The importance of being earnest
Professional blogging is a serious business and Upstart Blogger has a serious reputation. A reputation that I admired before I took the helm and one that I am proud of now I’m steering the ship. And it is for that reason that some recent feedback, some of it, frankly, vicious and contemptible, has left me with no choice but to speak out, partly in reply to the feedback but also to clarify my position on a few important matters.
It is my sincere belief that integrity is of paramount importance, both in life and in blogging. Without integrity everything falls apart. Trust, respect, confidence, reputation, all of these things evaporate quickly without integrity.
Now that might sound serious, stern even, but integrity isn’t a difficult concept. Tell the truth at all times, be honest and open with your opinions and you’re nearly there. Stay true to yourself and you’re on the right track.
With the exception of one post, when I attempted to trick everyone on April 1st, I have always blogged with integrity. I have written from experience, given my opinions without bias and told the truth. If I haven’t liked something I’ve said so, sometimes slamming it. If I have liked something I’ve praised it. My opinions are my own, are absolutely unbiased and free from financial influence. Upstart Blogger has never accepted paid reviews and it never will. It is my opinion that paid reviews are nothing but an easy buck for bloggers whose blogs cannot maintain an intelligent audience.
I speak my mind and I don’t suffer fools gladly. Something that hasn’t gone unnoticed even when those doing the noticing don’t agree 100% with my views.
With all that in mind, imagine my reaction when the following email arrived. I’ve left all of the spelling and grammatical errors intact but edited out a couple of expletives.
Dear Morgan,
Who the hell do you think you are trashing the work of the true wordpress rockstars? You get in the blogosphere shooting your damn mouth off criticizing geniusess like Tim Ferriss and John Chow whilst supporting any little squirt who gets to fly onto your radar. This is suposed to be a blog about blogs and wordpress and design and all the other stuff that you know nothing about. We could care less about your music career or how much money you are making. Get back to France or wherever the hell it is you damn came from and leave problogging to us.
Interesting stuff. And it wasn’t unique. It was one of many similar vitriolic attacks that have been fired in my direction in the past week or so.
Clearly, I have touched a nerve.
Here’s my reply. I’m making this public both for the sake of completeness and because I believe it may help fend off this sort of attack in the future.
Dear Anon,
Many thanks for your email. It would have been nice if you had been able to get my name right but since you clearly have a problem with geography, spelling and grammar I should probably be happy that you were able to hammer out anything approaching a coherent email.
Putting your inadequacies aside, I’ll answer your points one by one.
The phrase ‘Wordpress rockstar’ is something that has always made me laugh, made up as it is by certatin Wordpress coders to add a patina of glamour to their careers. Show me an example of this trashing you accuse me of and I’ll be happy to discuss the matter with you.
Ferris and Chow et al are not geniuses. Ferris made his money selling illegal body building supplements and then, when the money started to run out, peddled a get rich quick book to the same sort of gullible people who bought his drugs. Chow made his money running a tech forum and he now runs a blog where he persuades people to sign up for sub affiliate programs that make them peanuts but, due to the number of takers, make him a good return.
Both of them are successful. But they are not geniuses by any stretch of the imagination. Calling Ferriss or Chow a genius is like calling Ronald McDonald a Michelin stared chef. McDonalds sell millions, probably billions, of fat filled piles of junk every day but no one would ever dream of calling this junk anything other than just that, junk.
The little squirt you refer to is, I presume, a certain Mr. Blake. In case you hadn’t noticed this blog is called Upstart Blogger. He is behaving like an upstart, he is gaining notoriety quickly and, since he took the prudent step of introducing himself to me officially and asking for help and advice, I am perfectly comfortable with my decision to point some traffic in his direction. People read Upstart Blogger for many reasons, one of which is to learn about creating, promoting, maintaining and profiting from a successful blog. Watching his blog sprint from a standing start, in my opinion, continues to serve as an interesting case study.
You say you could care less about my music career and my income. Given the tone of the rest of your email I presume you meant to say you couldn’t care less. Either way, I’m not sure how you want me to respond. I include information about my music career because I feel it’s beneficial to be open about my all relevant facets of my background. My income statements are a regular feature that many people enjoy reading. Indeed, many people asked for this feature to be added to the blog a long time ago.
France? My about page may be of help to you. An atlas will, I’m sure, also prove invaluable to you.
Us? I don’t think that particular statement deserves a response. Maybe you are suggesting that only people from a certain country should achieve prominent positions within the blogosphere. If that’s really how you feel then I can’t help you. Frankly, I doubt anyone can.
Now that’s got that out of the way normal service can, hopefully, be resumed. With a new minimalist magazine style Wordpress theme being launched later this week, closely followed by a theme aimed at fans of international typographic style, it’s time to power the boat out of the muddy reeds and back into the fresh and cool open water.
|
Ashley Morgan is a UK jazz trumpet player and owner of independent record label 447 Records.
Ashley Morgan is the trumpet player with Enormous.
|
It’s odd. I read your blog because I find it interesting, insightful and, without hyberbole, the source for some of the best designed WordPress themes around, period. I’ve checked out the blogs of many a WP ‘Rockstar’ but I never return to them, as they often have little to nothing to offer on most every level.
Your success seems to have brought out the green monster in a few people. That’s sad, given the fact that there seems to be enough of the blogosphere to go around.
Keep up the good work, and keep the delete button handy for the wack-jobs who have nothing constructive to contribute.
I think you have brought that backlash upon yourself really. I really did enjoy this blog until the last few posts which were nothing more but condoning illegal downloads of copyrighted files.
I can just imagine how angry you would be if someone illegally copied your music CD or what not.. (if you have one that is)
I think part of it is jealousy. You see these people are successfull, and you think they do not deserve it. Still does not give you the right to do what you did.
PS, don’t diss on my spelling/grammar as English is my third language. You always assume that everyone’s primary language is English? Bad form.
Get back to doing what you do best, (writing insightful posts) and stop linking to or condoning illegal activities and I assure you, your blog will be better because of it. Bringing up controversial issues on a blog is always asking for trouble.
PS: That email did not come from me, just to clarify.
Ashley, your comments on the four hour work week clearly sent some people into a tissy. I’m not sure if I agree or disagree, nor do I know if comments of the download being illegal are valid but I do appreciate your post here and that you took the time to post it.
Keep up the good work, I look forward to your posts daily.
look i guess the truth as alwyas somewhere between.
we make money all of us somehow with wordpress, you blog, someone design………………i guess it is good to learn anyway and take care of “headline kind of blogging
Greatings from France
Wangjel
by the way…………about France. We have a non profit association to give that missing link to the “modern world” and we spend lot of time and energy to spread the “american” open attitudes all over here, and show as positive example. It is not easy, but we hope, and with those comments about national differencies Anon make our work just more difficult.
I’m not french, not US citizen, didn’t even come from India…….but Anon take care please with those racist attitudes to don’t nurture conflicts.
Thanks a lot
Wangjel
Josef – Thanks so much for your kind words, they are very much appreciated.
Wesley – With respect, the point you are missing is that I am perfectly capable of making my own decisions and forming my own opinions. I can link to whatever I please. Upstart Blogger is independent and always will be. Some people will always disagree but at least everyone knows that I am speaking directly and with candor.
Controversy, whether in content or link form is, in my opinion, a good thing. It promotes discussion and debate. Furthermore, linking to something does not necessarily mean that I support it or condone it. I’m simply drawing attention to it.
As a musician with my own record label I have plenty of CDs under my belt and piracy is one of those things that can’t be avoided. However, I am fortunate enough to have a quality product and a quality audience. A high enough proportion of that audience are happy to pay a fair price for my work, even though they could download it for free if they wanted to with a little effort. I firmly believe that if a product is good enough it will still be paid for even after it has been discovered, or even downloaded, for free. For instance, I collect Miles Davis recordings. I buy everything that is released. But, due to the time it sometimes takes for new re-mastered editions to get released, I often download digital versions from Bit Torrent sites since they almost always get leaked months in advance. I still buy the official product once it is officially released.
I suppose that puts me in an interesting legal position but to me this is no different to downloading a software demo and then purchasing a serial number. Furthermore, everything I own is legally paid for.
In all honesty, had I downloaded the Tim Ferris book from a Bit Torrent site I would not have then gone on to pay for it. I would have deleted it. And I have already deleted the free copy I got from Audible.
It’s not jealousy. I’ll admit that they make me a little angry, especially since I feel that Ferriss, Chow, and others like them take advantage of the gullible and uneducated. But genuinely, with a beautiful family, a dream career as a jazz musician and a growing income from blogging I have absolutely nothing to be jealous about!
One more thing. I’m not poking fun at your grammar. I am aware of your linguistic position and respect it. The Anon email was, I’m pretty certain, from someone whose first language is English. That fact, combined with his aggressive attitude, was enough to justify my critical response.
Christopher – Yes indeed, my opinion has certainly rattled a few cages. And thanks for the compliment, it means a lot.
Wangjel – I agree. The racist comment from Anon is disappointing and unacceptable. It amazes me that such destructive attitudes still exist.
First there was road rage, now blog rage.
On the topic of the self proclaimed ‘wordpress rockstars’ , i must laugh, are these ‘rockstars’ world famous and earning 10’s of millions of dollars, appearing in Nike campaigns and on the covers of Time magazine, not likely, perhaps ‘wordpress experts’ or ‘wordpress professionals’ would be better suited.
Ashley, I think such emails can’t be prevented. If people have success, you will get more criticsm and you will get more haters. Nothing you can do about it, but addressing this kind of thing in a public post is good (I just don’t hope they act out of ‘popularity-gaining’ because then you’ll receive more of these).
Anyway, some of the posts about that Mr. Blake aren’t of interest of me either, but many of your articles are. You are doing fine, good job.
Hey Ashley,
Great job and keep up the good work.
Being new to the blogosphere myself, I never realized the kind of comments I would receive by linking to certain items and topics. After receiving my first string of hate comments, I have come to the realization that it is unavoidable. If you have opinions/beliefs that you stand firm on, there will always be a group of opposing people ready to bash you. I am now cool with that. I can’t say I agree with all of your posts, but I am a repeat reader because you keep it real and that is hard to come by these days.
Don’t change a thing…