The First of Many, Methinks...

Soon to be ex-Pajamas Media blogger Laurence Simon gives the Jerry's Kids of the internet an appropriate, and altogether touching, sendoff:

You will probably notice an improvement in load time on this site because I am now removing all of my remaining Pajamas Media ad banners.

I have yet to receive my final check from them.

Whether this means that they are short of cash, careless in their accounting, or a victim of the stellar performance of our Postal Service, I have no idea.

And I don't care. For all it matters, they can spend the remaining balance on condoms with which to screw themselves.

What was promoted as an attempt to empower bloggers became an exercise in further empowering only the already-powerful bloggers and adding noise to an already-saturated echo-chamber.

Back when it started, my attempt to provide a platform for the Pajamas Bloggers (the forums) was met with scorn, ridicule, or disdain by the PJM elite, and when it was time to select a "blogger relations" blogger, they decided to stifle communications further by adding an incompetent part-timer as their gatekeeper.

The sense of community was zero. Heck, less than zero because smaller fringe bloggers such as myself were left out of the mutual-admiration circle among the upper-tier bloggers, seen only as "life support for ad banners" feeding the core site or the "popular" blogs.

Forget Pajamas Media or OSM or Jellyfish as names. It's really High School Media or Clique Media.

Steve, Moxie, and Dennis - you were right. You were right.

However, I'd still like to thank Roger, Charles, Glenn, LaShawn, and all the others providing the heels that ground my enthusiasm for blogging into dust. Without your suppression, I would not have sought out other outlets for expression and creativity, such as podcasting and gardening and building within Second Life.

Yeah, I've encountered cliques and such within those platforms, too. But unlike the blogging social stratification that Pajamas Media has sought to reinforce for profit's sake, podcasting and SL are still relatively young and there's still a chance for enthusiastic, energetic and creative types to be judged on their skills and achievements and not on past accolades and "who you know."

One more poor shmuck whose life has been enriched by contact with Roger L. Simon.

I feel badly for Laurence. Actually, I felt badly for Laurence back in November of 2005. With the possible exception of Tim Blair, Laurence was the very first of the Pajamas Media bloggers who grasped the fact that Raj and The Poodle didn't have a clue when it came to figuring out how to develop, promote or utilize the blogging talent they'd brought under contract.

As I said back then, this was nothing more than a vanity project for a couple of self-absorbed, self-important assholes who, besotted by their site traffic, decided to go ego-tripping around the internet. And as I also said back then, neither Raj nor The Poodle were serious about spending the time and energy necessary to make Pajamas Media a long-term success.

No doubt we will be seeing similar expressions of distain from other ex-Pajamateers over the next month or so...

Raj, Glenn Harlan and The Poodle drink a little schnapps and eat a little spongecake as they celebrate New Media's crushing of Old Media, the Left Side of the Political Blogosphere and the aspirations of serious bloggers everywhere. Good job, boys!

Comments

[David H.]

Clique media is right, with the "better" bloggers and their self-appointed "better" commenters who are so chummy and clubby. Hate most of their sites that are chock full o 'let's be rude to people we decide aren't as good as we' snubbers and assholes.

Exclusivity is a sign of weakness and moral decrepitude- that's why the old guard conservative superiors and today's liberal elite are so pathetic. That the Pajamateer bloggers and their few fan commenters carry on in like vein is astoundingly perplexing. They've missed the whole egalitarian promise of the sphere- that it's what you think and say and not who you are.

[plebian]

Good for Laurence S! What discernment, what a pair--

As a lowly commenter, I’ve been snubbed by the “best” at Roger’s place, and let me tell you, the self-loving brilliant ones and their spin-off endeavors haven’t done so well. Wonder why.

Also, Roger wouldn’t even answer my emails when I offered to send him money on multiple occasions. He’s so sniffy that he must be offended by the smell of his own back side. You need to add a gas mask option to his version of your motorbike, Dennis.

[PeterUK]

Even,"snubbers and assholes" need love.

[Harry P.]

What happened to Dennis was unconscionable. The OSM-PJM self-selected elite and self-fancied good guys should have done a lot better by him, and by all of the other bloggers they either dropped or treated as losers. Nothing truly elite or good comes of appalling behavior. Laurence makes damn good points above.

Peter, it's a little difficult to send luv to those who push people away. Shall we just think puppy dogs and chocolate cakes in the abstract?

[PeterUK]

No,Americans can't do irony.

[Laurence Simon]

Want to show the love?

1) Think for yourself
2) Laugh now and then
3) Call in sick for a "Me" day

[Sally Sue]

Good show, Laurence!

Btw, I'm enjoying your site, thanks to Dennis.