Future of Blogging

So a major group gave a pretty nice award to a plagiarist and luke-warm supporter of gun rights. Alan says this means nobody is listening to the blogs.

Meanwhile Miguel thinks its just old-style political work in a new world, and people sticking with what they know.

I have received an email from SAF pointing out they were unaware of Farago’s ugly and deplorable behavior. I believe them. Not everybody into guns or gun rights is into blogs, or Facebook, or Youtube or any other popular new media. Also Mr. Farago is NOT a Gun Rights or gun expert, what he IS good at is SEO, so google searches for his name and various terms, generally just lead back to his web page. Hell if you type in this post by Tam into google Farago’s plagiarism of it is the #1 hit. Essentially to dig up the truth about his site is you need to have an idea what’s going on in the first place, which if they were researching him for the award, they probably weren’t.

I personally think Alan today saying “Blogging is Dead” would be like somebody in 2000 saying “Women Don’t Shoot”, or what was said in the 1990s “The AR-15 has no sporting purpose”.

There are people on the cutting edge of an issue who will see the bullshit…but more pedestrian people will lag behind for a bit.

Plus I LIKE blogging, and I like reading your comments, and I suspect you ENJOY reading and commenting, so who am I to belittle that?

I’ll end with this quote: “A plagiarist calling gun rights advocates stupid? How great is that? Or, come to think of it, original.” -Robert Farago

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19 Responses to Future of Blogging

  1. Linoge says:

    Wait… Farago had the gall to call out another plagiarizer after having stolen no fewer than three images/pictures and two entire posts from actual gunbloggers?

    The fact that he was not immediately struck down by a well-placed bolt of lightning either disproves the existence of God, or proves that God has a twisted sense of humor; either way, that man’s irony quotient is rapidly approaching critical mass.

    The SAF seemed receptive to the email I copied you on yesterday as well as another person’s observations regarding Farago’s blatantly confrontational and insulting behavior when interacting with both Ms. Miller and Mr. Gura. Hopefully they will realize the error they made and take steps to correct it.

    And blogging is not dead… some people just do not do their homework before acting, unfortunately.

  2. Alan says:

    It would be more like saying flintlocks are obsolete. They had their day, and they’re still around, but no one pays them any attention.

  3. Jennifer says:

    Blogging is just fine. He’s just one bad apple that needs to be thrown out. In this case, I think he really is one of those problems that will go away if people just ignore him. Inform those who don’t know, but don’t let him stir up controversy.

  4. Miguel says:

    So what happens when Facebook dies? Its demise has been announced as it happened with MySpace.

  5. Phssthpok says:

    In another conversation I likened the kerfuffle over the award to Chris Mathews receiving a Pulitzer for reporting on the work David Codrea and Mike Vanderbough did uncovering fast & Furious; Only those ‘in the know’ would understand how utterly inappropriate it would be, and those that aren’t ‘in the know’ wouldn’t even CARE about who won what award.

  6. breda says:

    Unless gunbloggers decide collectively to become SEO experts like Farago, I’m afraid you’re stuck with him.
    And correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t Farago been a slimy bastard for quite a while now? Trying to get rid of and discredit him now, only after he’s won this “award” will make gunbloggers seem jealous. You all have been willing to put up with him until now, posting occasional little complaints about his plagiarism and such but the moment he gets an award? Oh, NO! Can’t have THAT.

    Big fish, little pond.

    • Jack says:

      Pardon the nitpick, but shouldn’t that be “We” instead of “You”.

      You have gotten back into blogging. And you are a VC alumnus and one of the SR quartet. When you blog and appear weakly with Weerd, Alan and JayG are you not a gunblogger? Or are you a gunpodcaster? Or is the Squirrel Report not Gun!Medium#Name. Is there a difference?

      Do you not consider yourself a gunblogger? This is an honest question with no umbrage intended.

      What defines a gunblogger is surprisingly nebulous.
      Take Tam for example. Not much of her content is gunblogging, and yet…

      I’ll second Les’s comment. It would take a lot of effort above and beyond the SEO task.

      It seems a bit of bad pool to complain about people that haven’t done enough and seem to almost be collaborating with Fargo by being ” willing to put up with him”.

      Or do you mean that people complain about Fargo but don’t *do* anything about it? And as Les said, what can be done is pretty limited. Maybe launching a website to counter his and try beat him at his own SEO game.

      • breda says:

        No, I do not consider myself a gunblogger (& not even really a blogger at all anymore, to be honest. I just recently considered entirely deleting the mess that is my second blog).

        The SQRPT was specifically intended to not</i be a gun podcast. I would never have agreed to be part of it.

        I did not imply that any gunblogger is collaborating with Farago, please do not put words in my mouth that were never there.

        • breda says:

          Umm, yeah. HTML thingy.

        • Jack says:

          That makes sense then. You would truely be out looking in.

          I wasn’t sure if the SR isn’t a “gun whatever” but I’ll take your word on it.

          Appologies for putting words in your mouth. I was unsure on if that was what you were saying. It sounded almost as if you were going that way, hence my weasle words.

          • Weerd Beard says:

            Yeah the Squirrel Report is a News and Talk call-in show. I just so happens that all the hostes and many of the listeners are shooters.

            We decided there were lots of good gun podcasts out there, and it would be silly to attempt to compete with them.

        • Roberta X says:

          Breda, I’m sure sorry you stopped having fun with this stuff. 🙁

  7. Bubblehead Les says:

    And my friends say “Why don’t you get a Blog?” Sigh!

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Farago raise Cain at NRA Pittsburgh at that SAF thing on Saturday night? So why he got an Award in Florida, I’ll never know.

    I agree with Breda’s sentiment, but to get rid of Farago, it’ll take “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” as the song goes. So if there’s a Millionaire Blogger out there that wants to shut him down, I’d be happy to see that happen. But I don’t have Deep Pockets, so unless someone else is willing to do so with the Cash, all we can do is continue to call “a Spade a Spade.”

  8. Linoge says:

    I do not think anyone realistically believes we can “get rid of” Robert Farago.

    I do know, however, that we can warn newbies to the gun community and old-timers as well – such, as for example, the SAF – of the activities that particularly disgusting person has been up to of late.

    If they choose to associate with Farago after that, well, “ignorance” is no longer an excuse.

    • Weerd Beard says:

      I don’t want to get rid of ANYBODY, the internet is big enough for all of us. What I don’t like are the blatant lies, and people assuming theives are our friends, or that I or anybody else I associate with have anything in common with that bunch of slack-jaw’d attention whores.

      Nope the Truth About Guns can stick around all it wants, I just want to make sure everybody who cares knows they’re the Blog version of “Sons of Guns”!

  9. Pingback: Is “The Truth About Guns” Killing Gun Blogging? | Shall Not Be Questioned

  10. ExurbanKevin says:

    Don’t like TTAG or RF (as I do) ?

    Beat him at his own game. Living well (and unique visits) are the best revenge.

    There’s nothing RF has done that can’t be duplicated by other bloggers, and we have the added advantage of actually knowing what we’re talking about.

  11. TTAG is the blog version of “Sons of Guns”? I like it!!!

    I plan to use that – with proper attribution – in the future.

  12. Roberta X says:

    Relentless self-promoters will get recognition; that’s why they keep hammering away. It’s not always positive attention but the model is, “Any publicity is good publicity.”

    For me, this blogging stuff is a hobby, not a business or a crusade. (YMMV.) I’m gonna write stuff anyway, so it might as well see the light of people’s screens.

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