This Won’t Win Friends … Maybe Influence People?

Triond has been running (every other) monthly contests since August, 2010.

Many of us who publish with Triond have lovely little badges to show that we participated and were successful in August, October, and December.

December’s shiny badge even has a Santa Hat on it. Yay!

Yes, I said Yay!

And here it is, February. Another contest month. Only this month it’s even better. Triond has set it up in tiers – publish this amount, get this, publish more, get more, etc.

And herein lies the problem.

The sheer amount of crap I’ve seen come through my newsfeed this month is horrifying.

There. I said it.

And I only feel a little tiny bit bad about having said it.

Oh, and I have questions, lots and lots of questions.

What is WRONG with people?

What happened to spell check?

Where did you learn grammar?

Did you RESEARCH before you decided to drone on about ….(insert subject you know NOTHING about)?

Do you honestly think I don’t KNOW you copied and pasted right from your (thank you for listing a source) reference?

Is this just me being whiny about this?

Shall I stop asking questions?

Okay, so here’s the deal. I don’t write a whole lot of life altering stuff for Triond – I do okay, mind you – just mostly updates for my YouTube videos; some healthy tips type things; and other general helps; oh, and whatever else strikes my fancy that I don’t publish at Y!CN.

And that’s the beauty (or one of them, if you are counting) of Triond. Anyone can – pretty much – write whatever they want and “see their name in lights.”

BUT.

And this is a big but.

Respect yourself. Respect your craft. Respect the fact that as your (Triond) friend, I may be subjected to reading more than my fair share of crap.

Oh, I know. I don’t have to click. But darnit. Some of you (while struggling with the actual writing portion) have pretty good titles. Makes it hard not to click. And then I’m sad. Because once again I was duped (or so I feel).

Now, don’t get all cranky because I called you out. How do you know I’m even talking about you? Here’s the deal. Help me out a little.

I KNOW you want that shiny badge. Me too. I’ve got about 12 more articles to write before the end of the month and I’m horribly behind.

But.

I’m not going to just throw crap up there and call it done.

So who’s with me?

Let’s all work toward producing content we can be proud of.

If you need help with that, go read up on how to write good stuff.

Here, I’ll even throw some names out there for you to peruse:

SHILAHO JIMMY

Mnofdichotomy (his earlier stuff)

AskSan (yep, I’ve got a few good helps)

thestickman

jharmon

Kristie Leong, M.D.

Gringoperry

Alistair Briggs

- I apologize for not linking the above names; who has time for that; there’s a contest in full swing and I want that badge. You should know though, that I have learned so much (and you can too) from these folks and many more here at Triond.

If reading specific articles about  how to improve your writing (and all that goes with it) doesn’t thrill you, then go to the forum. You will have to weed through some idiocy, lots of fun, and some snarkiness – but the HELP is there.

Anyway, I am nearly finished with my rant. No apologies for my verbose prose. It’s part of my charm.

The bottom line is this:

I don’t want to read any more crap. I realize that’s a bit unrealistic. So maybe we can all just work toward producing content that we can be proud of. And maybe, along the way, we’ll even earn that February badge.

Because here’s another interesting fact: You write, you want people to read, you earn, you want to keep earning. If all you write is crap (misspelling, poor grammar, misinformed), you will never reap the reward of being a writer.

Crap. I shouldn’t have said never. Maybe you are rewarded.

As for me, I’m going to spend some time NOT clicking from people I don’t know or  haven’t had the pleasure of reading before. Disappointing, since I need 18 new writers for The Guest Spot (March) at AskSan.com.

Ah well, back to writing updates about Eldin and weight loss.

Cheers!

(Please Note: Yes, this is a tad bit sarcastic. You might even find it LOL in parts. But I’m serious. Respect yourself and the content you provide and people will keep reading you. Otherwise, what’s the darn point?)

(One last thing: with all the writing help to be found across this world wide web, it astounds me that…eh, never mind. I’ve darn well said enough.)