Should Bloggers Unionize?

Some Yearly Kos attendees think so:
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11826

Quote:

NOT SO LONG AGO, progressive bloggers relished their outsider role as "citizen journalists" driven by passion not cash. Yesterday I attended a workshop entitled, "A Union for Bloggers: It's Time to Organize!" during which a moderator posited, "I think all bloggers, in one way or another, view themselves as professionals" and a woman bemoaned the travesty of her and husband's inability to quit their jobs and become full-time bloggers because the "social safety net is in tatters." In other words, Why won't society foot the bill for her hobby? Better organize!

It sounds like a spectacularly unserious endeavor, but Big Labor and its enablers apparently disagree. Representatives of the AFL-CIO, armed with "Kicking Ass for the Working Class" stickers, were on hand, as was a DNC employee, a D.C. District Court administrator, a Working America official and the man who got the National Writers Union up and going. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters not only posted Blogger Wanted: Inquire Within signs everywhere, but also handed out free T-shirts festooned with the slogan Working Class Blogger.

During the meeting there were surreal arguments over whether the union would be strictly for political bloggers. "There are knitting bloggers and nature bloggers and all kinds of bloggers and we have to include them as well, do we not?" one clearly miffed young woman asked. The man from the Teamsters counseled inclusiveness. Perhaps sore-knuckled knitters can find a place in an international brotherhood after all. The sky is the collectively bargained limit, even for conservatives.

"I would want to include conservative blogs because if they have to adhere to the journalistic standards the union sets..." the moderator began.

"...they'll go out of business!" a woman finished.

Cue predictably spontaneous applause.

The real question should've been "how would we extract wages from people surfing the internet?" Unless they're looking to make blogging a closed shop, which is frightening in many ways.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I think the fact that it is the YearlyKos convention that suggested this is a bad thing in itself, and that last quote, even if it is in jest, is one of those wet dreams for progressive bloggers if they can control something like a union. A good way to stifle speech, really.

Personally, I'm a big reader of a myriad of blogs, mostly political in nature, and had dabbled in it for a brief time, and I would rather see blogging as a independent and individual enterprise. Blogging should be at most a devoted hobby, something to be done on one's spare time, and support should be provided by the readers who wish to see it continue. Bloggers who wish to make punditry and written observation their career should consider becoming journalists. Besides, for progressive bloggers, this should not be an environment all too different from their DU and DK circles.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Great. Now folks will probably expect to be paid for typing live journals.

I don't see the logic in unionizing to make cash. If they wanted to do that, then you'd have large blogging circles that would charge money for folks to read. Now, I dunno about ya'll, but I say screw that. I hardly even glance at blogs, as it is.

If there was some way to get money out of blogging, it'd have to tie to a number of hits. But I'd think folks could just inject a Google ads thing on their page and that'd be enough. This is a hobby, pure in simple. There shouldn't be a way to sustain your life with income off of this. It just strikes me as very odd that amateur "journalism" should even be profitable.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

This is the shittiest idea I've ever heard. The point of blogs is that they're independent. Everyone would stop reading them if this happened.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I honestly believe that this is the sort of shit that will end the world. Not war, not disease carrying birds, not missiles flying like maybugs - but just stupid, stupid ideas like this that are surely a stepping stone toward complete fucking idiocy.

I was speaking idiomatically.

If you blog and don't make money off of it, it's a hobby. If you blog and do make money off of it, it's a business. One that the blogger owns and has full creative control over.

A blogger's union would be like Rockefeller and Carnegie forming an Industrialist's Union.

How ya doing, buddy?

For once I agree with Lehah, if they weren't writing about their interests and lives like a diary it wouldn't really be a blog, sounds more like they want to report on subjects using the 'blogger' name as a tag to disguise it to get more people to look at it.

This is the most retarded idea to come from the internet since rewarding users on the broken as fuck top 50 member list on youtube with cash for pageviews.

FELIPE NO

This is... really stupid. Seriously if bloggers really wanted to make money off of blogging, taking care of it themself would make the most sense. If you're in a union, you have to pay union dues. If you find a way to make money off something on your own, all the money is yours. It's not like an independant blogger has to worry about being fired, there is no point in having a union there.

How ya doing, buddy?

No. Bloggers should not unionize. What's to be gained from unionization? It's not like anybody in the right mind actually pays to read somebody's shitty blog articles. People who write coherent articles for free should be able to fund their website and possibly make a small amount of profit through their advertising. Making a living off a blog site is a little unrealistic, since a single person's words are not that highly valued.

Unionization is just stupid for something that's a hobby. Get an actual job, write articles in your spare time, try and get in a local newspaper, sell witty merchandise. Anything, just stop failing by proposing stupid ideas that hurt everyone.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Overkill

What's to be gained from unionization?

Let me guess - your parents own a coal mine...?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Quote:

What's to be gained from unionization?

It seems like they think that it'll give them journalistic integrity, and anybody who wouldn't be a member of the Blogger's Union wouldn't be trusted. Little do they understand how much work actually has to go into journalistic integrity...

Worst case scenario, they turn blogging into a closed shop, where they'll use police power to deny anybody who isn't a union member the ability to blog. Essentially regulating the internet. These guys are the True Believers who think that any problem can be solved by organized labor. (even in this case where there isn't a problem)

If you think it can't happen, keep in mind that the entire Democratic lineup showed up at the leadership forum to pander to these people.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Bradylama

If you blog and don't make money off of it, it's a hobby. If you blog and do make money off of it, it's a business. One that the blogger owns and has full creative control over.

A blogger's union would be like Rockefeller and Carnegie forming an Industrialist's Union.

My grandfather was a union organizer for the machinists and would not shut up about it. So I like to think that I know (through no fault of my own) a fair bit about unions and what they're supposed to do and how they're supposed t work. With that in mind:

This is an idiotic idea. The point of a union is to provide a way for workers to collectively bargain so they don't get completely assfucked by management. You don't need a union if: 1) you're not getting assfucked, or 2) there is no management.

A bloggers union would be like the employees of a startup -- all 5 of them -- forming a union.

"Uh, so who do we do our collective bargaining with, Tom?"
"Fuck if I know. Pass the chips."

DailyKos has a "community" that is almost as incestuous as GFF, if not more so. It surprises me not one bit that something retarded like this came out of there.

If they're looking for "journalistic integrity," they should form some sort of guild or industry group -- basically an invite-only organization that would make sure the people they allowed in weren't complete cocksnugglers.

Of course that's far, far too rational for the people at DK.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Quote:

A bloggers union would be like the employees of a startup -- all 5 of them -- forming a union.

Except they're not even startups, they aren't in business with each other. Every blog that makes a profit is essentially its own proprietorship.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Bradylama

Except they're not even startups, they aren't in business with each other. Every blog that makes a profit is essentially its own proprietorship.

Good point.

So we even already have other organizations with a multitude of names that are the exact same thing: trade councils, industry group, etc. If you want to get nasty you could start using words like Cartel, but I don't think we're quite there yet.

That implies a certain level of ... influence and/or competence.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Bradylama

Worst case scenario, they turn blogging into a closed shop, where they'll use police power to deny anybody who isn't a union member the ability to blog. Essentially regulating the internet.

You absolutely nailed it each time, but especially here. I like how far-left computer nerds are attempting to co-opt the methods of the most ruthless monarchs and industrialists in history.

FELIPE NO

No, just no. Although frankly, it probably won't happen, at least I hope. Blogging should be a hobby, not a unionized job.

Besides, how many blogs even make money?

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