Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Blogs, Reviews, and other forms of Free Speech

Okay, I Blog so therefore I must be, right?

I'll admit to a certain level of ambivalence with regards to Blogs in general. Still, a Blog is a very interesting Internet innovation: a virtual soapbox with an attached means to continue discussion in the background. I won't say Blogs replace newsgroups, but they certainly can serve a purpose.

One of those purposes is to function as a springboard for independent reviews of publications or products.

Thing is, there can be good and bad in anything. Just as with Amazon reviews, there are lots of folks out there who love to sling anonymous electronic monkey dung. You have your fawning fen, your monkey dung slingers, your one-issue-Annies, and your right and left leaning loonies. Frankly, wading through reviews about a product can be just as mind numbing as wading through the web in general. However, just as with the web, the cream floats to the top.

Julie Czerneda's discussion group recently tripped over the whole subject of on-line reviews and the apparent lack of restraint from both the reviewer and author angles. As with many of the posts in her group, there was a lot more thought to be given to the subject than first appeared.

I'm still mulling what was said. Someday I might have things out there that will get reviewed and slammed. Thing is, I recognize human nature for what it is. I know that, as a species, we tend to crap in our own dens. It doesn't surprise me anymore when people are cruel and evil. I know to expect that and prefer to be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't happen.

Anyway, more meanderings later...

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