{"id":3340,"date":"2010-07-21T21:26:13","date_gmt":"2010-07-22T04:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/?p=3340"},"modified":"2010-07-23T17:00:09","modified_gmt":"2010-07-24T00:00:09","slug":"3340","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/21\/3340\/","title":{"rendered":"Rant: I Am Done Discussing These 10 Things About Travel, Writing & the Web"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been writing on the web for 10 years now. Ten freaking years. And I can’t believe we’re still having some of these same conversations. I’m tired of the tedious discussions, I’m tired of the lazy logic, I’m just tired of seeing the same old tired arguments come up over and over.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Bloggers and journalists are not the same thing.<\/strong> Some journalists have blogs. Some bloggers have journalism training. A blog is a platform, blogging is the act of putting stuff on that platform, be it journalism, narrative, photography, or divisive meaningless crap. Got a blog of your own or are you contributing to one? You’re a blogger. Have fun.<\/li>\n
  2. If you take a press trip, you’re a shill.<\/strong> Fine, whatever. Don’t take press trips and don’t read stuff by people who take them.<\/li>\n
  3. You shouldn’t write for free. <\/strong>It’s your call, I’m not going to make it for you. If you want to give your work away, go right ahead. I can’t afford to write for free, I’d starve. If you can, you’re in a more enviable financial position than I. Enjoy.<\/li>\n
  4. Travel writing isn’t journalism.<\/strong> Anyone who says this isn’t doing much reading. Some travel writing is journalism, some is story telling, some is how-to. It comes in a bunch of flavors, it’s not a one size fits all thing. Go to the library, already, and read something.<\/li>\n
  5. Travel writing is hard work. <\/strong>Who cares about this? Not the guys who put the roof on my house or the woman driving the bus I took downtown or the baggage handlers at the airport. Cry me a river.<\/li>\n
  6. Content farms are evil. <\/strong>No kidding. Get back to me when you have a strategy for building up the equivalent of farmer’s markets for writing. Until then, don’t write for content farms, don’t syndicate their material, don’t use websites that focus on content farming strategies. And hey, friends don’t let friends read or write farmed content. Step away from the processed words. Those things are full of high fructose corn syrup. No one needs that in their diet.<\/li>\n
  7. Tourists are bad, travelers are better. <\/strong>Fake distinction, I’m sick of hearing about it. Get over yourself.<\/li>\n
  8. SEO is killing the web.<\/strong> I hate the SEO game as much as anyone, maybe more. But you know what works better than Google for finding meaningful information? Asking people who are experts. Librarians. Readers. Fellow travelers. Think outside the Google. And write outside the Google too. Or, feed the Google monster, go ahead. Ranting about Google isn’t going to make it go away, so I’m going to go around and ask humans for advice. I said<\/em> “I’m going around.”<\/li>\n
  9. You should unplug when you travel. <\/strong>Yeah, and I should eat liver because it’s high in iron. Do what you want, I’m going to go meet some local folks I found online. You can join me; it’ll be fun!<\/li>\n
  10. I’m not a writer, I’m a blogger.<\/strong> Are you using written words to express your ideas? That’s writing. Are you really making excuses for the quality<\/em> of your writing? Because hey, maybe you ought to work on that instead of wasting time on labels. If you don’t think you’re a writer — or aren’t at least<\/em> aspiring to be one, maybe you should stop writing.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    That’s it. I’m done with this little alienation spree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’ve been writing on the web for 10 years now. Ten freaking years. And I can’t believe we’re still having some of these same conversations. I’m tired of the tedious discussions, I’m tired of the lazy logic, I’m just tired of seeing the same old tired arguments come up over and over. Bloggers and journalists … <\/p>\n


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