Roc Wieler posted a fairly thoughtful response to CrazyKinux’s desire to revamp his Blog Pack. Some of that response had to do with the feed in Capsuleer, the iPhone application Roc helps develop, possibly including less reading material. As far as that specific concern goes, I think that the Capsuleer devs need to consider their own data sources. Whether they want to continue depending on one data source really goes to the heart of what that part of their app does, and as I don’t use it, I don’t have much of an opinion there. The team there can undoubtedly decide for themselves how they’d like to proceed.
But then CrazyKinux responded that he would personally choose the blogs and increase the count to 50. At least one other blogger put together a great response, with which I agree for the most part.
Oddly, some folks got even more upset. I can’t speak for them, but to represent their views fairly, I think I can say that they feel that the blog pack should be determined by a larger group of people based on varying criteria. They feel a sense of community ownership in the listing, and CrazyKinux should feel pride that his efforts have created that sense of ownership.
I’m not CrazyKinux so I don’t have to feel that. Instead, I’ll speak bluntly.
Have you lost your ever-lovin’ mind?!
I’m not kidding. CK does a lot of work trying to filter through the huge number of EVE blogs out there to assemble his blog pack. Personally, I don’t know that I agree with every assessment he makes, but he does a good job overall. Some folks make the leap from there to assume that everyone thinks that these blogs represent the “best” in some universal way, as if that could even happen.
Some time ago, we had the EVE Fiction Blog Pack. I’ve seen lists of pirate blogs, too. If you think we should have additional sub-communities, great. Go create it. Self-organizing, ad hoc communities can really survive and even thrive, so show us what you can do. Or don’t create one: personally, I’ve opted to list every active EVE blog I can find in my own blogroll without highlighting the “best”. I’ve considered doing themed listings, too: exploration, industrial, fiction, etc., because of my own interests. Personally, I’d like to see CK put together a list of the blogs he thinks represent the best of what the EVE community has to offer, but I’d also like to see you (and you and you and you, too) put together a similar list. Not by voting someplace, as if that can be quantified, but so I can say, ‘hmm, I like blogger X’s stuff, I should read the blogs he likes because I’ll probably like them too.’
This doll is emo. Don't be like this doll.
But you know what really gets me madder than a sack of hornets? When a sense of ownership turns into a sense of entitlement. “The list is popular and therefore we should get to decide what’s in it, because otherwise I will be sad and left out and the community will die.” As much as I appreciate CK’s hard work, the EVE community won’t die based on what one single person does or doesn’t do. We’ve grown past that. I’ll keep writing what I write (and so will many of you) because of the people that read it, not because I want some badge of approval from one single person.
Just please stop going all emo on us. Nobody likes emo. And if you think I mean you, then I probably do. So pull up your big-boy underwear and help with whatever crowd-sourced ad hoc folksonomy flash mob <insert more buzzwords here> you want with your own project. Or tell CrazyKinux what you’d like to see in his list. Or just enjoy what other folks do, because after all, that’s why they do it.
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