I'd like to ask one thing from the blogger at large. When tossing out those five-times-daily updates, please pause to consider both your reputation and the fragile ego of the artist. Blogs are not private diaries. There's always the possibility that someone might actually take what you have to say to heart. There's always the chance that what you write might cause someone to decide not to read a particular book, hire a particular individual or invite someone to their party. A blog is an inconsequential space with consequences. All I ask is that bloggers occasionally stop and remind themselves that the person they're writing about is not only real, but perfectly capable of typing his name into a search engine. Remember bloggers: We're out there. And if we know what's good for us, we're paying attention.

That'd be Canadian novelist (or something, we've never heard of him before) Hal Niedzviecki, who joins the long gray line of writers turning out a column on the "bloggers are mean" phenomenon. Niedzviecki apparently read some rude things about himself on various blogs and, gosh darn it, he wants you to know that he has feelings too. We understand: As bloggers, we want to urge essayists and columnists to choose their words carefully when they churn out their lazy pieces on how mean the Internet is; this is our livelihood, after all. Those five-times-daily updates (if only)? They take at least ten minutes to throw together. To have someone chastising us under the auspices of an august periodical like The Globe and Mail just makes us sadder than we usually are. Remember, essayists: We're out there. And if we know what's good for us, we're paying attention. Because these filler posts don't write themselves.

Blog slog [G&M]

Earlier: 'Time' Book Critic Will Not Abide Your Amateur Criticism