A very large disturbance in The Force recently has been traced to a string of consternations and contusions over what IS and IS NOT proper behavior on Open Salon. 

The subsequent warring between the camps, it seems to me, is largely due to a lack of clarity about what the terms really mean which are being so cruelly cast about, like verbal phosphorous grenades. In an effort to increase the peace, and supply some chillax to the rumble, I bring the opposing languages to the table for your examination and contemplation. 

Blogwhoring: the act of PM'ng everyone anytime you post, dammit.  

Whoreblogging: the act of reposting on OS from another blog site with the intention of not responding to comments unless readers go to that other site, dammit.  

Borehogging: the act of writing unusually boring comments that enervate the other readers into apathy, dammit. (Note: comments exceeding 50% of the length of the original post are automatically considered Borehogging. With the recent spate of single word posts, this has created a unique challenge, dammit.) 

Hogboring: A colorful folk ritual performed by some of our more rural members and then written up to confound the city folk. Remember to be sensitive to these people, it's lonely out there, dammit.

OK, everybody clear now? What you think you read somebody call you might actually have been something else, so remember to use these important tests on everything you read: Is it fair? Is it true? Is it, I dunno, something else?  

Now, to proceed to the next battle ground, lets take a look at the whole amateur/professional squabble that has been taking up so much bandwidth that even the spammers can't log in.  

The following disambiguations are courtesy of Mr. Gonzaga von Merriam-Webster, a notable etymologist who seems to have had an astonishing amount of time on his hands, apparently because the internet had not yet been invented.  

Amateur - 2   one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession (Root word amator, to love) 

Professional - 2a  participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs (Root word professio, Latin, to declare)

Open - 1  : having no enclosing or confining barrier (Root word: Open, Middle English, meaning open)

Open - 5  : not restricted to a particular group or category of participants

Open - 5a  : event enterable by both amateur and professional contestants 

Salon - 2  : a fashionable assemblage of notables (as literary figures, artists, or statesmen) (Root word: salon, French, meaning an elegant room)

In other words, the clear message from the creators of this site is that it is intended to be an elegant place for creative folk of all ilk to post what they want, when they want, without restriction, except of course for all that language in the Terms of Service, which a few of us are familiar with.  

And by extension, the same applies to the blogger/writer struggle, which clearly has no happy resolution unless one side totally annihilates the other side, OR unless everyone agrees to just live and let live, in which case we can all get back to doing what makes us happy, in whatever our understanding of a Higher Power is.  It's Open Salon. 

OK, clear now?

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Love, David

Photo & text ©  2010 David WTF â€½ Kinne