Recently, there have been a lot of disturbance in the force that is the Mauritian blogging world. Instead of commenting on millions of articles about recent events and twittering about it haphazardly, I thought I would set my thoughts out in a number of bullet points:
1) A lot of skirmishes have resulted from bloggers not being able to take in criticism. As a blogger, and more importantly, as a person, I am always open to criticism, as long as it's genuine. The greatest sign of maturity is the ability to accept the harshest criticism. This is more applicable to more established bloggers because they are sometimes unwilling to accept that certain people could criticise them. You should always remember that once you accept the criticism and work on it, the person will never pester you (unless he or she is mentally deranged). But if you keep on denying something, then be prepared to be bombarded senseless. As a blogger, you experience a lot of public exposure, so you should be expected to deal with these kinds of challenges. I would like to grab this opportunity to mention my appreciation for the way Yashvin has maintained his cool and kept going with his blogging work, despite being subjected to a fair amount of criticism in the last month or so. We may not agree with him, but his intentions are noble and he does not mean harm or disrespect to anyone.
2) Opinions! Opinions are the drivers of the blogosphere. If people did not have opinions, there would be no blogosphere. But like all things man-made, opinions can often lead to conflict. Various bloggers express their opinions differently, various bloggers have very different opinions! The most important thing is to respect all opinions. But there are exceptions. How do you define an opinion which cannot be respected and which needs to be condemned? When is criticism a personal attack? The latter question can seem quite obvious, but then where does the blog start and the blogger's personal profile end? Is the blog a fair reflection of the blogger's persona? Finally, how do you condemn an opinion? How far can you go in terms of ripping into someone? These are questions which are still hard to answer for me. But I do know that if people are open-minded and mature, it becomes much easier to debate and discuss. Otherwise, it will inevitably get ugly. When it comes to Mauritians, I think you will all have to agree that we tend to get too sensitive at times. We have so many fiery characters around who can instantly combust at any time! It's entertaining, it's energetic, but it can also be very unhealthy for the camaraderie between bloggers.
3) Another hot topic to have 'graced' twitter conversations recently is anonymity. A vital characteristic of web interaction is faceless communication. No wonder the internet has led to a real revolution in terms of freedom of expression. Such is the value of freedom of expression that numerous bloggers adopt a pseudonym to protect their identity and hence benefit from the lack of retribution if they show extremist tendencies as defined by the society or the authorities. But when does anonymity amount to cowardice? Lately, the notorious Shayus caused ripples of discontent amongst Mauritian bloggers. I think we were right to resent Shayus because the blog was a blatant attempt at personal attacks on specific bloggers. She (I think it's been established that Shayus is a 'she') even noticed cracks appearing in the Mauritian blogosphere, which was absolute nonsense, since the mobilisation front against Shayus was the most united Mauritian bloggers had ever been! If she actually toned down the personal attacks and blogged with her real name so as to give more bite and credibility to the criticisms she was firing, she would have warranted a decent amount of respect. Of course, she had the right to be anonymous, but being anonymous so as to be an absolute bitch is very laughable in my book.
4) Finally something which has made me chuckle a few times in the past: blogging ethics. What are those? Ethics?? I thought blogging was just extended chatting, or informal journalism. There are no set ethics in the blogosphere. Obviously, I do not mean we are savages and lawless. But ethics is too strong a word to be associated with blogging, unless you are a very serious professional blogger, which most Mauritians are not. I do not actually know any professional Mauritian bloggers. So why do we keep on mentioning ethics? Why do we think bloggers need to fit a certain frame? Why can't everyone just abide by the basic rules of humanity? There are fundamental laws to observe when interacting with fellow human beings. That's all you need to follow! You can write whatever you want as long as you are not libelous. Journalists have ethics, politicians have ethics, professionals have ethics,...etc Bloggers who blog for fun do NOT need to have any defined ethical responsibilities. They just need to observe basic etiquette, something which you would abide by in everyday life, in actual life situations. Just like you wouldn't call someone you don't know personally names on the street, you would not do that on your blog or in your comments on other blogs. A blogger is still a person at the end of the day, so why the need to invent blogging ethics when all you need to do is behave yourself in the same way you would behave yourself in society? Bloggers are not the Illuminati or some other underground society. For me, when you start taking blogging too seriously, that's when you start quarelling, that's when you start being intolerant towards criticism, that's when you start seeing conspiracies everywhere and become paranoid, that's when some start behaving like primary school kids,...etc Let's just ditch this idea that blogging is everything and that we need some kind of structure to regulate it so that no-one is offended. Just blog with your heart. Just write down your thoughts. We all have a life after all, blogging is just one small part of our life, it's not everything! Just enjoy the thrill while you can and keep blogging as informally as you can. Bloggers are just normal people. There is no need for special rules and regulations. If you behave yourself like you would at home, then everyone will have a nice time blogging and there will be no stressful tussles.
These were my thoughts. Now for something to relax your nerves:
