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| Serious blogging for serious times taken seriously |
I recently noticed I'd been deleted from a famous beer blog's blog roll, and unfollowed on Twitter by their blog's account. I pondered this for a while, as this blog can't be any worse, more irrelevant or updated less frequently than some of the blogs that they still link to.
On Twitter (I still follow them, for what it's worth) they said they stop read blogs they see basically as dead wood. Mildly insulting, I would have thought, but you can't please everyone. I've observed this before about the more "serious" end of the beer blogging spectrum - irreverence is unwelcome. This blog, with it's combination of piss-taking and off-kilter observations on pub culture, doesn't treat the "scene" with the seriousness it "deserves", apparently.
Judging from the comments I get, my blog's readership seems to skew towards the over-50s. Not sure why, as I don't see what I do as particularly codger-friendly. Maybe the older generation have lived long enough not to be so earnest about something as trivial as pubs and beer. Plus, they're rarely seeking to make a living out of it.
If you've got a book to write, a column to pen, or (god help you) "content" to generate for a industry company, then you probably think you shouldn't be seen as frivolous. In the gig economy, you're only as good as your last performance. Being involved in that way, it seems, is serious business.
As for me and my stuff, I am (to quote a great man) serious about what I do, but not neccesarily the way I do it. I'm sure I'm often seen as being rude about people and things for the sake of it. There is a bit of that, yes. I like a cheap laugh as much as anyone. But, despite the endless promotions about "awesomeness" and "beer people are good people", there is (as with pretty much everything else in the world) an awful lot of nonsense and stupidity. Sometimes when I point this out, it wins me few friends, but as it's one of the few talents I possess, I have to do it anyway.
I can see that those making beer have to be serious about it. Many things can go wrong with brewing, so you have to treat the whole process with a certain level of gravitas. Selling and marketing the stuff, too - people's livelihoods rely on making money by getting stuff out there and through the till or handpump. But appreciating beer? Surely the point is to enjoy it, not turn it into list-making, box-ticking academic exercise?
As, I always say - I treat the Beer Industry and Everything Involved In It with all the seriousness it deserves.
Ah well. To each his/her/their own.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of po-faced twaddle written by people who do things like joining guilds of beer writers (isn't 'guild' such a pretentious word to choose?), write fulsome (using the word correctly) descriptions of beers and generally look down on us less exalted mortals who litter the beer blogging world without forensically analysing to death every pint we drink or chasing after the latest new thing. In the beer writing world, we are in the public bar and they are in the posh, expensive lounge. Suits me.
ReplyDeleteDespite the occasional difference, very happy to share a pint in the vault with you and Matthew and a few others I could mention :-)
DeleteMatthew in the plural, certainly!
DeleteWant to meet the lad in London someday.
Classic & quotable, that bit about the public bar vs lounge.
Matthew in the plural, certainly!
DeleteWant to meet the lad in London someday.
Classic & quotable, that bit about the public bar vs lounge.
Love the image of being in the public bar while others are in the lounge, best drinking is always in the public bar, and sure it's the drinking that counts.
ReplyDeleteNot as funny as it used to be.
ReplyDeleteThere was a time when I would get upset about being unfollowed, especially by people I knew and thought I had a decent relationship with. But I've grown to be more philosophical about it - as I'm sure you've always been. Their loss, not mine. There's one well-known culinary blogger who for some reason doesn't follow me.
ReplyDeleteGood to see your screenshot features one of my less serious retweets ;-)
And rest assured I have no intention of unfollowing you despite all the piss taken out of Mudgie Mudgington.
Keep on taking the piss or saying it like you think it is. I have fallen out with a few, but as I get older I get a bit less upset about it.
ReplyDeleteSome people are just too precious.
One of the worst was when I got blocked (not just unfollowed) by the person running the @ssmcamra account. What he does with his own account is up to him, but to do that to an active branch member when running an official account is totally unprofessional. Words were had and the block was rescinded.
ReplyDeleteFortunately he's no longer doing it.
I have to say I would certainly sanction the blocking of an active branch member if he or she totally overstepped the mark (such as for example sharing internal branch stuff publicly without getting the OK to do this). If they then wanted to take their bat home that would be up to them - hopefully it would give them pause for thought as to why they'd been blocked. Some however are oblivious to the general unacceptability of their views.
DeleteBut in such a case surely the best response would be to contact the person directly. Blocking someone simply means you can no longer read their tweets and interact with them (and vice versa). It isn't really effective as a disciplinary sanction. You can of course also mute people which has much the same effect without them being aware of it.
DeleteYes - unless the person's actions were so beyond the pale I think a "yellow card" would be in order first.
DeletePfffffttttt... to them, and really who give a bugger who's linkin' you for followin' you? Stay niche... stay craft :-p hah. You, my man, are a craft blogger...
ReplyDeleteSome folk take beer far too seriously. (OK, I do... but it's something I'm trying to build a business around... that's a bit different, and a different sort of seriousness to debates about bloody packaging formats and beer styles.)
There are now only 4 blogs I regularly review (albeit infrequently, thus late to the party here)... and yours is one of them. Feel special ;) [One other is the obvious one, and the other two are what you politely refer to as "old codgers" who present viewpoints I agree with more often than not.]
Your satire is so high grade even Stonch had to pack in in and become a travel journal instead.
If this goes as usual this comment won't actually post properly now... which is why I don't comment very often here. Blogspot is a pile of regurgitated dog shit.