Friday, November 6, 2009

182 - When you have to censor your blog

Recently, I have been trying to join a blog distributor. What this is is basically a system in which bloggers are paid to blog about certain things, to give their opinion on certain products and services. Clients signing on to the blog distributor will be looking for a certain theme of blog, like 'travel', to advertise their sleeping bags, for example. The blog distributor will notify the blogger, telling him/her to blog about sleeping bags, and the client gets what he wants, and the blogger gets paid a certain amount of money, 75% of what the client pays, and the other 25% goes to the blog distributor.

I put 'Do you hate it too?' under the 'Humor' category, because I'd like to think this blog is funny (or is it just me?). I got to choose a few more categories, so I chose 'Anger Management', 'Entertainment', 'Entertainment for Youth' and 'Stand-Up Comedy'. Amusing, isn't it, how I chose Anger Management?

Anyway, what I was thinking was that clients would be looking for some funny blogs, and so they can check in with me, the creator of 'Do you hate it too?', to see if I can write about one of their pet peeves. It's quite a long shot, I must admit, but I'm willing to try anything to get a bit of financial benefit from my blogging.

Last week, I received an e-mail from the blog distributor, and let me just copy and paste a segment of it here:
In order to have your Blog Certified with Blog Distributor, it must not contain profanity. The following is a list of the profane words we found in your Blog: s--t (6), p--ses (2), f--kin (2), f--king (2), f--k (4), b--ches (2), a-- (2).

I found this hilarious when I first read it - the fact that they actually counted the number of each profane word. Then I realized I would actually have to go back through all my posts, locate these cuss words and modify them so that they still made sense. I've already done it, and I can tell you, there was a lot more profanity than they actually counted. It was quite annoying to do so, and I don't entirely understand why it mustn't contain profanity. In voicing your opinion in a public forum, sometimes bad words are effective tools to create emphasis. Surely, many professional critics out there swear in their reviews sometimes, right?

On second though, perhaps not.

What do you guys think? Would you still be the same bloggers if you had to censor your writing?

9 comments:

Passion said...

What would the f**ing motherf***ing scumbag sucking ass***es know about whats funny anyway...LOL
Yeah, I know you now have to delete this comment...but smile as you do huh!


(it was worth it)

Five said...

They're paying you. To shut up.

That's fine with you? IT'S VIOLATING THE SACRED LAW OF THE INTERNET, AND THAT IS KEEPING THE NET AN ANARCHY.

NO RULES! AND NO ONE TELLS YOU TO STOP TYPING IN ALL-CAPS!

Isn't that fun? Censoring your blog is sinful.

Unknown said...

I censor my language on the blogs, but then again, who wants me to start using the F word on a cooking blog or on a kids blog.

Now if I were being told what to write, in terms of content, I'd be pissed. :)

OH -- You have an award to pick up over at Tales of the Kids.

-marcy

Douglas said...

I censor my own blogs. I resist any external censorship. Is that hypocritical? I don't think so. Still, if you wish to accept money from these people, you know up front that you will have to conform to certain "standards" and that makes it up to you.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry but that is absolutely ridiculous, the reason your blog is so funny ( to me anyways ) is because of your diction and such, now, saying you cannot cuss is like saying you can't write in English (or any other language for that matter ). It's part of the language ! It is why bloggers blog rather than conveying their message through the use of body language in videos ( YouTube lol ). That's annoying ! Grrrrr!

Michael said...

Passion: Nope, an abundance of asterisks makes your comment okay. :)

Eugene: It's alright, in the end. I knew that I would eventually lay down this rule one day - I just was never pushed to actually go forward with it. Swearing and cussing, I feel, isn't as effective as using other emphatic techniques (like using rarer and bigger words and careful formatting), so it's alright. It's all good.

Marcy: That is true - no room for the F word there, although, perhaps there should be... cooking and kids can be quite irritating. (Thanks for the award, I shall go collect it soon.)

Douglas: I'm not earning money yet, this is merely a shot I'm taking. I'm fine with the censorship, and as I said to Eugene, I think it's a good thing.

Evelina: That makes me sound like a horrible young man that does nothing but use bad words. lol

RenRexx said...

I try not to censor.... but I do use **** or F-yah to show what I mean.

Ocasionally do, I have dropped f-bombs, but mainly in the beginning.

Michael said...

RenRexx: I now use f**k. Ah, well.

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