The Daily Square – Underneath The Bottle Edition

April 15th, 2008 · 1 Comment
by Kassia Krozser

Today’s links of interest:

File Under: The Daily Square

1 response so far ↓

  • Victor Curran // Apr 19, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    The outburst of trash talk between Deborah Anne MacGillivray and the Amazon.com reader-reviewer Reba Belle shouldn’t be enough to get these two sent to detention, let alone set “most of the blogosphere” atwitter. We expect to hear trash talk in the schoolyard, but we expect different rules in in the big leagues. And until now, the big-league rules have applied to book authors.
    When Manny Ramirez misses a fly ball we can yell “Hey Manny, you suck,” confident that Manny won’t jump up in the stands and kick our butt. The social contract that keeps pro athletes from kicking the butts of hostile fans is the same one that used to keep authors from mixing it up with readers. When publishing was a one-way conversation, authors were on a pedestal, like pro athletes. It was undignified and unfair for them to rough up a fan, no matter how belligerent.
    In the Web 2.0 world, even the fans get a chance to step up to the plate. “Most of the blogosphere” thinks that’s a change for the better. But apparently, some of the blogosphere hasn’t figured out that once you step out on the field, the pros don’t have to cut you any slack.