Most brilliant thing I’ve read in a long time: “They’re interested in what you have to say because they’re interested in [the subject matter], and they think it’s neat someone’s writing about them. Never confuse that with being more important than your subject matter.” (It was difficult, but this same article says marvelous things about self-promotion, criticism, credibility, retraction, agendas, pleas for affirmation, and thunderous silence. I had a lot of trouble picking just one sentence, but that one’s definitely in the top ten.)
Oh, oh, I found another passage, but this one’s so awesome that it needs to be set off in italics:
No one is under any obligation to you.
They’re under no obligation to agree with you.
They’re under no obligation to respond to you.
They’re under no obligation to link to you.
They’re under no obligation to acknowledge you.
The subject of your essay is under no obligation to listen, to change their ways, to acknowledge, to point their audience in your essay’s direction or to in any way make any indication they know who you are.
Your audience is under no obligation to give you feedback, to agree with you, to get the point of your essay, to understand you, or to come back for more, tomorrow.
Your peers are under no obligation to consider you a peer.
No one is under any obligation to take you seriously.
No one is under any obligation to you whatsoever.
He’s talking about blogging, and webcomic critiques in particular, but the whole essay applies to internet posts in general. And it’s fantastic. Read it. All of it. Now.
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