Buyouts and Books

Congratulations to the two WP blogs that received book deals (and one received a buyout)! I’m so happy that bloggers’ opinions are starting to be noticed.

I’m slightly disenchanted too. (Have you read the news article relating to this yet? You probably should, to get the scoop. Also note that I am talking about Target buying the popular WP blog, “Stuff People Like”) I mean, money is great. Fame is great. Knowing that people care about what you write is fabulous, and I’m glad for the author. But I feel that this buyout is a reality check of sorts. I mean, what is a blog, if not a place where someone can express their unbiased, uncensored feelings? The fact that a big corporation like Target is now funding the blog means that writing is likely to be more controlled in the future. And I worry that, as more of these super-companies buy out blogs, the majority of the WordPress community’s independent blogs may be affected too.

I love WordPress, don’t get me wrong about that. I was first introduced to it by a family member, and I have been hooked ever since! WordPress has been a friend of mine when I needed a space to write something. WP’s independent take and non-commercial background appealed to me, but now I fear that they too are getting drawn into the money-obsessed cyclone of media intervention that our society is spiraling towards. I don’t want to take away from the bloggers’ successes, but honestly WordPress? I’m disappointed in you.

I’m not saying that the authors of the aforementioned blogs should feel bad, and I don’t mean to make them. I just want to show people how money can go to a small company like WordPress’s head. I don’t want to be blogging on an ad-infested, money-focused site with pop-ups everywhere. Sorry to be a pessimist, but that is what most sites have amounted to these days.

Take a look at YouTube, for instance. Before the big Google buyout, YouTube was almost 100% ad-free. But then the super search engine came along and shelled out a couple billion dollars, and Banner ads appeared by millions, infecting the site with a disease, just as the chicken pox leaves ugly red spots everywhere. Even AOL instant messenger has a few scattered ads. Not only do the colorful boxes get your attention, they get in the way, and make you forget what you were thinking about momentarily. This is why having ads on WP would be disastrous.

I sincerely apologize if anyone objects to this article, I mean no offense by it.

Yours,

Oasiss

 

Edit: And, happy April fools’ day, everyone! 

~ by oasiss on April 1, 2008.