i don’t know why i do this
16:09 on Thursday, February 06, 2003 • 2 responses
I’ve listed etherf@rm not only on photoblogs.org but also on blizg.com. Photoblogs.org turns out to be a pretty decent referrer, probably because for some reason gestalt has managed to stay in the top 100, which is what most people see when they visit photoblogs. I maintain that this kind of voting makes those kind of sites more a popularity contest than a measure of quality, but whatever…the recognition doesn’t hurt.
Blizg.com is a listing not of photoblogs but of blog blogs, blogs like etherblog blogs. On Blizg.com, the etherblog is buried somewhere in the recesses of other-than-frontpagedom. If you like what’s you’ve been reading here, get your brain checked out to make sure it’s in working order, then give the etherblog a positive vote on this page. Maybe it’ll help others find their way here. If you don’t like what you’ve been reading here, well, give the etherblog a negative vote on that same page. In either case, go pretend you’re being democratic.
For a person who supposedly offers this blog as a personal tribute to digital narcissism, I’m rather ambivalent about the popularity of this site. On the one hand, it’s quite gratifying to find etherf@rm in the links or ‘daily reads’ sections of other websites, especially when those sections consist of only 10 or so sites. Making a links section—even the links section on a site read only by the author and his grandmother—is like making the short list, along with zeldman and dooce and heather and Dawn. It’s like being nominated along with DeNiro, Spacey, and Denzel for an Oscar. It’s like being a town with a population of 1 and still making it as a dot on the map. Anyway, it’s an honor.
On the other hand, it’s kind of freaky. This site—I just kind of do it, you know? Obviously when I don’t feel like posting I don’t, and when I do, I do. Being recognized for such whims doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Then there’s the whole “they’re talking about me” aspect. Imagine walking through a crowded mall and hearing your name being batted about in a conversation between people you never knew existed. Or driving down the highway and looking up and seeing a billboard advertising…you.
Holy shit! It just occurs to me that the very phenomenon I just described is probably the hell that Colonel Sanders lives through every single goddamn day.
So go rock the vote. Not only for etherf@rm but for your other favorite sites too. Make your mouse heard. Kill some time. Throw a few electrons across the net. It’s all good. Right?