Ok, this is being spread around, so I need to canonize it.
The official answer to anyone who tells you that they have a blog is (say it with me now):
“Oh, so what do you complain about?”
Man, there are so many good reasons to say this. Let’s name a few to make sure we’re on the same page, ok?
- You don’t have to hear them go on and on about their blog. This is actually the most important reason– anyone who thinks their blog is a big deal needs to be cut down to size a little bit. If you need another topic of conversation, may I suggest how totally awesome Twitter is?
- They won’t complain in their next post. So basically, the whole blogosphere is made slightly better every time you say it. Do it enough and I think it’ll raise the mood/consciousness of the whole planet. I’m not kidding.
- They may stop complaining on their blog altogether. Some blogs, let’s face it, are about 50% customer service complaints, 30% top ten lists, 15% complaining about A-list bloggers, and a few other percentage points separated among the other usual suspects (your cat, etc). You don’t need a blog for this. Everyone knows complaining is what Twitter is for.
- They may never bring up their blog again. One of the great things about this tac-nuke of a response is that it will cause people to become afraid of it– and they’ll stop bringing up their blog entirely. Try asking about someone’s non-web life instead– that way you may actually get to know them instead of trying to get out of the conversation because all they’re talking about is web crap.
Do you see the problem here? We have these stupid habits we fall back on every time we meet someone new in this space. Like “What do you do?” they’ve become the routines we use when we run out of stuff to say, but everyone uses the same ones, so all they do is bore people.
There are many other conversations we need to wipe out of tech-conference circles.
Which ones are you sick of?
Leave a Reply