Of toxic blogs!

By S.K 2005-11-01 Techno-Bab 15 Comments

The next generation blogger!We all would agree that the mainstream bunch of blogs are mere vehicles of self-expression made possible by the ubiquitous and powerful medium of the internet and the blogging tools that enable “push-button” publishing.

But there is another genre which target business rivals by proxy, according to an article by Daniel Lyons in Forbes.com. This is what he laments about:-

Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective.
………………….
Blogs started a few years ago as a simple way for people to keep online diaries. Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns. It’s not easy to fight back: Often a bashing victim can’t even figure out who his attacker is. No target is too mighty, or too obscure, for this new and virulent strain of oratory.

But this blog paradigm has also brought in a new line of business for sifting through millions of blogs to provide “watch-your-back service” to many clients who feel threatened by such belligerent blogs.

Blogs as a class have been found to be a very powerful medium capable of shaping public opinion, especially since they are not identified with any mainstream media house. But this also throws up a distinct possibility of the existence of some rogue blogs indulging in proxy blogging for settling personal and business scores.

But what is interesting is the “counter attack” strategy outlined in the sidebar of the story. The following is the array of procedures suggested by the columnist to engage the potential blog threats:-

  • Put your own people or hire a watchdog firm to spot blog smears before they can spread, and stamp them out.
  • Hire a blogger to do a company blog or encourage your employees to write their own (and surreptitiously insert company statements).
  • Bribe popular bloggers to eulogize you and your company. (outright unethical!)
  • Create discord among bloggers and discredit the tormentors. (It is a war, stupid!)
  • “Throw the book” at the web hosts of the bloggers. Indulge in nitpicking and legal skulduggery.(No holds barred, what!)
  • If nothing else works, sue the bloggers’ ass!

You can read the opinion of a “citizen journalist” as a sequel to this article here.

But all accept the fact that the percentage of such “special” blogs are infinitesimal. The general blogosphere is populated only by innocent and humble net-savvy intelligentsia, incapable of causing any harm to the mankind!

Tagged on: , ,

15 thoughts on “Of toxic blogs!”

  2. S.K Post author

    Thanks, Thennavan!

    And your wishes are multiplied several times and warmly reciprocated.

    (If something is left, you can keep for the next year’s Deepavali too!) 😆

  3. Tony Waters

    After cleaning out our attic, we needed a dumpster to handle the junk, and this company made it easy. The bin was delivered on time, was clean and sturdy, and pickup was quick. The process was stress-free and efficient. dumpster rentals near me

  4. Herman Farmer

    1. Hey all, jumping in here from the trenches — just wrapped up a POS integration with Square that was way more painful than expected. The biggest headache? Their API docs totally glossed over authentication edge cases, which stalled us for almost a week Home page

  6. Ricky Daniels

    Here’s the thing: we switched from Salesforce to HubSpot because Salesforce felt way too complex for our smaller fundraising team. Biggest mistake was underestimating how much training our team needed with Salesforce, which slowed down adoption PE data governance

  8. Barry Lowe

    1. Here’s the thing — we switched from Salesforce to Affinity after about 18 months because manual data entry was killing us. Our analysts spent 3+ hours weekly just updating contact info until we enabled automatic capture. Best move ever automation in multi-fund CRM

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *