I am breaking many of my personal rules here, but here I am posting another community related post about Ping. I need to address a few issues about my last post, and this will be the last time I am talking about it as a post on my blog.
To address some points that Endoh pointed out and other comments left on the blog, I have the following to say.
Before Daphne spoke to me over msn on this matter, I was already aware that at least 2 people were openly disliking the level of interest in the mundane topic of Daphne’s crush. I DIDN’T CARE, because I am in for the believe that everyone has a right to like or dislike topics or blogs as long as they don’t declare war over it. Like what Uzyn said,
“Everyone’s unique. Every bloggers are unique. Ping.sg is started not as an aggregator for smart bloggers, nor is it started as an aggregator for immature bloggers. It’s started because of blogs and bloggers of Singapore.
Everyone’s unique, and every bloggers have their own readerbase, even before Ping.sg. Ping.sg gives the bloggers a chance to exchange each others readership and naturally, a reader who likes to read sports blogs wouldn’t like to read a fashion blog, but that doesn’t mean the fashion blogger IQ is lower or anything.
Let’s open our arms and accept that all of us are bloggers (I know I’m becoming less of a blogger now due to the inactivity of my blog, paiseh) and all our blogs are unique in one way or the other, ok?
Anyway, here’s a promise. As long as I am able to (unless gahmen say i kenot), Ping.sg will always remain neutral, open and free. That’s my goal and my dream, and I’m sure most Pingsters’ goal and dream as well.”
I believe in that vision and that’s why I don’t care about the indifference towards such topics. Only when Daphne told me she felt really affected by it was when I got very upset. I got upset because, it’s the core community that is affecting her. And I do believe that these people are actually friends with Daphne and they really shouldn’t hurt her like that.
I also agreed in my post that Daphne SHOULDN’T be so affected by it as everyone is entitled to their own opinions!
Now it comes to the part where Endoh and anyone else asks,
“Where is the evidence? Give us names!”
I didn’t care on gathering evidence nor screenshot the shoutbox or twitters as I already know the displeasure of a few people towards the ‘shallow’ topics. Moreover, I regard some of them as friends and my post isn’t about pointing out individuals. If I wanted to do that, I would have approached them through private ways.
Then some say,
“If they are your friends, then why are you trying to attract attention through such a title and make a big fuss over it?”
I used my blog to express my opinion about them because it isn’t my business to approach them about the matter in the 1st place and I would rather voice my views at them while preserving their anonymity. And to those who think I am trying to attract attention or raise my popularity with such a posting, I’m afraid you are right.
Right in the sense that I am a blogger and my posts are made public. I want high readership like any self respecting blogger who admits to it. BUT, I am like what a few mentioned in the comments for the last post.
“I don’t care much for being in the top 10.”
That is true for me as well but I will like to elaborate it so that it is more correct. I did mention to Wishbone sometime back that people with good content who are not ‘popular’ in Ping need not worry. Those with good content will eventually have a fanbase. Why? Because eventually, it’s the content that makes people bookmark/subscribe/visit your blog. If a blogger has poor content and constantly misleads people with his/her title, he won’t get much traffic on days where he doesn’t blog and also in the long run. And I do believe that I have a group of readers that may be relatively small, but they enjoy what I write mostly. Ping and tomorrow.sg may have been two of the driving forces behind my websites growth, but I don’t need to whore myself to get reads. If I manage to get into the top 10, then it’s just a bonus. The loyal readers will still come to appreciate my posts.
The last post was lousy content in my own opinion, why the hell do I want attention to such a post to ‘raise my popularity’. I had common sense to think that the so called ‘popularity’ would actually dip because of it. But I still wanted to say my peace because I have an opinion and I am not afraid to say it with tact.
And if you think it wasn’t with tact, you’ll be amazed at what I really had in mind.
It’s weird but I think the word ‘shallow’ also affected more serious bloggers than the ‘shallow’ ones. I think I could have stepped on a sensitive spot somewhere. I do admit on hindsight that it could be wrong to label it as ‘shallow’. Maybe ‘mundane’ would have been a more tactful word.
In conclusion, I admit that I am shallow(like always… but i am extremely proud of it), I might have mislead people to think that I am waging war against certain people. But there is nothing I disagree on when I look at the post over and over again. I may have been seen as being exaggerated or making groundless accusations but I still stand true to my opinions.
Sorry if you still want me to post pics here and there and to link here and there to point fingers. I still won’t do it because it wasn’t my main purpose in the 1st place. My biggest point is still,
“There is nothing wrong with shallow bloggers/posts/topics. Good content can still come from it.”
I know I could have unwittingly created discomfort or discord amongst certain bloggers but so be it. If the relationships are that fragile, I don’t think the affected bloggers should be sad of losing a friend or two. And I still welcome and cherish whatever friends that I have made in wonderful communities like Ping.
