Give him a break, guys. Baby steps...

Well John, you've got a reputation, but I haven't read any of
your columns in years. So I'm quite willing to ignore reputations.

But a slew of deleted posts? That makes me think you are unwisely
impulsive and then regretful later.

I don't see anyone in this thread who is identifiably "anti-blogger" or blogger, but it seems everyone agrees Dvorak is a troll. Ya know, maybe people don't give you crap because they're for or against any position you take, maybe they all think you are a twit in general. Here on BB, unlike your censored PCMag talkback forums, here we are free to tell you how we feel.

My post was mostly tongue in cheek. But I was surprised just a little. Especially after the recent FCC ruling relaxing media buying. I thought maybe this was the first indicator in the media buying orgy. :)

Good to hear that in the case of BB, the best things remain free.

Holy conspiracy theory, batman! Dvorak's the guestblogger 'cause we're interested in seeing what he'll blog. Last time I checked JCD was a columnist for PC Mag (which I don't read) and hence not in a position to offer article assignments to anyone. Aside from that there's the fact that writers usually write for money, not whuffie, which undermines the theory that BB (which doesn't pay nothin' for nothin') is offering JCD any kind of plum for his services here.

Edited by author 06-03-2003 06:32 PM
I enjoy my issues of PCMagazine and have enjoyed Dvoracks articles in the past. However, his appearance as guest blogger makes me confused. I come to Boingx2 for "off the beaten path" news and tolerate the lefty activist slant, because I believe the contributors to be good intelligent people who are inspired and on the edge.(even if they are wrong.)
What is next? Pop-up ads?
Is this a sell out? Were you bribed? (Not that that is a "bad thing" in today's economy.)
Will we have to register like the NYT or fill out questionnaires like the WA Post? Will PC Magazine start running stories by Doctorow, Frauenfelder and Jardin? I just finished reading the story about blogs by Dvorak, and now he is part of my daily breakfast? Feyah! Patoo!

If this is a test marketing, I am sorry but I want indie, slightly irreverent, and underground not to be mixed with my mainstream authors. (Not that I really read the guest bloggers that much . But that last robot gal was stout, I loved her stuff.)

This is like reading MAD magazine and the guest illustrator is Norman Rockwell. This is like Lucky Charms with bits of steak, I love the two SEPARATELY.

Send in Mr. Tin!

Pournelle is still in denial that Chaos Manor is a blog.

Mark /m6, I wrote a response too:
Deconstructing the Troll
By  John C. Mahler
 
Writing ignorant abuse to garner links, or trolling, looks to be the fastest-growing hobby on the Internet, and I've been studying the phenomenon to death. I intend to do my own troll, but I wanted to have a better understanding of what constitutes a really great troll.
 
The way I see it, there are two kinds of troll. Faux trolls can be set up by authors promoting books or newsletters, or they can be periodicals posing as trolls to get attention from bloggers. To me, the true troll is an ignorant recitation of prejudices, designed to undermine debate. I've deconstructed over 100 such trolls. This analysis led me to produce some formulae for a successful troll. Here are my Eight Rules for the Perfect Troll.
 
1. The right attitude. Make it clear that you spend the day, week, or month sitting on your rump reciting your prejudices instead of reading others' thoughts and perspectives. Or if you actually work, make it clear that you are writing the troll at work, because you hate thinking.
 
2. Community. Prove that you're a dedicated troller by citing at least five stereotypes. Repeat them ad hominem. Don't ever include examples or links, or anything at all to justify your absurd prejudices. If you're trying to jazz up your troll, number the points. Sentence teasers work well too. "The right attitude" or "Community" or "Rich language"
 
3. Humility. Troll weekly. If you miss a week, use the next weeksentire column to abuse profusely. Avoid explanation in detail or fascinating adventures. Make sure to rant about how dumb blogging is and why everyone should avoid it. Try not to show your fear though.
 
4. Rich language. Show that you're an insensate chained spirit by adding a lot of banality to your text. Cliched headlines and general abuse show people that you are an derivative writer not bound by the silly conventions of logic?those lousy rules that make you have to write something inspiring when you should be getting a check from PC Magazine just for joining cliches end to end!
 
5. Jargon. Pepper your text with big ugly ads from Intel, Dell, Micron, and other opportunites for getting spam. Make sure the only links on the page are paid for, and never give useful or relevant information, just contain buzzwords.
 
6. Controversy. Make sure your troll page has a clunky, registration-required comment system, and hound those you attack to use it. If they say anything cogent, censor their posts, make a public outcry and demand to be returned to the place of honor, or threaten to take their posts off your list. Go through this routine weekly with someone. Send them spam after they register
 
7. Humor. Give your troll a high tone name, perhaps even using a word you don't understand. "Deconstructing the Blog."
 
8. Specialize. If you want to trumpet the fact that you're a clueless fossil, include a photo of yourself in brown shirt with wire rimmed spectacles. No-one thinks of these as with connotaions of lying propogandists any more.
 
Finally, for all trollers, consider using a Romantic Composer's name as your own.

So, I suppose this means Mark and John have kissed and made up after Dvorak berated his appearance in the switch ads.

Good god in the foothills, Dvorak? Wasn't Gary Coleman available?

(moment of deep soul-searching)

Okay, okay, it's just an unexpected choice, that's all. Beyond retro.

Seriously, though, if you're going for Dvorak, what about Jerry Pournelle?

Hey, maybe we could get Dvorak to talk about how the extreme realism of blogging is almost certainly harmful to minors and likely to lead to mental illness.

This guestbar looks like it wants to wash a camel with cream cheese.

Is there a RSS feed for the guestbar? When the guestblog is updated it pings weblogs.com, but it just gives the URL for the main boingboing page (which makes sense). Blo.gs tries to autodiscover the RSS feed and associates the main BB feed with the guestbar (see http://blo.gs/info.php?id=2033 for details).

If Dvorak is supposed to be so knowledgable then why can't he figure out how to add a discuss link at the bottom of his blog entries?

I still remember what Dvorak originally had to say about weblogs... (-1, troll)

Fortunately, I also remember what my response was.

Still, we must be prepared to welcome this fledgling "third wave" of 'professionals turned webloggers'... we won't ask what took them so long to come around, and we hope that they can keep up with the real journalists out there in the weblog arena. (Give Salam Pax the Pulitzer!)

I love John: he said very nice things about me TWICE recently IN PRINT. Thus he is wonderful, famous, handsome, and thin.

He'd have a long way to evolve, even to reach nutjob. He'll publish any wild bullshit that comes into his head, if he thinks it will enrage people enough to drive hits to his pages. So I suppose he's perfect for BB.

Wait, I thought he'd been shot into the inky depths of space in a giant metal rocket-ship with his manservant Standish:

http://members.aol.com/jimtreacher/images/dazzlingsmile.gif

I dunno about this - isn't this Dvorak a nutjob?

Edited by author 06-02-2003 09:32 PM
 
I am a regular reader of Dvorak's, and have been for years. Actually, I just covered him and his interest in blogs in my own journal.

Now I learn that you guys have gotten Dvorak to actually take up a blog of his own. This is a serious mistake! This guy is already incredibly prolific-- he publishes two columns every month in PC Magazine, in addition to all the other stuff he does. What's more, he is witty, contraversial and entertaining.

In short, it is my fear that if Dvorak takes up blogging as a serious pursuit, he will steal away all of our traffic and put all of us humble bloggers to shame. HE MUST BE STOPPED!



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