Advice – On Starting A Blog

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I work with a small group that runs a local site intended to showcase design, advertising, and general creative happenings both in our market, and globally as well. Though our intentions are completely pure—to advance the quality of design in this area—this is the first time we’ve undertaken something of this nature, with such delicate egos on the line—occasionally we let our personal feeling about particular subjects cloud our judgment. For example, recently we posted a list of local talent on our blog and gave all of the names on the list a big thumbs down…um, in descending order, actually picking out those which we liked least…and, um, describing exactly why we didn’t like their work.

In hindsight this may not have been the most prudent move, and it appears that in at some of the cases our opinion was in the minority. Since we felt that our original post was a little harsh, we tried to tone it down a little bit, but it may have been too late…the damage was done.

Do you have any suggestions about how we can get through these initial growing pains more elegantly? While we don’t mind pissing people off with some regularity, we’d prefer not to be total dicks and scare everyone away to some other site…just kidding, there really aren’t any other sites, so they’re stuck either way.

Anonymous



Dear Douchebag,
I don’t know what to say, it sounds like you are a bona fide stool sample, there’s no easy way around that fact. I do like the idea of the site you mentioned and may look into creating something similar for the Denver market. When I do, I’ll try to avoid the pitfalls you found yourself in by being such complete, egotistical, pricks.

Anywho, since I’m probably going to steal your idea, I’ll go ahead and compensate you for it by bestowing upon you the necessary wisdom you’ll need to get yourselves out of this bewildering sinkhole of tactical ineptitude that you’ve put yourself into.

First off, you said it was a blog, so the questionable post is likely going to scroll off the page and into hierarchical obscurity where nobody will ever remember it—except those people whose reputations you’ve besmirched in Google’s cache for all eternity.

Next, you may need to consider having the people who you’ve posted about assassinated. It’s not a pretty solution, but let’s face it, they’re going to be the most upset about this and if they’re gone, nobody else is really going to care too much about what you said.

And finally, you need to blame someone else. Blame them and then say you’ve fired them over the post. Nobody knows who you are, so they won’t know if you fired someone or not.

This situation is like when you’re at Thanksgiving dinner at your parent’s house and you’re trying not to fall asleep as your Uncle is going on and on about some tedious vacation, and before you know it, “PHHHHHPPPPPP!!!!!” you let rip the most diarrhetic fart has ever imagined could occur. Do you accept responsibility for this deadly emission? Hell no, you blame your lopsided brother who has his Ipod earbuds in and isn’t going to know about the fart for several more seconds.

Alternately, you could just check yourselves into rehab.

Denver, I’m here to help,

Speedball

Need advice? You can contact Speedball at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter: @spdbll.

Comments

  1. nordeck August 22, 2007

    speedball you nailed yet

    speedball you nailed yet again.

  2. sheima hassanlou August 23, 2007

    CORRECTION:
    There are plenty

    CORRECTION:
    There are plenty of other sites that are actually credible and have people that are truly passionate about design and media.

    And if you don’t know about them yet, well, maybe you’re in the wrong industry.

  3. nordeck August 24, 2007

    CORRECTED CORRECTION:
    yes,

    CORRECTED CORRECTION:
    yes, there are some great sites dedicated to design with all those things you mentioned (credibility sometimes included), but not focused on denver specifically.

  4. Paul Reed August 28, 2007

    In regards to the poor souls

    In regards to the poor souls who are upset by truth, mingled with opinion, I say ease up. It’s a shame when someone or a group of creatives try to enlighten the community they reside in with an interesting blog. For those few who have an understanding that design sometimes isn’t pretty or about flashy style, this is a welcomed site. A resource to find fresh talent and like minds … with the hope that someday our amazing city will draw the kind of work and creativity that NYC, SF and Minneapolis get. It’s time to stop complaining and get busy.

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