In the early days of Stamford Talk, I wrote a review of Saltwater Grille down in Shippan. It was not a glowing review. I said that the service was spotty and that the setting sun made dining on the deck almost unbearable. A few weeks after I posted, I started to feel bad. I did not want a popular place to know I was trashing them. I also thought maybe they'd want to advertise with me in the future. Recently, I read a discussion about whether it was ethical for a blogger to remove old posts that he/she no longer felt were high quality or reflected what they thought. I realized that I was firmly against removing posts. A blog is WEB LOG. It's a record of your thoughts on a certain day. It's not supposed to be a... book or something to be edited. Once it's up, it's up. I knew I needed to put the SWG post back up so I was not a hypocrite. Here it is, completely unedited. Summer's here, and it's time for expensive seafood. I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you about SWG.
I now know:
a) it's OK to criticize things that are not great- that's a key function of a blog or any type of writing, and
b) advertising is so a non-issue for this blog. This blog is about opinions, not about pleasing people who want to use Stamford Talk's wild success for their own benefit.
I guess I have worked out my Stamford Talk ethic... Say what I think about Stamford. Try to make it relevant to readers. Keep including my personality even though that can be intimidating when it's not just friends and family reading. Don't trash people without giving balanced opinions. Find and rely on trusted readers and other bloggers. Don't see blogging as competing with other bloggers. It's about community.
Blogging about Stamford is awesome. Stamford Talk is approaching 9 months old this month. I'm gonna have a big bash at the end of August to celebrate the one year anniversary, and you all are invited.
