Going BaNaNas

As some of you have noticed, I have recently taken the position of Wisconsin Editor for BNN. The job sounds a lot more prestigious than it really is. All I do is monitor the blogosphere on occasion, adding new blogs that meet the criteria and removing blogs that aren't active anymore. That's it. I have no influence on the influence rankings or anything like that.

Well, my tenure started out with a less than auspicious start when Cindy Kilkenny, author of Fairly Conservative, decided she wanted off of BNN's roster. Her original objection was to some of the ads that sometimes appear on BNN's home page. It has since morphed into accusing BNN, and its owner, David Mastio, of stealing her property and violating "Fair Use."

Shortly after Ms. Kilkenny started her crusade, Patrick Dorwin, owner of Badger Blogger, has also raised his objection to being on BNN's roster, with the accusation of BNN stealing his work.

David Mastio, in his own blog, has acknowledged their complaints, but has stated that he is not violating Fair Use.

Well, over the past few weeks, there has been a small flurry of post, comments, and attempts at technological trickery regarding BNN's readers and their ability to read these posts going back and forth.

I have not written about this before for several reasons. One, I don't have a horse in this race. Sure, I'm the editor, but I am doing it to help other new bloggers have a chance to get noticed and to help real conversation going on. Secondly, I have been having a bit of fun watching it all take place. You see, Mr. Dorwin and Ms. Kilkenny are obviously conservative, as is Mr. Mastio, who used to be a speech writer for one of President Bush's cabinet members. It's like watching a conservative circular firing squad. Thirdly, in my humble opinion, it is all rather silly.

Ms. Kilkenny and Mr. Dorwin have not expressed similar displeasure about other entities using their work in similar ways. In fact, Ms. Kilkenny has even boasted about having one of her posts on the editorial links at Wisopinion.com, until she deleted it. Likewise, Mr. Dorwin, who has criticized the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for some of their advertising decisions, has not raised an issue, as of the time of this writing, with them for using his material in this morning's paper.

Nor have they complained, publicly, about Google or Technorati or Wisopinion.com. Nor have they complained about other bloggers who have linked to them, cited them, and/or quoted them, and also have ads on their websites.

It should also be noted that both of Ms. Kilkenny and Mr. Dorwin have ads on their blogsites. They have both cited and quoted other bloggers and news media sources. Does this mean their in violation and are stealing other peoples stuff? Of course not, but it does display how silly these things can get.

And with all their complaining, their still high on the influential ratings chart. (Meanwhile, Cognitive Dissidence has yet to crack the top twenty. Shows my level of influence, eh?)

For another opinion, I offer the post of a fellow BNN editor, Tracy Coenen, who's real life career is being a forensic accountant.

Now, I am not a lawyer, and I don't know if Ms. Kilkenny and Mr. Dorwin have a legal case or not, but I would guess that since other bloggers have tried, and Mr. Mastio is still in business, Mr. Mastio has the law on his side.

With all that said, I also have to say that I think they are right. If they want off the roster, they should be allowed to be off the roster. I think it is a silly thing to want. After all, every blogger has a big ego, and that ego feeds off of attention. The more sources to get hits, to get attention, and to get their 15 minutes of fame would be better.

I know I write because I want to make my opinion heard. If I was really worried about attention, I would have stayed exclusively at folkbum's or Whallah! which gets a heckuva lot more hits than I have gotten here yet. But even if I end up talking to myself, so be it. It will only help me figure out things for myself. And if others want to share what they feel and think, whether or not they agree or disagree with my position-well, that is what blogging is supposed to be all about.

But like I said, if they want off the roster, that is their choice. Mr. Mastio may have the legal right to do what he is doing, but that does not necessarily mean it is the right thing to do.

But seeing that the two bloggers have not complained about the other aggregators, and Mr. Mastio does not seem very likely to give up what he sees his right, I would suggest that, if possible, Mr. Mastio have the readers for at least these two sites be set up so that it only shows the blogsite and the post title, and maybe only ten or twenty words, instead of fifty, like Google reader. That should satisfy all parties. Mr. Dorwin and Ms. Kilkenny have not raised similar objections to that reader so they should be comfortable with that, and Mr. Mastio would be able to keep two popular blogsites on his roster.

On a side note, I would like to congratulate my good friend, Illy-T, on achieving his goal regarding his BNN ranking.