My final thought.

It strikes me as somewhat amusing how people let such things as blogging control their lives. Take the latest "scandal" if you wish to call it that, that we somehow got roped into.

Apparently you aren't allowed to speak your mind on your own blog about certain "sensitive" subjects without having some people attack you and have you hung, drawn and quartered.

It seems a lot of confusion and sides are taking place over something that really shouldn't have taken place to begin with, along with posts appearing on people's blogs about the issue at hand, when they have only heard one side of the story.

I want to clarify a few things as every coin has two sides and I'm a guy that has to get his point across, especially when I have done no wrong, in this case it seems I have been and my blog has been accused of doing many things when in fact we haven't done anything.

It all began when Deb, the main writer who has made a lot of acquaintances at Blog Explosion, wrote a post reflecting a week gone by.

Now, nowhere did Deb openly attack the owners of the site, or berate them. She basically said what was on her mind, isn't that what blogging is about?

Then things were blown out of proportion and I wish to rectify things that were said about my blog and my site.

"PocketLint -- I wish you and others would be a little more responsible and get all the facts before you scandalize the situation and look for comments and a good post.. One thing I hate most is when members are willing to post negatively about BE just to get a rise and a risque post for others to read... "THEY NEVER SEEM TO FORGET TO INCLUDE THEIR REFERRAL URLS WHEN THEY BASH BLOGEXPLOSION".." 1. You were accused of cheating on the site by several other members earlier and we gave you the benefit of the doubt 2. You asked for your thumbnail to be updated and we got back to you right away even when your image didn´t show up the way you exactly wanted it after several revisions....

This was actually FALSE.

As for these two points that were made, the cheating remark was concerning Battle of the blogs, when a member got their knickers in a twist as to why they kept losing, it so happened they lost to our blog that day and it was us that took the brunt of it. Basically we were accused of making ghost accounts to earn votes, I would like to see these ghost accounts and be told when I have the time to make them all. In fact, the "ghost account" has been active longer than this site.

What actually happened was, I was in on Club Lint and Deb was in on her active blog and we would vote for each other, is that classed as cheating? If so then 99.9% of the battles are all being cheated. Friends vote for friends, partners for partners...it's what happens.
As for the thumbnail in our whole time in Blog Explosion, which is a number of months, we asked for our thumbnail to be updated 3, maybe 4 times.

I then wrote a letter to the owner of Blog Explosion, as I was a little annoyed as to how we were treated, when what we have posted was nothing in comparison to what some people have posted or talked about in their very own shoutbox.

"Your blog does nothing but bitch about BlogExplosion and how crappy it is yet you use religiously.. Most of your active posts are about BlogExplosion.."

Again I would like to be shown the evidence as to where we seem to bitch about them all the time, there has been 7 posts on BE (including this one) in the year plus we have been blogging, that's 83 posts in total...

The first instance - Currently our site has been deactivated in Blog Explosion until an enquiry can take place and while our site is missing necessary traffic during this investigation, I for one am glad. Not only will it prove that we haven't cheated, but it will also prove to the whining assholes that their blog is shit and that is the real reason and the only reason why they lost the battle.

The second instance - Suddenly my whole existence online is narrowed down to 30 second increments, random numbers tossed about on a banner and a burning curiosity to know how number dyslexic people know which number to click.

Yes, I am talking about BlogExplosion and seeing as I'm an active team member and moderator on Club Lint, it's part of my duties to read other people's blogs. I comment when I'm interested and I count down to 30 with my cursor at ready on the correct number so I can click as soon as it says I can GO for the boring shit, which is what I'm going to talk about right now.

I can now count up to 10 in 0.125's (80) and I also know that 0.375 goes into ten 26.666666. It pisses me off that 0.125 and 0.375 equal 0.5 and that 0.5 goes into ten 20 times so where do they get off with the .666666 recurring?

Errr... There is a LOT you can think of when you're waiting for that 30 second count down.

The third instance - First of all, lets start with the good news. I'll be wrecking it for the other clever bunnies that figured this out by blabbing, but you can actually click the timer when there is 3 seconds left on the countdown. Now you only have to view those boring blogs for 27 seconds!

If you didn't already know about it, in Blog Explosion there is now the fun filled Battle of the Blogs (psssst for all of you out there that can read without moving your lips, that 27 seconds was up 5 seconds ago). For the moment I'm not going to touch on the bitching and the pettiness that goes on in there, but I would like to let those of you out there that give a shit a new and improved whine about blogging.

The fourth instance - So... for those of you who aren't in the Blog Explosion Shout Box, you're missing out on the latest debate on whether BotB is fair.

Anyone is free to go back and read everything that was said about Blog Explosion but two interesting points are: at no time was Blog Explosion vilified in any way. When you suspended our account we commended and supported you. Now we find that the week it took you to reinstate us was a result of break down in communication with your 2 man operation (and 2 admin) and it wasn’t after hours of meticulous research that meant you cared about the welfare of your other members. In fact, you didn’t check anything and yet you let us back on leaving everyone with the assumption that we were cleared. In fact, at no time are you mentioned in a poor light until just recently in The Week That Was and it was one person’s opinion.

The last two posts would not have been posted at all had you not come in and caused the drama that you caused. Surely as a businessman, you realize you must take the good with the bad in everything and just take it on the chin. With your thousands of members surely Deb is not the only one who has said something bad and she won’t be the last. It’s how things go.

Secondly, at no time, in any of those entries, do we have our referral code linking back to Blog Explosion. Deb merely mentioned you as a base for her entry and linked back to you directly to your home page, as she’s not in it for referrals. You were simply part of her entry as she did spend so much time there.

Now again, tell me where exactly does our blog bitch about nothing except BE?

"If can be cheated so easily and if it doesn´t work I can´t understand why you use it at all.."

Where did I say it could be cheated? I was referring to the fact we were accused of cheating, read above.

"Take 30 minutes and surf and you will see members critical of BlogExplosion and they are not deleted. The member in question was deleted for very valid reasons so again don´t try to bend what really happens.."

As mentioned, Deb would spend hours in BE surfing and commenting on a lot of blogs, it's how we have grown and obtained our reading base. As for the bending, we aren't the ones doing that.

"We did support you .. We gave you the benefit of the doubt.. You were not cleared of abusing the systemm, we simply did not have the time to dig deep and look at server logs. We knew of that minor hole of the system for Rocket.. Big Deal.."

The clearing us of "cheating" wasn't even an issue, as we hadn't cheated. We can give you a list of blogs that did though, as we watched for a long time in BotB, it's amazing what you pick up on when you just simply "watch".

"CLUBLINT you have been nothing but a pain in the butt since you joined. We have had several complaints from other members......."

Several - equaling two. And those were from the times in the battles.

"Your blog does nothing but bad mouth our business. I hope people see through your crap and take a look at all the information provided."

Is that information that you've edited? Deb took pains to give me transcripts of what was said between the two of you in your shoutbox as it transpired as she wanted to keep me abreast of the situtation. It's a good thing that she did, as you then took it upon yourself to delete all her comments out of the shoutbox. Hardly a case of all the information provided, is it?

If this is bad mouthing your business, I would advise going through your 20,000+ memberships and reading their content and seeing real bad mouthing of your business, once again take your own advice and surf for 30 minutes and read what people have to say.

On a few occasions we actually defended BE, but I guess it doesn't matter when you aren't part of the clique and in all honesty I'm glad I'm not. I don't wish to be a sheep and follow the herd, I'm glad I have my own thoughts and willing to speak my mind without maybe being kicked out of an online society.

As far as I'm concerned this issue is now closed, we have said our piece and so has BE. I just hope arms and legs aren't added onto an already dead horse. I'm a grown man, I'm acting like one, certainly not acting like some kid going on about the he said she said crap and if lose a member base because of what has transpired, then such is life.

I will say this, I would like to thank BE for providing a service to bloggers, I did enjoy my time there and I met some great people and I know that Deb enjoyed talking to the people in there too, I'm just not one for their politics, politics that seem to be becoming very once sided as the company expands.

I just hope this is the last of it all and it doesn't start some snowball effect where people take sides and cause unwanted grief for bloggers who enjoy reading blogs.

Jack.

Posted By: Lint | 03:49 AM | Lint

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