BLOGZILLA II

Every now and then, I like to suspend reality a bit and blog about this thing we do called blogging. When I'm doing a post like this, I am speaking to other bloggers and not so much the general public (that is, assuming there is a general public other than other bloggers that read these blogs).

I marvel at the fact that I have only been blogging for about ten months. I'm kind of new at this game... newer than a lot of the bloggers I follow. When I began this blog, I wasn't aware of other black bloggers outside of my cousins who had set up blogs about their children (and the one my wife maintains for my grandson) which serve as a replacement for the traditional baby book. To tell you the truth, before 2006, I had never even heard of a blog. I thought that a blog was something like a "My Space" page. It kinda is but, there are fundamental differences which I won't get into in this post. That's kinda how this blog got it's title and when we set it up, I was still thinking of it as a "My Space" page so, I named it "Keith's Space."

I look back at the comments section on the early posts and there are an average of one to none. Most of the people who did comment back then were a few relatives, personal friends, people from my job, and my grandson-lol. What I had was a local blog. Then, a funny thing happened... one day I got a comment from a Chicago blogger known as Zack. He has a blog called "Go Zack", which is very popular and at times, controversial. He also had a blog roll of other black bloggers who had been at it a lot longer than I and who commented on each other's blogs. I can never thank him enough.

Zack spotlighted my little blog and introduced me to Mizrepresent, O.G.-The Original Glamazon, Eb the Celeb, Your Favorite Teacher, Torrance "All -Mi-T-" Stevens, and many, many others. It is through these people that I've met such wonderful bloggers like 12Kyle, Curvy Girl, Dione, Don, Dreamy, Go Bytch, Keisha "Kitten" Isaacs, LadyLee, Lovebabz, Pocahontaz, Pretty Circle Drawer, Opinionated Diva, Raven, Rich, SLC, Southern Gal, The F$%k it List, The Stepfather of Soul, Strong Black Woman, and more than I can think of at this time.

I discovered and joined the Afrospear and have come into contact with even more bloggers. I now have relationships with bloggers from around the country and I have become part of a community of really cool people that goes beyond age and physical boundaries. Again, I can't thank Zack enough for putting me on his blog and introducing the world to me.

As you may have figured, my comments increased to the point that I can't think of the last time I wrote a post and nobody commented. I've become a "comment whore" as O.G. would put it. Still, and you can make bank on this, I enjoy relaxing with a Coke in the afternoon and writing so much that I would do this even if nobody chose to comment. I know because I did this for months without getting any feedback and without caring.

Still, I love the feedback, I love to read other people's blogs, and talk to them everyday. In every situation, there are some negatives. Some of the things I say on this blog attract comments from some not so stable people. There was a white supremacist who would put comments on my blog that were very unflattering to blacks and people of color. He particularly doesn't like my support of Barack Obama and while that's fine (he can have an opinion), he said some pretty nasty things about me too.

I attempted to go on his blog and answer him in kind but, he has one of those blogs that are for invited readers only so, I just used the little delete button instead. I sensed a troubled insecure individual who wanted attention just by the way the remarks were written so, I never responded to them. I simply deleted every single comment attributed to him. My blog, my prerogative... as Bobby Brown would say. I thought it would be foolish to wage a war in the comments section with some fool that I can't see and will never know. My grandfather always said, "Never argue with a jackass... somebody might walk by and not be able to tell the difference."

Then, there is some blogger who claims to be from Japan who leaves silly little poems on all of my posts that have nothing to do with what I write. I've seen this person's handy work on Darius T. Williams and 12Kyle's blogs. Whoever this person is (I'm not sure if it's a male or a female), I think they may be some sort of hacker... they get the same treatment.

On my other blog,"Escapades", I have an anonymous female blogger who begs me to write an explicit sex scene in practically every story or poem I write and leaves little messages like, "I'm hotter than a firecracker in a gas station" or "I feel like throwing my panties at you" on my posts. I haven't deleted those comments yet... mostly because I found them amusing up until this week, when the same person appears to be begging me more aggressively to write an explicit sex scene in one of my stories. Now it's getting a little creepy.

Just as I don't argue on my blog with people, I don't go on anybody's blog and write anything uncomplimentary. If you can't say something nice, shut the hell up... no, it's don't say anything at all. If somebody writes something that I'm either not equipped to talk about or that I don't agree with, I just don't comment on that post. It's simple courtesy. I do more reading of blogs than I do writing on most days and I've seen people go to war on these blogs, as well as write some pretty uncomplimentary things about other bloggers on their sites. To them I say, stop the hate... it's really not that deep.

We all blog because we like to write and because we want to share our thoughts with the world. Nobody has to conform to somebody else's vision of what their blog should be. We all have the option to read and comment or just keep it pushin'. There is no need for some of the hate that I've observed. Most of the people whose blogs I visit and who visit me aren't involved in that type of thing anyway. I think I'm part of a pretty cool blog collective.

Like I said, I would do this even if I never got another comment but, the feedback and the good feelings I share with all of my new found friends and associates in the blog world make it all the more worthwhile. To anybody I didn't shout out, please charge it to my head and not my heart.

Love,

The True "Maverick" of all Bloggers!

Footnote: Click here to see my previous "BLOGZILLA" post.