So Very Tired

By Jake • January 11th, 2008 • View Comments

Anyone interested in the reasons why I started the blog tag game should read this. Anyone who has permanently judged me should skip it.

The game is a tried-and-true meme that’s been around for years. I didn’t invent it. Justin alluded to this in his response; his last go-round was in a tag from Jeff Pulver, who created the game in December 2006. My reasons for starting are as follows:

That last bit is the key point for me to emphasize. Let’s clear the air:

I get nothing from this, nor did I expect anything other than what’s listed.

Not subscribers, not pageviews or traffic, not attention, nothing, nada, zero, zilch, zip, donut. No one else stands to gain either, as far as I know. You’ll notice this post has no trackbacks or links to content. I had planned to analyze the responses and the spread of the meme and collect some commonalities between bloggers, again to create ties that were previously hidden. That’s not happening now.

Now that I’ve explained my reasons, let me thank those of you who participated (and who will participate). I have enjoyed reading your nuggets of personal information and am glad you decided to play along in good fun.

Next, let me say that I did not consider the flood of posts that would overrun aggregators like Eddie’s OraNA. Calling me a spammer is unwarranted, since spam is by definition unsolicited. By reading an aggregator, you are subscribing to all its content, personal or otherwise; none of the blogs that make up OraNA must agree to provide only Oracle-related content. Subscription equals solicitation.

For those who are personally affronted by the flood of personal information in aggregators, I say again, this was unintentional.

For those who have “suffered” in silence, I hope we can have a laugh about this soon. For those who have called me names in this blog, other blogs and in forums, please stop being rude and contact me directly if you wish to continue name-calling.


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  • Jake
    @Meg: Thanks, again.

    @David: My guess is you still yell at the TV, especially when "football" isn't going well.
  • Jake

    When I was at College I lived with a guy who used to sit in the corner of the room while a particular TV show was on(I can't even remember what the show was now) and literally yell abuse at the TV at the top of his voice. I suggested that maybe he shouldn't watch it seeing as he clearly hated what he saw and a less stessfull activity might be better. 'No way' he said, 'this is the favourite part of my week'.

    On the web, we post comments or blog instead of yelling at the TV.
  • Meg
    Jake, my comment on 8 things post still holds. You rock.
    - M
  • Jake
    @Marius: Good point, why don't you have a blog?

    @Chris: Thanks. I guess reports of the Interweb's demise were exaggerated. I feel the same way about nuggets of information. We don't gather much in person, so it's nice to build some camaraderie virtually. I think the games are over for a while, at least for me :)

    @Steven: I'm curious to see your hatemail now. Sounds interesting. I was taken aback by the vitriol, but what can you do? Thanks.

    @Robbert: I hope this isn't a bad thing for you.
  • Robbert van der Hoor
    At this moment, my blog-collector gets more hits on comments on this blog than on the other 'I have been tagged' blogs all together.
  • Hey, Jake,

    I wouldn't worry about it. Once one is prominent in the blogosphere, one is bound to attract brickbats along with the accolades. Just for laughs, remind me to share a recent incoherent and mystifying piece of hatemail I received a few weeks ago.

    Goes with the territory: not everyone will agree with everything you write. So be it.

    The web is a big place, and nobody's forcing anyone to read something. This is how freedom of speech is supposed to work on the web: if someone disagrees with what you say, they're free to say so on their own blog.

    Cheers,
    Steven Chan
  • I've been waiting for reports that Oracle bloggers brought the internet down with the power of 8..... but no luck so far.

    Like others comments here I've been hanging out for every "tag" post too. It's been a great exercise in removing the elitism shroud from Oracle staff and (non-Oracle) bloggers out there. I found it tough at OOW not knowing much about the people I met to crack the ice, but now I'm going to track a few people down and see if we can build on relationships based on common themes published in the tag posts.

    Howard is entitled to his point of view and he can react in any way he sees fit, but so are we.

    Keep up the good work Jake. Do you have any other fun games for us all to play? How about tag*32 ;)

    CM.
  • I don't understand what the big deal is. Sounds like fun. Wish I had a blog, so I can play too.
  • Jake
    @Peter K and @Paul: Thanks for chiming in with your support. I'm glad so many people have enjoyed the game. I hope the positive outweighs the negative.
  • Jake, ignore the criticism. With you all the way..

    The only stuff that's been clogging up my reader and getting up my nose of late has been all the petulant whinging complaining about this 8-things meme, and now all the post-analysis of who was right and wrong.

    And the only thing close to spam has been Howard's multiple posts and emails on the subject.

    Despite evidence that the 8-things idea never did get out of hand, and is well over now anyway (more's the pity), his site remains off the net. That is so funny!

    I think somewhere along the way, some forgot that this is the internet we are dealing with, not a database.

    There is no "SELECT * FROM internet WHERE topic='oracle' and category='only oracle' and stuff='only what I like';"

    Don't like what you get through an aggregator? Ignore it or roll your own, like using Yahoo Pipes...
  • Jake,
    Came in at a late stage as Doug "tagged" me early this week and I've been busy with work (no excuse). I wouldn't worry about it too much.

    Remember that you can't please everybody all the time so take it (the criticism) like water from a duck's back.

    Peter.
  • Jake
    @joel: Thanks, this is good advice that I plan to take tomorrow and Sunday.
  • "... but what can I do."

    Tom has discovered it, not to mention ancient Jewish sages: turn everything off at least a day per week.
  • Jake
    @Patrick: Thanks, I'm glad. That was the point, not to annoy people.
  • Jake,

    I also enjoyed reading the "8 things..." a lot. It doesn't always have to be technical. We are doing to much technical stuff anyway. Sometimes we need a relieve.

    Patrick
  • Jake
    @Matt: Thanks. I thought he'd have thought of categories already.
  • Matt
    Jake,

    Don't let the wet socks get to you. Let them turn off their servers and sit in the dark by themselves while everyone else has a fun time playing.

    Eddie already has categories in OraNA with their own RSS feed. He just needs to publicize it more so everyone with readers will know and use them. Of course, then he'd get blamed by the wet socks for spamming OraNA with a post for each feed. ;)

    Matt
  • Jake
    @Tim: Thanks. I'm sure this will all be "over-a-pint" material by OOW, if not sooner.

    @Girlgeek: Thanks. Your suggestion (and this meme) may nudge Eddie to publish streams of content, e.g. database, tools, application, etc. This may lead to more issues, but it might be a good outcome.
  • Girlgeek
    I enjoyed those of the 8's that I read. While the tag increases exponentially, the oracle blog community is finite. The 'disturbance' (if you consider it such) has a pretty quick limit. Personally, I am more 'disturbed' by having to sort through the posts/blogs about Oracle topics that are not in my area of interest. Some fine day we will be able to select subcategories in the aggregator. Meanwhile, thank you for starting the tag.
  • Tim
    Hey Jake
    Just dug thru OraNA since you posted on Monday - there have been ~230 posts picked up by OraNA. Of those ~50 were '8 Things' related. Thats a stream but certainly not a flood. And certainly not the 8^0 = 1 8^1 = 8 8^2 = 64 8^3 = 512 doom that was predicted. We did not even get to the second level.

    I seem to remember being swamped in 11g release blog entries a few months back. Now you could argue that those were 'techy' posts and full of Oracle relevant content. But reading some of them (with respect to all) I got the feeling that once I had read 2/3 I knew all the major features I needed to know about. At least each '8' post was completely unique and gave folks an idea of who the person was behind the blog.

    As for browsing to orana.info - sorry Eddie I dont do that anymore - just point Firefox at the RSS stream and I can pick and choose what I want to read.

    There was a great inscription on a watch in the UK in the 80's for a disgraced politician - 'Dont the b'stards get you down!'
    Tim
  • Jake,

    Your intent in starting this round of tag, bringing the Oracle blogger and blogger reader community closer together, was a good one. Personally, I'm getting quite a bit out of it.

    For those opposed to the whole tag thing, I'd welcome their thoughts on alternatives for accomplishing the goal. It would be far more constructive than the whole "flame, blame and name-calling" approach. Until that happens, don't sweat the nay-sayers.
  • Jake
    @Puneet: Thanks. Related note, you should consider joining the ranks of external bloggers. Your content would be well-received, as evidenced by the post on workspaces I reproduced on your behalf.
  • Puneet Thapliyal
    Jake,

    I loved reading the "8 things..." of various bloggers whom I follow. Yes, it definitely humanizes the blogging community, which is a good thing. A little bit of personal touch is so refreshing in this increasing virtual world that we now live in. Keep up the good work and try to ignore the few who are not game to it. Let them shut their servers down ;)

    --
    Puneet
  • Jake
    @Jeff: Thanks. I enjoyed your previous rounds, but I didn't realize you were the ultimate primogenitor. I have updated the post to credit you (a separate topic that has also got mixed up with this one).

    @Tim/@Carl: Agreed, heavy content feels like work. I am also good at ignoring.

    @Marian: You are correct, but what can I do.
  • I think you worry too much.
  • Tim
    Have to admit I have found myself searching out '8 Things' posts at the end of a day. As Carl mentioned they make a great change from the heavier stuff out there. For those not wanting to partake just ignore and move on. OraNA is not that awash with '8' posts - jeeees guys chill out a little.
    Dont sweat it Jake we still read you!
    Tim
  • jeffpulver
    Jake,

    Your blog post sounds like some of the comments I posted a few times back in December 2006 when others said something similar about my original game of blog-tag.

    I encourage you to: continue to challenge the status quo; contribute to the shaping of the social sculpture of the web and help put a soul in some blogs posts that would otherwise would never be felt.

    Best regards, Jeff
  • Jake
    @Tim: Wow, would that be an upgrade over this . . .

    @Carl: Good to know you got some entertainment value, and I know you're not alone. You mention one reason why I love my Reader; it allows me to consume and ignore according to my preferences.
  • I for one welcome our blogtag overlords.

    It was a nice change from alot of the heavier/technical posts. I stand by my opinion that it's nice seeing that there is actually a real person with individual , and sometimes even interesting, experiences behind every blog.

    I'm just handier with the "Mark as Read" key than other people, i guess.

    If anything maybe it points out the lack of filtering capabilities in aggregators and/or readers. Sounds like enhancement request for reader software or maybe even addition to ORANA where you can add some thing like ?ignore_subject=tag to filter out posts with that word in the subject line.
  • No news is bad news. You can probably get on "Celebrity Big Brother" or "Celebrity Love Island" on the back of this. ;)

    Cheers

    Tim...
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