Blogging the Write Way: Speak English or Die!

You know, I am often stuck with the unenviable task of being The Asshole - not because I really am so mean or obstinate, but because I'm the only one who actually has the nerve to stand up and say what everyone else is thinking.

It's just a matter of being that I am straightforward and honest - traits far too few truly appreciate. And so it is that I find myself in this position yet again when it comes to the proliferation of ostensibly English blogs (splogs) written by people (sploggers) who cannot speak English.

This is the description of one such blog I visited through a blog-based social network this very day. This is the actual description beneath the title; this is a quote:

this blog was provide the nice video clips that you can easily find without messy with another. view this blog frequently and get your best video collection here.we try to provide the best. watch all the best video collection here. we compiled it for you. thanks

No kidding!

Now, I already know I'm going to get flack from the bleeding-hearts of the Blogosphere, so let me tell you right off the bat: STFU. The single, one and only, reason these non-English-speaking people are writing their blogs in English is to get more advertisers and sponsored post opportunities; in short, they're simply creating English language splogs. And this is bad for the entire Blogosphere, whether you advertise or not.

1. It lowers the advertising value of all blogs. These sploggers will accept literally any advertising opportunity and once advertisers realize there is a market that will accept 5000-word "positive reviews" containing 42 outbound links without the NOFOLLOW attribute, a company logo image, and a YouTube video, they simply refuse to pay the rest of us a fair wage for the same.
2. It keeps honest bloggers from getting these opportunities, to begin with. Why are we competing with these sploggers in the first place?
   
3. It devalues all blogs by overloading and confusing the search engines and blog networks.
4. It devalues all blogs because these sploggers are interested specifically, only, in making money. Their splogs use every SEO trick in the book, include every spammy link and advertiser the rest of us refuse to carry, and contain absolutely nothing of any value - no information, no relevant links, nothing people are really searching for when they come across them. After coming across such splogs a few times, many would-be readers give up on searching blogs at all.
5. These "blogs" are nothing but splogs, period. Why in the world would you try to blog in a language you do not even speak or read/write unless there was some incentive for you to do so? And the only incentive these sploggers have is making money.

I am not against people for whom English is a second language, but if this is the case, I would certainly appreciate some indication of that! The mere mention of this in the description or elsewhere would soften my heart to their efforts. But this is not the case with these splogs; many of them write their entries in their own language and then parse them through translator sites, such as Babel Fish.

Further, their splogs are literally awash in advertising, including those of the basest kind (pop-ups, pop-unders, PPC [pills, porn, casino] ads, etc.), so even if you are completely deluded, and all like, "We should support everyone who wants to blog - even infants and unicorns!" you should be against splogging because it devalues the entire Blogosphere and the act of blogging, itself.

Many of us got into blogging because we wanted to express ourselves and get our POV on subjects and topics important to us out there for readers to find. It's become necessary now for us to be activists against these fake "bloggers" who report news and run news sites they classify as "blogs" simply to get in on the popularity of the term ("buzzword" marketing strategists who run actual websites, not blogs), as well as these sploggers who "only the writing of English blogging to the capitalize for making moneys in the to blogging SEO markets."

So do your part and denounce an ESL splog today!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008