Atrios published an e-mail from Ron Brynaert of Why We Are Back complaining that Atrios had failed to link to some of his work showing that Talon News allegedly plagiarized news stories from other media outlets.
Ron did a lot of work and he attracted a lot of attention. He did not get the link that he wanted from Atrios and he complained bitterly and profanely about that fact.
This sort of thing happens every so often.
In August of 2003, there was a similar complaint that Atrios was ignoring a post I wrote at PLA calling for the resignation of Jamie Gorelick from the 9/11 Commission because she had a serious conflict of interest.
The post was linked to by a lot of folks including a number of conservatives.
One conservative blogger, John Cole of Balloon Juice was also offended by the Gorelick conflict. He linked my post and expressed his concerns. He did not stop there. He began to email Atrios about the absence of any commentary by Atrios about the controversy. After being bugged repeatedly, Atrios in fact wrote about the issue.
At the time, I thought it was completely inappropriate to criticize Atrios for not linking to someone else’s favorite story. On August 10, I wrote the following:
For now, however, I want to address the fact that Atrios was, apparently, hectored into providing his views on the subject.John Cole “had his knickers in a twist” because he did not feel that Atrios was paying sufficient attention to the story.
While many of us have come to rely on Atrios for news and commentary in much the same way we rely on the power company to supply the juice when we flip the switch, Atrios is not, in fact, a public utility. Unlike a utility, Atrios is not required to provide his service whenever we request it.
Atrios writes about the things that interest him. He is not required to weigh in on an issue simply because someone else is interested in it.
i might still like your writing...but i am f……going to continue to attack you f…… for the unethical way you choose to operate...
Brynaert then gets to the heart of his complaint:
you won't f……. link to me...no matter what...will you?
Brynaert wants a link from Atrios to drive his traffic. Who doesn’t? I have had at least my share of links from Atrios and other popular bloggers as well as mentions in the L.A. Times, the Wall Street Journal, and even a plug from Krugman. I appreciated each one. Would I like to have more of such attention? Sure, you bet. Do I think that the L.A. Times is unethical if they do not link me on the front page tomorrow? Do I think that Atrios owes me a link a week, a month or a year? Let’s be serious.
After whining mercilessly that the planets insist on orbiting the sun instead of his blog, Brynaert goes on to threaten Atrios:
A lot of people are reading me now, Duncan (for the first time I'm using your name). You have one last f…..g chance to realize that you are making a mistake by being a f…..g elitist douchebag...and start giving links to smaller blogs like me...and responding to your emails...or I am going to blog about this.
Atrios owes none of us anything. He owes none of us links, attention, responses to whining email, nothing. Atrios runs a blog. He gets to write about and link to whatever he pleases and he does not require approval from any of us. If he writes boring stuff, he will lose his readers. That hasn’t happened yet and I seriously doubt if a rude and profane tirade from Ron Brynaert is going to change that.
If you write something you think is particularly good and no one notices, welcome to a very large club. Whining, threatening, and calling others names is not going to help.
Instead, try to write something else good and after that, something else good, and after that, something else. If you write enough good stuff, people will read.
The left of the blogosphere is a reasonably small community. Some of us think it is a pretty pleasant neighborhood. Some of us are interested in keeping it a pleasant neighborhood. We welcome more smart, polite, nice people with open arms. Having whiney, profane, little snots insisting that they are owed links and attention simply because they wrote a post they like, does nothing to make our neighborhood more pleasant.
I expect that I will just have to learn to live with the loss of the pearls of insight and wisdom that I am sure just pour out of Ron Brynaert’s blog. That may be my loss but I simply can’t afford people like him moving into my neighborhood. It makes it a much too unpleasant place to live.
Posted by Dwight Meredith at February 23, 2005 07:53 PM | TrackBackWhen I was at City Pages, part of my job was to flog certain posts to top bloggers. I hated doing it because I knew what a pain in the ass I was being.
Bloggers owe no one nothing, but at the same time I just commented at Kevin Drum's blog that top bloggers do have an obligation to help build audiences for smaller blogs. Blogrolls are cool, but after launching over half a dozen blogs and working with many others, I know that a single fortuitous link can build readership better than all the blogrolls in the world.
Brynaert is being a jerk. It's in poor form to go around begging for links. Write good stuff and you'll get linked to, and if you've got the traffic, you should feel obliged to go out looking for good stuff.
We're all part of a community, even if it is a community of foul-mouthed disparate sons and daughters of whatever. We even have some nice people blogging for our side, although I've never figured out where in the hell they came from. Some mutual respect will keep our thing going, but pissants will just distract us from the bottom line: ridding us of this muddling POTUS.
Hmm,
You completely misread my e-mail...not that that's unusual...many atrios people did too.
It wasn't only about me. It was written for many other smaller bloggers.
Hey...I might add that i gave a link to this blog a few months ago...but I didn't get a link back either.
The right wing blogs acknowledge the smaller bloggers...our bigger bloggers don't.
I don't mind being the laughingstock for one side of our blogosphere...I got over 100 letters of support today...and a lot of people saw the humour in my e-mail to Atrios (who I like and read every day).
With great power comes great responsibility and if the bigger bloggers linked to the smaller ones than we'd all grow in power (that's what the right does and we need to do it too).
And the story I wrote...no one would listen to...i had to yell and scream and curse and accuse to get people to listen...and my work was cited in a letter going around by the congressional democrats.
If the bigger bloggers listened...or answered their email...a lot of good would come of it.
But...whatever...I have my own traffic...traffic before today...and way more traffic after.
And unlike you...i would never deprive myself of knowledge just because someone was an asshole...i link often to atrios and Kos and other blogs i've criticized.
Hell...to me...and many others...it's KOS that came out looking bad in that letter...not me.
peace
It sucks that you all want to think that the letter was all about me, me, me when i mentioned other bloggers in it.
It also sucks that some of you bloggers don't think it's right to get angry if you're not credited for something you worked hard on
or...even worse...you're plagiarized...and I've been ripped off on at least 15 blogs this year...that probably won't happen again.
But I'm not going to remove the link to this blog because you're a jerk. And I'm not gonna be a little baby and say i won't be back..
and you with the comment...i did write a fucking good story...and not the first..and not the first that i emailed atrios about...don't assume without checking stuff out for yourself.
peace again
Posted by: Ron Brynaert at February 24, 2005 12:44 AMWampum, please note: You criticized Ron Brynaert, therefor "you're a jerk." But he continues to link to you. Therefor he's a good-humored martyr. I hope that's clear to everyone.
Posted by: Bucky at February 24, 2005 07:25 AMAs a newcomer to the blogging community, let me just say that the response you received to this post is exactly why I didn't post on the subject, also:
Beware! ANYONE can start a Blog!
Posted by: des at February 24, 2005 07:56 AMFairly early on in the history of the Lefty blogosphere, there was a pretty intense discussion of copyrighting blog content. I don't remember all the players, but I do remember Markos putting up a psuedo-copyright stating essentially, "steal what you like." I don't even think he asked for credit.
We all have our work pilfered here and there. I remember being somewhat surprised to see a series of posts I ran on falling "worker bee" wages being picked up by the Kerry campaign and incorporated into web content and even stump speeches. I knew no one else was writing on this subject at the time, so was pretty sure it came from me. You know, I was absolutely thrilled that my work was meaningful enough for our cause that it was being used by our nominee. I didn't a flying hoot that I wasn't "credited" for my sweat and tears. What's that old goofy saying, "There's no 'I' in team."
We don't do reciprocal links here at Wampum. Our blogroll is for our benefit, not the benefit of our readers. These are blogs we read on a regular basis (and I notice that it needs a little updating to include some people I've discovered from the Koufaxes.) And guess what - there are people on our blogroll who we link to, Riverbend and Kos, for example, who don't link to us. Nothing to get your shorts in a bunch over, neh?
Personally, I think the story of Eli Lilly and vaccine tort reform is a much more significant story than whether some Republican plant hung out in the WH press room for two years (not that the latter isn't an important story: Just not AS important, IMO.) However, not a single major blog picked up my story on the subject last week. It doesn't matter, because I know it's MY cause, one I'll continue to plug as I have for the past 2.5 years. Not everything is important to everyone. Get used to it.
Posted by: MB at February 24, 2005 09:48 AMEvery time the subject of .iq comes up, I get plagerized.
So far my work has stared on the BBC (radio) and the 'graph.co.uk (on-line), and possibly elsewhere.
That's fairly comedic, since I also write about uranium enrichment and Iranian politics, which has a readership that would fit on two couches, and one six pack and a single large (anchovies extra) pizza would cover for the comments threads.
Posted by: Eric at February 24, 2005 10:00 AMHello earth to M.B.,
It sucks that so many people have completely ignored the overall point of my letter...but what really sucks is that on top of that you completely ignored what I wrote in the response to this letter...
and again just focused on the link line which was obviously written in jest...
and yeah im wrong for calling someone a jerk who called me "a whiney, profane, little snot" explain that one to me...
peace
Posted by: Ron Brynaert at February 25, 2005 02:21 AM