The Private Man has a good post up on recent changes in the sphere. I would add CMDN to his list of recently closed down blogs.
We should probably also create a separate category for Rebellion University, which I propose we call What’s this button for? Fortunately Professor Hale is back sporting a shiny new wordpress blog.
Check out The Private Man’s update including a list of new blogs to watch: The Manosphere Is Evolving
Appreciate the encouragement and support from you all. There’s certainly a lot of hatred out there to what I thought were self evident truths! http://3rdmilleniummen.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/receiving-love-and-hate-from-women/
One avenue for the dissemination of man-o-sphere ideas is private, pirate, radio.
For the benefit of the new guys such as myself, can someone please write exactly what the difficulties were with keeping these blogs and how they might be mitigated?
I only started my blog recently, with a number of unfinished drafts at this point but haven’t published any yet. I’m using blogger (google) for reasons of convenience, but I notice that a lot of people use wordpress.
I’m not planning to write anything that I wouldn’t be comfortable defending if someone challenged me, and I’m prepared to stick up for myself if somehow the connection becomes known in my workplace etc. There’s bound to be some angry comments posted on the blog but that’s what moderation tools are for.
Are there certain areas to steer clear of for legal reasons? Or things guaranteed to get you a death threat? I’m writing from a Christian perspective (not PUA) and I’m unlikely to write anything too obscene.
Kieran: From my own experience, I can relate a few things, as well as ask questions as well. Firstly, you can see it a bit in the last post where some of my difficulties are coming from at the moment. As you can guess, the problem in “keeping” a blog isn’t starting, but continuing in it after the newness wears off and all the ideas out there that excite you vanish. When you start out, it’s easy to come out like a house of fire after you do your planning and so-on and try to draw people to reading your blog. The problem, I’ve noticed, comes when you start hitting “the wall”, and it starts turning into work. Then real life sets in, stuff happens. Or your life priorities change. Or you realize that you had other interests you were putting off to get a blog post out on a regular schedule (I was going for 3-4 a week for a while). Or some kind of crap comes along for some reason or another via the blog which grinds on you. Or you have a problem come up that you are thinking on how to solve regarding the blog. There’s a number of reasons why it gets really hard to “keep” a blog. The specifics vary from blog to blog and from person to person.
You have to be willing to stand for what you write. Anonymity is helpful for a number of reasons. Recent events have proven how careful one needs to be in that regard. But you have to realize the climate you are in and if you are willing to go forward, because if you do have the blog you are putting your neck out there. There are indeed moderation tools, but they can be very lacking, I’m finding out. In fact, this blog is the second iteration of this activity, and moderation tools have left plenty to be desired on both platforms.
Given what I am and what my blog is, I’ve found that there really is no way you will avoid any of this from a topic perspective. Being “Christian” is obscene enough for the world and all the forces of evil out there (and again that has been proven quite abundantly in recent history). As the Bible says, if you stand with Christ as a Christian (and not a Churchian), you will be persecuted (Matthew 5:10-12 for instance). As well it states that those who don’t profess the name of Jesus before men, He won’t profess your name before the Father (Mark 8:34-38).
As long as you stand for good in this world and not evil, you will always have the forces of hate and evil on your doorstep.
Kieran – writing a conservative leaning blog can get you some unwelcome attention. If it’s Christian, it almost certainly will get you unwelcome attention. If you haven’t followed the link to CMD-N that Dalrock posted, do so.
Use an email that isn’t connected to anything else in your life. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a help if someone tries to dox you (get your personal info aka “documents”). Don’t post personally identifying info or anecdotes on your site if you don’t want to be identified.
If you are not in the United States, consider your country’s speech laws. Canada reportedly has some Human Rights Commission that can haul people to court if they offend someone. I don’t know if it’s true, but check how your country deals with legality of speech issues.
And if you ARE in the USA, keep in mind anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law by a $1,500 per hour shyster. I’m being a little facetious here, but the First Amendment is not a magic bullet in court all of the time. Don’t use real names when you post about how your best friend got drunk and dropped his pants in front of the police officer. 😉
Having said all that, don’t be afraid to start a blog and speak your mind. If someone gives you sh!#, just soldier on. Almost all of the crap you’ll get will be nothing more than wannabe flame warriors in your comments section.
@ seagryphon – “One avenue for the dissemination of man-o-sphere ideas is private, pirate, radio.”
Like a random radio signal from the night sky? Nah, who would wanna do that?
Seriously – podcasts might work. Maybe the Spearhead would consider hosting those as well as essays. And almost anyone can start up an internet radio station nowadays. Red Pill Radio, anyone?
Im exactly one year in and wanted to add 2 cents on the “keeping”. I don’t sweat it. It helps to not have a very wide and active readership, but several hundred a day root around there when there is a new post up.
Regarding the Christian aspect, yes, it attracts attention even off line. I have not had anyone ranting against Christianity at my place, but Ive sure gotten fed up with secular liberalism on most manosphere blogs, which actually solves a problem with the keeping of the blog, that being I stopped reading the ones that were secular liberal pushers and I stopped reading the fetishists.
@ Kieran
You will attract criticism even if you are not a PUA. I’m not a PUA and my blog has been written up on a hate-watch blog, unbelievably. I highly advise you to read Defense Against the Dark Arts, Squids and Agents on ar10308’s blog for practical tips.
From my own experience: Be vague about your personal demographics. Learn from my mistake: do NOT mention the city or state you live in – keep it general, like, “I live in the mid-West.” Don’t mention stuff like how many children you have – just say, “I have a bunch of kids” for example. People you know IRL may find your blog by accident; do you want them to be able to know it’s you? Recently one of my husband’s female coworkers signed up to follow my blog by email, which horrified me to the roots of my hair; however, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know who I am. It’s just a coincidence.
Mentally prepare yourself for threats. There was a commenter on Manbooz who made a violent comment about my children; the blog owner deleted it and banned the commenter, but understand that this is the “peaceful” type of leftist who will also be reading. But also be prepared for strange people from the right. You do not have to allow White Nationalists, for example. to comment (ask me how I know that), but remember that they will be reading, too.
And finally, remember that even if you delete your blog, it isn’t really gone. There are archives of everything. Most of the UMan stuff is up again, for example, even though they deleted their blog. Do not write anything which might come back to haunt you because you can never really get rid of it.
I discussed this topic recently on my own blog…
“Not to be dramatic or anything, but somehow I can’t help thinking of Mark Twain when I think about the Manosphere. Mark Twain, of course, is a household name, but Samuel Langhorne Clemens isn’t. Anyone who isn’t completely uneducated will know that this is because when Mr. Clemens was writing what he was writing, it wasn’t safe to be writing what he was writing, so naturally, he went with a pen name. Hence, Mark Twain, which is really a pun that all you riverboat pilots will totally get.
Now, while I somewhat doubt that anyone who contributes to the Manosphere is likely to get lynched any time soon in a literal sense (although Roosh had best watch his back), as a Manosphere blogger, having your identity revealed publicly could very well have catastrophic implications on your career and other associations.”
Read More: http://22to28.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/the-manosphere-danger/
lzozozozooz
if everu i lowred my doesse of state corproatrete ritaaliz and adderollzlzlzo drugs presscirbedd by da beennrkeifiers zlzozlzo they soul would shut my blog down too lzozozoz
but i am a good beoeyrrz and i take all da rigehet druugz zlzozzlzoolzoz
O. T.: The Divorce Industry and the Destruction of the Family.
I’d guess that most disappearing or defunct blogs are simply the result of burnout. I’ve been arguing online since 1995, and there’s a cycle: you join/create a discussion area (back then it was Usenet and mailing lists, then web forums, now blogs more often than not) on a topic you’re passionate about. At first you check it multiple times daily and write lots of stuff. After a while, you start to feel like you’re repeating yourself and having the same arguments over and over again. If your opinion runs counter to mainstream thinking, you may also start to feel like you’re not really accomplishing anything. If the discussion draws trolls — the good ones always do — and they aren’t eradicated quickly, you start to feel like you’re spending more time troll stomping than advancing the discussion. Eventually you decide you need a break — which may become permanent when you feel the relief at having left that annoyance behind.
Real life on the outside affects it too: things can happen in your life that make the opinions of the little people living in your computer seem pretty unimportant all of a sudden.
When it comes to blogging, I’ve started several, and my problem always comes down to thinking up enough ideas to keep it going. Not that I don’t have things to say, as you can tell by my wordy comments like this one (why am I not posting this on my own blog, for instance?). But I’m not good at looking at a blank page and thinking of the one new idea that will turn into a fascinating blog post today (and I’m enough of a perfectionist that that’s where my bar usually is). Once you get established and people expect a certain quality and quantity from you, keeping it up may be daunting.
Blogging can be demanding. People think of it as just tossing off ideas in your pajamas, but consider the work involved. Say you plan to blog every weekday, and you average about 500 words per post. Then let’s say you get a fair number of comments, so you write another 500 words per post in comment replies. (That’s really not that much, by the way; I’d guess most bloggers on serious topics like Dalrock average more.) At that volume, you could churn out 3-4 novels a year! How many “real” authors not named Stephen King can maintain that kind of pace? And you’re doing your own proofreading, editing, moderation, and marketing on top of that, and doing most of this in your free time.
So it’s a lot of work. I don’t want to discount the threats and legal fears and other reasons a person might quit, but I think simple burnout is often reason enough.
@nightskyradio
I think we are especially exposed because Christians toeing the Christian feminist party line have natural and powerful allies which we don’t have. Over time as our audience grows this will change (and is already changing). If anything though in the meantime, the Christian mainstream probably poses a far bigger threat to us than feminists proper. Challenging Christian feminism is challenging a massive and lucrative empire, and exposing hypocrisy at that level tends to be humiliating to those who so far have managed to both grovel to feminism while presenting themselves as godly heroes of biblical virtue.
On the topic of keeping things going, I struggled early on with the blog to imagine what I would possibly write about after about 3 weeks of material. What I found is the material always comes, even if I try to stop. If this ever changes I’ll gladly hang it up.
With this said, I’m giving serious consideration at starting a side blog focused on marital game and rediscovering the incredible joy and beauty of traditional marriage (stay tuned). My only problem today is too many competing priorities for both my time and mind-share.
Thanks Dalrock.
Regarding anonymity and blogging – I am not anonymous. Through some searching of my past posts, anyone can find my real name and where I live. Do note that I’ve been much more prudent with my posts in the past few months. Red Pill wisdom is, frankly, subversive. We are going against current social expectations which have money and power behind those expectations.
Good luck to whichever Roissyites are going to monetize their blogs (I hope this is not your implication Dalrock) but anyone with a passing knowledge of MLM knows that you aren’t going to make money if you are at the bottom of the pyramid.
You’re a decade too late to monetize your game (err…. lifestyle I mean lol) blog.
[D: I’m not looking to monetize. The side blog would also be a free wordpress one.]
I’d guess that most disappearing or defunct blogs are simply the result of burnout
uh huh well it’s quite a coincidence that the spate of dropouts occurred in the week following re-election of a president (and executive branch) who have made their hatred and persecution of masculinity and fatherhood no secret the past four years
those persecutions are very real, and will get much worse as the femocracy (inevitably) fails economically and socially
there is nobody on the planet — nobody — opposing these vastly powerful forces except a few bloggers on the internet (if you think the “republicans” represent actual opposition to the gynocracy, you are dreaming)
If anything though in the meantime, the Christian mainstream probably poses a far bigger threat to us than feminists proper.
yes this is yr target and you rightly stick to it
you are not going to change the hardwired minds of the True Believer Lefties, but you ARE going to bring back many righties and/or apoliticals who have fallen into churchianity and the covert worship of the female in mainstream western “churches”
some of this “restoration” has already occurred, and more will occur in future
the matriarchy does not appreciate this, and neither does the power behind the matriarchy… just b/c they ignore you officially, dont imagine that they arent v aware of you
cheers
Perhaps there is a new video game release that we are unaware of.
OT, but of interest:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2234231/The-despairing-father-For-years-Naval-Commander-Nick-Crews-bottled-frustration–snapped-sent-excoriating-email-tearing-family-apart.html
“In the email he laments his three children’s ‘copulation driven’ self indulgence
Two of his children are not on speaking terms with him and have called for him to apologise
He says he wouldn’t change a thing about the letter “
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https://dalrock.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/the-private-mans-update-on-the-manosphere/#comment-61794
Nightskyradio,
I’ve been working on the podcast idea recently, myself.
I’d like to take this moment out to say thanks to Dalrock, and to others who blog in the manosphere. I haven’t commented before – mainly because I have little to say that wouldn’t simply be repeating others’ sentiments – but I ran across the manosphere following some random trail of links earlier this year, and from then on, I’ve done a lot of reading across many of the blogs. This is the one I read most frequently.
I’m Christian, and want to have a lasting relationship that’s right by my beliefs, so a lot of what’s out there in the manosphere with PUA and aggressive game clashes with my religious beliefs, not to mention my introverted sensibilities. Still, I try to find the wisdom those guys have to offer too, because their experience is nothing to scoff at. I figure, even if I’m not looking to achieve the ends they teach, I can still use the tools they provide. Trying to figure out just HOW to combine the wealth of knowledge and understanding from the manosphere to achieve what I want in terms of male/female relationships is complicated, and something I’m still trying to hammer out.
There’s a sense I’d had for many years – a feeling that things about the way relationships were conducted between men and women today were “off” somehow, and that my own life experiences affirmed that, but it was always hard to express exactly what that was. The writers of the manosphere have articulated those things, and in doing so have helped arm people like me with awareness. And once you have that awareness, you can study everyday interactions and start seeing in them concepts mentioned on blogs (hamster wheels a-spinnin’). What one does with the newfound awareness is up to them (that, I suppose, is the expression of an individual’s will), but any soldier can appreciate a good suit of armor when, like it or not, they’re already riding through the battlefield.
Each individual blogger’s telos is different, and I appreciate that – we benefit from a wide spectrum of analysis, and as a result I think all readers find a favorite circle of blogs that resonate most with their own goals and experiences. I’m glad for the time you guys put in, and the willingness to stand up to the risks that come with saying something unpopular, because it has given me a great deal to think about in how I conduct myself and what my priorities should be for the future. Even if I was chewing on the red pill, who knows how long it would have taken me to swallow it without that refreshing draught of manosphere blog? You have my thanks.
[D: Welcome, and thanks for the kind words.]
Thanks for the helpful replies, everyone. I’ll do what I can to protect my identity and avoid engaging with the more dangerous elements.
On the burnout issue, I’m not too worried — I mean, if it happens, it happens. For now the reading and writing keeps me:
a) Very content with being single.
b) Developing and deepening my perspectives; it’s my hope that even if a reasonable person disagrees with me, they will respect that it’s not just because I’m going with some kind of traditional view, and that I have thought very hard about these things.
c) I believe I can contribute to the manosphere, not just in providing another Christian voice, but also with some extra statistical analysis skills, and some specific discussions for Australians.
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You know, all this talk about a “manosphere” is truly laughable. I guess now us women should start something called the “femisphere..” Haha! You guys are never going to be taken seriously. We live in a PATRIARCHY all ready. What else could you numb nuts ask for in this world? Seriously, go move to a niiice third world country where men can stone women on the street or something. Your politics make absolutely no sense. Men are already grossly entitled to everything and anything. Us Feminists are on to you, however. Women and girls are not going to be brainwashed by you guys that we should be barefoot and pregnant, and stay in the fucking kitchen. That is just an outdated FANTASY. You will not be able to turn the clocks back to the caveman era as well. Us women are your equals, and you know it; most of us females are stronger intellectually and spiritually than most men anyways, and that is what frightens you to death. You cannot silence us anymore. The truth must be told, and you guys will not undo women and girls’ progress in 2012 and beyond.