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September 19, 2007
The Blogosphere Ecology Program
I don’t need to tell you that the blogosphere, once an exciting new frontier, has quickly grown out of control. It’s kind of like California went from the Gold Rush to the 21st century overnight. Everything’s all clogged up, nobody knows what’s what, and blogs are being used for any and every purpose, no matter how inappropriate.
And I don’t excuse myself from this. I’ve written blog entries about “Sally Forth,” anvils, and Tony Danza. I have transcribed words from the dictionary. I have posted pictures of a laundromat, and no one’s ever tried to stop me.
It’s time for that to change. In other areas of oversupply, the government has stepped in and used its resources to get things back in line. In this case such a program, which I have given the working title “Blogosphere Ecology Program,” would pay people not to blog. I, for one, would be willing to sign up; it’s always been a dream of mine to get paid not to do something.
The BEP would serve the dual purpose of providing income for underemployed English majors (is there any other kind?) and thinning out the blogosphere a bit, giving it some room to breathe. Won’t you write to your congressperson in support of this important legislation today?
Whatever else
Posted by bill at September 19, 2007 10:37 AM
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Comments
Make peace, not war!
Posted by: Cemadmimb at January 14, 2008 11:39 AM
Well, this is my first shot at posting to a blog-anyone's blog.
I must say that given the subject matter and The Old Man's response, I feel it is incumbent upon me to write something profound or run the risk of causing cosmic gridlock. However, my mind is pleasantly empty at the moment or, to paraphrase a certain scarecrow, "If I only had the bandwidth."
So I will remain happily unaddicted to the Blogosphere for, as Shunryu Suzuki Roshi said, "If your mind is empty it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few."
You may send your payments by check or money order to.....
Posted by: TOM's-OL at September 24, 2007 12:51 PM
How about everybody gets twenty blog posts at birth, sort of an original sin sort of thing. And then as they use each up, they lose a digit?
-Cruella de V'ortex
Posted by: Cecil Vortex at September 23, 2007 10:19 AM
Since you use the word ecology in your proposal, may I suggest an alternate approach to the problem of excessive blogging? Rather than using the farming model of offering government handouts to not do something, how about using the environmentalist model that created a market in "Carbon Offsets?" These COs allow folks who use more than "their proper share" of earth's resources to purchase additional usage rights from those using less resources than average.
Simply put, socially conscious bloggers could purchase "Clutter Offsets" from non-blogging (or reduced blogging) bloggers. Socially conscious viewers would check at the top of any page opened for the official "Clutter Neutral Blog" certification, indicating that sufficient Clutter Offsets had been purchased. If the certification did not appear, these viewers could post an angry comment on that blog for failing to display the proper level of social responsibility.
This would keep this commendable initiative in the private sector, and allow unlimited potential income for non or reduced blogging. The more offsets you want to offer for sale, the more you don't blog!
Posted by: The Old Man in KS at September 23, 2007 8:07 AM
Dream fulfilled: consider every penny you get on the job to be payment for sleep not slept, walks not taken...or was that you sleep walking into the supply closet yesterday? What a racket you made!
Posted by: say mwa at September 22, 2007 5:17 PM
Does this mean I should give up all hope for ever reading a blog from you about my beloved Rudy?
Where's my dog blog damn it!
Posted by: fish sandwich at September 21, 2007 10:16 AM