and i doubt i would have heard her speak if she wasnt on the same panel as mr hugh macleod, but im glad i got to hear her speak because if i hadnt i wouldnt have understood why shes taking things so seriously.

if you dont know, kathy sierra is big time blogger, technorati top 50 blogger who lives in solitude in the mountains, and writes a very sweet blog about how to keep your readers and customers, etc.

i disagreed with pretty much everything that she said in the parts of the panel in which she spoke, but bottomline is shes in the technorati top 50 and im nowhere close.

one of the things she said to do is make it all about her readers and very little about her. me, i think thats the antithesis to blogging, but what shes saying, really, is dont make this all about navel gazing.

i had a conversation with someone at sxsw that i loved because we were talking about using “i” a lot and the person was complimenting me for taking it easy with it, but i told her that every time i use it im painfully aware of it because it goes against everything ive been taught, outside of Diary Writing class.

anyways Kathy (not pictured) got some really ugly comments and blog posts written about her and she felt threatened by the death threats that may have been encouraged by some meanspirited blogs. kathy got one of the authors of the blog to co-write a joint statement, but kathy still isnt sure what she wants to do in regards to blogging.

from out of the dust has come a few posts, one suggesting a bloggers code of conduct and another suggesting a seal of approval.

for a country that runs around talking about how free we are here, i sure hear a lot of americans trying to figure out new ways to put on blogging.

dumb fuckers.

now i know things are very different for a bearded, bald, black man living in hollywood feeling safe and an attractive white woman living on a ranch in colorado. if someone tells me to fuck off and die in my comments i have an easier time blowing it off than a woman might.

but still i think that if comments bother you, you should pull an instapundit and just get rid of em. theyre not for everyone.

i only get a fraction of the traffic that kathy gets and ive loved all the sweet things that people have said about me in the comments of this blog over the years. and im sure its possible that one day the negative ones will outweigh the positive ones and force me to tap out, but i dont think that day will come.

however i dont know what its like to get a gazillion hits, and its obvious that when new readers who just bop in to a blog get their way in the comments, they can often be crude, rude, and stupid, and have forgotten about the blog before the blogger can even begin to get pissed off at the dumbass comments. but if i was getting a gazillion hits, id expect a few dozen jagoffs a day and write em off.

or if things get super bad, just hire some kid to moderate the comments. there are ways to cherry pick only the good news. i use the giant brick walls around me technique. problem with that is its a great defense but its hard for the good stuff to get in and stay there. which is why the girls who come over with the i heart tony tshirts usually get treated xtra special.

my advice to the huge majority of us who will never be top 50 bloggers, write from your heart, do your own thing, dont be full of shit, accept comments, dont let the sweet nudes give you a big head, and dont let the mean anonymous bullshit ruin your day.

i have no advice for ginormous bloggers because i dont know what thats like. thankfully.

happy tenth anniversary, blogging.