Actually, I am tempted to say those things on occasion. Many times I want to encourage the blogger and agree with them, even if I don’t have time to come up with a pithy addition or energy to create a helpful disagreement.

I think one (semi-unrelated) thing that no-one has written about is this: These days, there is so much information out there that the click-on-a-commenter’s-link-and-then-become-a-blog-devotee actions are mostly history.

paul merrill’s last blog post..Questionable space

You have no idea what you’re talking about. Who lets you on the interweb anyway? I completely disagree all that you wrote here.

(How’s that? I didn’t say ‘you’re awesome’ or ‘I agree with you’) …oops, just did! Dang!

:-)

km

I’m not suggesting this is what you were saying, mind you. It’s just a general observation I wanted to weigh in with.

I keed, I keed.

I think the danger comes when people start to consider themselves to be influential. It sets up a false dichotomy, as though one can only be an influencer or an influencee.

When I write, I try to write like I know what I’m talking about. But as you pointed out, most of what I write (and most of what most people write) is based on observation and instinct. That’s kind of the point of the blogosphere. It’s a place for rumination and sharing options.

But if there WAS an influencer/influencee duality out there, I’d certainly be in the latter category. And I’d be awfully suspicious of anyone who thought they were the former. Because it suggests you’ve got nothing left to learn.

It speaks to what I’ve blogged about in the past (and what Dave Fleet wrote about today in a far better thought out post) – the idea that anyone can be an expert in social media. Being an ‘expert’ is like being an ‘influential’ person. It starts to create pedastals. Those don’t last long in this realm.