blogging system. Post the results on a seperate site -- same way Pete Cashmore created Weblist to take the pressure off Mashable.
Send candidate products to all of your volunteers to review. If any of them find it interesting, allow any/all of them to post their thoughts (but without collaboration). One topic -- mutliple viewpoints.
Trackbacks and comments on each product post would flesh it out. Each product post would become like a URL for that conversation.
FWIW- Sid
Thanks Jonathan. That's the heart of the matter.
Blogs are interesting because they tempt you into believing that you're learning something from somebody who knows something you don't.
But, the blog format only leaves you with the "feeling" but not the "result" because it stops about halfway toward being actual journalism. There are no journalists. Nobody to select the most articulate among those speaking their mind. No pruning. No research. No collation of comments into a cohesive article.
Above all, no conclusions.
It's like reading the teaser paragraph of an interesting article over and over.
This isn't a completely off the wall post -- Bob has shared some of his musical tastes not only on this blog but on internal discussion lists at Microsoft, and Michael seems to fit.
Disclaimer -- I'm an old musical colleague of Mike's from when we were both kicking around Greenwich Village 25+ years ago. He stuck to music (and cooking, but that's another story) while I play a lot more with software than with my guitar these days.
Another point, how many new feeds do you connect too in a week and how many do disconnct ?? Just go and take a feed for a week , just another persons blog..enter into their echo chamber interact and then move one.. make a single connection..yes a new connection which is outside your own turf of techie-landscape !!
You can only get more famous or hid somewhere.
You were in this state of panic, despair. I recall your concern with the way the world was changing. You watched the Seattle Police fairy escorts with sorrow.
I called becuase I was concerned about Microsoft and their China implementation. I was concerned about the future of democracy and the role your country took in it.
I live in the Ozarks though I feel more connected to my fellow Netizens of old. I plan on taking this back - Remember Dave?
Blogging is taking on a new meaning to me today. I've been able to meet local politicians, business leaders and men I would never have had the opportunity to meet. I get to ride on the backs of you guys and the development we do together. I get to capitalize on this brainpower. That's what's cool about this revolution - access to massive amounts of world brainpower.
I bet you wouldn't remember me today. But, I remember you asking the concerns I raised to you personally to Bill Gates.
I read about your condemnation of those within Microsoft who fail to support democracy and the sacred nature of a free press to creating a free world.
I feel vindicated.
Dave Winer wrote me an e-mail almost a year ago. I was reading a book on RSS and couldn't get it. He let me know...the inventor..that the book was making it more complicated than it needed to be. That meant a lot. It still means a lot.
I just wanted to let you know that I'm sharing this technology here in the Ozarks. I'm helping our government open dialogue and communicate. I'm beggining to make a Vlog which is nothing less to me than my own local TV station.
Just wanted to say thank you to you and to Dave and wanted to let you know, your work has meant worlds to me and my community.
Tonight a website goes online as a gift to our local Salvation Army. They'll be blogging for goodwill and that could mean the world to someone else.
Sincerely,
Darin Codon
No time to edit Laptop will die
who said that it has to be always people reading rss? people love to watch tv. if you want to change someting, change big broadcast media, radio and tv, and don't boil yourself in your own soup (as we say over here)..
I still don't use a feed reader because I dont have time to be that committed to reading any one thing or person. Sure, I have missed important conversations as they emerged, but with time and perspective I was able to get to the stuff that really mattered in it all rather than being wrapped up in it. But I have never missed the life I am in while I am living it.
I love gadgets, tech and toys - but only in so far as they enhance my lilfe. Once, during the downturn in 2002, I did not check voicemail for almost 6 months. The people who needed to get a hold of me got a hold of me or I got in touch with them. Not something I will be able to do with the new committments in my life, but it was fun while I had my freedom to do so...
Then to think that half of the people I know cant say what they really mean out of fear for pissing off (or causing legal harm to) an organization they represent. That just sucks. I had to deal with some political BS with a client once where I had to recheck each email 8x before sending it, then even after clicking send, I was paranoid that I had one of the wrong people on the cc list...
One of the things we hope to do with BrainJams is to help the disenfranchised centrist majority to find ears for their great ideas to hear. The power of knowledge is not limited by any Power Law, though the ability to gain wide distribution might be. I think we can fix this somehow and hope we figure it ouot soon. Long live the M-listers!
Nuff rant for now.
People matter. Good technology is a tool that enhances what matters most to us in life, not those that suck life from us.
he really shouldn't give that up - maybe he should just blog less and take a break from time to time is all...
You're an opinion-former, Robert, whether you like it or not! :)
As for Dave's decision, I think it will make precisely zero difference to anyone outside his circle. Dave is no more responsible for the popularity of blogging than Gutenberg is responsible for the popularity of Vogue magazine. Dave made some tools that people have used to make great stuff, and that inspired other people to make better tools than his, but claiming that him deciding not to blog (and personally I'll believe it when I see it) will have some impact on the wider blogging space is silly.
Blogging grew beyond the point where Dave Winer could have an impact on it years ago. I suspect that 90% of the people who use LiveJournal or Blogger or TypePad barely know who he is, let alone care if he blogs.
Or have the stones to set a date? I did - TVT has been terminated this morning. Compare that to empty threats of stopping "someday", or "later this year".
Want conversations? Want community? Take a gander at Vision Monthly. Real people, 100% community supported, no ads, ever.
Robert - my small story is how furious I am that Hotmail deleted all my old mails - going back years - just because I didn't log in in the last 30 days.
How stupid a policy is that? Do any of hotmail's competitors have similar policies?
Dmad, Gmail is free also and they don't have this policy. Furthermore, they allow POP access which means my mail client logs in to my Gmail account every 30 minutes, so even if Gmail did decide to institute such a ridiculous policy, I wouldn't fall foul of it.
Dmad I understand that. My point is that for the same price (free) I get a whole lot more from Hotmail's competitors (Gmail and Yahoo!).
Your honesty and openness help cut through a lot of the nonsense, including making you responsible for everything that Microsoft has done wrong.
Hang in there.