Smack Blogs

I had never heard of smack blogs before I read Michelle's post at Scrapability. Michelle has recently opened up Digi Scrapzine and in her post she tells us why she had decided to include the Smack Blogs in the links at her site. I believe Michelle is still getting things set up over there. I did sign up for the newsletter a few weeks back, but I have not received one by e-mail yet. I recommend her new site, however, as Michelle seems to be in-the-know.

Personally, I have no interest in reading Smack Blogs, but do find it interesting that they are out there. To publicly cut someone down is riding the careful line of a legal pitfall.

Of course, many of the posts are not about individuals, but rather things to complain about in the digi community. To me, this draws people to reading just as the news draws people to listening. Everyone knows how the news always seems to be more negative than positive stories simply because that is what the viewers want to hear.

I also find it similar to certain television programs that draw people in because they are all about controversy and juicier they are, the better they are to some viewers. I feel that some programs lately are going too far and they are actually causing me to flip the channels.

The Bible tells us to "Do everything without complaining or arguing" Philippians 2:14, which of course, is a very difficult thing for us all to do. To have a blog centered around complaining seems to be adverse to this verse and not something I would frequent. Life, of course, if full of conflicts and to be able to resolve them without arguing is something so ironic to this verse and difficult to achieve, but nonetheless, we are to try to do the same.

Besides, the Bible tells us to "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." 1 Thessalonians 5:11 It also tells us to love our enemies. It is so hard to build someone up when you feel they are your enemy, to do the opposite of how you feel, but that is what I would want to do. I am human and do not always do it, especially when I am venting first, but I do it in private with close friends and then I pray and ask God to give me the power to love my enemy.

I have had my fair share of conflict in the digiworld and have had more than my fair share of ugly private messages sent to me and even publicly posted ones from people who did not even have the facts. However, I have always tried to refrain from even posting in an e-mail list negative statements regarding these people. I would not stoop so low. Most of the ugly things said to me or about me can be attributed to running a Yahoo Group and trying hard to keep advertising at bey. It is hard for me to understand why people cannot respect the rules and try to bend them and then make me into the bad guy for enforcing the rules. As Burger King says: everyone wants it their way.