Denton and Calacanis – who cares?
The public fighting between the Denton and Calacanis mobs is getting boring. Two really big blog networks, that I personally have never read anything of until now (hmm, that wasn’t a desired side-effect, boys, was it?)
In a recent article Denton says:
“I know it galls Jason Calacanis that his sites are about as memorable as Burger King franchises, and that none register among the top blogs, except Pete Rojas’s Engadget,” he said.
Denton added, “But Jason Calacanis misses the big picture. The study finally provides evidence for what we’ve all hoped for: that blog readers are younger and richer than average, and, one hopes, thinner.”
Sorry, Nick, I wasn’t aware you were on some health crusade? Or do you just have something against larger people?
I know you’re pleased about getting ‘younger, richer readers’ because it will better line your pockets. I presume you don’t include the readers of blogs written by the persecuted, the terminally-ill, the single parents, those trampled by society – because the ‘young, trendy, thin people’ who give you, Jason and the other self-professed, incestuous A-listers money, are generally not interested in them…
And yet it’s the likes of ‘ordinary’ people living extraordinary lives that really make the blogosphere what it is.
I have no problem with making money on the Net through legitimate means, but I have a problem with the diatribe that flows from the top 0.001% of the blogosphere (the anti-cream?) that tarnishes the blogosphere.
Jason, Nick, I don’t care which one of you has the biggest network – none of it inspires me to come and visit your sites. I’m proudly independent, as are millions of others, and this latest spat epitomises my reasoning for staying independent. (Blue Fish Network will never aspire to the negativity that seems to pervade many big-bucks networks)
Do your squabbling in private. I’m not interested.
If you enjoyed this post, please 
subscribe to the RSS feed or email newsletter
Related Articles
- There's mud over on the bad blogging mountain
- Outing Duncan Riley
- The dangers of a pencil case
- Part One draws to a close
- Honestly, who cares?
- Duncan Riley responds
- How AIM cares for your privacy
- NMK Forum 07 kicks off in London: 13 June 2007 10am BST
- Suppression of vital drug information - wait for the lawsuit
- Why Anti-sweatshop Campaigners Should be Pro-logo
August 17th, 2005 at 5:09 pm
[...] breaking Google AdSense Terms of Service by publishing 6 ad units on a page. You can read what I think of Jason, and the Blogherald has something direct to say a [...]
August 17th, 2005 at 9:43 pm
Excellent, excellent post, Andy. You’ve hit the nail right on the head!
August 17th, 2005 at 9:49 pm
Thanks for the comment Cary. I’m well on my soapbox with this one (and ironically, for someone who is ‘not interested’ I’ve taken a lot of interest in it – only for journalistic reasons, naturally
August 17th, 2005 at 10:31 pm
But of course ; )
August 17th, 2005 at 10:50 pm
Actually, as a cancer caregiver who deals with the horrific realities of advanced cancer every single day, I really do take offense at the indiscriminate use of highly tasteless ads on Mr Calacanis’ Cancer Blog…
Considering that elevated glucose levels are well-known to fuel tumor growth, I think his decision to run a prominent ad displaying Coke & Pepsi cans is ignorant at best. (see http://www.thecancerblog.com/)
I don’t have any issue with blogging for money, but when it comes to terminal illness, I don’t think a person should be blogging about it if they have no personal or professional interest in it. The lack of seriousness with which he treats the subject (by way of creating a blog that looks more like a billboard,) is truly reprehensible.
Sorry about the rant.
August 17th, 2005 at 11:06 pm
No problem at all Cary. I agree.
It’s a dilemma I’m faced with. Most of what I blog about is not life-and-death in the sense you talk about: pianos, apple tiger, family issues (important, though), and so on.
My wife has started a blog on stress – she is a mental health occupational therapist so very qualified to talk about it, and though she does use news stories, she has her own experiences and knowledge to back it up.
We thought about putting AdSense on that site, and at the moment we are running just one ad down the left hand side. We’ve not seen any questionable ads so far, but we are leaving an open verdict for the time being.
One of my other sites is more faith-based and I think I’ll feel uncomfortable putting contextual ads on that, as I don’t have confidence in appropriate ads coming up, and in any case it’s more writing purely for passion rather than any monetary reward.
I couldn’t see the example you quoted, but unfortunately it wouldn’t surprise me.
August 17th, 2005 at 11:44 pm
Yeah, I don’t personally have any issue with making money off of what you write on your blog (I do it myself!) It’s just the tasteless way he treats the subject matter that bothers me. Here’s a screen capture to better illustrate. (http://www.cancer-news-watch.com/images/cancerblog.jpg)
If he doesn’t want to be accused of creating blogs that look like Burger Kings…well, he should probably stop creating blogs that look like Burger Kings ; )
-Cary
August 18th, 2005 at 12:06 am
Oooh. Now I see
August 18th, 2005 at 2:48 am
Those are network ads… we don’t specifically run them. When we see something like that popup from Tribal Fusion or FastClick we take them down.
best j
August 18th, 2005 at 2:52 am
Cary,
Also, in terms of the content of the cancer blog it is done by my mother who is a cancer survior and caregiver (she is nurse practitioner).
best j
August 21st, 2005 at 8:44 am
I think Jason has a fair point here. I have some experience with Tribal Fusion and fast click, they are not much of content driven and can display some very inappropriate ads sometimes.
But frankly speaking sites dealing with serious issues can do with some less advertising or rather say less graphical advertising.
Just my 2 cents.