Comments on: Don’t Blog Anything Negative? I Call BS

By: 5chw4r7z

5chw4r7z — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:34:37 +0000

Thats true for someone trying to be a journalist.
I’m just a blogger impossing his will on Cincinnati.
And it’s slowly working.

By: Loki

Loki — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:59:38 +0000

Hey Liprap! Great to see you on here! For those unaware Liprap is one of the bloggers on CincyVoices sister site: HumidCity.com.

Good to see some cross pollination going on here!

By: liprap

liprap — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:59:15 +0000

Speaking as a New Orleanian, we’re never hesitant over here to talk about the things that bother us. It adds to discourse, gets us talking about the city we care about deeply and how to make it better, and it generally brings out our best…and it pulls others from out of town into the dialogue as well. My mother-in-law took a gander at some of what the NOLA blogging community was talking about and wanted me to help her find something similar in the Silicon Valley area of No-Cal where she lives, as she craves that kind of give-and-take. I couldn’t find it there, and it left me wondering a lot about how ideal her area really was. It’s important to question the status quo – where you live isn’t a vacuum. Stuff happens. It’s not a crime to ask why and to dig a little deeper, even if it doesn’t please everyone.

It’s nice to see it happening elsewhere, and it’s great to see it in places like Cincinnati. Don’t discount talking about what bothers you about where you live just because it might cast a negative light. If you post about it honestly and well, the fact that you care and you’re not out to flame anyone unnecessarily will show.

If you ARE out to kick someone’s ass, though, back it up with solid proof and watch your own behind. The world just keeps getting smaller. Be careful.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:59:59 +0000

Thanks! What a great post. About the only time negative posts annoy me is when they are personal, mean-spirited, or misinformed. Frankly, if all people hear is cheerleading, how will they know what needs to change?

Balance is important. The strength to me about blogs are the diversity of opinion. I have had times when people posted something negative, explained why they didn’t like it, and it actually ended up being something that made me look more positively on the object of their negativity.

By: GeekJames

GeekJames — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:37:05 +0000

Great post!

I think one of the best personal souvenirs to have survived my Nixon-era coming-of-age is a pin-on button that reads “Question Authority”.

We really must ask questions. Mediocrity and blind acceptance create more mediocrity and blind acceptance.

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:24:25 +0000

Agreed with Loki and Kathy– you can be negative while being constructive. You can be positive without being a cheerleader who likes everything. You can also be negative while being polite.

By: Loki

Loki — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:16:07 +0000

@kathy I’m so glad that you got that. The good stuff needs to be blogged about, hell yeah! As a relative newcomer to the city I want people blogging about good stuff so that I have an easier time finding it.

Integrity is the bottom line and you cannot have integrity if you are simply a cheerleader. By the same token those who are 100% negative are equally useless. It is from those ranks that the trolls who haunt the comments sections are drawn. You have to face reality and not shy away from the facts. An important corollary to this is that not shying away from the facts also means publicly taking responsibility and apologizing when you yourself are in the wrong.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:04:53 +0000

I’m not sure I read Loki as suggesting to eliminate the positive, but to take up the moral responsibility to recognize that deal with the negative as well.

As an art writer/critic, i remain very conscious of this. I often quote an art professor I had for an introduction to art history. She said, “if you like nothing, you have no taste, but if you like everything you have no taste.”

It’s about integrity.

It is about respecting the discourse

By: Fadi

Fadi — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:55:57 +0000

While I cannot but agree with you with cutting the BS when it comes to Blogging Cincy, I have to point that in some cases it is important.

I have lived in Cincinnati for a bit over two years now, and never thought of it as my home, in fact I pretty much hated it and couldn’t wait till I am free from my educational shackles so that I can move out to somewhere more like “home”. Only recently have I become aware of Cincinnati based blogging (as a non blogger it doesn’t just occur to me to go out and look for blogs) and blogging the positive has made me love this city more and more. It’s still not home, however slowly but surely it is becoming so. I am learning the nuances of the city and it being mostly positive has made me see the positive side.

I do agree though that blogs shouldn’t be a tourism infomercial, and I would love to read more “real” blogs. But what can I say, this “everything is AWESOME” atmosphere has drawn me in, or maybe i’m just shallow like that!

By: clarence hall

clarence hall — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:01:43 +0000

I was raised in Northside. I know it is a little different now that it was 60 years ago. But I must say it took just as much chutzpah to survive then as it does now! At times it felt like I had to come out swinging every time I left the house on Mad Anthony Street. It was a different set of demographics but was all too real then. I guess that is why I like to point out the good things I see now. I have the best set of neighbors now than I have had anyplace I have ever lived. I am older now and can’t do a lot of the things I use to do. . My neighbor shoveled my snow for me without me asking him to. How cool is that? There is no place that I have lived that is quieter or where I felt safer. I was robbed twice in West Chester Ohio and once in Arizona. I don’t worry here!