A dusty sock puppet made by my son, logo design and blogging.
When tidying up my home office recently, I came upon this ferocious little devil. A 12″ sock puppet, made by my son Matthew almost fifteen years ago as a school ‘Father’s Day‘ project. He’s a little dusty (the sock puppet, not my son), having lived for over a decade under some software boxes and some business papers on the bottom shelf of a bookcase.
If he ever had a name, it’s long since been forgotten, but while his colored wool whiskers and accents have faded a bit, he’s every bit as menacing as he was when first constructed by Matt, no doubt with some assistance from his kindergarten teacher.
I have to admit feeling a bit guilty about ignoring him for so long (the sock puppet, not my son), but he’s now been placed in a suitable place of honor. A lot of love went into building him, and the least I can do is offer up a few square inches of shelf space above my monitor.
I guess the primary lesson for me in this is to treat treasures from loved ones with a lot more respect because ultimately, they mean more than any store bought tie, or restaurant gift certificate. It also brings me to today’s pet peeve. Sock puppets and The Fine Art of Internet Sock Puppetry.
[picture after the jump].
About a week ago, we published a fairly in-depth article on SEO and logo designers. Not a terribly big deal, but a rather long (and dry) treatise on how designers might improve their rankings by sharing a little link love once in a while. Oddly, that notion seemed to touch a nerve with some people and resulted in a self-proclaimed ‘Strike Back‘ post that attempted to take me, this site, my company and a few others to the woodshed. All fair enough I suppose, but that post seemed to spawn several anonymous comments that tried to take this obscure little dust-up to weirdly personal levels.
Never one to shy away from a debate, I even took one to task before realizing, about half way through, that engaging these anonymous commenters is pointless. Sock puppets hiding behind bogus names often have an axe to grind, but are usually reluctant to reveal what that axe is. Or who the axe represents. Their opinion, as well as their bias, might be considered suspect and they generally write things they’d never say if the comment could be attributed to them. This is far from the first time. And it ain’t just our humble blog either. Accordingly, here’s how we’re going to do things in future.
If you have an opinion on anything that’s happening here, whether you agree or not, you’re more than welcome, encouraged even, to get in on the debate. You can trash me, my company, our work, my opinion on logo design, whatever takes your fancy. Have at it Hoss. Having your say while posting under a nickname, or a nom de pleur, is groovy too, especially with a link to your site. If, on the other hand, someone’s trying to anonymously slam someone on a personal level, or influence a heated topic with general anonymous unruliness, it’s less likely that comment gets approved. If it is let stand, I’m not going to argue with it, because there’s absolutely no point in arguing with, or debating with, a sock puppet.
Lest you think this is some form of censorship for opposing view points, this applies even if I completely agree with what a sock puppet is saying too. Puppetry is puppetry. As the kerfuffle that began this illustrates, most of us are ‘out there’, personally accessible, accountable and standing behind whatever opinions we have, regardless of how controversial, stupid or ‘against the grain’ they may be. With social media platforms like Twitter (our account) and Facebook (here you go), that’s getting truer every day. It’s all about the transparency, and for transparency to work, especially in debate mode, it should go both ways. So, and moving forward, the only sock puppet that I want to talk to is the one now sitting proudly on my bookshelf. Staring at me. Staring.
If he ever talks back, we might have an issue.
Update:
Shortly after this post was published, Funkenhammer called up and told me that Matt’s little sock puppet friend reminded him of Frank the Rabbit from Donnie Darko. He’s kinda got a point, so after all these years, our little wool buddy has a name and it’s Frank. Frank the Sock Puppet. He also suggested counseling for Matthew, but that’s another story.
This is a a series of random photographs captured on my Apple iPhone during my travels. There are three self-imposed rules: 1) the photo has to be taken with my iPhone, 2) the photo has to be published ‘as is’ without any cropping or editing and 3) no Photoshop tinkering other than lighten, contrast and sharpen.
Related Posts
Excellent post but that sock puppet has got to be named Frank! It is the most evil thing I have seen next to Donnie Darko’s rabbit.
Heh. Frank it is.
Sock puppets indeed Steve. Apart from having a laugh at their expense, I don’t think it is worth engaging with these devious trolls unless they are willing to identify themselves.
If you are not transparent, you effectively made yourself irrelevant within the community that matters anyway.
The thing that amuses me the most is the number of Diggs their post got. Social media voting sweatshops are here… what has the world come to;)
Hey Duane. Some companies employ armies of sock puppets to re-tweet, digg and comment on their own blog posts. As you’ve noted, transparency is the only effective anecdote.
Watch it Fat Boy. We have rights too.
Actually Frank, no you don’t.
I enjoyed reading your blog. I just read that Brits vote iPhone 8th greatest invention. I love my Iphone.