Following on from my last post – here’s some more thoughts about ViolentAcres, the controversial anonymous blogger:
A few things for me smell dodgy about her blog. She’s very vague about what her professional background is exactly, but at no point does there seem to be any reference of inference to working in the internet/online-media industry. Yet:
- Her blog runs on a self-install copy of WordPress with a custom template. With so many good + free managed blogging options around (like WordPress.com) that’s kinda odd for anyone but an ‘industry person’ or someone who intends to run their blog for advertising (which is usually banned from free managed blogs).
- For a ‘regular person’ she seems to be very aware of the success metrics such as Alexa and Technorati rankings, and inclusion in Digg and del.icio.us – and she’s monitoring them. My ‘normal user blogger’ wife barely knows what any of these are let alone why they’re significant indicators.
- She has a ‘add me to del.icio.us’ link at the bottom of every post
- She doesn’t accept comments – perhaps an astute move for someone setting out to be uber controvesial who doesn’t want on-site bite-back. This is why Valleywag only allows comments from an invited select pool of people
- Her blog actually runs on an account from APIS Networks – a web host “by developers for developers”. Not a hosting provider a ‘normal user’ would use.
I therefore would like to take a hunch that ViolentAcres is somehow connected to the internet industry – either directly or perhaps by proxy (ie her husband/very close friend/etc works in the industry).
This then further makes me wonder whether this is an experiment or bet to see how quickly someone can get notoriety from nothing via their blog. That would certainly explain the decision to go for controversy, etc.
What do others think?
Are you sure you haven’t started a new blog Ben? 😉
this is some how a way of increasing the rating of violent acres?
Sadly I think not although its a nice conspiracy theory
I think in the future we are going to see more of these “bitch blogs”. So people can get out the evil side without loosing any friends.
It does look odd after having a quick browse over her blog. Two points which I would like to point out is how she actually has adverts on her blog – on the right sidebar and at the top – which isn’t something a normal everyday blogger would do – or even really want on thier personal site – so that smells to me of someone wanting to make money from thier site, as as you said, her topics do seem to be controversial – they all seem to be on a topic which would get people having a feirce war of opinions over…
Also, how (in my view) it would seem as though she has some knowledge on how to make a template as you pointed out its customised – but how, even little things like she’s managed to remove the “Powered by WordPress” stuff at the bottom and replaced it with her own (c) notice…
It does smell iffy from here too…
This is covered ground. Check out the various trainwrecks.net threads on this topic; other bloggers have determined that she’d had other blogs and sites before this one.
http://www.trainwrecks.net/?p=305
Yeah, they say it. But they have no proof. Personally, I think that site is just a bunch of jealous cows who feel threatened by VA’s blooming popularity so they’re trying to discredit her any way they can. But you can believe what you want. *shrugs*
The whole anonymity factor is definitely adding to her buzz. She knows exactly what she’s doing.
Awesome article! Your style is so much better compared to most other writers. Thank you for posting when you get the chance to, I’ll be sure to return!