I joined Bloglovin to have the experience of a blogger that is not part of their merchandising elite and know what happens once you are there. Sad. We know that blogs have many functions and it is still difficult to numerate them all. But I don't think that we have to watch in passivity blogs, for many the only possibility to raise their voices and awareness about serious issues, being used to sell no matter what.
They used pictures of my blog, only the fashion related ones and never an ugly photography, to link to their site instead of giving me more traffic as they claim I would have.
I took a look at some of their top blogs and they are all disguised propaganda of clothes, shoes, make-up, shampoo, furnitures... name it.
I just came across with Liz Una Kim who did a very good analysis of Bloglovin.
I like her views but I agree with one of her commenters:
One of the strange things I read at their top-10 blogs, that are clearly made by pros and have links to known commercial companies: but not the famous and more expensive brands. Bloglovin is for middle class and lower class and this is the sad part of the story. The fashion victims that use their pocket money to buy what they can't afford.
"Liz, I like the considerations you make, although there is still something that is not entirely clear to me from your description, nor from a superficial browsing of Bloglovin’ for that matter–namely, whether this aggregator simply encapsulates blogs created with a variety of blog platforms (such as blogger, wordpress, tumblr, etc.) or whether it also allows users to create a blog of their own. From your travelogue I evince that Bloglovin’ just enables users to follow their favorite bloggers. But if that is the case, why do all these blogs look the same? Is it possible that users are so conformist that all end up lovin’ the same kinds of blogs?
Or is it possible that there a refined marketing strategy behind Bloglovin’ –i.e. for instance some of these bloggers are paid or receive other benefits from Bloglovin’ which is in turn funded by the fashion industry? The fact that the platform does not say anything about who they are, when they were founded, and what is their business model, calls for a cautionary approach. Finally, I disagree with your equation of the parasite with a negative being, as parasites can have a productive function. As a matter of fact, in the animal kingdom parasites are frequently kept alive by their hosts which develop with them a symbiotic, and mutually advantageous relationship. (The relationship between Google and traditional media is a case in point). But as I said before I am not even so sure that Bloglovin’ is a simple aggregator, if that was the case, its user base would probably be much more differentiated."
But this is what I did read: "It’s lame that my days are consumed with first-world problems: My pan didn’t deglaze enough!"
First-world problems? I have not a clue what does it mean and was unaware that the cold war is not over. I'm puzzled by what this person think about this marvelous first-world she/he lives. I cannot find it at the map.
This is not the blogsphere I like and again I will quote Liz:
"We’ve discussed, for quite some weeks now, the emergence, and increasing prominence of the
"Blogosphere. In which we also read in Notaro’s “The Long Revolution: the Blogosphere as an Alternative Public Sphere?”
“will remain on the ‘blogosphere‘, a term coined by William Quick (2001) to indicate the ‘intellectual cyberspace’ that bloggers occupy” – Notaro
And within this context, an increasing number of blogs and bloggers; which can prove to be a bit overwhelming to keep up with, especially when one is trying to follow a dozen specialized blogs for different things – i.e. politics, fashion, food – simultaneously."Then there is BlogLovin‘, an application which allows its user to sync all their blogs into one stream. It works sort of like an e-mail, but for blogs. It will keep track of which posts/bloggers you’ve read, which ones are unread, and ones you’ve favorite-d.""
You are brave Liz! I quit. Unfortunately they forgot to advice: this is an application for those who love fashion. BlogLovin? Not that much! FashionLovin would explain better and they should not ask people from other fields to join because I saw good stuffs of people who have nice blogs there but they are new and haven't a clue where they are and what are the consequences of being there. This is not fair.
Blogsphere: ‘intellectual cyberspace’ that bloggers occupy” We need that!
Update:
Even thou I unjoined Bloglovin keeps publishing my posts:
At their site they explain:
Nope, you are following blogs anonymously.
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| Say NO to unethical marketing |
Blogovin is still using my blog. The image shows my last two posts for today.
I don't think we can teach ethics or respect to anyone. I will not even talk about integrity, rules and all these words.
Only respect. I wrote them saying I had unjoin their site and asked to have my blog removed.
They don't do it.
