Third Time's A Charm

I tried writing twice today. Once was about there being so little authenticity in modern life that sometimes it gets hard to keep trying.

Then I started to blog about the death of profitable food blogging. I've been subscribed to Amateur Gourmet for a very long time, even though my foodie tastes have changed given my sort of ideas on what is healthy. Now Adam Roberts is reporting the gig is no longer profitable, unless you are willing to shill for your sponsors:

Ad companies are no longer interested in the ads that you see above you right now and to the side. They’re interested in the ads that get integrated into posts; the ones that so many of you have complained about me doing in the past. Sponsored content. And I reached a point, in October, where it was no longer a choice; my contract, with a guaranteed CPM (that’s how much I got paid per thousand clicks) expired and, going forward, the only way I could make money was to do more sponsored posts. I told my ad company that I didn’t see how this was sustainable; after a certain point, you start to lose your readers’ trust. In December, I said that I didn’t want to do any more sponsored posts. Last week, we parted ways.

Yep. I've got a built in version of bullshit control for food- I cook. I don't think they expect you to cook anymore. They just expect you are there for entertainment, and that you've already eaten at one of their gigantic chain restaurants. Well, that seems to work for the Food Network, but I find it hard to believe it will work in text. We went from television to blogs because the blogs were delivering better content. Besides, text is another one of those low bar I.Q. tests.

So, let the one inform the other here. Much better than going off the rails on stupid evangelists, dating, voting, foreign policy, domestic policy, etc...

It is all similar in the end- if you are looking for pork, they'll do whatever they can to give you something cheaper than pork, but still be able to call it pork. Right now it is feeding them crap and not letting them live lives of piggy happiness until they have that one bad day and get turned into bacon. Later, it may be cells grown in vats. When do we get to call it fraud? There is a subjective part to fraud, because value is subjective, and you have to know the differences in order to make your value judgement.
This is true in all domains.