Weekend Comments, or Why I Couldn't Sleep Until 4:00 AM CST

To answer dayf's comments about the Team Orange, sadly, I'm serious. That is the checklist for ten "fictional" ball players in a mini card insert set called "Team Orange." Figuring that one of the Ginter Code cards is titled "Team Orange," I thought that there would be a connection to it. You never know.

Anyway, while one of the reasons why I couldn't sleep last night was because I was up creating a six-layer rainbow Jello dessert I was making for my son's birthday party today, other reasons were the backlash on both sides regarding a donation button on the Baseball Card Blog. The fact that there have been numerous posts about it means that Ben truly has the most influential blog on our Hobby. The fact that it has even become a topic of discussion only shows how far of a reach the guy has and how much of an influence he has on bloggers who have been around since he started. And trust me, there is nothing wrong with it.

Rainbow Jello. This is six flavors in one huge gelatin mold. Takes 3 1/2 hours to make one of these babies.

One of the first people to comment on my blog said, "Remember if people are posting that they disagree with you, you're doing something right." If that is the case, then the guy who disagreed with Ben's reasoning must be doing something right, otherwise, he would not have inspired the posts that came afterwards. Understand that the guy is entitled to his opinions just as much as others are entitled to rebutting (with or without mercy). Without mentioning the exact blog that started the whole mess, thanks to the Sports Card Blogroll, I have counted at least four bloggers responding in kind, defending the reasons why there is nothing wrong with the practice, and in my opinion, just slamming the guy for voicing a differing opinion. I will admit I made a comment on his blog, and in a sense, I agreed.

I see no problem with Ben and his blog, and now that he is posting on a more frequent basis, will be more inclined to read what he has to say. If he wants to put a "donate to the blog", then that is his right. Heck, some blogs (the blogger.com ones) have the option to put an adsense thing so that any ads clicked can give some extra income. That's all well and good. I even saw nothing wrong with putting a blog post just talking about having the button on there in the first place. It was when he put the reasons why we should donate to the blog that bothered me.

This is what I wrote in the comments to that particular article:

"...asking to donate is one thing, but to give reasons like "because I may have inspired you to get back into the hobby or start a blog" is a bit too arrogant in thinking."

In my case, I've always been in the hobby, and read a few posts of his and others only because using a search engine to look up stuff comes up with his and other blogs. I didn't really begin commenting on anyone's blog or e-mailing a blogger that I liked until I dove in to the blogosphere myself. I even admitted in my first post that I do not have Ben's literary skills, so being a blog clone was not the idea when I started. He could have used better reasons, or he could have just left it alone without reasoning whatsoever. To me, it was a tune off (meaning that I tuned out the rest of his message), and for that I diagreed with the reasons.

So for that I won't be donating to the blog, or anyone else's for that matter. Not that I would never want to, but I don't have PayPal to do it (nor do I want to sign up for it...story for another time). Now if he decided to do a pay-per-view blog, where we would have to either register or pay a fee every time we want to see what he has to say, that's when I'll draw the line. But until then, I am happy to see him being more active on his site, regardless of the reasons why. Could we now all please get along and go back to doing what we do best, talking about baseball cards???

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama