There have been some rather disturbing scandals in the blogosphere this year, one in which I was closely affected.. but I won't even go there right now. For reasons I also won't get into (piggy flu!) I have neglected my blog lately, but I have still been keeping a close eye on the blogs I follow. Another situation has come up recently, ultimately leaving people to question the character and legitimacy of bloggers. Today, I thought it would be interesting to simply search "bloggers" and see what came up. I found the usual news stories about angry bloggers, sites with tips on how to make money blogging, etc. But the most interesting thing I found was the following definition:

Of course, I don't completely agree with these opinions, but it honestly surprises me that bloggers even wonder why people feel this way. I've felt bad in the past about the fact that I'm hesitant to tell some people that I have a blog, but now I feel justified. There are some bad apples out there who have made it difficult for the rest of us to gain any respect outside the blogging community. But regardless of what people believe about us and why, this is the only definition I think we should care about and put to practice: