Why Strumpette is not in the PR Blogs List
On Monday (May 15) I received an e-mail signed by Amanda Chapel, asking me why the April update for the PR Blogs List has no mention of Strumpette.
Here’s why:
- The list includes weblogs about PR and communication. That’s not what Strumpette is about, in my opinion. Strumpette is a troll’s blog.
- The listed blogs are written by people, not by fictional characters.
- There are legitimate reasons for writing an anonymous blog. But anonymity should be balanced by responsibility. That’s not the case with Strumpette.
If you disagree with this decission, or with my arguments, please leave a comment (or e-mail me). But first, please make sure that you read all the blog postings and comments related to this topic.
Chris Thilk said:
May 18, 2006 @ 11:59 am
Way to take a stand on this. I completely agree with your reasoning. There’s no reason for her/his anonimity other than to moan and be sassy without any fear of repercussions.
Mike Driehorst said:
May 18, 2006 @ 12:23 pm
I also agree, Contantin. I don’t have a problem with the anonymity of Strumpette.com site. My main beef with it is the lack of value. There are a lot of pot-shots and antagonistic posts. I could even take some of those if the bulk of the posts had some value, valid points and/or commentary.
But, alas, there is little value — at least legitimate attempted value — in the strumpette blog.
Mike
Mike Sacks said:
May 19, 2006 @ 9:04 am
To be candid, Strumpette is more interesting reading than most PR blogs. Most other blogs I read are mostly linking to other stories. As Strumpette says, it’s aggregation, and she’s right. Very little exploration of PR is done, my opinion.
If a fictional character PR blog popped up that didn’t serve up so much sting and played nice with others, would that be included? Strumpette does touch on relevant and timely issues for us in between taking cheap shots.
It sounds to me Strumpette is left of because some feelings got hurt. I know this PR blogging scene is very insular, but sometimes you have to surrender control right? Isn’t that what everyone is saying now? To maintain credibility, sometimes you have to relinquich control. In my opinion, for this PR blogging clique to truly lead the industry as much as it thinks it does, you gotta let others play.
Constantin Basturea said:
May 19, 2006 @ 12:11 pm
Thank you for all the comments.
Mike, you are free to read whatever you find interesting - and so it’s anyone else. That’s not for me to judge. What I want is to maintain a list of people blogging about PR and communication; and I don’t think someone who is hiding behind a blog/character in order to insult people should be in this list. That’s all.
I hope you make the distinction between the list and what we label as -for a lack of a better term- the PR blogosphere. Who is -or not- a PR blogger is decided not only by how we identify ourselves, but also by how our readers think about us; there’s no institution giving “PR blogger” accreditations.
So, no worries: there’s enough real estate on the web for all of us - so others can play without the interference of PR bloggers’ clique. Not being in the list is not going to prevent Strumpette from being a thought leader on PR-related “relevant and timely issues,” or by being considered a “top PR blogger.”
For what it’s worth, I think it’s risky to treat PR bloggers as a monolithic group. It’s not like that, IMO: it’s just people writing, more or less, about the same topics, related to new media, PR and communication. Some of them know each other personally; most don’t. Some people link to other people’s postings - others don’t. There are no barriers of entry in this group - other than the fact that people’s time and attention are already overstretched.