Gauravonomics Blog

Dear DNA,

One of your reporters, Anjali Thomas, repeatedly called me last week for a story on the dark side of blogging in the context of the attacks against Cathy Sierra and Tim O’Reilly’s blogger code of conduct.

I repeatedly told her that the story she was researching was marginal at best and she should instead do a story on how blogging lets people find their voice and become part of a community.

I repeatedly told her that most of the bloggers I know, including myself, have had mostly positive experiences with blogging and I have rarely seen offensive and/ or abusive comments on the blogs I read.

When she insisted that I tell her about some controversial episodes in the desi blogospehere, I asked her to speak to Saket, Gaurav, Sakshi and Rashmi instead and offered to do an interview if she decided to do an objective story on blogging.

After all that, imagine my shock when I saw myself misquoted in this manner in DNA yesterday -

Alistor Cameron, who calls himself a Blogologist, has put together a tongue-in-cheek compilation of must-do blogging tips offered by the million must-read blogging experts we must have on our feed readers.

My favorite, however, is #22 (or is it #1) -

You should — on a scheduled and regular basis — be standing apart (completely dispassionately) from your blogging to gain a sense of balance and perspective on your efforts, in order to be able to review and adjust your “workflow”, choice of tools, and approach. You will need to accommodate technological change, shifts in expectation of your readership, and the greater and greater need to cater to a Chinese readership, where the real money and traffic is.