At webloggerheads... on International Weblogger's Day

Technorati tags: International Weblogger's Day, Solidarity, All Blogs, Flame Wars

Yesterday, June 14th, 2007, was International Weblogger's Day. The theme this year: Solidarity. Not much fanfare on the local scene, unfortunately. It seems to have come and gone without much being noticed. That said, there will be an event in conjuction with International Weblogger's Day, organized by Geng Jurnal, this Saturday, June 16th.

Date : 16th June 2007
Time: 9:30am to 5:30pm
Locations:
Dataran Merdeka (treasure hunt).
Titiwangsa Lake Garden (ice breaking & games)
Registration Fee: RM7 per person (or RM21 per group of 3)
Who should attend: GJ members and non-member bloggers are welcome!
Official website: Geng Jurnal

Walski's not sure what ice breaking is exactly, but he's sure it will be fun...

Meanwhile, in the Malaysian bloggerhood, the tea cup has been stormy of late, and observing what's been happening, solidarity, it would seem, is the last word that comes to Walski's mind.
(at bloggerheads over free speech, in the full post)

It is kinda disconcerting to see how flame wars sometimes spill over into our real lives. Walski thinks that this is a little silly. It's almost like bad science fiction - the cyberworld comes to life, so to speak. In the worst of ways.

Yes, some people have it in them to inflame other people, for whatever reason - Walski doesn't need to name names here, but if you really wanna know, go read about it at Shar 101's blog (and the numerous associated links).

As Walski has stated more than once, free speech can hurt. If we believe in freedom of speech, in the truest sense, we should realize that occassionally, scum, like cream, rises to the top. And if you think that certain speech is hurtful, hateful or even dangerous, it would then be incumbent upon ourselves to counter said speech. Everybody has an opinion about everything, and sometimes we may feel those opinions to be skewed.

That's life. Live with it.

What has happened in the meantime is that Kickdefella, the bloggerhood's Numero Uno poster boy, has resigned from the All Blogs Pro Tem Exco, apparently as a result of the ongoing flame wars. Okay... that's his prerogative, and his right. Even though the whole argument has nothing whatsoever to do with All Blogs, Sheih has every right to do what Sheih feels is the right thing to do. This has also been reported by Rocky's Bru and O.B.E.

Walski will say this, however: let's keep online blog-comment flaming online where it belongs, and not allow it to spill over into the real world. It certainly isn't healthy, and as far as Walski is concerned, totally unnecessary.

Kind of like how some people cannot distinguish between fictional depictions on TV and film, with real life. Getting so absorbed into the world of TV/film fiction, and mistaking what you see for real life can be funny to observe (at least for Walski), especially when people start talking back to the the TV.

Human nature is such that our emotions sometimes get the better of us. We lose our objectivity, start to become partisan on issues. Worse still, towards the actual people who stand on different sides of issues. We go further than oppose the ideas, we start opposing the people whose ideas and speech we oppose. And when things get personal, the inevitable spillover into real life can get unnecessarily ugly.

The one thing that gets hurt in the process is the one thing that this year's International Weblogger's Day is supposed to be about: solidarity.

We all do this thing called blogging for numerous, varied reasons. In Walski's mind, the only thing we can claim to have in common, across the board, is probably our passion for it. And that is probably the only thing that truly binds the various individuals behind All Blogs, and not some implicit politically motivated agenda. Yes, some of the things that individuals within the Exco have done were probably misconstrued as being representative of the organization.

But what are we, if not a collection of individuals? In a loose grouping such as All Blogs, the actions and views of a few can easily get misconstrued as representing the many, or the all. Or All Blogs, as the case may be.

Let's not get emotionally carried away, and make All Blogs about more than what it is intended to be - a single voice, in solidarity, fiercely protecting our passion for blogging, and our right to blog... nothing more, and definitely nothing less.