Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at May 24, 2006 12:30 PM

Note: apparently FeedBurner can "see" draft posts. Oops. So much for deciding whether or not to release this rant I wrote when all cranky. Oh well... Note to self.

I really do like what Kevin Heller did via the latest Blawg Review. I commented on it, and so did Matt Buchanan.

Earlier today, someone who is hosting a future Blawg Review asked me what we learned from our “rethinking” of Blawg Review.

My response (tweaked):

We spend the usual amount of time doing it. Each of us read every fricking one of the posts (shoot...we probably thus spend 3x the usual amount of time). We thought they were lame...really lame. As if quite a few of the people submitting posts put no effort into it. It was clear that most of the submissions are merely "oh crap, it is Friday, better submit one of my posts for my weekly BlawgReview link whoring." No consideration is ever made as to whether or not the posts are interesting, timely or useful. A bunch of crap.

So, we decided to “rethink” Blawg Review, picking only the week’s best 3 posts and posting them. (the remainder were dumped into another location)

Some people enjoyed it and agreed. A couple people were pissed. REALLY pissed. How dare we not post their posts! They, after all, followed the instructions and submitted them. A number of people said "they only printed 3, so they must be lazy."

ARGH!!!!

I think Steve Martin explained it best:

You know, everything is not worthy of being in Blawg Review ~~an anecdote~~. You have to discriminate. You choose things that are funny or mildly amusing or interesting. You're a miracle! Your ~~stories~~ submitted posts have NONE of that. They're not even amusing ACCIDENTALLY! "Honey, I'd like you to meet Del Griffith, he's got some amusing blog posts ~~anecodotes~~ for you. Oh and here's a gun so you can blow your brains out. You'll thank me for it." I could tolerate any insurance seminar. For days I could sit there and listen to them go on and on with a big smile on my face. They'd say, "How can you stand it?" I'd say, "'Cause I've read posts from ~~been with~~ Del Griffith’s blawg. I can take ANYTHING." You know what they'd say? They'd say, "I know what you mean. The shower curtain ring blawg guy. Woah." It's like going on a date with a Chatty Cathy doll. I expect you have a little string on your chest, you know, that I pull out and have to snap back. Except I wouldn't pull it out and snap it back - you would. Agh! Agh! Agh! Agh! And by the way, you know, when you're telling these little stories in your posts? Here's a good idea - have a POINT. It makes it SO much more interesting for the listener!

--Neal (Steve Martin's character in Planes, Trains and Automobiles).
[note: someone in a blog post in my aggregator mentioned this quote recently (I need to find the source and give credit)…but it fits perfectly]