b5media comes under fire
b5media, owner of this site (and a whole pile of others) has come under fire following a post from b5media President Jeremy Wright discussing the growing infrastructure needs of the organisation.
Jeremy writes that the network has been having uptime issues, and then later comments that the uptime is at 99.53%. Perhaps it was an unfortunate use of words in the post but we are buying a new box as soon as I get our monthly disbursements underway, and I can say now that the uptime here at the Blog Herald on our dedicated box compared to my time at Site5 is bloody brilliant. Sure, sometimes we have busier periods, but we are getting there. Bloggers are being paid, content is being written, and as much as I know all the blogs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, that’s not what the traffic figures are saying. Im reading most of the sites daily, and to me some of them are are totally boring, whilst others are brilliant. But I’m not everyone. For example some of the blogs written by Arieanna (in particular Mischa News and Hilary News) are very sucessful, and yet as much as I appreciate working with Arieanna, and I recognise she’s got a great writing stile, I’m not the least bit interested in the topic. But again, this is me, and I’m not everyone. People like this stuff, and the customer is always right.
Hmmm. How do the writers of those blogs feel about their ‘boss’ calling them “totally boring”, and publically stating that he’s “not the least bit interested about the topic”?
I’m speaking from a business common sense angle, and also partly from experience, but surely, as the network owner, it’s your responsibility to support your bloggers (and your blogs) in a much, much more positive way than that?
If you don’t believe in your own blogs, then you’re going to have a tough time convincing other readers to believe in them. Same goes for potential investors, buyers, whatever.
All that post tells me is that you’re in it for the money. Nothing more, nothing less. Hardly the message you want to send out, is it?
Barry-I am quite sure mine is one of the totally boring ones to Duncan (he hasn’t said so, but he certainly wouldn’t be the first man to say it…). But that is ok, I don’t think anyone expects anyone to enjoy all of them. If he said he did, there would be a slew of comments calling him a liar. The point is, he is reading them, regardless, and is supportive of their prosperity whether it is a subject he prefers or not. One of the things that is so endearing about Duncan is that he is honest. Sometimes brutally. I, for one, feel totally supported by b5, AND Duncan. Just my .02 :)
Barry and for anyone else who may be wondering how some of us bloggers feel about Duncan calling some of the blogs “boring” I’d like to give my take on this…
Being a part of a “network” like b5 is like being part of a family (albeit a new and distant family – but still a family just the same).
The beauty of some finding passion in writing about “beauty products” like Christine mentions above and others writing about celebrity gossip, while others write about tech type stuff (that I SWEAR I cannot wrap my own brain around for the life of me) is that we provide a perfect MIX for something that WORKS!
If we were all passionate about the same things – the blogosphere would be quite a boring place now wouldn’t it?
Just because Duncan is one of the “execs” here in b5 – that doesn’t mean he has to enjoy every single thing any of us bloggers write – And I certainly don’t think any of us expect him to. That would he was a politician hiding in Pro-Blogger clothing :)
Just my humble 2 cents too :)
Yep… I totally agree that not everyone is going to enjoy reading about every subject. It’s pretty much impossible. But that wasn’t my point at all.
I saw it from a business angle, and I just thought it was a little strange to read a comment like that from one of the network owners – someone who really should be getting behind every single one of your blogs and really selling them, rather than calling some “totally boring”, and others “brilliant”.
I’ll quote from a comment on my post about it:
…You wouldn’t get someone like Calacanis saying “personally, I think engadget is a bit crapâ€?, or “actually, I’m not in the least bit interested in those new blogs we’ve just launched.â€? Why? Because like I said, you’ve got to be 110% behind any business if you want it to be a success….
Plus, I’m a professional writer myself, and I know that if someone who was employing me had said that a network blog that I was involved with was “totally boring” and in the same breath, labelled the next blog “brilliant” in public, instead of taking the opportunity to sell the quality of network as a whole, I’d be a bit miffed.
Just didn’t think it looked good for business, that’s all. And if someone in that position is gonna make comments like that, they’re gonna get called out. ;)
Believe me, I understand the “point” you’re trying to make.
I’ll just say that I have always admired the founders of b5 (since stumbling on them over a year ago) and when the opportunity came for me to work *with* them on any level, I jumped at the chance.
I respect them each a great deal simply because of the fact that they are “human” and not “stuffy corporate types.”
If I wanted “Corporate Style blogging”, there’s always those I do not speak.
Duncan,
Whoops, hit submit too fast. Anyway, just curious whether you think B5’s greed is causing these outages, or if you’ll be offering your advertisers a choice of refunds for your downtime?
hohoho Anil.
As for the other comments, I’m suggesting that the content isn’t boring to other people, its just that I’m not interested in a particular topic, as I’m sure some of the people writing for b5 find The Blog Herald or Simply Dumb boring. The point trying to be made is that interest is subjective, or in the eye of the beholder. I’ve seen people criticise our entertainment channel for example, and whilst I don’t find the topics interesting, people do because they are well read, and the writing is of high quality, its just that I don’t have an overall interest in the topics. The people making the criticism’s are doing so from their own perspectives, which is fair enough, but as an owner of b5media I’ve got to look at the bigger picture, and that is that different people have different interests. For example, I love reading Slashdot but my wife has no interest. She reads Go Fug Yourself and I have no interest….. I could go on for hours, but I’m sure you get the idea. We cater for a variety of tastes.
Christina, I am Duncan’s long suffering wife and I have to say I love your blog and I read it religiously. I also think that he appreciates your blog – he asked me about exfoliation just the other day.
Dunc is brutally blunt (its one of his best and worst qualities), and even though he doesn’t always like the content of the blogs, he is proud of each and everyone of the B5 blogs and each and everyone of the B5 bloggers.
I know – I have to listen to it every day!
Now why couldn’t he have said that in the first place?
Someone give Michelle a job. Quick.
;)
“Boring” isn’t a measurement. Jack of all blogs says many things in a semi serious and joke-link manner. You should not take everything they say “VERY” seriously.
Some bloggers find their “voice” over time.
I would look at other things like
User to pageview ratios
Time spent on site
oh, and B5 is simply having cashflow issues.
Ha –Hi Michelle…and thank you so much :) I am glad to know Duncan is getting something out of it!
Under attack? I count 1 negative comment. And an anonymous one at that, followed by a boatload of supportive ones. Did you just need a hook to plug b5 media this week?
Honestly I don’t think that most blog visitors worry too much about this sort of stuff unless the sites are unavailable for an extended period. I have noticed some odd problems with this site, like getting blank pages when I click on a link. However, hitting refresh usually works.
Eoghann
there was a fair bit of stuff on other sites as well. I suppose the bigger you get the bigger target you become.