What I've learned

Yep. I'm officially a blogging whiz kid.

That's right. I've got, like, one loyal reader and get tens of hits. Daily. Ah, yeah!

That all makes me perfectly qualified to carp about things. Well, not carp. Advise. That's what I mean. I'm perfectly qualified to advise. I've noticed a few things after blogging away for the past few weeks, too.

Digg it!

People who visit blogs love convenience, see, and they may even stop to Digg your article provided you have a nice, big Digg chicklet in an easy-to-see spot. I have so provided such a convenient chicklet and would suggest that all bloggers do the same thing. If I see one of those chicklets on a post, I'm inclined to hit it, thus adding my always valuable "this is cool!" endorsement to the article in question.

I've noticed that a lot of bloggers add those chicklets but don't bother to submit Diggs on their own posts. What gives? I've heard there's some kind of ethical argument against Digging your own stuff, but I say phooey to that. I hate being the first Digger because, hey, what if I don't hit the category the author believes is appropriate or write something stupid in the description for the thing?

Ethics? Feh! What are ethics on the Internet, anyway? It's a medium that allows us to steal music and one that is frequented by scam artists that promise they can make us rich for a small investment of $10 or so. What's wrong with a little self-promotion? Go ahead and Digg your own post.

Moderated comment sections are for sissies

My comment section is wide open, and why not? Open forums lead to a free exchange of ideas and that's dandy fun. Someone might write something nasty about The Hawg, but I'm a big boy and I can take it. I ain't scared.

And that "captcha" junk and all those other "verification" schemes need to go, too. I'm not worried about spam -- there are 6 billion people on this planet and very few of them visit here. This little blog isn't large enough to attract a bunch of spam. Besides, I'd rather keep things nice and convenient for the people who are kind enough to leave a comment.

If things get too spammy around here, then I'll try one of those verification whatsits. Until then, I'll just risk it.

Tread lightly around political blogs

Picking a fight with someone who owns a political blog is more trouble than it's worth. Think about it. If you've got someone who dedicates an entire blog to politics, you're dealing with someone who is pretty serious about it. Poking fun at the individual's views and/or that person's candidate of choice can be on par with insulting a man's wife if you're dealing with someone who is either insane or has no sense of humor (common conditions among the hardcore political types). Opposing views are rarely tolerated -- they're right, you're wrong and it's their forum. Keep that in mind.

An old adage comes into play here -- if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. That'll keep the political nuts from howling at you, at least. If you agree with the hyper serious political bloggers, comment away. Otherwise, just nod and flee.

By the way, Obama supporters seem to be the worst of the lot. No sense of humor at all when it comes to their golden boy. I'm not sure why that is.

That's about it. Y'all have fun!