I saw a post by @whatsup in my feed entitled "I'm Not Going To Work On a Post For Hours.. (Ever)". The title sounded a bit like feet being stomped and pouting cheeks being puffed out 😂. I stopped by to take a look and see what might have prompted this.
Whatsup wasn't really throwing a tantrum of course, not her style. In spite of the fact that she is the Queen of dRAMA, she is not herself a dramaqueen. I have seen her keep a remarkably dignified and stable head when around her others were losing theirs. Whatsup has been around the blockchain and 'IRL' is someone with considerable experience in marketing and high-level planning/organisation. She appears to be a very practically minded person with the ability to spot subtle and overlooked aspects of any given Game, as well as the skill to draw these out into the open. I like Whatsup even though I may not agree with her POV on certain things/issues.
In this particular post, Whatsup seemed to be expressing a certain frustration with folk who push the idea of 'Quality content' - the word, the concept, the notion of Quality - as if it were Holy Blockchain Grail.
I don't see the issue as Whatsup having a problem with Quality Content itself (ie 'Good' content as subjectively determined by her) - far from such a simplistic notion. Perhaps the issue is more to do with discussions around the idea of / desire for 'Quality' at the expense of the 'Thing in Itself' (talking about 'Talk' and not doing)? Perhaps there may be some frustration with the insistence on 'Quality' having to conform to a certain type, style, format etc? This is all very valid IMO, for I do not see how 'Quality', being subjective, can be measured in any meaningful manner. Additionally, throughout history the concepts of 'Quality' and 'Elitism' have been considerably conflated in society and they continue to be! For example, many would consider a meal which is served in a fancy restaurant with silver-service and fancy cutlery laid out for each course to be of 'higher quality' than one that is served in a simpler eating space, even if the simpler meal eaten with a spoon (or fingers :) be superior in taste, nutritional value etc. Everywhere in society - in adverts, films, human conversations etc, many aspects of what are considered to be luxury/elitist/privileged lifestyles are considered to be 'Quality' when really these are merely status symbols for something that is (or seen to be) relatively scarce or desirable. What then is 'Quality' here if not a synonym for emulating or aspiring to the habits of the elite in order to look the part or feel in some way 'aligned' with the power and riches associated with such lifestyles ('snobbery' by another name :)? Appearances - hollow and misleading as they are, are often mistaken for the Substance of Reality. Look at some of the associations with the word itself, taken from Merriem Webster.
Bringing this idea closer: does a post on the blockchain have to look like a slick magazine article or be written in the language of academia or the style of classical literary works in order to be considered 'Quality'? Surely not! Reading between the following lines, Whatsup, tinging her words with some fine literary sarcasm, doesn't seem to think so either:
I speculate: it seems that Whatsup may have been triggered by statements challenging her current habits and implying that she should/ought to vote for 'Quality'. Perhaps this came with the sense of a wagging, judgmental finger being pointed in her direction and the notion of 'Quality' as some mixture of the above discussed, rather than content that she herself may determine to be of interest to her :
She goes on to elaborate and then concludes her short post with:
Nice, I do pretty much the same!
I felt like commenting on her post and did so. She liked what I said and requested a post out of it. This is it, thanks Whatsup 🔆.
Below is the comment that prompted this post. I had thought of elaborating, but I'll leave it as is; what can one do but waffle when faced with the ineffable lol? You can read the comment over here or in the image below:
Thanks for reading 🔆
@barge
