Robbed Again!

A whole lot of people (actually two inebriated people at an open bar)
suggested I write a Blog. It was 2009 and I didn’t know what a Blog
was. My research told me that the word BLOG is what is known in the
vernacular as a portmanteau; a combination of two words to make one. In
this case web and log. BLOG. Get it? Seemed strange to me to remove the
we and put b at the end of web at the front of log.

Everybody wants to be a writer. With the Internet exploding, wordsmith
wannabees jumped on the blogwagon and on February 16, 2011, there were
over 156 million public blogs in existence. That’s an awful lot of
words. Or maybe a lot of awful words.
In 2010 when the temperature in Scottsdale, AZ hit 110 degrees F (short
for Fahrenheit; as opposed to C for Centigrade), I passed up a golf
game and a sun stroke, stayed in my office and wrote my first prototype
BLOG. When I finished it and read it aloud, I was reminded of the
so-called F-word, inspiring me to replace the B in Blog as opposed to
the we in web with an F. FLOG is GOLF spelled backward. When I realized
that the verb flog has two meanings (1) to punish, (2) to talk about
something repetitively or at excessive length, I put the word FLOG at
the top of a blank piece of paper and tried to improve on it.
Mean Eileen, the brilliant President of my publishing empire, Sour Puss
Press, invented a new E-mail address, asternflogging for my Flogs. At
first I wrote a lot of Flogs and got a lot of comments from the market
test list.

When my plate became full with other pursuits, I put the Flogs in
purgatory. Then last week I got an E-mail from an old friend telling me
she was missing my Flogs. It was 111 degrees the next day and I decided
to stay in and revisit the Flog business.

Google took me to this Internet entry:
Wednesday, February 9, 2011… What is a "Flog"?
A Flog is a new term for "Fake Blog."

A fake blog (sometimes shortened to flog or referred to as a flack
blog) is an electronic communication form that appears to originate
from a credible, non-biased source, but which in fact is created by a
company or organization for the purpose of marketing a product,
service, or political viewpoint. The purpose of a fake blog is to
inspire viral marketing or create an internet meme that generates
traffic and interest in a product, much the same as astroturfing (a
"fake grassroots" campaign).

Fake blogs are corrupted forms of public relations, which as a
discipline demands transparency and honesty, according to the Public
Relations Society of America's code of ethics and the Word of Mouth
Marketing Association's code of ethics. Authenticity and transparency
are important in social networking and blogging, as these codes of
ethics attest. The UK Chartered Institute of Public Relations' social
media guidelines cite the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading
Regulations 2008 and state that both astroturfing and fake blogs are
not permitted.

One blogger says “I first heard this term on What Really Happened and
thought it needs to be spread out as soon as possible and as far as
possible.

"...The money-addicts working against freedom and democracy are in a
panic, and trying to shut down all opposition to their plans. Everyday
more and more honest blogs are vanishing, to be replaced with
well-funded "Flogs"; fake blogs designed to wrap the same old lies in
new high-tech wrappings in the hopes that the people will fall for it."
he wrote.

“You just knew this was going to happen; it has started to creep in
with tool's that rate people's influence and claim to show how much of
a leader a blogger is in influencing opinion or what consumers will
want to buy.”

I thought maybe I should put the Flogs back in purgatory. But Mean
Eileen said “You created your Flog long before this revelation about
“fake blogs.” You’re not trying to sell anything. You won’t wrap the
same old lies you’ve written before in new high-tech wrappings.”

She’s right. I am going to buck the money-addicts and spread my Flog as
soon as possible and as far as possible. I hope you’ll read it and that
I won’t lose my clean internet image as a flogger.