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WritersNotes.Net: Helping Writers Follow Their Dreams Through Information, Inspiration, and Encouragement!
You'll notice that I've drastically altered the appearance of my blog--and I have to admit, it is not a format I am particularly fond of, aesthetically. But, if you'll pull up a chair and give me a few minutes of your time, I will explain the reasons behind the change. Perhaps you will agree with them, and perhaps you will not. If you don't agree, I'm sorry, and I respect your right to your opinion; but I can only say that I must follow my own conscience in the matter. If you do agree, I'm happy that you and I have something in common.
Read on and I'll tell you why I felt I had no choice but to change to a blog format that I don't particularly like:
The current format, which I've chosen over the one I used previously, is one which moves the Popular Orble Posts and Breaking Orble Posts lists to the (less-noticeable) bottom portion of the left sidebar--as opposed to their previous highly prominent location at the top of the right sidebar. Many of you will be able to understand why I did so. But for those who haven't a clue, I will tell you: I am sick to death of reading profane, obscene, crude, and/or sexually suggestive titles in the sidebar immediately adjacent to my own blog posts.
I do my best to provide clean, wholesome, informative, professional, and edifying content for my readers--content which is G-rated and family-friendly--and I am thwarted at every turn by the works of other Orble bloggers who choose to do otherwise. As a Christian, I am offended by these titles (though not necessarily by their writers)--and particularly by their appearing beside my own posts. And I believe that many of my readers feel the same way that I do. I feel that, by changing to my blog's current format, fewer people who visit my blog will be forcibly exposed to the offensive post titles, since they have been relegated to a position very far down on my blog's web page. (It is, of course, true that, when one scrolls down far enough on my blog's page, these titles are visible, and for that, I apologize; but there are, unfortunately, limits to what I can do about the matter.)
I want to be very clear here, however, in stating that I have absolutely nothing personal against the individuals who write these titles; and my feeling is that, if Orble chooses to allow them to write such content, under the controversial "freedom-of-speech" covering, the questionable content should be restricted to the inside of their blog posts, where the "Mature Content" flag can actually do some good and where every reader can choose whether or not to read the posts in question.
To my way of thinking, such potentially offensive material should be entirely forbidden in post titles, which are visible to everyone who visits the Orble site--which, I might point out, could include children. In this way, these bloggers would have the freedom to write whatever they liked within their actual blog posts, those who wanted to read those posts would have the freedom to do so, and the rest of us would have the freedom not to be accosted by material we find offensive. This seems, to me, a very fair compromise, as both sides would be giving up a little so that each could still retain a great deal of what they desire from blogging at Orble. After all, it is totally unfair that one group should be expected to make all the concessions so that the other can do whatever it pleases (i.e., indulge its baser instincts in a widely viewed public forum), regardless of what anyone else thinks. (Note: there is a reason--and a very good one--why pornographic materials have traditionally been shipped in plain brown wrappers!)
Aside from the offensiveness issue, I truly feel that, while profane or obscene material may well reflect the viewpoints of its writers--which they are 100% entitled to--in my view, it has little artistic value and totally lacks the class that I, personally, enjoy seeing in the material I choose to read. Suffice it to say that the writing which endures over the long term is generally not of this type.
And I would add that some of the bloggers who post such content are exceptionally good writers, whose work I would so much enjoy reading if it were not focused in the direction that they've chosen to pursue. While I will not go so far as to say that they are wasting their talent, I will say that they are cutting their work off from an entire segment of the reading public, including many very thoughtful and intelligent individuals, who are appreciative, gracious, and generous with praise for writing that they enjoy.
Besides all of the above, a little enforced subtlety in post titles would provide a wonderful creative exercise that would stretch the blogger's imagination, encouraging new, better, more interesting and artistic ways of expressing ideas. It takes zero talent to use profanity in place of other, more exact and more meaningful adjectives, verbs, or nouns--in both writing and speaking--and I am confident that, if these writers would just take the time to give it a little more thought, they could come up with descriptive words and phrases that are vastly superior to the profanity they are currently using (that is, if they should choose to).
I am certain that many will disagree with me on this subject, and, while I don't mean to be self-righteous about it, I am adamant regarding the issue. To be perfectly candid, I am seeking every possible alternative to leaving the Orble community and truly hoping I won't be forced to do so. I strongly believe that Orble needs to become a place where all bloggers have the opportunity to enjoy the blogging experience. While crude, vulgar, obscene, and sensationalistic titles undoubtedly attract more readers--thus becoming more popular than your basic, responsible, mainstream ones--this is not a sufficient reason for allowing them. Doing so is like encouraging a naughty, mischievous child to continue "acting out" because he (or she) receives more attention when doing so.
Therefore, dear Reader, my blog posts, at least, will no longer continue unintentially featuring offensive Orble content. I apologize that, due to the nature of the Orble blog template, I am unable to remove this content entirely, but I promise to do my best to make it as low-key, unobtrusive, and well-hidden as possible.
Another area I will soon be addressing where my own blog is concerned is Comments. Due to the nature of some of the comments my blog has been receiving--from Orble bloggers that I would love to hear from otherwise, since I feel that they have so much of value to say--I am convinced that it will soon be necessary for me to take the situation in hand by beginning to preview comments before they can appear on my blog (which I've been trying to avoid) and disallowing those that contain profanity, crudity, and or sexually suggestive language or subject matter.
I have been hesitant to delete any of my blog's comments, up to now, so as not to insult anyone; but, as I say, I am attempting to provide a family-friendly blog, and this is impossible when the comments my posts receive contain such material. Therefore, I may have little choice but to do a little comment-deleting soon. I truly wish I didn't have to do this--and I wouldn't if those who have left the comments in question would return to my blog and modify them. This way the main point of each individual's comment would, in most cases, be able to be retained. If those who have added such comments to my blog posts would be so kind as to replace the obscenities with asterisks or any other combination of non-provocative symbols and tone down their comments by using less-crude or suggestive language to express their thoughts, I would greatly appreciate it and would be very happy to be able to retain their comments.
I have nothing but good will toward everyone who has seen fit to comment on my blog posts, and I greatly appreciate their taking the time to share their thoughts with me. So, please do not misunderstand: This post, and all that I have said in it, comes totally from my own convictions about the matter of profanity, obscenity, and the like; and it is in no way meant to imply that I do not respect the individuals who see fit to express their opinions in ways that I find personally offensive.
Perhaps, one might think of my blog as one's grandmother's house (though I do realize that all grandmothers are different). If you wouldn't say it in front of your proper, staid, and prudish grandmother--or perhaps better, still, your own mother--then, please, don't say it on my blog. You are welcome back for a visit anytime, and I would love to carry on a conversation with you when you visit--as long as you can respect the rules of my "home".
There, you have it, folks. You now know why I have been forced to change to a blog template I don't really like. In a perfect world, I wouldn't have to do that--but alas, this is the real world and we have to deal with the way things are rather than the way we would like them to be. Though, if we can change them for the better in some small way, I say, "Go for it!"
Thanks for reading!
Jeanne
NOTE: I have, since this post was written, changed my blog back to its previous format for a number of reasons. The design was very cumbersome and difficult to navigate. Visually, its asymmetrical appearance was very unbalanced and hence quite aesthetically displeasing. And, finally, the atmosphere at Orble seems to have mellowed somewhat of late--possibly because Orble is enforcing the use of the "Mature Content" tag--and I have not found anything too offensive in the Orble sidebar lately.
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Well, apparently, I jumped the gun when I wrote my last post, lamenting the fact that Hollywood is planning to make a movie of the same name as the subtitle I used for one of my articles, back in January, '07: "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People."
I'd actually dreamed up this title several years ago--and now I wish I'd paid attention to precisely which year it was, because, as it turns out, an author named Toby Young wrote a book of that same name (copyright 2001) chronicling his adventures working at Vanity Fair magazine in New York City. (I've never heard of either him or his book before today, I promise! If I had, it would have been rather foolish of me to pen my previous post.)
Funny things, titles! When we write them, we're so certain we are the only person to have ever dreamed up that wonderfully winsome way of weaving words together to create the cleverest one, which, in reality, might be nothing more than a naively natural extension of an already existing idea.
I am now willing to humbly admit that the Toby Young book did indeed predate the article I published on Associated Content back in January.
But, to be perfectly honest, I can't say I'm absolutely certain that it actually predated my own original creation of the title and my writing it down, on a sheet of lined binder paper, where I also began, at that very same time, to jot down notes outlining my ideas for the article I would later write. This sheet of paper then went into a box in the back of the closet with my other early writings, which sat for who can say how long?
Regardless of which one of us actually thought of it first, however, the fact that we both did, entirely independently of one another, makes it pretty clear that this title was a natural outgrowth of the Dale Carnegie title from which it sprang, flowing almost perfectly, in both meter and meaning, from the original, and showing that, when two creative minds approach the same idea from the same angle, the artistic spark in each very often confirms the inevitability of the discovery by the other--even if neither one is aware of it at the time.
So, dear readers, I must, at the very least, concede the possibility that Toby Young might just have conceived this great title before I, myself, did. But then again, maybe not. We may never be certain. So, that is where we will just have to leave it.
Philosophically yours,
Jeanne
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Well, Google Alerts has done it again! I learned just today, after setting up an alert using the subtitle of an article I first published back in January, '07--though I conceived the title several years ago--that a soon-to-be-released Hollywood movie, featuring Jeff Bridges and Kirsten Dunst, among others, shares the same title! But that's not the worst of it!
What's even worse is what I learned when I googled the words "copyright" and "title": I found out something that many of us writers may not know and most of us will certainly not want to hear: Titles are not copyrightable!
That's right! It doesn't matter how cleverly they may be worded, how original you may have thought they were, how absolutely fantastic the play on words may be, how wonderful a parody they may create of an earlier title that the present writer may want to allude to in order to evoke a particular mood or frame of reference--none of this matters one whit! If it's a title, you can't copyright it--period!
You may be wondering what movie I'm referring to; though--if you just happen to be very movie savvy and really knowledgeable about the latest and upcoming releases--you may already know the answer. However, in all fairness to...myself...I'll start by giving you the title of my article--since it came first!
My humor article, first published on January 25, 2007, at Associated Content, is called "A Comprehensive List of Leadership Techniques For the Truly Superior: Show 'Em Who's Boss! Or How to Lose Friends and Alienate People." (I realize that seems like an awfully long title, but I can explain.)
The article was originally entitled simply "Show 'Em Who's Boss! Or How to Lose Friends and Alienate People." (For those who may not know it, the second part of this title is a takeoff on the title of the Dale Carnegie classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People--a great book, by the way.) I also would have much preferred switching the two titles and using the "Comprehensive List" portion as the subtitle and the other part as the title--which would have been the perfect strategy to use for print media.
However, due to the realities of SEO (search engine optimization), A-C recommends that the main headline of the articles it publishes contain enough searchable keywords or keyword phrases to allow the search engines to find it--and thus, my main title was relegated to the lowly status of subheadline. (Sometimes its tough to know which keywords to use where humor is concerned, though, since Google searches unfortunately don't differentiate between the literal and satirical use of words--so even at that, I may not have actually chosen the "optimal" keywords. But then, I was new to the game.)
Be that as it may, headline or subheadline, title or subtitle, that clever play on words was still mine! Which part of the lengthy title am I referring to? You've no doubt figured it out by now: "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People." I thought it terribly clever at the time I wrote it--and today, apparently Hollywood agrees! According to Variety, the comedy, "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People," is slated to begin filming June 4th.
I have to admit to feeling somewhat violated--particularly since Hollywood's being as high-profile as it is and my being as low-profile as I am, it's obvious who will get the credit for originating this witticism. (Hint: It won't be me.) And, of course, it's equally obvious who will appear to have plagiarized it. (Hint: It won't be Hollywood--which isn't to say that I'm accusing them of doing so either--though, come to think of it, I don't really suppose Hollywood, per se, is an entity that I could actually accuse of plagiarism.) But, alas, there's little to be done for it, and we must move forward despite such minor (?) setbacks.
For the benefit of those who weren't aware of this little idiosyncrasy of copyright law, here's a quote from the U.S. Copyright Office's website: "Names, titles, and short phrases or expressions are not subject to copyright protection. Even if a name, title, or short phrase is novel or distinctive or if it lends itself to a play on words, it cannot be protected by copyright." There's more, but you get the idea. I hardly think they could have spelled it out more clearly than that. If you're interested in reading more on the subject, though, just click the above link to be taken to the appropriate page on their site.
Well, there you have it! The saga of my original, but nonetheless uncopyrightable article title...
And yet another instance where Google Alerts have let me in on the latest little "secret" affecting my work.
Unhappier, but wiser,
Jeanne
NOTE: My contentions in this post were later updated. For details, see Related Post, below.
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While browsing the Web today, I happened across a discussion on MetaFilter.Com which questioned the legitimacy of Orble.Com as a blog hosting site. (Why not pop in over there and have a look?)
I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to set the record straight. However, when I attempted to sign up in order to leave my comments on that particular thread, I was informed that, due to the costs involved in keeping up the site, there would be a $5 fee to join.
Now, I am by no means cheap. In fact, most people who know me would say I'm quite the opposite. But, somehow it just didn't seem right to be required to pay for the privilege of simply leaving a comment. I therefore decided to send a message to the administrators of the site, via their "Contact Us" link, instead. In it, I addressed some of the specific points brought up in the discussion (originally posted sometime in March).
I thought it only fair to put in a good word for Orble. After all, I've had a great experience blogging at Orble.Com, and its gotten even better since they've given me my own domain (almost a week ago). I have no idea what will come of it. Perhaps they'll simply ignore me, since I didn't pay the signup fee. Perhaps they'll respond. This is something that only time will tell. But I do know one thing: They'd have a lot more trouble ignoring all of us--don't ya think?
'Nuff said!
Jeanne
While I realize it appears as if I've been neglecting to update my blog of late, what has actually occurred is that I lost a second blog post just a few days ago! Thought I'd fill my readers in so you'd understand why nothing new has been posted to my blog lately!
I lost my first post on February 4th, which I later painstakingly recreated. It's the one entitled "Calling All Poets 2! More Info About MoonTownCafe.com." My second lost post was one focusing on Helium.com. My apologies for this--as well as for the fact that I haven't yet recreated the second lost post! But, to be honest--not only is it such a daunting task to even think of redoing all that exacting and carefully researched work, but--frankly, I'm worried that it could just happen again!
So, here I sit, debating whether or not it's worth attempting to rewrite the lost post--or even write future ones--if I must worry about the possibility of having it--or them--get lost in cyberspace the minute I click "preview post." (In fact, I'm wondering whether I'll lose this post before I'm through!) What a dilemma!
Well, I guess we'll see what happens! In fact, this time, I think I'll forego clicking "preview post," hoping you'll forgive any small errors you may see in this post before I've had a chance to modify it! This way, at least I'll be able to avoid having "preview post" cause the problem! Hopefully clicking on "create post" won't cause the very same problem to occur!
Well, here goes nothing! You'll either see this--or you won't! Wonder which it will be!
Till next time,
Jeanne
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