Ethan Iverson on the reason to blog

From The Bad Plus blog, Do the Math:

The jazz blogosphere is roiling about several related "critic" and "how critical should you be on your blog" issues at the moment. I think that the reason to blog is to cast light on things an unpaid person loves.

I like that a lot. I don't get the blogs that rant and rave (except for the irresistible Brilliant Corners, aka Bilious Corners, in which Chris Rich writes many things that make me go "Huh!"). A while back, I dipped my toe into snarky blogging and some fish swam by and tried to bite it off. I realized that insults and jokes at others' expense, while admittedly kind of fun to write, are not what I want this blog to be about. And I made up a simple rule for myself: If you wouldn't say it to someone's face, don't post it on the internets.

Nice of Ethan to include a public thanks for the hats and point his readers to this humble blog. One thing leads to another, in this case a healthy spike on Google Analytics.