Vex Appeal is a weblog and collection of projects by Guy Parsons, a game designer, online community and digital strategy dude in London, England. Read more about the saucy butcher boy here.
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projects:
101 things in 1001 days
psychopatch
LOLgod
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vexy young things:
jey biddulph
mike jewell
roo reynolds
dan hon
adrian hon
naomi alderman
steve peters
previously on vexappeal:
Home on the range Linked out Notes to self There's damage, but at least you're alive I'm British and hence crave Disappointment Good post bad post Playing with money Things the media think I care about, but I really ... All the feeds that are fit to, er, feed on It's Hard On The Streets For A Social Media Pimp
A brief post on Andrew Keen
Monday, September 10, 2007
Andrew Keen doesn't like "amateur" media. He thinks that participatory media is rubbish because, essentially, the teeming masses are rubbish. Here is a picture of his spiteful, condescending mug:
Now, consider his argument that only well-trained, thoroughly vetted face stampers should be allowed to stamp on his face. Admittedly, they'd give a good stamping, but clearly, it couldn't compare to the stamping that the teeming masses could collaboratively provide. We'd all provide each other with encouragement, exchange techniques, and celebrate the most effective stampers amongst us, who could probably get lucrative sponsorship deals with Dr Martens. I imagine there would be some sort of refreshment stall, perhaps some merchandise (suggest: "ASK ME FOR A FIRST CLASS STAMP") and we could all upload videos of it to YouTube afterwards.
It would be like a fete. We'd all have wonderfully amateurish, ill-informed conversations late into the evening, wear really crap fancy dress that would never pass for an actual costume from Lord Of The Rings, and a lucky few would go home to make passionate love vastly inferior to that which could have provided by trained professionals.
In the next field, a counter-fete consists of everyone burning their guitars and diaries, ripping up their allotments and finally killing themselves in painful recognition of all the embarassing, humiliating creativity that they'd indulged in previously. Thank god people more refined than they finally exposed it all for the shameful exercise in self-aggrandisement that it really was!
Andrew Keen is wrong because he thinks that "disliking stuff that's shit" is a universally agreed-upon premise. As for me, I defend and celebrate our right to be completely shit, all of the time. From horse shit, do flowers not grow? Get it wrong, fail, be a proud amateur, experiment, be bold, be foolhardy, throw your mistakes away, let them rot, and let them nourish all that comes after.
Labels: feeding the troll never felt so good