Fragmented Conversations

When someone blogs about someone ELSE'S blog post, where should YOU leave a comment?

For example, yesterday I blogged about Lan Bui's troubles with Podtech. As a result, some folks left comments on my blog, which I dig... but unless Lan himself stopped by, he'd never have seen them.

Conversely, had everyone only commented on his post, I'd have been under the impression that my two cents hadn't furthered the conversation.

Proposed Solution

What the blog world needs is a conversation tracker.

This way, after Lan made his initial blog post (for example), anyone else who'd blogged about the issue would have their post automatically included in that conversation stream. Then Lan (or whomever originates a blog post) would be able to see all other posts made regarding the original post / topic.

Plus, everyone else further down the conversation chain could see up and down the trail in both directions, AS WELL AS seeing any nodes that grow off their OWN posts about the subject.

In addition, any comments made on subsequent branches of the topic could also be cross-posted back to the preceding blog posts -- for example, Roxanne's comment on my post could also be CC'ed back to Lan's post, if so desired.

So, in the end, the structure looks more like a tree than a river.

Programmers of the world, you have been prompted.

Lan Bui vs. The Public Mindset

As you may have heard, West Coast podcaster Lan Bui had some concerns about Podtech using one of his photos on a commercial advertisement for the Vloggies without proper accreditation OR compensation.

He tried to settle the issue through the proper channels, including invoicing Podtech for the usage of his photo. Three months later, he's still awaiting closure on the matter.

Having now blogged about the issue, he's brought the subject to the public. The comments on his blog typify the real problem that he -- and the rest of us -- face in trying to obtain respect for our work.

The podcasters who stopped by were all supportive. Then came the (as always, anonymous) trolls, whose statements include:

you are being a cry baby. get over it the net is about free content

and

from a paparazzi perspective, yeah... that's your picture of casey mckinnon and you perhaps deserve some kind of compensation, I guess. but I wouldn't make a big negative stink about it. this company that has money clearly likes your work and by acknowledging their oversight you could probably leverage doing some work for them... why be a cranky self-righteous photographer.

This is exactly why podcasters aren't making money: no one outside the fishbowl respects web content (yet). They don't respect the time, effort and talent it takes to produce quality content, and they don't believe that investment is worth the creator being paid -- at the very least, not by them, the audience.

It's telling that the second commenter suggests that Lan shouldn't be upset because a company "that has money clearly likes your work," and he should be thrilled at maybe approaching them for some legit freelance. After all, they did "steal" his work, so that's a validation worth enjoying, right?

Since when did being ripped off by a corporation become a cause for celebration?

Sorry, anonymous trolls, but someone pays you for what you do, and someone should pay the best of us for what we do as well. It's capitalism. Surely you understand that, right?