when your favorite bloggers disappoint you July 23, 2008
Posted by deepali in Blogroll.trackback
I have recently discovered the downside to faithfully reading my favorite blogs. Occasionally, these bloggers will post something that, for whatever reason, lets you down. It might be badly written, it might have an offensive tone, or it might just run counter to what you thought you believed about that blogger.
I first tasted this disappointment when David at The Good Human posted about the HPV vaccine. After my initial comments, I have yet to go back and read that post again because I had such a strong reaction (one reason why I am not linking to it). In fact, I’ve noticed that my visits to that site have definitely decreased, which is unfortunate, because it’s an awesome awesome site (and still in my blogroll). Vaccine issues are something I feel strongly about, because public health prevention is so important and so key to our nation’s health.
Disappointment #2 came on the Brazen Careerist. I found Penelope through her Yahoo column. Despite the devastating comments, I thought she had very clever and important things to say. When she left Yahoo, I became a fan of her blog (which was more personal and thus more well-rounded). Until this post, which turned me off the entire site for a couple of months. I was so disappointed in the defensive tone. In my mind, Penelope had fought off the horrible comments on Yahoo, only to fall prey to the need to justify her actions. Luckily, this story has a happy ending – when I came back to the Brazen Careerist, this post reminded me why I love this site.
And then there was the infamous “purity’ post at Zen Habits. I love Leo and his site. I love his writing and I find his lists to be very useful. But then his guest poster left this piece of drivel. It was so unzen and so un-Leo. And frankly, so surprising to see. The only good thing about it was the fabulous comments. I didn’t stop reading Zen Habits, because this was more a lapse in judgment in choosing a guest author, vs an actual post from the blog author himself.
The latest blogger to disappoint is Trent at the Simple Dollar. His posts are normally excellent and helpful. They are chockful of useful simple information. More importantly, he writes about his own experiences. And occaisoanlly, that can bite you in the ass. His latest is a reflection of his personal belief. Nothing wrong with that, except when you’re writing for not just yourself. What is most disappointing about this post, though, is the commentary. While some people have stopped short and questioned the tone, most of the responders fall in line with Trent. This disturbs me.
Bloggers aren’t perfect, after all. And eventually, everyone will disappoint. We are human after all. Still, it’s always so hard to be reminded of that.
Interesting…Reading 1 post out of 1100 that disagrees with you is enough to make you stop reading. Vaccines, while I am still on the fence about them, have been shown to increase the odds of autism and cancer, and if your best friend’s child was diagnosed with autism soon after getting the shots, you might second guess the safety of anything the government tells us to inject ourselves with. Sorry to disappoint, but it was a reality check for me to not blindly listen to everything the govt or a doctor tells me.
Hi David,
I didn’t stop reading the site, just that post. And as someone who does public health research, I don’t blindly listen to anyone (and I second guess everyone).
And honestly, I’m tired of people linking autism and vaccines. We have so much MORE evidence showing genetic (and environmental) origins of autism (and pretty much none showing any link with vaccines). There isn’t even any biological plausibility, especially since thimerosol (the only compound with that plausibility) has been removed. And I have yet to see anything showing a link with cancer.
You might not be blindly listening to anything a doctor tells you, but you’ve also closed the door to reason on this issue, IMHO. It has implications for the rest of the site, if you think about it.
That being said, you are still in my blogroll, so I’m still stopping by occaisonally. We don’t all always have to agree on everything, do we?
I don’t think anyone is immune to writing posts that people hate. But I also know that I am sensitive enough to this that I took the time to check out which post of mine it was that you hated.
I have found, over time, that the community of people who read my blog are people who disagree with me a lot, but stick around to talk about it. I have learned the most in my life from people I disagree with on some level, so it makes me happy that someone like you – who disagrees – comes back for more.
Thanks,
Penelope
Penelope,
Thanks for the comments. I agree there is some value in disagreement. I’d say at this point, I disagree only 30% of the time.
Deepali I haven’t read the post you mentioned so this is my general thought. I’ve worked in this field and have to admit there are times I simply can’t read posts about vaccines or public health policies (or should I say people’s interpretations of them!) because it hits too close to home, too many “opinions” not based on evidence and considering what we know what people subconsciously sensor, I worry “opinions” become dangerous!
hmm… reading your comments here I have a feeling we are in a very similar/the same field on the opposite sides of the ocean!
@ Frugal Trenches – I actually work in Global Health, but I have a good background in epidemiology…