Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
Adam Green has a suggestion for Doc Searls and his quandry about being a gatekeeper:
The answer is simple Doc, just find a good post from a blogger you haven’t noticed before and link to it. You can direct a firehose of traffic to a blog by doing this. On the basis of karma alone it is a good idea. Think about how you would have felt if one of the cool crowd in high school had asked the buck-toothed kid to sit with them at lunch.
Doc is one of the most loyal webloggers I know. As such, he will rarely, if ever, criticize one of his friends. I don’t necessarily agree with this, but I can admire his consistency in his support.
Doc is also willing to link to those who criticize him, and patiently respond to same. I admire him for this. He’s also one of the few A list tech bloggers who will still link to me, and I’ve been critical about his writings for years, so you might say I have a bias in this regard.
But when Doc does link to me, he rarely sends me much traffic. The same can be said for Scoble and Winer and others. In the great scheme of things nowadays, no one weblogger in the tech ranks is really capable of directing that much traffic. There are some in the political sphere, or the heads of the hordes like Boing Boing that might send a lot of traffic one’s way. But the days when the techie A listers ruled the waves are over.
However, even if Doc could direct that much traffic, I would rather he not link me, then to link me because I’m equivalent to the buck-toothed kid being asked to eat lunch with the cool kids. The thought of this makes me feel faintly nauseous.
If I want anything from the A Listers, it’s honesty. It’s following through on their glowing beliefs in this environment. It’s a cessation of the games, and a reduction of the small minded petty meanness that characterizes too many of the A listers (and which makes one realize that perhaps this environment is not so utopian after all).
A Listers: When you make a comment related to something you’ve read one someone’s weblog, link to it. Don’t talk about it in a sideways manner. Don’t wait until someone you approve of writes about the topic and then link to them. Don’t attach ‘nofollow’ or not add a link, because you don’t think they deserve your ‘link juice’.
If one or more people spend a considerable amount of time responding, thoughtfully, to your post, don’t respond only to those who you consider your ‘equal’. Respond to the argument or discussion, not the person. Don’t hold your response to criticism until someone makes it who you consider to be ‘worthy’.
When people are critical, don’t label them with being a bitch, shrill, hysterical, whining (oe whinging), flaming, or any combination of the same. If this environment was full of people who only smiled, who only agreed, who went around as if we’re all partaking of joy joy juice, and nary a harsh word was heard–you wouldn’t be where you are today. You need us. You need us, a hell of a lot more than we need you. Your fans may make you feel good, but it’s your critics who made you famous.
I have no respect for the linking/attention games played and those who play them, and neither should you. When you see this bullshit, call it bullshit. This will do more to ‘tear down the gates’ then begging an A lister, even a nice one like Doc, for a link.
Now excuse me, this buck-toothed weblogger needs to go brush her teeth.
