Primal Sneeze

What a digitally delicious weekend it has been for me. All sorts of interesting stuff happening online.

Sugar Britches tried, unsuccessfully, to let her blogiversary pass without fanfare or post. I like Sugar - the blogger not the commodity - where else would I read expressions like it’s raining pitchforks and hammer handles and I am so excited for him I’m fixin’ to pee down both legs, and with that goes the Mother of the Year award I’ve so desperately wanted but never achieved? So I fixed that right up. Yes ma’am, fixed it right up.

The auld fella up the hills (up, not over) was one of a half dozen bloggers to receive an email from the Irish Times, a press release from the press, saying from Monday the paper would be free-to-view online. After years of suffering the paywall this is great news. My challenge now is to find something else to bitch about. I will - believe me.

Isn’t it delicious though that a big company like this would interact with bloggers? That they’d inform six of Ireland’s most influential bloggers? As chosen by the lads in the Irish Times canteen? Or from a list they found somewhere? Or do they actually read blogs? Now wouldn’t that be truly delicious. We may find out in years to come. Until then we’ll just have to rely of the Freedom of Gossip Act for information.

Companies have interacted with this blog too. No messing! They really have! Back in March I was bitching about an undelivered package and Gary Delaney of GPS Ireland jumped in to tell me about how a postcode system his company was developing would solve all my problems.

Now you’ve probably noticed I don’t sell ads on this site. I’m a philanthropic blogger - I dole this junk out free of charge. The Willie Gates of blogging - that’s me. This may have to change though if the price of the pint goes up in the recession, but for now I don’t court the corporates.

But I let Mr. Delaney’s comment through because a) it was very relevant in the context of the post, b) it piqued my interest in a geeky way c) I loved the humour in the company’s suggestion of JG8 1759 for the Guinness brewery, and that they appreciated a visitor to their website suggesting GNY 00US instead. Plus he was commenting personally - not using a spambot.

This weekend, Mr. Delany returned to the same post via a Google search to let me know his system was up and running. Great! No. Hold on. Via a Google search? That meant he wasn’t coming back to update me personally. Was he trawling the web for opportunities for free advertising? Product placement? Was he trying to manipulate Google in the way Donncha explains?

I did a bit of trawling myself and found him on many blogs. On some there was a one line comment as in my case. On others, massive chunks copied and pasted from the GPS Ireland website.

Such comments quite often sparked debate. Mr. Delaney responded to criticism made.

Earlier this month I mentioned the GPS Ireland website on Grannymar’s blog and lo and behold Mr. Delaney turned up there soon after. (I suspect this wasn’t due to the back-link but to the keywords in Grannymar’s post). The banter between him, Grannymar and others ensued. Very witty. Great craic. Genuine interaction.

Then a Pat Donnelly showed up and a slagging match between the two forced Grannymar to close comments.

During my trawl I noticed Mr. Donnelly many times. Always jumping in to knock Mr. Delaney. If the latter were to be considered a troll then the former would be a troller-of-trolls.

I didn’t want that happening here, so I pulled Mr. Delaney’s comment.

I have agonised over this for the last five minutes and have decided to let it through for a number of reasons: I like the system his company have developed, though I see flaws and their web-interface sucks. They aren’t paying me. The comment is relevant. I like the guy’s wit and humour. (If Mr. Donnelly, or his ilk, turns up, I will handle that then).

If I like a system, a company, a product, I plug it on this blog. Just as I do face-to-face. Hey, Molly, you should try that new Immac Extra Strength. In no time at all you’ll be looking like a woman again. There are links on this page to WebMon because I find it excellent.

Equally, if I don’t like something I deplug it here. Just as I do face-to-face. Hey, Matt, that new power washer you got in Lidl is useless. Your kids still smell. You’ve read my complaints about the Argos Ireland website. Matt can tell me that’s how they’re suppose to smell. The Argosians are free to defend themselves too.

To prove this, let me tell you about a company with products and service second to a nun.

I just love the Hairy Baby clothing company. Good quality garments at a reasonable price. But more importantly, fekin hilarious. I mean side-splittingly funny slogans on everything. The latest in their line is a cloth shopping bag. On one side is printed This bag is for the messages, and on the other, Slice Pan, Pound of Butter, Tay Bags, 6 Slices of Hang, Cream Buns.

Have a look around the website. If you don’t wet yourself laughing then you’re dead, or should be, or aren’t Irish, in which case much of the humour will pass you by.

Sometimes I just visit the site for a laugh. Not to buy anything. The one and only time an order got messed up, a customer service guy mailed me progress updates every couple of hours until it was sorted.

This weekend I got another mail from them. A gift coupon.

I suspected something amiss as the sender was using a gmail account and the originating server was similar to Hairy Baby’s in name, but not the same. I let them know.

Within a short time I got another, definitely legitimate, email explaining the situation:

We’ve just realised that one of our website programmers Elliott accidentally sent out an email while testing the coupon section for our new site which is due to be launched next week. We just want to let you know that this was a silly mistake and not the result of spamming or anything mad like that. Elliott has since been put on the naughty step for 20 minutes to think about what he’s done! We’re really really really sorry about this and hope you can ignore the email.

See what I mean? They are funny guys. Not great at punctuation, but very funny. Just like Sugar, they aren’t afraid to use their own dialect. I like that. I really like that.

When it comes to engaging digitally with the customer, Hairy Baby have it sussed. GPS Ireland just need to keep it country to acheive the same. I wonder how the new Irish Times will do now that they’ve taken their first (non-hairy) baby steps?