The Weblog Review
Oh my gosh. Moira, I’m sorry your site fell victim to the people at The Weblog Review. (Yours too, Adam.) Ugh.
To be honest, Moira, I don’t think their review of your site was at all harsh, or even negative. But still, it’s kind of fun that you turned the tables and reviewed them right back (although I think you were unnecessarily mean to the innocent bystander whose blog they liked).
What I love is what happened next. After posting her counter-review and sending them an e-mail, Moira got responses from both the Weblog Review’s webmaster and the reviewer. The webmaster wrote:
Your insults on minx’s site are rude and inappropriate. Her site is right now, the best site that we have reviewed. And the reason I say that is because her site has gotten the most traffic from us. [Traffic equals quality. Nice.] Her humors posts when I reviewed her site were very detailed and very good which caught me right up in the site. [Huh?]
I don’t know what the webmaster’s like in person. For all I know he could donate money to UNICEF and read books to little blind children. But I have to ask, Mr. Webmaster: can’t you at least make sure all your reviewers can write? And spell, for chris’sakes? These people can write and spell. Why can’t your people? Are you trying to be ironic, or did it just turn out that way?
The webmaster also wrote:
You said you would not recommend my service to anyone. I hate to break it to you, but you posting that big huge rant on your weblog is a recommendation. Any publicity good or bad is publicity.
Hey, we don’t care if we make a good product, as long as we’re famous. Wonderful, wonderful. Because here in America, it’s all about attention. Pub-schmucking-licity. If I get enough publicity, maybe I can get a book deal or start a handbag company like Monica. “Bad publicity is better than no publicity,” eh? Yeah. Tell it to “Seussical.”
If you want to create a website that recommends some good weblogs, go for it. I’d love to find some good reads. But I don’t see the point of disparaging someone’s weblog. “The goal of my site is to get more people to other people’s sites. So what if it is a bad review or not. The guy who has the worst review has gotten more traffic than your average review.” Yeah, I’m sure the guy whose weblog you’ve ripped to shreds really appreciates what you’ve done for him.
How does this sound:
“Hey, everyone. John doesn’t dress too well, and he could be more exciting, and I really don’t like the way he holds his fork when he eats. And his farts smell. You can find him in room 213.”
Who are you, and what gives you the right to point out all of John’s faults? That’s tasteless. By the same token, it’s tasteless to disparage people’s weblogs. Weblogs are an extension of the self. They’re like personal art projects. They’re not out there to make money. This isn’t the theater business or the book industry; these are just ordinary people who have decided to create spaces where they can express their thoughts and feelings and interests.
You’re not doing any good by telling everyone what’s wrong with someone’s personal weblog.
I really don’t see the point of The Weblog Review.
I give it two shrugs.
I can understand ‘the fury behind the words’, but it is a simple fact that when you go public, you are up for unwanted criticism.
But there is not much one can do about it, can we?
So, I took the test and submitted my journal for review on different web sites. I’m curious how big the bloodshed will be ;-)
As one of the two reviewers over at Blog You, I was very sorry to hear about this. It sounds as if the people over at Weblog Review, after knocking off our idea, are now trying to mimic our style. But instead of understanding the style in question, they seem to be contributing to general nastiness. They don’t appear to recognize the fine line between being outright cruel and being deliberately satirical. Needless to say, if this is the kind of crap that the WR is going to stoop to, Tom and I are going to have to respond to the Weblog Review in the near future (but not now; we’re 21 hours into the Blog-A-Thon).
All the best,
Ed
Aiee! I just noticed this. (Yes, perhaps I was a little mean to Minxy. Oops.) So far haven’t heard anything back from the weblogreview.com guys about what their policy is re unsolicited reviews. Somehow I don’t think they’re losing sleep over that one. Thanks for the sympathy….I usually just take the free-for-all spirit of the Net way too hard.