This is why I blog. To tell people stuff that they won’t find in the newspapers or glossy magazines, like the time I told you that expensive Miele cooktops are crap simply because they are badly designed.
Now thanks to a house sitting stint, I can reveal that Smeg cooktops are just as bad. The problem is that the knobs sit higher than the trivets. And that means in the panic of pans rattling across the cooktop, the knobs snap.
Both Miele and Smeg share this problem.
After my Miele post, I was phoned by the company which offered to send a technician out. But I didn’t accept the offer because what could they do apart from replace the cheap plastic knobs and they would be knocked off again next time I was being a little to vigorous with my frying pan. Short of refunding me or replacing the whole top there is nothing they can do.
I’m writing this as an illustration of how blogs can differentiate themselves from the old media but don’t choose to.
Too many bloggers are accepting money to write purely promotional stories. Too many are taking freebies and writing about them, as if readers really want to know. And I’m not the only person to think that it has gone too far.
If you want to serve readers then you need to give them honest, unique content. They don’t want to read five near identical posts on the same topic.
I will admit I’ve taken free dinners and attending blogger events. I’ve even accepted trips. And St Ali has paid me to do video blog posts on its behalf. But by and large I haven’t followed the crowd.
From now on I promise to get my cranky blogging mojo back and will post more frequently.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
So true that’s the main reason why I read blogs. I want all that nitty gritty information that usually doesn’t have any room on a printed page. Look forward to hearing more!
Smeg, as far as I’m concerned, is a four letter word for a very good reason – mine is temperamental, heats unevenly but at least (unlike my parents’ one) doesn’t overheat(?!) and turn off… http://penguinsandparentheses.blogspot.com/2010/05/four-letter-words.html
Looking forward to it, Ed!
So far, we haven’t had any knocked-off knobs on our Smeg, but have been looking at an induction surface, anyway.
Hi Ed
Sounds like the Choice Mag of the blogoshere. Looking forward to more.
Care to have a look at steam ovens>
Regards
Elliot
Dear Ed Charles,
You can blame cheap plastic knobs all you like, but I for one have seen you in a Cock-Off and know that they do not fall off by themselves!
Yours
Richard Berry
Hear hear! As a blogger I agree with you, and as a reader, I can’t tell you how boring it is to read 10 posts on the same inane processed food product. Freebie seems to scream louder than integrity or even interest value these days.
Bloggers do have the first responsibility to be honest to their readers. Especially with defective products! And yet, people do not want to read pure whining blogs. There has to be a balance in there somewhere.
The association with the only person you site with a similar point of view is somewhat of an odd one in my mind, as they’ve written you off as one of the same “crowd” that they take issue with. Incidently, a list that is so out of date and incorrect, that it’s value is questionable.
I’m not entirely sure what you’ve taken issue with, which I’d like clarified. Is it that promotional posts are being taken up by bloggers at all, that too many of them are doing it, the sameness of the posts or all of the above? In my mind, each one of those are separate issues onto themselves and are not necessarily related.
For instance, is it still a problem in your mind if you take on a promotional post at all, even if you have a genuine interest in it?
Is the issue with the “too many” that’s raise a lot in this post, due to individuals posting too many purely promotional posts, or more to do with the overall increase of promotional “noise”? Something which I would have thought was due in part to the larger volume of food bloggers overall compared to the past?
For instance, would it be any better it things went back to the old days of a select few receiving promotional material and/or services, thereby limiting the overall promotional “noise”?
Speaking of old days, the complain of “too many” is only one I’ve ever heard from veteran bloggers, in much the same way that old people sometimes complain about how things were better back in their day.
To me, it reads like complaints of unfariness about how much easier and how much more available freebies are (especially to new comers) compared to the past where they were fewer and harder to come by.
I’ve yet to hear the complaint in the context of the veteran bloggers posting more promotional posts than they use to, or having access to bigger and more lucrative promotional benefits like free trips. Both of which, in my limited experience, they are.
The issue of sameness can be a problem, regardless of whether promotional material is involved or not. Take any number of moderate sized blogger-organised gathering. The issue of sameness is always in the back of my mind with these sorts of events.
In my mind, the increase of promotional noise shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a bad thing, not that I’m taking sides with the PR/marketing lot.
Sure, the increase in noise can be annoying but it also shows that more bloggers are coming on board, and that we’re being taken more seriously as a medium overall by the mainstream. In that way, I don’t really see it as a bad thing. Just the cost for progress.
Good to hear that you’re going to get back more into the blogging. Always find your posts to be interesting reads.
I couldn’t agree more. As a consumer, I want to know the truth and reading blogs about certain products is a way for me to really know if it’s good or not. thanks for this! looking forward in reading more of your blogs.
Interesting isn’t it. I blog simply becuase I enjoy eating out and sharing my opinion. From what I can see the people that hate food/review blogs most are those in the industry that can’t have influence excerpted over what is written and the broader anonymity makes it difficult for restauranters to single out for special treatment.
For instance I am sure my projected 1-2 hour wait at Mamasitta would not happen for Larissa Dubecki or Matt Preston so how would one really be able to objectively review a typical experience?
I don’t make any money from restaurant advertising and do not take kick backs so I can offer an opinion without fear of losing revenue one way or another unless those self declared blog haters like George Calombaris move in to IT!
I do fine The Age most infuriating with it’s inner circle or deified ones who can do no culinary wrong and have no objectivity. Talking with some senior staff at maze I was told how they should have recieved two hats but no new restuarant has ever recieved it so they wouldn’t especially a Ramsay one. Don’t think that applies to anything with a McConnel stamped on it!
We’re with you on this JP. You can’t really remain all that anonymous if you take lots of pic’s of the food but by and large, bloggers can get a much more honest view of a place than the establishment. ALSO they are open to comment or criticism. Even acknowledging a potential conflict of interest will not prevent bias creeping in to reviews – perhaps more by omission than commision
You have to realize that in this day and age things are designed to break. There are engineers hired to make sure things break. So all i can say is settle down with the frying pans and be a little more careful. Or build a time machine and go back 30 years ago when things where built a little more sturdy.
{ 2 trackbacks }