Ensight – Jeremy Wright

note: I originally found the article I’m linking to from the fantastic A VC Blog.

Douglas Rushkoff (dunno who he is, just stumbled on him today) has started a discussion. Namely he believes advertising on his blog would be “the end of something”.

To be honest, I don’t disagree.

Why? Because Douglas writes for a reason. He does a lot of things to make a statement (based on a cursory glance of his blog, which doesn’t mean I Know The Man). As such, advertising on his blog could easily be the end of something.

But, earlier he also makes the point that he feels all advertising corrupts in some imperceptible way. To that, I disagree. Because to corrupt implies that you are changing what was never meant to be changed in what is obviously a way that was never intended. If you’re trying to be a “Free Writer”, advertising would quite obviously corrupt that.

I can’t help but draw a line between people who develop Open Source Software for love and then suddenly get a job at Microsoft. People feel they have sold out. That they’ve been corrupted. And, really, they have. Sure, they’ll simply say their “dream has changed” or that they are “still doing what they love” but the reality is that by taking a paid gig to do what you used to do for free to in order to make a point is a corruption of your intent and your dream.

So, to get back to blogging, if Douglas started advertising, yes, I believe he would be corrupting what he’s doing. It would be “an end to something”.

But, take another blogger. I don’t know, say me for example. I dunno why, I just happen to be handy, for some reason.

I blog on topics that interest me. I write about a fair variety of things but generally stick to business, IT and my own personal life (though very few truly personal things are written). I don’t write for profit much anymore. This blog isn’t purposefully not for profit. It just is. Any advertising I have isn’t to make a statement, and any advertising I have is clearly marked so that if I am losing integrity, hopefully it’s easy to spot.

But, really, the whole “commercialization by definition will pollute the voice of the artist” is, to me, a crock. Pick any other artform (or form of “self expression” if you happen to believe blogging isnt’ art). Painting. Does selling your painting, by definition, pollute your voice or compromise?

I’m sure some could think so.

Does recording a CD and then selling a few copies to friends and family devalue the soul that you put into the music?

To me, I don’t think so.

To me, what you put into something is what defines the value of it. The only time advertising will reduce the value, corrupt or otherwise “put an end to something”, in my opinion, is when it stops you from putting you into the post.

Hopefully for Douglas, or others involved in the discussion, it won’t. But, ultimately, if you’re blogging you are hopefully doing it for yourself. So if you feel you want to advertise, do it. Screw what anyone else thinks. If you don’t. Don’t do it. Screw what anyone else thinks.