Month: October 2001

Not very talkative today. This may be due to being tired, or perhaps is the result of my new haircut. I could “do a Vaughan” and post pictures of kittens or something. Maybe what I need is a Grayblog “testcard”.

Meanwhile, back in normal life….
I had a lovely evening this evening, drinking beer with Phil, Paul F and the Nags posse before heading to the Four Chestnuts with Paul F to meet Liv and some of her friends to listen to live music by local musicians. Paul sang, and a good, relaxed, casual, issue-free night was had by all.

[The post that was here has been removed and the comments retracted following discussion with Meg. Remind me not to read things when I’m tired and ratty, as I am prone to misinterpretation. And, for those that were wondering, Meg and I remain friends. Whatever, as far as I am concerned, the subject is closed. Today is a new day. And as Dan and others have pointed out, there are bigger things to worry about.]

Apparently, me and Rachel (from Friends) have much in common. (cheers to jen-x for that).

In pub listening to local bands. Not bad! Great to see Liv again. More later.

Nothing improves a day like having a good haircut and a bottle of merlot with good friends. Kudos to Jo and Nigel.
I note that I’ve drifted through 30,000 on the visitor counter thing (whether or not it is accurate), a target that has been reached only with the aid of mentioning Osama bin Laden and by being controversial.
Now about to munch an over-priced pizza, then head out to “Open Stage” night at the Four Chestnuts in the company of Paul F and Liv. And, bizarrely, I’m looking forward to it, even though “open stage” nights are *never* my scene.

I win today’s award for upsetting the most people with a single blog post.
However, I stand by it. No specific allegations were made against anyone – deliberately. What I said is, admittedly, based to a large degree on hearsay, rumour, allegation and general “feeling” and perception. And it isn’t just about things that have happened recently – more about things that have taken place over weeks and months.
I just wanted people to read it, think about their own actions, think about what they have said on the ukbloggers list, elsewhere online and offline in that rarified place known as the “real world”.

TFF: a disappointing 26 points, taking my score to 170.

Given that you know I am in a bad mood from the post below, I’m now going to go off on one. Be warned.
There is something unpleasant about UKbloggers at the moment. As with the schoolyard politics of any large group of people that are only tenuously linked (we have blogs – what else do we have in common?), there is a tendency for subgroups and cliques to form. This is not unusual, and in many ways should be expected. Nor is it necessarily a bad thing.
One or two members of the group (meaning, in particular, users of the UKbloggers mailing list) have been keen proponents of the warm and fluffy idea of “community”. Now, whilst I feel that this is a noble ideal, it strikes me as thoroughly impractical, given that people naturally form alliances with others who are either geographically, intellectually, professionally or emotionally local to them. Combine this with the universal desires to belong to a group and be identified with it, the desire to have power, and a need for strong identity, then it is only inevitable that some sort of struggle for dominance or assertion will arise, leading to an inevitable conflict within groups and between them.
Besides, with little in common aside from blogging, what is there to bind a such a large and heterogeneous community together? Geography? – no. Background? – definitely no. Social class or status? – no. Age? Politics? Religion? Beliefs? Sexuality? Aspirations? – absolutely not. We can’t even agree on where and when is a good place/time to meet for a beer!
It strikes me that this is what is happening in UKblogging at the moment. Some groups have formed. Each group thinks it is better than the others. Some people do not belong to any of the groups and feel excluded. They then berate and deride the groups for being “cliquey” or “A-list”. Some groups set themselves up as “rebellious” or “better than thou” – somehow more cool than other groups. Some of these groups are quite large, others may only consist of two or three people.
This conflict has become spiteful and divisive (if there is anything that can be divided). UKbloggers are now almost expected to take sides. The young/naive are rejected and ostracized. If you don’t belong to a group, then you don’t belong here.
And what is the result of all this? Animosity, anger, exclusion, discouragement, dismay. I know of some people who feel that they do not want to go to “blogmeets” (for want of a better term) because they don’t want to handle the politics. Others are so dismayed with the whole atmosphere that they have considered giving up blogging, giving up trying to be part of this group of people.
The solution? I’m not sure I know. Disbanding the UKbloggers list is probably not the answer, although I’m sure it has been/will be considered. Setting up smaller groups to serve just the individual “tribes” is a process that is already beginning, but I’m not sure that it helps with the exclusion problem. The only real answer is a spot of behaviour and attitude modification, but the cynic/realist in me knows that that is simply not going to happen.
I used the phrase “schoolyard politics” at the beginning of this rant. That’s exactly it – schoolyard. Some members of the UKbloggers cabal are behaving like spoilt schoolchildren. My respect for them diminishes daily.

Remember how, last week, we were having problems with one of our business partners.
New week. New customer. Same partner. Same problem. GRRRRRRR!