A Web Without Logs
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I was innocently "surfing" around the web yesterday and I saw something so vile I became immediately infuriated. "How can they do this?" I yelled at my monitor. "Is nothing sacred?"
Yes, it is this sham of an observance, DAY WITHOUT WEBLOGS.
Some back story: Day Without Art is campaign to observe National AIDS day and honor the artists, performers and writers who have died of AIDS and related diseases. It's a day without art - to reflect that the world is missing something each time an artist passes away.
Of course, this was extended to the web, and web pages are now blacked out in observance.
So, what's DAY WITHOUT WEBLOGS? Oh, it's the same fucking thing, except it's "special" for the "web log community". I swear to god, if there is a short bus for the web, every one of those "special" webloggers is on it. If pressed, most webloggers would say they are creating "art" (laughable in itself), so why the separate observation?
"Now Andrea," I'm sure you're saying, "Why are you complaining? You hate webloggers! You should be glad that they're going away for a day!"
I bring your attention to grey day, a campaign which (similarly to DWA) has participants "grey out" their page. A whopping 33% of the group that SPONSORS this event managed to grey out their "blogs" FOR ONE FUCKING DAY. Webloggers are such attention whores they CANNOT and WILL NOT willingly keep from blogging for ONE STINKING DAY.
Now you are saying, "But Andrea! Maybe these people just want to participate, and they DO want to honor the intent of DWA! Why are you so mad?"
If you want to participate in a black out to promote HIV/AIDS awareness, I urge you to join the the original DWA. DWA is a year long campaign, not a shoddy little event thrown together two weeks before the observance. DWA works day in and day out, sends out daily newsletters, and works hard to get the word out and keep public interest high.
DWW may have been made with the best of intentions, but it does not honor the original intent of DWA. It has taken something that is special and holds meaning for thousands of people across the world and made it into something small and shallow, just one more clique for webloggers to bandwagon on.
Andrea Spencer has a good point