| 26 comments ]

The Bloggernacle is all excited about how Elder Ballard suggested BYU-H graduating seniors go online and blog about being Mormon so they can add their faithful voices to the Internet. The only specific blog he mentions is Flooding the Earth.

OK people, let reality sink in here for a minute. Elder Ballard found a relatively obscure blog, and yet he somehow missed all the big ones? No, he didn't. If he spent 3 seconds on the Internet searching "mormon blog" what did he overlook? All of you "Big Blogs". The only way he could have skipped all of you accidentally is if he did "book of mormon blog" and clicked "I'm Feeling Lucky" and then stopped right there. Unlikely, isn't it?

What you people are heralding as an endorsement is in fact a backhanded slap. Elder Ballard is telling a bunch of kids graduating from BYU-H to go out and blog on their own. He is not, repeat, NOT encouraging them to go and participate in the Bloggernacle. He is encouraging them to go out and blog independent of the Bloggernacle.

Congratulations, Bloggernacle, Elder Ballard doesn't see fit to endorse you as a model graduating seniors from BYU-H should emulate or a community they should participate in. Endorsing blogging is not endorsing the Bloggernacle.

26 comments

Anonymous said... @ December 18, 2007 at 12:27 PM

My guess is that Elder Ballard has never searched the internet in his life. So what he probably ignored was his assistant's summary of all the big blogs, which ammounts to the same thing. Had he actually seen the blogs himself, Adam Greenwood would be a general authority.

Anonymous said... @ December 18, 2007 at 2:21 PM

Adam, if you're going to be so transparent, you may as well not post anonymously!

Anonymous said... @ December 18, 2007 at 3:00 PM

Adam,
"amounts" has only on "m."

Anonymous said... @ December 18, 2007 at 4:38 PM

The bloggernacle is the biggest group of attention whores on the planet. An apostle says "blog" and suddenly every posting member of the bloggernacle has wet pants.

Elder Ballard said blog, really, he did, whoa, that must mean that my endless hours of ignoring my real life and clicking through pages and pages of DKL absurdity is now somehow justified!

Anonymous said... @ December 18, 2007 at 6:53 PM

Actually both DKL and Adam are both still members of the church only because the GAs can't find the bloggernacle (hint: it's not on Mapquest). If they actually ever personally perused it you'd have a September 60 on your hands before you could say Sonia Johnson.

The only ones who wouldn't be exed are me and Nate, because, well, we know people, y'know?

Anonymous said... @ December 18, 2007 at 9:35 PM

anon -
one has an "e".

Anonymous said... @ December 18, 2007 at 11:32 PM

You know, I don't think I've wet my pants since I had my last baby- wait... nope. No, I haven't.

Did someone say blog somewhere?

C. L. Hanson said... @ December 19, 2007 at 1:50 AM

It's possible that Elder Ballard just meant that of the blogs he's seen the one he mentioned is the one he'd most like people to emulate (without intending to dis the big blogs). But if he really meant to steer people away from the Bloggernacle and encourage them to create a better alternate Mormon blog network, then he doesn't have a very realistic picture of how the Internet works.

As soon as the new kids get on the Internet and start a blog, the first thing they'll do is link up to the Bloggernacle, even if Elder Ballard didn't encourage them to read any existing Bloggernacle blogs. If by some miracle they did manage to create an alternate LDS blog network, it would soon be full of people expressing opinions that aren't, well, "correlated." That's the nature of how bottom-up communication works.

I'm Cute said... @ December 19, 2007 at 12:59 PM

Anyone else vaguely disconcerted by the idea of Elder Ballard messing with the "I'm feeling lucky" button?

Anonymous said... @ December 19, 2007 at 3:06 PM

Ohhhhhhh, Janet, talk about that button agaaaaaaain.

a random John said... @ December 19, 2007 at 10:00 PM

To be serious for a moment, I think that bookslinger's blog is a singular achievement and I can certainly see how an apostle would mention it as opposed to the group blogs.

There is also the fact that his blog is very focused and doesn't have much that is controversial there. He isn't trying to drive traffic, just documenting what he's doing.

If he had mentioned any of the group blogs somebody would immediately point to any number of posts/comments on it and question why on earth anyone would endorse it, much less an apostle.

Anonymous said... @ December 20, 2007 at 12:01 AM

Interesting Ballard cites a blog from a non-member BofM believer. My apoligies if Bookslinger is a member now.

Stephen said... @ December 22, 2007 at 12:20 PM

c.l., that was a good comment, and John, I do agree that "bookslinger's blog is a singular achievement"

Anonymous said... @ December 24, 2007 at 7:04 AM

In case you missed it in the 12 different places he posted it, "Dr B" took all the credit for Bookslinger's getting noticed by Ballard, mentioning that Ballard was his (Dr B's) MP and that he told Ballard to check out Bookslinger's site. So if you believe that kind of namedropping grandstanding (and if you read the 'nacle, why wouldn't you?) it's possibly the only site Ballard's ever seen.

Anonymous said... @ December 25, 2007 at 4:56 PM

Who is "Dr. B" and where are some posts by him?

Cluelessly yours,

Stephen

a random John said... @ December 25, 2007 at 8:02 PM

Everyone should avoid Dr. B's blog (which I will NOT link to) and Dr. B should take it down. I've read the whole thing up until the book starts. It is painful. I feel very badly for Dr. B, but he needs to get over some things and I don't think that the blog is helping.

Response to Jodi Stoddard said... @ December 26, 2007 at 9:35 AM

Forgive me for being a skeptic, but I have a hard time believing anything Dr. B says.

Response to Jodi Stoddard said... @ December 26, 2007 at 9:41 AM

Stephen,

See the bottom left box at MoArch ldsblogs.org for Dr. B's wacky blog. Why the people there have linked to him is beyond reason, they obviously haven't read the blog. The guy is a wee bit of a nutter. But, then, come to think of it, pretty much all of the links are to nutjobs.

Anonymous said... @ December 26, 2007 at 10:31 PM

You people have WAY too much time on your hands if you find it amusing to attack me, my blog and my former mission president--Elder Ballard. If you do not shape up, I will email him (I have his personal email address) and will tell him (Elder Ballard, my former mission president) that he needs to give a talk condemning the LDS blog community a.k.a- the bloggernacle. My former mission president, Elder Ballard, may not have mentioned my blog directly (I asked him not to do so), but he did endorse my blogging activities. Elder Ballard, my former mission president, will hopefully never encounter such a negative and faith-destroying blog as this. I am glad that I told Elder Ballard, my former mission president, to visit Flooding the Earth and NOT your blog!!!

Please, if you have any decency whatsoever, I suggest that you take down this post before I have to report you to Elder Ballard, my former mission president. I have his email, you know. Elder Ballard's email address, that is. He is my former mission president (Elder Ballard).

Btw- for your information, I DO NOT NAME DROP!!!!

Stephen said... @ December 27, 2007 at 6:02 PM

http://mormonmission.blogspot.com/

Pages of letters from missionaries.

"Ten years later I was privileged to be hired by President Ezra Taft Benson to write his biography and teachings book. Due to circumstances beyond my control Sheri Dew took over the biography so I concentrated my efforts on the teachings book. Dennis Wardle and myself worked for months condensing his 40,000 pages of quotes down to around 700 pages."

That sounds like a story ...

Never did find the place he was supposed to have claimed credit, ran out of energy to read.

Stephen said... @ December 27, 2007 at 6:07 PM

I'd like to know why they split the project up, seems more interesting than many other things.

Anonymous said... @ December 27, 2007 at 9:17 PM

best. snark. ever.

Usually the Snarker parodies the Bloggernackle, but this time the Snarker points out that the Bloggernackle is a parody of itself.

I am in disbelief at the number of permabores that mistook Ballard's talk for an endorsement of their GA-questioning, doubt-inducing, generally time-wasting musings. at least quenuo set them straight on MM.

If the time spent blogging were instead spent studying the scriptures, the church would be a better place.

Anonymous said... @ December 28, 2007 at 1:40 AM

If the time spent blogging were instead spent studying the scriptures, the church would be a better place.

Or at least quieter, since everyone would be ASLEEP.

Anonymous said... @ December 29, 2007 at 10:47 AM

Thanks for the link Stephen. Dr. B is clearly farce, likely a group effort. The one about coddling moms, missions being tough and his foot bleeding from worn out shoes was a hoot and a half! Reminds me of a zero AH on my mission who told his comp not to take an umbrella, because if they got wet, they'd be blessed. Whoever is putting that Dr. B stuff out is having a belly laugh knowing naclelers will chase the various yarns like squirrels after nuts.

Anonymous said... @ December 30, 2007 at 8:18 PM

Dr. B is BiV's husband. She links to him on her own blog "Hieing to Kolob."

Bored in Vernal said... @ January 1, 2008 at 2:21 PM

Hi there, I assure you that DH is for real. Check out the foreword of the Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson to find his name. He may be "a bit of a nutter," and quite a namedropper, but he really did work with all those people when we were at BYU and he is sincere about loving the gospel, even dreaming in religious themes frequently.

A TBM, just in a little different way than most of us.

I'm a bit different myself, as you all know. Maybe in the opposite direction, though.

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