Days of Chris and Ponzi’s Real or Fake Lives? |
My friend has been trying to offload the domain blogfighting.com and I think it would be perfect for drama like what follows. As I try to warn in most drama cases, skip if this isn’t your cup of java.
Not sure if this skirmish between Chris Pirillo and his fiancee Ponzi is fake or real but as a reader it’s making me a bit uneasy. It seems somewhat real. The situation is making me question whether or not blogs are the best place to air out personal relationship differences. They sound like a married couple already bickering through their blogs. Is this just pre-marital jitters, or is this a new type of blogging way to get free relationship counseling from the internet at large?
What makes me think this might be engineered and fake? Check out the screenshot above to the right. That’s classic Chris Pirillo. He’s making fun of Strawberry Shortcake. He’s clearly not serious .. well, not completely serious. I’m sure he dislikes Strawberry Shortcake, but is he making fun of something his fiancee likes? This is coming from the guy who rented out space on his chest so I doubt he’s that serious about anything shared online, but he confuses me sometimes with his sardonic wit. Obviously, I’m not alone.
But reading Ponzi’s post makes me think she is seriously hurt:
It feels belittling to me for him to laugh or say things like “That’s not even a good job, it looks like ass.” We’ve been over this time and time again. He says all “geeks” feel like this when they are helping people who are close to them with computer questions. Yet, it still doesn’t make me confident to hear him laugh at my ignorance.
Why does this stuff make me a bit uncomfortable? Because it’s none of my business. I feel like I’m being voyeuristic reading and now I’m making it worse by blogging about it. If these two are going to be exhibitionists then why not just put a 24 hour webcam in their bedroom? Heck, they could probably make it member’s only and make some $$ in the process.
Then again maybe this is very relevant since these are their personal blogs. People should be able to blog about whatever floats their boat. Still I wonder if it would be helpful for readers to be able to understand if these posts are real or fake?
What do you think, is this real or fake? Should readers care at all? Once it’s published to the masses, it’s no longer private and personal, even if it is slotted in a personal blog. I do like when bloggers share personal things, as written about here before several times, because it shares a side of their humanity and makes their blogs more unique. However, I don’t like when I can’t tell whether something is a joke on us (the readers), a joke on them or not a joke at all.
These are the tags Ponzi used for her post: email, smartass, clarity, blogging, understanding, teaching, sensitivity, questions, geek, contextual.
Chris used these tags to describe one of his rebuttal posts: fiancee, friendship, sweetheart, cupcake, girlfriend, marriage, companionship, love, lover.
None of these tags suggest humor or satire to me. If these two started going at it in a restaurant I’d be one compelled to tell them to keep it down so the rest of us can enjoy our meal in peace.
Fake? Real?
Update 9:42am PST: My friend with blogfighting.com alerted me that Chris Pirillo is now blocking links from this site to his, see screenshot below (I changed his link above, and we’ll see how long it takes him to block that one too). Ponzi still isn’t blocking the link from here to there, so maybe she still loves Hmm.
Guess this means I won’t be getting an invite to their wedding.
Did this post make you go hmm?
(Hmm, no ratings yet)
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Bizarre. Seems like some sort of reality TV blogoff to me — which questions its authenticty no less.
I agree with your mix of sharing and restraint. I include some personal experiences in my blog, but I steer clear of anything I wouldn’t want to discuss with, well, everyone.
Comment by Sterling Camden — March 23, 2006 @ 1:16 pm PST
Yeah, it’s even more questionable when he blocked the link from here. But of course his block was short-lived …
Comment by TDavid — March 23, 2006 @ 1:26 pm PST
If it is real, it has no business in public. If it isn’t real, it isn’t funny.
At least they’re not arguing over which Air Supply album to play.
Comment by Fred Beiderbecke — March 23, 2006 @ 1:33 pm PST
What a prick. The dude airs his “dirty laundry” for everybody to see. Then when you make mention of it, he acts like a little internet nerd and blocks your readers from his site via Hmmm. What, is he mad because you don’t find his third grade humor funny?
And if it is fake drama…..
What a friggin child.
Comment by orangecrush — March 23, 2006 @ 3:50 pm PST
Hey “orangecrush” - chill the fuck out. My host, Blogware, for some odd reason has decided to do this at random times. Why the fuck would I do that, fuckface?
Comment by Chris Pirillo — March 27, 2006 @ 1:18 pm PST
Hi Hmmm’s : It was real. It is real. This is my life and if I want to blog about it I will. I feel no need to ask for permission. I don’t feel like I need to explain myself either. But, if you’re asking me to… I blogged it because it’s what was on my mind at that moment when I felt like blogging that day. Nothing more or less. I’m real on my blog - it’s little clips of me and what I’m up to. What’s written ranges from stupid and petty one day to smart and full of wisdom (okay usually borrowed wisdom!) the next. That’s just me, I’m faulted and I’m full of laughter and tears aren’t you? I feel like if people are interested in reading my blog then they are interested in the REAL me so that’s what they get. Do I share too much? That’s not really for you to judge is it? That’s for me and mine to judge.
I still appreciate your thoughts and concerns. If it’s too much for you and you don’t like it feel free to delete me from you list of “readable” blogs. I’ll understand, completely.
Comment by Ponzi — March 28, 2006 @ 9:28 pm PST
Chris - that’s a bizarre sense of timing, don’t you think?
Good enough, thank you for the clarification.
Ponzi - actually, I do have a name and it’s not “Hmmms” (hint: see byline, and one too many m’s anyway) and no offense, but you have never been on my reading list so there is nothing to unsub from (my OPML has been published here for a long time, see homepage left column). I arrived at your whole exchange through Chris’s blog (I’ve been to your blog through him in the past too, see archives). That aside, I do think it’s great that you two want to keep it real if indeed that is what you are doing: keeping it real. This has been part of your conference tour lately hasn’t it? The whole blogging in the bedroom motiff? Good for you.
Again, no disrespect but I do not read Chris for his relationship bickering (heck, any married couple gets enough of that and it’s severely cliched), I read him for his tech insight, experience and geekdom (of which I enjoy, thank you, Chris). Fortunately there are services like Feed Rinse which allow me to filter out the other stuff and that’s what I’ll consider doing so I don’t have to unsub completely from his blog which I happen to enjoy sometimes.
And just like you can write about whatever you want and read what you want, so can I, and here we are, Ponzi. Keep blogging and don’t let anybody, absolutely myself included, tell you what to blog about.
At the same time and this is to those reading as well, just don’t be fake drama bloggers, which is what this entry was clearly questioning. I do believe both of you saying that it was real, so nothing more from me on this for now. I’ll take at your word (I’ve met both of you, though you might not remember meeting me at Mind Camp, Ponzi). The use of the question mark in the title was not accidental or incidental.
Comment by TDavid — March 28, 2006 @ 10:11 pm PST