I'm shakin' it on the dance floor at Abe and Jakes on Friday night when a fight broke out. Punches were thrown, knives were drawn, clothes came off, blood spewed on the floor and twenty cop cars lined the street. As I feared for my life and my night of fun I realized what the fight entailed. Two guys were fighting over who gets the most hits on their blogs. It was a typical he said – he said argument, which of course ends in a black eye, bloody nose or stab wound.
Okay, so that is a slight dramatization (emphasis on slight).
Don't shoot me (no pun intended) for replacing athlete with blogger and the cause of the fight with site hits.
I can only wonder what it would be like to be an A-list blogger or bloggerati. If A-list blogging is anything like A-list celebrities then "Houston, we have a problem." I envision bloggerati on the V.I.P. list at all the hot parties, drinking too much Cristal, fighting over other A-list bloggers and doing anything possible to get attention.
To become and A-list blogger you must provide provocative content and network to everyone you meet. But once you're there, how do you stay on top? It must get to the point when you create fabricated hype surrounding your blog for fear of moving to the B-list.
So, for instance, if bloggerati will do anything to stay on top, like celebs, then there is a grand possibility that much of what they say is just for audience reaction.
But then the question must be posed. What are blogs for and what types of blogs are on the A-list?
Technorati lists the usual suspects: Wonkette, a personal favorite, Gawker, Engadget and Lifehacker. The number one favorited blogger is deserving of the prestigious title, Comedian Jenée: People are Idiots, is hilarious, who needs to go to a comedy show anymore, now you can just read the comedy online.
We live in a time when it's too easy to poke fun at the news, politicians and the most outrageous trends. What the O'Riley Factor, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report do for television, bloggerati do for the internet.
But A-list blogs are telling it like it is and that's what people want to read. The satirical references to the topical and outrageous leave readers scrolling for more. Most A-listers aren't blogging about hard news, but they are telling their version of the news at an angle that television often neglects – humanization. If people want news they go to the names they trust the most. But if people want in-your-face humor, satire, bluntness and real opinions they look to the bloggers. Also, many bloggers are techies so coincidentily they blog about new technology and fancy gadgets.
Although blogs are individualized to meet the interests of a particular niche, there is always a pecking order. It isn't an ideal world for the B-List or Z-List bloggers, like me, who don't have an A-list usership, but when you find your audience they will receive you just like you were an A-lister.
But like celebs, the A-listers are around about as long as the "bag of the season." Just as there is a natural hierarchy, so is the realization that you ‘re just as good as the next blogger and he's actually funny.
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