(Previously Published in La Rioja Alta's Boletín Informativo de Invierno 2009)
It was in 1975 that a young wine lover wanting to express his views on wine searched for the easiest and most effective way to publish his thoughts. Being that computers were reserved for colleges and research institutions, he accepted a loan from his mother and began a small newsletter that he hand-mailed to a list of wine lovers he culled from local wine retail mailing lists. His goal was simple: to be a consumer advocate for wine lovers and an independent voice. His name is Robert Parker.
Today young wine lovers enamored with the mystery and beauty of wine are also reaching out for the cheapest and easiest method of publishing their thoughts on the beverage that has gripped our imaginations since Roman times. The internet today provides tools, free of ...
Credibility is a strange term to me. When I sit with the word, the first feeling that comes to mind is trust. Am I trustworthy? Can people trust what I say as true and accurate? Can they come to me knowing that I will continually do my best to give them advice and information that is valid based on my experience or on the experience of others?
Feels heavy, as if I have a thousand eyes looking at me saying "are you a good and honest human being"?
I hope I am. I try to be. But I can't guarantee that I am successful everyday.
I bring the term credibility to the floor today because many people, both in print and in the internet, have debated the credibility of a blogger.
In short are bloggers trustworthy and honest? Are we ethical?
Allow ...
With the upcoming American Wine Bloggers Conference, it seems appropriate to look at who we are. Currently, we're working on a project that needed some stats, and I know lot's of you the wine bloggers are interested in the results. And considering that we're not professional surveyers, unable to professionally analyze the results, we kept the first survey simple and straightforward. However, I am very interested in the New Year of conducting a survey with a more complex set of questions that would allow us to look in more depth at the region and influenc, but that's for another day.
On the other hand, leave a comment on this post if you want to help out putting it together. I have a 1yr contract on my SurveyMonkey account paid for, and I'll let anyone out there ...
The wine blogg-o-sphere seems sick right now, contaminated with a nasty, dangerous virus and full of evil overtones. There is a self-absorption infection that is destroying that which makes us unique, and quite honestly, it's making me sick. However, I'm curious if it will function like a blog-based form of natural selection, weeding out the weak in favor of the strong.
This infection seems to have caused perfectly good wine bloggers to stop talking about wine, and instead, to focus on their own insecurities precieved or real. Lately, we're losing wine bloggers right and left in favor of wine blog critics or MSM (main stream media) bashers.
It needs to stop.
This BS in the wine blogging world is destroying that which we're fighting for, to be ...