Sunday - June 05, 2005

Memo From The Skipper

just received an e-mail from one of the members here at BMEWS regarding a recent post that I published here. The member sent me a link to a news scoop and when I published it I credited the member for tipping me off about it, as per my normal rules of blog etiquette. In the course of posting the news article, I decided to get cute. Since the post was about the recent revelations concerning the identity of “Deep Throat”, I decided to nickname my source “Bottomless Larynx”. It was merely intended as a harmless takeoff on the story. However, it seems the member and her family were deeply offended by the “nickname”. I have apologized to Quidni and removed the offending “nickname” from the post.

With that said, I have to say that it is incidents like this that give me more and more reason to question why in hell I even bother with this blog. For every post I publish here, somebody out there is going to be offended. Whether through my own ignorance (as happened above) or through just plain human nature, every word is going to be examined and scrutinized for a possible rebuttal or accusation. Quite often, the rebuttal is nothing more than someone disagreeing just to start trouble or gain attention. I hate it when that happens because it distracts everyone’s attention from the issue being discussed. Smoke and mirrors never solved anything.

I started this blog over eighteen months ago with a partner who is no longer with me (that’s a “dead horse” that needs no more beating, OK?). I went into this thing with very few goals in mind, other than to (a) have fun, (b) improve my writing skills, (c) make new friends, and (d) explore the world of people doing insane things. Somewhere along the way, my partner and I became obsessed with the sole concept of increasing our visibility and bringing more people to the site. As this site is approaching nearly 2,000 unique visitors daily, is ranked in the Top 200 Blog Sites in the Ecosphere and currently has over 500 registered members in our “community” here , I’d say we succeeded pretty well.

Fortunately for my sanity, I lost the obsession for more and more visibility several months ago. Nowadays, I rarely check out our Ecosystem status. My former partner also used to send out e-mails to advertise posts. I never was very enthusiastic about that because I considered it spamming. Accordingly, since the breakup there have been no more of those e-mails. I believe that if the content here is good, then visitors will come. Some will read and perhaps some minds may be changed. By holding up a mirror to some of the ridiculous behavior of homo non-sapiens, I would consider it a benefit to humanity if I could just convince a few people to just start behaving more rationally and use a little more common sense.

Unfortunately, I see the same obsession with visitors and rankings in other bloggers, some of whom are members here. I cannot tell you how embaressing that is to watch. It is almost like people are jumping up and down, raising their hands and shouting in a crowded room, begging for attention. That is why I gave it up. Sometime back in January, I re-examined my priorities and decided to regroup. I decided that my first priority list (above) was the correct one and the first and foremost priority of any blogger should be (a) have fun. Now that I am blogging alone here, the decision has turned out to be a good one. I will gladly link other new bloggers, trackback their posts and help them rise in the ecosystem - if that is what they truly wish .... but my priorities are different.

Everyone reading this needs to understand the demands this blog places on me. I work full-time and posting interesting articles is almost more than I can handle in order to feed the voracious appetite of our loyal, gentle readers here. I get e-mail notifications of every comment posted. I don’t have time to reply to every one of them. It’s not that I’m being aloof. It’s just that there are only 24 hours in a day. Instead, I reply to some of the more interesting comments and try to put my “take” on things in the posts themselves. I give you food for thought and hopefully a little entertainment along the way to make it easier to manage the insanity all around us. This is why you will occasionally find a twinge of parody, a note of sarcasm and even (God forbid) a little humor in the posts. And yes, I occasionally use “bad words”. This blog is plainly marked as being “Rated R” (see sidebar). It is not intended to be a children’s site.

This blog concentrates on weighty issues that only adults can understand and mentally chew over .. not to mention, the occasional “skin” for entertainment. While we’re on that topic, let me state, for the record, that any adult pictures and/or jokes posted here are carefully screened to avoid bringing “smut” or “porn” before you. Now, everyone has their own definition of pornography, so I try to be as careful as possible. I listen to members and their complaints carefully. That is why there are “brown bags” and “hidden galleries”. I also try my best to use a discrete vocabulary but occasionally my temper gets away from me. I’m only human, after all.

Finally, everyone visiting here needs to remember .... I am on a stage here. You all see pictures of me, know where I live, what I do for a living and generally have a pretty accurate idea of who I am. On the other hand, there are blinding stagelights in front of me and, for the most part, a faceless audience out there. The vast majority of you are anonoymous to me and the others who come here. The more honest of you hide behind strange screen names and either applaud or throw tomatoes, whatever the mood strikes you. The more evil of you send me e-mails with death threats, flame verbage and even threats of bodily harm or lawsuits. Yes, I receive all of the above almost on a daily basis.

In spite of all this, I somehow manage to keep blogging for your amusement and education and .... to have fun.

Sincerely,
Allan

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/05/2005 at 06:15 PM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
• Comments (21) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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