Friday, November 12, 2010

Why Bloggers Fail

There’s a guy … a regular poster and self-styled professional photographer and gallery owner in the far east (I’m a little embarrassed to quote that fiction, but in the interests of full disclosure I must) who has created a blog … his motivations are very much unclear, but I have a theory which I cannot share :-).

Now … I have dropped the odd comment into that blog, generally when he makes a mistake, a not uncommon occurrence. I stopped after a while because he kept deleting them. Seriously. He deletes perfectly valid technical critiques instead of refuting them.

The first rule of blogging: Never delete comments. (One exception: filthy language, nasty or puerile personal attacks on the blogger, etc. can be moderated as they contribute nothing and there is no valid motivation for such commentary.)

I commented recently on his latest post on what he calls “spot auto focus” and suggested a test that might actually work to isolate the actual size of the AF area used by Fuji in the HS10. But instead of refuting it, or better yet running the test and posting something useful, he simply deleted the comment like it never existed.

How long can a blog last when built on such disingenuous foundations?

Update: This was posted by the fella in question in a thread on the Fuji forum about 10:40am EDT, 16 Nov 2010:

Incidentally, I welcome comments on my blog. Also, I do delete the comments of one certain individual and I will continue to do so. I don't plan to moderate the comments, but will delete cyber BS. It is a blog about photography, and it is a pleasant blog. I want it to stay that way  emoticon - smile

Update 2: In response to another comment I placed on his blog. To be fair, this responded to the post itself and to some inappropriate behavior of his on a forum, one which I cannot reply to directly because I am currently on vacation :-)

Kim, don't even bother posting comments on my blog. I will delete all your comments.

I have no interest in what you say. Period !

You are a moron - How plain, and simple, do you want it ?  You have no interest in posting anything other than to attack, patronise [sic], or be condescending [ed: actually, that’s the same thing as patronize]. I have to put up with your BS on your blog, and also on DPR, but not on my blog.

Incidentally, I don't actually delete your comments, I spam them. So, they are still there. Hopefully, Google will wake up to idiots like you and spam anything you write.

Q.E.D.

Update 3: I was redirected into a known hate blog that is basically a toilet, filled with hatred, extreme language, disgusting images – including Nazi references with images of me defaced … that kind of thing. Irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but it exists. What really shocked me, though, is that Dave, the blogger that inspired this piece, posted an affirmation comment in that blog just to take a swipe at yours truly.

Second rule of blogging: Do not post affirmations on hate blogs under your own name. Sheesh :-)

Here is his comment, for your amusement.

Hi.
A friend of mine pointed me to your blog as they said my name was 'up in lights'. I find this post quite amusing as KL has nothing better to do than attack me from his blog. Interestingly, since he made the post, and linked to my blog, there have been exactly 28 referrals from his blog. My blog traffic as of today, and over the same time frame, is 2,412. That really says something about his claimed traffic, or it says that no-one who reads his blog has any interest in jumping over to mine. Who knows ?
[Ed: Not you, that’s certain.]

I took a decision when I created my blog that I would have nothing to do with KL there. I'm glad I took that now. [Ed: Baloney. That was just a knee-jerk reaction.]

Yesterday, he made three comments, in the space of one hour, which had zero relevance to my posts. [Ed: Liar.] I deleted all. [Ed: Yes, he did. Which is my point.] As they also come through on my email, I sent him back an email telling him he was a moron and not to bother posting comments as I would delete them all. [Ed: He did.]

Today, on his blog, he has shown the contents of that mail. Good. What he doesn't show is the content of the three comments he made. [Ed: Dave has the text, I do not :-)]

Hypocritical, arrogant, lying, waste of oxygen ? Absolutely. [Ed: Nice.]

Anyway, I don't necessarily agree with how you deliver the news, but you have got it all pretty spot-on as far as KL and his buddies go.
Cheers, Dave.
[Ed: A nice swim in the toilet for Dave. One of those people who does not care with whom he associates so long as he can satisfy his own hatred. Sad.]

So there we have it … a bad blogger turned scum bag.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kim wrote :

> Now … I have dropped the odd comment into that blog, generally when he makes a mistake, a not uncommon occurence. I stopped after a while because he kept deleting them. Seriously. He deletes perfectly valid technical critiques instead of refuting them.

Before reading this I also wrote that the ability to control which posts were made visible and which were tossed in the bit-bucket was probably motivated by his desire to remain unaccountable for his misstatements, attacks and fabrications. Nice to so quickly see real verification.


> *sigh* … You *cannot* blog successfully if you have no ability or willingness to admit to and correct mistakes or shoddy work … you just can’t.

But he can continue to minimize the effect of criticism with such devoted sycophants such as LO (SO), who continue to back up his fictions daily. She has even craftily posted another of her over-the-top personal attacks against us. Craftily because she timed this one to appear when the chance of it being deleted before the weekend passes and the moderators return on Monday is minimized, and also because she now knows not to name names in her attacks, when she can just as easily make the attackees known to forum regulars. To see her latest vitriolic post visit http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1012&message=36904004

Kim Letkeman said...

Bill, I don't think the word sycophant does her justice any more :-) ... to actually advertise a bastion of mediocrity in her own signature ... I was most bemused to see that. Talk about solidarity :-)

And yes, I saw her (and others) ratchet up the rhetoric today, preparing for the coming the complaint campaign.

I sent the first 5 lines or so to the mods warning them of what was coming and asking if perhaps this would clarify why I am the leading cause of unrest when I am not even around?

I suppose it will be for history to judge what the FTF's disease was, but posting such nastiness with abandon and ganging up on small groups (they actually think it works in reverse) is historically a precursor to some truly abhorrent behaviors.

Sad to say, but I suspect that we are only seeing the tip of the coming iceberg ...