“It’s one thing to support someone’s …

It’s one thing to support someone’s First Amendment right to use live television to criticize the government or show a controversial piece of art. It’s another to support someone’s First Amendment right to use live television to blow a chicken.” [via Obscure Store]

bofhcam.org is a parody of the JenniCam.

Builder.com critiques Fatbrain.com.

Salon: How the Internet Ruined San Francisco

Mini-CamRant: [archive link] Without naming names, I’d like to point out that a whole lot of sucking up and ass-kissing is going on in the world of weblogs. I routinely get emails from people wanting me to link to their site and send them my reader traffic. (If it’s a good site, I’ll mention it or add it to my rotation. If it sucks, don’t expect any response from me. If it crashes my browser, I will probably say something negative about your site, exactly the opposite of what you expected.)

What pisses me off the most are the weblogs (again, not named) who link to every article and essay published by a larger and more well-known weblog/site. In return for this ass-kissing and incestuous linking, the larger weblogs praise the ass-kisser, even though the ass-kissing weblog in question is nothing more than a bunch of daily links to news articles (with no added opinion or voice of their own) and very few original essays. How can people call it a weblog if it doesn’t have a personal voice?

Whatever happened to linking to something because you liked it or because you thought your readers might share your same views? It seems these days, that some weblogs exist only to stroke the already-large egos of some people who will remain un-named.

So, the next time I publish an essay or CamRant, ask yourself if what I’m saying is worth a link from your weblog or site. If you agree with what’s being said, then support it by providing a link. If you disagree, don’t feel that you have to link to it. Or you can link to it with an explanation (and opinion) of why you disagree. But, for God’s sake, stop linking just for the sake of linking.

I like to say “ass-kissing” a lot.

Posted by Cameron Barrett at October 27, 1999 04:48 PM

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