Bloggy bloggers!

I want to say that blogging is a strange phenomena not only for the writers concerned as their pieces - the so called 'posts' - have to be interactive but they must also contain (or at least I think they should) an element of spontaneity. In other words, the posts need to contain a feel that they're off the cuff comments or a trail of creative musings.

Or, as in my case, simple spouting-offs about anything or anyone - which is what, I suspect, some readers think I do.

It can be provocative - or otherwise - but generally it's what Martin Amis referred to as 'experimental thought process' - trying out ideas on the readers just to see if they hold water.

I think the posts need to look as if the blogger has left something out, or has painted a one-sided point of view. They need to appear incomplete as if they need to be corrected, amended and/or developed. In actual fact, it's throwing the bait in at the deep end and seeing what it brings out.

But recently - and especially in regard to the comments I receive - I'm often left wondering about the people who respond. For instance, there is a handful of readers who will almost invariably write a comment which may or may not have anything to do with the substance of the post. As such it can sometimes feel that the posts are hijacked by very forthright and opinionated readers who will attack - without any due courtesy - not only the writers concerned but their fellow readers as well. These comments can then gain a momentum of their own during which the perspective shifts from the original posts to something bizarre and, occasionally, distasteful in terms of the tone and the crudity with which readers address one another. Indeed the banter then - as one of the readers defined it - becomes a soap-opera where we learn more about the readers than the subject of the original posts.

But it's what could also be referred to as 'blogging terrorism', scaring off other readers who might feel too afraid to take part in a friendly, informative discussion or to make an intelligent contribution on a platform that is supposed to be user-friendly and welcoming.

Instead the platform may sound as violent or as intimidating as a school playground might appear to a new pupil on his first day - bullying is not restricted to school environment and the work place.

Now it could be that people - especially Birmingham Post readers - are genuinely passionate about what the blogging team writes and thus want to contribute to the debate - which, of course, is the essence of these posts. But in regard to the manner in which they express themselves, I can't help thinking that it also has something to do with ego and a perverse desire to be heard/published especially when their criticism is levelled at other readers.

At other times - and rather inadvertently - you get a sense that readers are expressing their criticism at the blogger's position as a professional writer working for a newspaper. How dare an idiot, a novice who has such a biased arrogant, viewpoint should be hired (or otherwise) by a relatively well known provincial newspaper! But their harsh verbosity, vitriolic condemnation or just plain cynicism can also appear a tad silly. Their in-put rarely, for instance, takes into account the monumental fact that a newspaper would never take on a voice without believing that that voice can deliver. All writers would have had to prove themselves over a period of time before the editors give them a position in which their writing will reflect - to some degree - the overall style, tone and perspective of their publication.

That's why I am amazed when fellow colleagues take out their knives against a blogger. Sometimes, they even formulate a rebellion to 'out' someone whose writing they might all be reading but who's had the balls or the audacity to push the boundaries of what kind of subject matter is acceptable for a newspaper blog! Surely we should write about and discuss everything, shouldn't we?

And such is the hostility against writers that a friend of mine drew to my attention that someone has put up a website encouraging readers to sign in to say they'd like less of me on the internet. I mean, what! Why should anyone care about little ol' me? And yet care they do.

But what I find particularly interesting is the times at which the readers comments are published and the sharpness of their response. They leave me wondering who these readers are and what kind of lifestyle they lead. Do they know they are engaged with the publication and that the bloggers have done their job? And because of the regularity of their visits to blogs - to read further posts by the very same blogger they love to dislike or criticize - do they know that they've been hooked into the on-line world of that publication. Haven't the bloggers done their job of enticing the readers to make a comment? I mean, isn't that what some people might call, successful blogging?

Now...

Watch your language, grab a cup of coffee, take a deep breath and only then start tapping on the keyboard!