IRC: Bet you haven’t seen this acronym in a while
A few of you may know this, but my husband and I met online. On IRC, actually. Those of you who know what those three letters stand for are probably cringing as though you’ve swallowed a lemon.
When I tell people this little nugget, their eyes widen with interest/surprise/shock/disbelief, and often, they want to know more because in their hearts, they’re probably thinking, “Oh how terribly with the times of her!” or “Well, how very lucky for her there’s the Internet!” or “How do I get me some of that?”.
The truth is, I’d met Lokes there, but we did not start dating until a few years later. So it’s not as though I’d picked him off a chat room and married him six months later (although incidentally, a woman I know told me yesterday that she’d met her husband online and married him six months later, and they now live in our town, so it DOES happen!).
When asked why I went to a chat room to look for a man, the answer, is I didn’t. I was already with someone else at the time and IRC was, in the early 90s, just another hot new thing that my sister, incidentally, had turned me on. It was like discovering TV or the lava lamp.
But this is not to say that finding love online is ridiculous. In fact, I greatly endorse this convenience because it is very economic and low maintenance and has virtually no pressure (unless of course you’re doing something nasty with it). Even if you’re Paris Hilton, you would appreciate being able to socialise in your underwear at four in the morning. After all, not everyone has the resources - or the inclination - or the energy - to get all dolled up everyday and sit at a bar just to have some company. And how successful have YOU been, trying to strike up intelligent conversation for the price of a martini at a sports bar or a cocktail lounge?
There are many free chat rooms online that you can sign up and start socialising in. I’m not sure if IRC is still alive but you don’t really need to use that to find friends online, what with all the social network sites out there that seem to fad in and out so quickly that it makes an old woman like me hyperventilate just thinking about them, much less want to catch up. These days, I’m on Facebook and now, I’ve signed up on Wire Club just to check them out. Lots of people who look single and very available in there, wink wink to my ‘newly single’ friend.
Isn’t dating so much more light and fun these days, without all the ceremony? Albeit, the mind games and treachery and heart ache are all still there but everything can be over in just one night without you spending a red cent or even having met the guy/girl.
I’d call that efficient!
Posted in Imperfect Everything
July 20th, 2007 at 6:41 am
This is a good sponsored post
July 21st, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Didn’t know it was a sponsored post..
We met online too! Via IRC too! And we weren’t “looking” either! Ok I’ll stop using exclamation now
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:14 pm
I beg to differ on your latest post (bout sponsored reviews etc) because I think that if you worked really hard, you would be challenging yourself to write a sponsored post without it seeming like sponsored post! And that is the real challenge. Of course, easier said than done….hee,hee. Wait till my turn comes. Eek.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Patsy - but you are required to state it’s a sponsored post SOMEWHERE as not to ‘dupe’ your readers u know? Which is why I put all my “sponsored posts” in a category so people know.
It is against the law here in the US to refuse to state clearly that a sponsor has paid for your ‘review’ just so that potential customers ie your blog readers know that whatever opinions stated are already biased. I think it’s written in those agreements as well with PPP and SR.
I remember having this argument with my boss last time, who knew NOTHING of ethics when it came to running her magazine. She didn’t want to put the word ‘advertorial’ in some of the paid editorial pages talking about a client because the client asked for it. I told her it’s NOT ok and we had such a row about it I almost got fired but of course I wasn’t because they’re idiots. LOL.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:53 am
By all means, do state that it is a sponsored post and yes, it will tell me that it is probably, possibly, biased. BUT. I still feel that the way in which you write it, will tell me if it is one from the heart or not, sponsored or not.
Let’s say the product is a diaper. I guess the way in which you write about the diaper (sponsored or not) will make me either turn the page or cause some positive reaction within me. Perhaps it is a matter of choice, the ’sponsored posts’ that you write, or maybe it is just about being a good copywriter or not. I dunno la.
Interesting argument no doubt
July 24th, 2007 at 10:02 am
What I’m trying to say……now that my head is a little clearer (I think?)…..is that despite it being a sponsored post, you could write it so well, that people STILL want to read it. Because it is interesting, because it comes from a new angle, because it gives insight, because it is funny, because whatever! I do believe this is possible with you. But then, it would also be a juggle between grabbing all those paid reviews versus the clock. Like you have a lot of time, right? How, how, how?
Be selective about your sponsored posts till readers trust them and then slowly build them up? OK, don’t listen to me ar….because I talk crap most of the time. And it IS 2am in the morning.
July 24th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Oh, ure welcome to argue, my lady
I love a good discussion.
What I worry about is the REAL conflict of interest comes when and if I get some requests to do REAL reviews of say parenting books or baby/kids products (without being paid).
This conflicts DIRECTLY with paid posts, esp. when people answer to those badges that ask for money to do a review on your site.
Like Kenny Sia or Xia Xue. Granted they dont need PPP coz so femes, but the point here is that they do restaurant/food reviews. And so do people like DYM and other moms who are relatively popular. Imagine if they’re greedy and do PPP - their integrity as reviewers will be seriously compromised.
I am nowhere near their kind of traffic but as a fledgling writer, I don’t think I can risk it lor. If ure training yourself to be a writer who wants to get published one day either in magazines or whatever, this conflict of interest will not play favourably into your whole rep as a blogger/writer.
That said, bloggers like Chan Lilian who build their blogs for money, and like my friend Shireen from HealthFreakMommy, they don’t pretend to be something else, which I think should be very clear from the start. They say it and are set on their goals, unlike me, I am NOT sure at all where I want to take my blog. All I know is I cannot risk my readers thinking my opinions cannot be trusted because whatever I really think about a product or a site, my sponsored posts are bound to be biased towards the sponsor.
Long story short - if u wanna do PPP, keep it separate from a blog you want to take seriously to another level. Otherwise, very hardlah.
July 24th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Fledgling, my &#%$@*#&. Sorry, don’t mean to vulgarise your blog with expletives
I see where you’re coming from. That said, I think that the learned reader (perhaps I’m making some big assumptions here), would be able to absorb and separate the real reviews from the paid ‘fake’ ones (hehe). There is a whole lot of crap out there yet I believe if you did a real review, it would show. And if you really didn’t believe in one of your paid ‘fake’ reviews, it would also show. AND if you can dupe your readers into thinking that that diaper is the best thing since? orgasms? even when you believe it is really a pile of bile, then you’re good. And people would want to use you anyway.
In the whole ad debate going on right now, I belong to the camp of great content. Ads or not. Sponsored or not. Unless its ads smashing into my face or lousy sponsored posts all the way. Then I just fart. (oops, there we go again.)
July 24th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Óh, I’m sticking with the ads, though to say the money is trickling in would be a stretch lol. So far I’ve made $3?!
In the end, not to undermine PPPostees, it’s whether to take the easy way out (i.e. farm sites like PPP) or hope to strike a writing gig soon.
And u know the second one is even harder than waiting for bids/posts to be approved.
July 24th, 2007 at 10:58 am
And thanks for the suggestion of having separate blogs for PPP and ’serious’. Something to mull over…..although right now, more than half of me still says that people will read if written well, even if sponsored. Am I living in a dream world ah?
July 24th, 2007 at 11:05 am
You WILL get your writing gig, babe! You know that whenever you sit down and really write, you write. And when you just churn out what comes to mind, then without the extra fikiran, you not so write. But to have it within you already…..it is just a matter of time when that break will come. It may be sooner than you think.