Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with bloggers

I don't need your stinkin public service!

mhz — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:05:44 -0800

How can I deal with bloggers uploading pictures of private events? In my small-ish community, there are a LOT of 'events,' usually a few every day. While tradition calls for most of these to be modest affairs, people have gone crazy with size and cost over the years. Specifically weddings and engagement parties, where anyone with any tangential connection will at least show up for a few minutes of congratulation. I don't have a problem with that, I do it myself occasionally.

While I'm still old-fashioned enough to think that invitations should be personal (and everyone still does make those personal invitations to everyone they might otherwise miss), it's become common for local 'community blogs' to publicize the dates, times, and locations of all of these events. This huge invasion of privacy is often overlooked, but…

Recently, they've 'upgraded.' Now they're posting PICTURES of many events online. Still many people are happy with this, and even consider this (along with the 'notifications' of the events in the first place) a public service. I hate it.

So, what are my options to stop it?

We're talking about various websites, who use many, many, photographers. Should I ever make such a party, there's no way I'd know everyone there, and there's no way I can stop people from entering. I don't like the idea of a sign asking people not to photograph (a. I have no problem with guests taking pictures, posting them to their Flickr and Facebook accounts etc, so the wording would be weird. b. It'd probably be ignored anyway).

I can't know for certain who might be doing this, although a good hint is anybody who's not family or hired carrying an SLR. Should I see learn somebody is taking pictures for one the (I think it's now 5 or 6 different) blogs, what are my rights?

These parties, despite what they've become, are privately paid for, etc, so I imagine I can throw them out. If somebody goes without making a big deal of it, can I insist (read: force) him/her to delete the pictures taken without my authorization? What are my options if they don't want to leave? Don't want to delete the pictures? Can the fact that the time/date/location has been posted online be construed as an invitation? Does the fact that someone is invited help them at all? I don't like the idea of somebody who isn't a guest taking pictures, even if they're not being published – it's still creepy. (Nobody who's there as a guest will be taking more than a few, these bloggers routinely take hundreds.)

Am I offering a fair wage to freelance bloggers?

ben242 — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:18:25 -0800

How much do I pay a freelance blogger? The company I work for has four shopping blogs. We're looking to hire freelance bloggers to write 2-3 posts per week. The posts require a minimum of research and no expertise. That is, I don't care if the writer has a college degree as long as they can write 50-150 words about blenders or coffeemakers or home theatre or whatever. This isn't meant to be expert bloggers giving complicated instructions; its more like the advice you get from a friend who knows a bit about whatever product you're shopping for.

I've been told $5 per post is about right for the kind of writing I'm trying to get. Is that an okay rate?

I can haz blog post?

anthropoid — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:34:54 -0800

What's the best way to ask bloggers to promote a nonprofit fundraising event? I'm working on the promotion of a nonprofit fundraising event and I'd like to ask local NYC bloggers to post about it. It's different from these two questions in that we really cannot afford to offer anything in return - we'd like folks to let people know about it because they care about the topic.

I have done the background research making sure we are approaching bloggers who write about similar topics and whose audiences might be interested in supporting our cause. I am now looking for your input as to the best way to frame the letter, what we should and shouldn't expect in terms of their response, and any ideas on how to best thank them.

Anyone have experience in promoting nonprofit events on your blogs?

Thank you!

How do we politely approach a Blog or Blogger and ask if they would be so kind as to review our e-commerce store....thus essentially promoting it?

orehek — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:00:10 -0800

How do we politely approach a Blog or Blogger and ask if they would be so kind as to review our e-commerce store....thus essentially promoting it? We own and operate an e-commerce store and we are trying very hard to achieve national visibility and accessibility by doing the right things with the hopes that it will help drive the right kind of consumer traffic to our site and therefore result in increased sales. We are in the midst of trying to identify Blogs which cater to the same customer base as us or at least similar ones. Once, we do that, how do we handle the next steps?
We are an authorized dealer for about a dozen major brands (several hundred products). Our e-commerce store specializes in stand-alone "air purification" units mostly for residential needs and to a lesser degree, commercial needs. High-end air purifiers are our primary business but we are in the middle of significantly expanding our offerings to also provide quality "water filtration" units and several eco-friendly "Green" product lines as well, which will compliment our existing products.

1. How do we find the best blogs which would specifically suit and compliment our needs?

2. How do we respectfully and successful approach them to ask if they would consider reviewing us in the form of an article or post on their Blog?

3. Lastly, if we decided to start our own Blog to help promote our company, should the Blog be designed to be within the website, or should it be independent of the site and simply have it help direct traffic to the site while spreading the word about our site?

Escaping the ideological echo-chamber

hansfriedrich — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:13:41 -0800

Help me find some thoughtful conservative writers or bloggers to follow. I'm an American whose personal politics are left-of-center. I'm very progressive on social issues, somewhat more moderate on economic issues (think technocratic Democrat - I believe in a philosophy of muscular but well-regulated capitalism). I've been very opposed to the Iraq war and horrified by the erosion of our civil liberties in the US over the last 8 years.

I read a lot of liberal US bloggers and writers: Talking Points Memo, Paul Krugman, Matthew Yglesias, Ezra Klein, Brad DeLong and many more. These people write things I disagree with, but they are almost always thoughtful and even when I have a strongly opposing point of view I almost always come away feeling like I was challenged in a constructive way.

However, I don't want to live inside my own ideological echo-chamber all the time. I've been making a conscious effort to add some solid, intellectual conservative writers to the mix as well. I read Andrew Sullivan, but although he identifies as a conservative, he's been so hard in the tank for Obama the last twelve months that he barely qualifies.

So far, I'm reading The Next Right, Culture 11 and have subscribed to Reason magazine. I'm looking for more publications or writers like these - I may disagree with their ideas VEHEMENTLY, but they (usually) make their points in a thoughtful, fact-based and non-hysterical way, and so challenge instead of enraging me. Think less Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter and more Russell Kirk: calling Obama a "socialist" on a regular basis, for example, is an immediate disqualification in the "thoughtful", "fact-based" and "non-hysterical" departments.

Any ideas? If you're liberal or moderate, what conservatives do you respect? If you're a conservative who also reads books and loves talking substance about ideas, what conservatives do you feel best speak for you?

Alternet compensation

chickletworks — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:08:15 -0800

If a blogger has a blog post "reprinted" on Alternet, do they generally get paid? (And if so, how much?)

Old Media PR vs. New Media PR

landedjentry — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:26:10 -0800

Bloggers: Help me not annoy you. So I have this shiny new job with Think Tank X, and part of this job is online/new media promotion. I've been charged with generating a list of blogs that would be interested in our (progressive, usually political) material.

My boss wants me to put said blogger list in a database so she can send out targeted press releases. I'm hesitant, because I know bloggers are resistant to traditional PR tactics -- i.e., dislike generic press releases, blanket mail blasts, etc. I also know that even with tags it's difficult to target information to bloggers who have a very narrow scope.

I've seen this question before, but mine is really more related to reports and op-eds and the like.

So bloggers: What do you like and not like when mailed information? Are you ever okay with generic press releases? Is there ever a time when you're cool with snail mail or phone calls? Should I just leave you alone? (Would you want to hear about this new report we're releasing?)

Thanks for any information.

Big names in blogs.

EarBucket — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:42:27 -0800

What are the biggest/most influential political blogs on the Internet? I'm putting together a list of the most influential political bloggers for a project I'm working on. I want to get a wide range of political viewpoints; people like Josh Marshall and Markos Moulitsas on the left, Glenn Reynolds and Michelle Malkin on the right. They don't necessarily need to be as prominent as those examples, but I am looking for blogs with a sizable readership.

You don't need to agree with the editorial viewpoint of the blogs in question--in fact, part of the project will involve analyzing predictions made by the various bloggers, so quality is not necessarily an issue. Someone who's constantly wrong about everything but read by thousands of people is better than a brilliantly insightful blog that only gets a few dozen hits a day.

Is there a community for self-hosted bloggers?

raddevon — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:13:36 -0800

BlogFilter: I found the blogfarms too confining for my blog, but I miss the social features. Is there any way to duplicate this for my self-hosted blog? I tried several blogfarms: Wordpress, LiveJournal, Blogger, and Vox. I ended up choosing Vox and started blogging. Then I found their system was quirky. There were some post editing bugs and some features that seemed obvious but just weren't there. Now, I've purchased hosting and setup my own blog with WordPress. I'm very happy with the WordPress Engine, but I miss the social aspects of the Vox site. In particular, I liked the interest groups. I could join and then cross-post a blog entry to an applicable interest groups to get it out there in front of the people who might enjoy reading it. Is there any community site which would provide these types of features but let me bring my own blog? I'm not much interested in the straight-up social networking sites like myspace and facebook unless that's the best option. Is there something targeted to bloggers?

I should also mention that this is a personal blog.

Bloggers for hire?

afx237vi — Mon, 28 May 2007 08:27:01 -0800

I'd like to hire one, or maybe two, bloggers to keep my subject-specific weblog updated while I go on vacation (two weeks only). Is there a website that hooks up bloggers with potential clients for this purpose?

Know Any Married Bloggers?

faunafrailty — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:00:30 -0800

I'm looking for examples of well-known bloggers who are married and each has a blog (like Heather from Dooce and her husband Jon with Blurbomat) or for a blogger who seems to share a great deal about her/his marriage with their spouse's knowledge and apparent blessing. Any ideas? Thanks.

Blog Hoax

lemonfridge — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 08:43:37 -0800

What was the name and site of the girl a couple of years ago, who claimed to be terminally ill, but was just making it up for the sake of her blog?

If the site is down, does anyone know the details?

Is the average blogger poorer than the average person?

growabrain — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 18:21:23 -0800

After reading hundreds of blogs (Why, oh why?), I’ve come to the conclusion that a big number of the people who write about their own financial situation, explicitly or indirectly tell of how broke they are; Like Jim Anchower, many describe low wages and bad jobs, job losses and unemployment, crashing bills, life in apartments with roommates who don’t care and having a hard time paying rents & bills, etc. I understand that the real median household income in 2003 was $43,318 (US), and I know that times are hard for most people. Still, is the average blogger poorer than the average person?

Help me with the Moveable Type learning curve

baltimore — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 17:39:52 -0800

I'm a TypePad user, moving to Movable Type. I know that MT is much more powerful, but out of the (virtual) box, it is lacking in a lot of the cool features (book lists, photo albums, blogrolls) that TypePad has built in.

What's the best place for a n00b like me to go to start bringing MT into line with what I had in TypePad? I've been slogging through the MT Plugins site, but if there's an even easier guide out there, I'll gladly admit I'm an MT loser and just paint-by-numbers!

Looking for Good Republican Blogs

djacobs — Tue, 16 Nov 2004 11:32:51 -0800

What are some Republican good blogs, nothing too reactionary, that are worth adding to my feed reader? Thanks.

Transcripts of DNC convention speeches

anastasiav — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 10:52:33 -0800

I need to find written transcripts of the speeches given at the Democratic National Convention. I know the speech texts are being given to the press in advance, 'cause a number of the bloggers have mentioned getting them, but I can't seem to find a central spot on the web where they're being published. I've found Howard Dean's on Democracy For America - anyone have any idea where I can find the rest? (The DNC wasn't any help)

Away from Livejournal

lazaruslong — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 17:27:46 -0800

So I am sick of livejournal, and I want to start a blog independent of any form sites. Also, I am interested in learning to create backends and architecture for sites similar to Mefi. Where should I start? What languages? Perl? Bear in mind, my own programming experience is limited to a fairly fluent grasp of HTML, which I know isn't really programming at all. Tips?

Best Web Writing

thomascrown — Wed, 18 Feb 2004 06:43:26 -0800

What blogs (and specific postings) belong in our upcoming Best of Web Writing book? For the past couple of years, I've been running an indie film production company, and I'm now launching a sister book publishing arm. The first thing we'll be putting out (as sort of a warm-up lap) is a Best of Web Writing print anthology, patterned after Houghton Mifflin's great Best American Short Stories (or Best American Magazine Writing, etc.) series.

The bias for the volume will be towards personal narrative non-fiction: people writing about their lives, rather than politics, web design, technology, or whatever else. We currently have the first ten or so bloggers in mind, but are ideally looking for fifteen or so more, and I'd to love hear MeFites' suggestions for both entire blogs or (more ideally) a couple of good postings from any given blog, showcasing their ability to use language.