With my dishes washed, dried and nestled away in their cupboard, I though I should head up to my room to get some work done. Although it was my intention to polish up that work report, I was lured into this thing some call a blogosphere to see what other effects had followed Maggie Clark’s article in Imprint.

Among my incoming links is @UW|News for the University of Waterloo community. I was not entirely surprised. While I had never heard of @UW before, the accompanying description made me assume that it was a mirror of the Imprint story. I was mistaken. TingleZ, Wolfgang, and I have been added to the Blogroll at @UW. This was an interesting revelation. The divine ruler of the site is a former Imprint editor, which may mean that Maggie Clark sent the word out to her predecessor to add us to the blogroll.

The reasoning behind this is not immediately clear to me. The pessimist (read: realist) in me was immediately drawn to the worst possible reason. Perhaps that one post has given someone the impression that I care about writing real news regarding the University of Waterloo. Nothing could be further from the truth. My experiences with journalism are limited to a week long course taken at Queen’s University when I was in Grade 10. Any passion for journalism that was felt at that time has since subsided.

I cannot help but wonder whether we have been added to this blogroll as a result of our comments about Imprint’s declining quality. In her editorial, Maggie’s comments come across as both complementary and patronizing. She acknowledges that our “desire for a journalistic voice” is “thorough and well-reasoned”. However, we are also singled out for our typos and misinformation (I would have appreciated clarification on that note).

I will admit that my blog is not perfect. I do not have a writing staff, or an editorial staff, or even a single editor. I am the only one working here. And the blog is a tool that I use to keep in touch with my friends. Not all of us use MSN, and Facebook is junk. So, I drop an occasional post on here every once and again. It could be something that happened to me. Maybe it is something that tickles my fancy. You might even see something ridiculously cool or something ridiculously stupid. Frankly, I have not cared until now. My audience has been my dearest friends, and they were not judgmental.

Now, my private little corner of the web has been thrown up in front of everyone. And this brings me back to Imprint. TingleZ, Wolfgang and I attacked Imprint’s quality. Have we been hoisted up in front of the masses so that we can be judged as well. I try not to think the worst about people, but I cannot deny that this feels like some sort of way to get back at us.

As a result of this, Binks’ blog has been locked down for the day while he carefully doctors his previous posts. I may be forced to close up shop as well while I tidy things up. However, since I do not have time for this, the Box will probably be closed down for a while.