s skippy the bush kangaroo: paging mr. principle...mr. peter principle, you're wanted at the big box blogs

skippy the bush kangaroo



Sunday, September 09, 2007

paging mr. principle...mr. peter principle, you're wanted at the big box blogs

we have very little bad to say about the fabulous christy hardin smith over at fdl (or any of the gang at firedoglake).

however, we read this post today, and were struck by the unspoken law of blog physics being presented therein.

in an otherwise tradtional surfing-around-blogtopia (and yes, we coined that phrase) kind of post, christy managed to link to glenn greenwald, crooks and liars, digby, atrios, matt yglasias, daily kos, tbogg, sadly no, tpmcafe, the next hurrah and taylor marsh.

it is our humble opinion that, with the possible exception of taylor marsh, what we have just written in that last paragraph is, if you simply add ameircablog, a list of the big box blogs that certainly don't need the traffic from fdl (the final entry in the bbb category).

in other words, even if unconsciously, christy has proven the unwritten canard that the bbb's simply link to each other, and give very little thought, time, traffic and readership to the hundreds of other worthy, thoughtful, immensely readable and quite under-appreciated writers in blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase.

we left a polite comment explaining our problem with this approach to blog linkage. (we did point out that mike finnegan over at c&l goes way out of his way, in his blog round-up feature, to link to the smaller blogs. thanks, mike!)

now, we're not insisiting that christy link to us. heaven knows that fdl (along with c&l and digby, tbogg and sadly no!) quite graciously left us on their blogroll after the bloodbath of amnesty day. and christy and jane (and the other posters at fdl) often send traffic our way. and for that, we thank you, fdl. no, this is not about our humble site.

this is more simply a musing on why the peter principle seems to be the chief operating process among the big box blogs, whether consciously or un- . we know for a fact there are hundreds of interesting writers that have pithy analysis worth reading in blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase.

welcome to pottersville? simply left behind? brilliant at breakfast? shakesville? pams house blend? echinde of the snakes? dohiyi mir? corrente? seeing the forest? hoffmania? the sideshow? jon swift?

the list goes on (and, in fact, it goes on over to the right on our blogroll, and we apologize to those whom we didn't mention as examples of good writing. but you know we love you).

and certainly there's a lot of chaff on the smaller blogs one must separate from the wheat to make a hearty breakfast of smart political analysis. but it's not like the bbb's every word is a nutritious nugget of polemic. there's a sugar-coated kernel of snark or two on most of those bbb's.

so let us conclude by simply asking the bbb's to be more aware that there is great writing out here in blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase. new ideas, and new thought, from someone that gets less than 50,000,000,000 hits a day can be a good thing.

addendum: christy writes skippy, defending her position, here.

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posted by skippy at 10:46 AM |

10 Comments:

here, here and cheers!

well said, skippy.

--monkeyfister
commented by Blogger --mf, 5:07 PM PDT  
Honey, you need to correct your link to Simply Left Behind, which goes to The Sideshow.
commented by Blogger Avedon, 7:12 PM PDT  
gee, avedon, i wouldn't think you'd care about that!

j/k!
commented by Blogger skippy, 8:26 PM PDT  
FDL would never link to me. Neither would Atrios, although Avedon below was kind enough to link me on Eschaton earlier this summer.
commented by Blogger jurassicpork, 8:32 PM PDT  
Come ther revolution there will be no BBB.
commented by Anonymous Dave Johnson, 9:13 PM PDT  
I always assumed that being consistently better intelligence analysts than the Big Boy Boobs of the Beltway, being nicer to kittens and working class folks, and being prettier and sexier than the BBB pundits was ample reward in itself.

Higher-arkies form in every US network that I've ever seen. They always deserve challenging, too, from those who make an effort to link to other up-and-comers. Like you, my most marsupial friend.

For that you deserve two ponies or at least two waltzing matildas and a billabong.

Thank you, for being skippy.
commented by Anonymous Kevin Hayden, 11:25 PM PDT  
I'd be thrilled to be blogging for Avedon. In fact, I'd offer to test her bras for her...

Thanks, Skip, for the attaboy.
commented by Blogger Carl, 8:38 AM PDT  
God bless you, Skippy!
commented by Blogger maru, 9:25 AM PDT  
Came to this post via Jon Swift. A most excellent post worthy of the blog time capsule.

The rich always get richer by enriching each other.
commented by Blogger PoliShifter, 1:14 PM PDT  
Love you Skippy! I don't read the big blogs. At all. I do read the ones on you list though. The writing is more thoughtful and less look at me.

Thanks for standing up for us little guys and girls.
commented by Blogger Deb, 10:08 AM PDT  

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