Have you noticed that people on the net have been really testy lately?
Everyone seems angry for no good reason. Look at this WordPress/Google thing, for one. Does it really affect any of these people who are running to decry/defend WordPress? PageRank is a synthetic concoction that begs to be manipulated, just like email begs to be spammed. If you use WordPress’ PageRank for gain (regardless of the nobility of the outcome) and then you are caught, then you pay the pay the price of not having those pages listed in Google. Big whoop. My thought - Who cares?
I’ve seen recently that Cory Doctorow (of Boing-Boing) and Dave Winer are apparently going at it. It seems in civil tones, but pointless nonetheless. Winer doesn’t seem to understand Creative Commons licensing, or perhaps doesn’t believe it holds any accreditation, or more accurately, doesn’t see if holding as much weight as Copyright. Well, if it didn’t, then so much for all the click-wrapped software licenses. Your use of the CC-licensed content is contingent on your acceptance of the license, just like all of the EULA-covered Microsoft software. And still, Doctorow needs to be careful with his DCMA pursuits against Boing-Boing parodies. One of them uses his name, and actually that may violate his licensing terms less than the one that changes his name. Weird, huh?
There have been little scuffles elsewhere in the WordPress world. Something about Alex’s theme switcher and lists of WP themes. I don’t know the whole backstory, but apparently people who are involved all think both that they’re not trying to create the “ultimate” resource with the largest number of listings and that everyone else who makes lists of themes is trying to make a list larger than theirs. A little paranoia?
Weirdly, I’ve started to develop mental factions in my head for the topics that I watch on the net. I know who is on what side of issues that matter to me, and who I can look to for rational insight versus pompous reactionary blather.
Something I’ve considered doing is writing down a list of internet “celebrities” and adjectives I associate with each based on what I’ve read of and know of each. The only trouble is that I’d have to include myself on that list, which would have two problems: 1) I would look like I was foolishly categorizing myself among internet celebrities when I really don’t think I qualify that highly and 2) The adjectives I would use to describe myself would not necessarily be very positive.
I’m suffering from somewhat of a “If you can’t say somethig nice” syndrome these past few days, where nothing would have stopped me before. Must be the illness.
