on life & other inconveniences

It’s official: Murder and Mayhem in Muskego 2009.

Now, Twitter, Steve Mosby and J.A. Konrath. What do the three have in common?

Well, I signed up on Twitter this week, after my better half suggested it was a good idea to take my own name before someone else did. Of course, I forgot about Twitter’s policy about such things, so I never really needed to fear someone would imitate me on the site, but without even one tweet to my name the site’s managed to piss me off.

I was quickly followed by a site called The Freebies Zone, and although I’ve since blocked them and I do not follow them, my home page is filled with constant messages from The Freebie Zone, all with links to their various crap. I went to the help page on Twitter and signed on to follow spam, as they told me to, and send a message to spam about the problem.

Nothing so far, and every time I go to the site I’m inundated with SPAM CRAP MESSAGES! As of this moment, twelve posts from The Freebies Zone, in a row, block out any actual real messages from people I’m actually interested in following.

Now, I haven’t yet posted anything on Twitter, and I’m not sure when I will. I’m more nervous about using Twitter than any other form of communication online to date, in part because experience has changed my views about online activity. For some reason, people posting on Twitter seem to forget that anyone in the world can read what they say. Anyone can read my blog, too, but I’m not limited to 140 characters here. It’s very easy for a remark on Twitter to be taken out of context or misconstrued, and I do think we have to consider our behavior more carefully in the future. My favourite story on the subject comes courtesy of my ex, Kevin, who found one of his coworkers had a blog where she’d railed about how much she disliked him and all the things he did that she didn’t like. Ah, yes, there’s nothing like trashing a co-worker on line, especially when they have seniority over you and are in a position to make your life difficult.

Which brings me to the recent disagreement, between Steve Mosby and J.A. Konrath. I’ve read Joe’s post, which started the whole thing, and must admit I laughed until my sides hurt. Whether you agree with Joe’s points or not, Joe knows how to make a point effectively.

I’ve also read Steve’s comments on the original post, the subsequent exchange between the two of them, and Steve’s post and the comments there.

Here’s my 2 cents. If you’re paid to judge stories, you judge the stories. And that means reading them. Sorry, but if you’ve ever had a story surprise you in the end you know what I mean when I say that it’s possible to be indifferent about something and then hit the twist that makes you reinterpret the whole thing.

Now, I’m not talking about reading on if it’s pure bad writing, but there are many points in Joe’s post that are subjective, and done right a talented writer could use any of them.

I think the problem with the post is that they’re presented as absolutes. Sure, the odd caveat can be thrown in at the end, saying that anyone who’s really talented can do these things and make them work wonderfully, but the problem is that many new writers are often as unaware of their actual skill level as the people who audition for American Idol that can’t carry a tune.

More than anything, though, I’m left with the impression that a strong voice and a strong opinion that generates controversy also generates awareness. Joe’s out there, workin’ his corner and then some. One thing’s for sure - a lot more people know his name than mine.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 11th, 2009 at 12:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.