This is Peter’s blog. He has every right to post whatever he likes, in whatever tone he deems appropriate. He obviously felt strongly enough about the issue to write about it publicly, but he made it clear from the very start that the entire post was his opinion and that other people’s mileage may vary.

We all have topics that just rub us the wrong way, no matter how they’re presented, and we all have different reasons or experiences behind those feelings. It takes a varying amount of time before we’re able to process those emotions and reflexive reactions in order to come up with more constructive alternatives. …And this goes for both sides of the issue here.

I think Peter’s post was a knee-jerk reaction — which is part of being human. I also feel as though many of the initial responses were knee-jerk in return. Again, understandable. I think the fact that reasonably intelligent discussion was borne of such impulsive banter sends a much clearer — and all-around better — message.

If I’m so off the rails, why are you so worried about what I think, Brian?

Because of the negativity. The posts were spammy. We’re begging for money. We’re harassing people who are already harassed enough. You didn’t offer any constructive criticism until 27 comments in.

If you were upset about us being spammy, a short email to one of us (like Ferrel) would have been the polite thing to do. “Hey, all those posts seem a bit spammy to me. Perhaps in the future you could spread them out a bit.” That person could have spread it around to the rest of us. Actually, I think you’re right and that’s a better way to go about it. But, a simple email could have addressed the problem without a, “I suggest that people are getting so sick of being ‘urged to donate’ that they’ll stop donating out of spite,” negative rant post on your site and the comments that followed.

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@All:
Y’know, I have to admit, Brian Green finally managed to get past my thick skin. As to why I felt the need to write the post in the first place, it sprang out of a Twitter conversation that morning. I mentioned being spammed by donation requests from blogs that morning, someone agreed with me, and someone else took offense to what I said. Hard to elaborate on my thoughts in 140 characters, so I wrote a blog post.

I don’t know why people who’ve never commented here, and I suspect have never been here before, come here to fuss at me, because at the end of the day, as Aruda said:

“Truth be told you’ve done exactly what we wanted/needed. You may not give to any of the listed charities and perhaps tomorrow you wont remember this at all, but you’ve spread the word. That’s why people have launches.”

If I’m so off the rails, why are you so worried about what I think, Brian? The worst thing that can happen is someone will read my rant, think “Wow, he’s an ass” and then click the link to wind up at Ferrel’s blog where they can then find a place to donate their money.

If *1* person did that, then aren’t you ahead of the game?

Or do you think I have such a powerful force of personality that I’m somehow going to convince people not to donate? Trust me, I don’t have that kind of influence. Have you *ever* read this blog before? No, I didn’t think so. Nor will you again. And in any event, I never suggested that anyone should *not* donate.

I simply stated that people are already drowning in requests for donations and I don’t think yet another source of these requests is a good thing. I stand by that opinion. It’s my opinion. I’m not a social scientist. I didn’t poll a random demographic. I just know its how I, and a few friends, felt about the blitz.

I do think having essentially the same post on 5 blogs, all cross-linking, is spam (I suggest Google would agree with me…you lot must’ve smelled like a link farm that morning). Note the word “think”. You may feel differently. I don’t see how Ferrel announcing the MMO Blog Alliance Charity Fund drive (with a request to join in), followed over the next few days or even weeks by posts at various blogs, would’ve been the least bit “deceptive” (your word). I think in fact it would’ve been better received that way and possibly more effective. I *know* it would’ve been better received by me.

I can picture it now: “It’s time for the Annual MMO Blogging Alliance Charity Drive! You can find a list of participating blogs below. Over the next few weeks each of these bloggers will share a few favorite charities and we hope if you have a bit extra to share, you can find a cause that speaks to you personally. If you’d like to participate in the drive this year, please drop me an email and we’ll add you to the list.” etc etc. How is the deceitful? Instead of everyone putting the same 5-10 links in their posts and overwhelming readers with repeated content, they caould all link back to one central page with all the ‘common’ information about the drive and the alliance.

That wouldn’t be spammy, it’d be more respectful of your reader’s time, and I believe it would ultimately be more effective.

The only thing “hurtful” here is that some people write a blog and only want to hear when people agree with them. If you’re going to put your thoughts out there, particularly when you’re asking people to open their wallets, you have to accept that some people are going to disagree. I have made ZERO personal attacks in this post or this thread, I have singled no one out and only pointed to Ferrel’s original post for people WHO ARE INTERESTED IN GETTING INVOLVED and in fact have made a point of acknowledging the noble intent behind this program. If someone finds this hurtful, they have to own that; I can’t.

And no, I don’t *personally* have an issue with the Dragon Age posts. I did *personally* have an issue with reading 5 pleas for money in the space of 10 minutes. Key term: “personally”.

If you personally have an issue with Dragon Age posts, I invite you to write a post on your blog complaining about them or pointing out how they annoy you. I’m not going to charge over there and get in your face about voicing your opinion.

I point out again, I haven’t left a single comment on any of blogs in this “MMO Blogger Alliance.” I was personally annoyed by something that happened and since it was a personal reaction, the ‘right’ thing to do seemed to me, to be to write about it on my own blog. As someone else said recently: “It’s my damn blog and I’ll say whatever I please here, whenever I please, and however I damn well please.”

Or perhaps that sentiment doesn’t apply to both sides of the argument?

So, what you’re saying is we should have been deceptive and let someone like Ferrel post first, then we should have pretended that we were just “reblogging with our own comment”? The horrible part is that Ferrel decided to get a few others involved beforehand and we posted on the same day? There’s a reason why marketing has a reputation for being underhanded, because if people like you go off on a tear when people are honest about their intentions.

I guess I’m just confused why this deserved a lengthy (and I guess hurtful yet hastily edited) rant. As Tesh points out, there’s been a lot more posts about Dragon Age: Origins, a single-player game, on the MMO blogs lately. Judging from the extended nerdgasm of posts on your site, I guess you don’t have a problem with that. Personally, I read MMO blogs for MMO commentary, not to hear (yet again) about the already heavily hyped Bioware game.

Not worth a QQing post on my own blog, though. I wanted to try to help make the world a better place instead.

But that’s just me. I’m not really bothered by this wave of charity posts since I assume Good Intentions. It is a wee bit spammy, but then, I tend to also ignore all of the recent posts on Dragon Age, too, since I’ll never play it. Having been around the internet for a little while, I’ve picked up a few filters.

@Brian Green – I generally cover ‘whining’ under the category Pointless Rambling and the tag Rants but will consider sub-categorizing. Thanks.

“many other people a subtle prompting might get them to do the generous thing.”

And that gets back to one of my points, there was nothing even slightly subtle about this. Honestly if any one of the blogs I read had had their post up, I would’ve maybe ranted about holidays starting too early but wouldn’t have given it another thought beyond “Oh, that’s a nice idea, good for them.” It’s this “We’re going to form a MOVEMENT.” that I found off-putting. But I’ve gone on about that ad nauseum at this point.