diffusing the snark slobs
Yea Inquiry, I see where you are coming from with this post, and my title there is a play-on words for that title (clever, am I) but I DO see truth in both phrases – as where “anti-stroking” (albeit crass yet of course funny way of saying it) puts forward the same meaning of “diffusing”, but the outcome is the same: people do whatever they want online (perhaps from a small(er)/adjacent Web perspective), and ideally (or passively hoping) it changes the greater narrative of online discourse.
It might happen, but I'll wax diaristic (not a word), either way. And as you mentioned Kottke, and those “who knew him BEFORE he was cool(!)” is certainly a constant narrative of blogging, itself – the “been blogging 20 years” bunch. The “back when my computer ran on sticks and ember, we had to smoke signal our words into the sky and that was the only “cloud” there was!“. Folks who think age of a blog puts their words at higher value. If logging experience comes with brownie points.
All the same, I write because I do, and since the Internet was invented and I like using it, I write online. But before the Net, as a kid I wrote (bEfOrE wRiTiNg WaS cOoL) and when the Web rolled around, I figured I'd write here, someday.
So, we delineate from an entry that tossed stones (atop a house of glass) at the degenerative nature of online correspondence, and would up saying stuff about me, because I write about myself a lot. So it is :/
Stay well, keep writing, and may the cards fall where they may ;)