Wednesday, July 22, 2009

♫ Blogging…from a bloggers perspective.

A little background on the Daily Offensive, because it seems we’ve gotten a bit off track lately.

Daily Offensive was set up last year by myself (Nomz) and Sazaran…in hopes of giving our quick, witty brains, and tempers, a way to ventilate. It was named as it was, to guard the blog, or defend it-so to speak. We named it the Daily Offensive Blog so that everybody knew before they even clicked through on that pretty Google link, that the content may not be something you particularly enjoy. We are not intimidated by others thoughts on our writing, and simple enjoy the fact that we can get everything out, in our own individual style.

We’ve developed quite the following. Not to brag, but more to say, we appreciate all of our readers, and hope this blog continues to grow. It seems, that the feelings and pains that Sarah and I go through, are quite common and fairly easily debated and discussed. We’ve asked for your opinion on almost every blog, praying for healthy discussion. We love every single one of our readers, whether it’s your first time, or your last. We appreciate you taking the time out of your day to let us get our blog on for you.

Toward the beginning of this year, we had a few people request to post their personal thoughts and material on our blog. We call them “Ghost Writers”. They write in occasionally, vent, and continue on their merry way. Writing is a release for some. Our blog, is our way of inviting you in and asking you to play in the discussion. Every now and then, due to the content of the conversation, it’s harder to participate. Sometimes, we just need a shoulder. Sometimes, we get to be one.

Offending somebody on this blog, which is generally unintentional, happens every so often. And when we rush to defend ourselves, we tend to push that line further.

My wish? That people would realize that a blog is a way for our minds to release themselves. An opportunity for emotions to spill out all over the place. It’s a story. And the author, is the only one telling it. Whether or not it makes sense to you, really shouldn’t matter. You can either actively participate in what is said, or you can just listen to their grief, joy, or other emotion they are trying to share.

The definition of a blog:

The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read by anyone but them. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life or works of art. Blogging can have a sentimental quality.

Ladies and Gents, Daily Offensive is a Personal Blog. We take pride in our blog, our writers, our Ghost Writers, and our readers. We are reflecting on life, and asking you to join us. Sparing details, sometimes just begs you to get a bit inspired yourself and let your imagination come out to play. We love that you participate and give us your opinion on our writing, but don’t assume because we are defending the blog, that we are criticizing. We just want you to understand that not all blogs come from, or are written to, one perspective.

Yours Truly,
Nomz

7 comments:

A Past Ghost Writer said...

I appreciate your invitation to allow 'rookies' to blog/share their thoughts in an anonymous manner through the 'Ghost Writer'. As long as everyone out there remembers, the Ghost Writers are NOT professionals like Nomz and Sarazan, by any means.

Thank you Daily Offensive for allowing the un-experienced writers to share their deepest feelings and thoughts...however their writing abilities allow them to!

Sazaran said...

I agree whole-heartedly with every word Naomi so eloquently and nicely laid out.

Sazaran said...

P.S. We are not professionals by any means, but thank you for the compliment!! :)

Unknown said...

If you’ll allow it, let me proffer up a critique that may help you succeed in establishing your desired tone or interaction for your blog. I’m a published author, and I teach post-secondary writing as well. It sounds like you’re either trying to convey a failed expectation from the type of responses you’re getting lately; or you’re issuing a reminder of the core purpose of your blog. I’m not sure which as I’m a first time reader and poster to your site. I stumbled on it doing research for a socio-political book I’m writing. One of the chapters will focus on the effectiveness of sieges.

So how, you might ask, would a researcher come to your site in their quest for data on sieges? Because that’s what your site name conveys. “Daily” can be a noun, adjective, or adverb; and “offensive” can be either an adjective or a noun. What they are depends on their relative placement in a sentence or phrase. Placed in their order as you have them in your title, they refer to a regularly scheduled military operation. The inference in such usage is that the offensive, or the attack, serves to accomplish or support a specific objective.

When I decipher your explanation in this particular posting, it becomes clear that you’ve grammatically placed an adverb immediately next to an adjective in your site name, so the meaning is not clear. “Offensive” in your intended context is an indirect object. So if you wanted to warn Google searchers that what they're about to read is offensive, your title fails to accomplish that if the searcher adheres to the standard rules of grammar. Your grammatical construct is misleading with regard to your site's content.

Better titles might be:
Daily Offender (like a newspaper)
The Daily Offense (uh-FENCE the act, vice OFF-ense the team formation)
The Daily Venting
The Daily Rant
Offending Daily
Being Offensive Daily

Or, if you're not always offensive, "Occasionally Offensive" would work. If you're artistically inclined, maybe some metaphoric title would work better, such as:
Angels with an Agenda
Dichotomous Damsels
Volcanic Vixens
Sirenic Sighing and Shrieking

Additionally, it's unclear if you want or don't want commentary on a particular topic. You're sort of all over the board, so to speak, on your voiced expectation. If you have personal thoughts that you don't want critiqued or commented about, then truly treat them private, and spill your emotions into a journal or diary only you can see. Otherwise, prepare and accept the risk that you're going to receive feedback when you intentionally expose those thought publicly.

You invite readers in and ask them to play in the discussion. Yet in your interpretation of a blog, you also characterize it as a story, and that it doesn't matter if it makes sense to your literary guests. The two positions contradict each other. The latter is predismissive of any honest dialogue that might be generated, and could also be perceived as a passive-aggressive request to keep those opinions to ourselves.

One of the key characteristics of effective writing, one that I emphasize with my students, is consistency of the message. Grammatical rules provide part of that consistency, and establish a common structural framework so that we both: understand each other, and our ideas are more clearly articulated. Similarly, adherence to a central theme provides topical consistency.

My suggestion is that if you pay a little more attention to both, you'll achieve your desired message goals through clearer communication. Good luck, and keep practicing your writing!

Respectfully,
Shelbi

Daily Offensive (baha!) said...

Shelbi,

I have to say, I LOVE your response on my blog. I love when people show their ability to share constructive criticism and opinion without coming across as attacking and judgmental.

I just want to make a few points:

Neither Sarah, nor I, are English majors, journalists, or professional writers by any stretch of the imagination. We've never made an attempt to act so, or give anybody the idea that we are.

Also, since there are two of us, and we allow guest blogs from time to time, keeping a consistent voice is quite challenging.

Our first blogs were of political nature, being offensive to most, which is where we picked the candid name for our blog. I apologize that it was not deeply researched...I had no idea it could have a tie in with military anything.

Blogs are short stories. Mini-books, if you will. So each individual post, needs to be treated on an individual basis-in my opinion. It's a way for us to vent our minds and hearts, and move on, right then. This isnt the type of blog that writes consistently about the same things all the time.

That being said, I love everything I just learned from you. I really do appreciate you taking the time to comment, and give us a bit of a lesson from an, obviously, well educated perspective. May I ask what books you've written?

Thanks again, best response yet, I believe!
Nomz

Daily Offensive (baha!) said...

If you'd really enjoy a blog to pick on, grammatically, please visit one of our favorites, also, please make sure you have your sense of humor on, or it may be slightly insulting. :)

http://thebloggess.com/

Thanks again for visiting! We appreciate your feedback!
Nomz

Unknown said...

Nomz,

Thank you for the kind thoughts, and please accept them in kind.

Unfortunately, my livelihood depends on not revealing my womanhood to the predominant market for my books, which also prevents me from giving you those titles as well. The unfortunate reality is that my books are more well received (translation: sell better), when they’re assumed to be written by a man given their subject material. Hence, I use a male pseudonym.

My publisher would also severely lash me for letting slip any of the details that would connect my true gender with those books and thus undermine their future profit as well. I hope you understand, and I’ll look forward to the day I see your name in print.

Respectfully,
Shelbi

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