In Raven’s (and “Java’s,” who did not ID him or herself) defense, I’ll say that just like anyone else, she is of course entitled to her opinion. It could just as easily have been ignored, and no further attention would have been drawn to it. You know, “ignore it and it’ll go away.” YMMV.

I do take exception to the assessment that this is going to damage the blogosphere’s reputation, though. It’s not like Instapundit’s doing it, it’s just ME. I’m not exactly one who is a big influence on anyone, I just write crap and if it bombs, so be it. If it flies, great. Unfortunately, the attention given to it is a SYMPTOM of the ills of the blogosphere–that bashing (and also impractical extremism) gets attention…just like the “mainstream” media. I’m glad you see that no harm was intended, that it was just a silly thing, but by dragging out grievances beyond the comments there (or email) only expands the bad feelings about it. If you don’t approve of such things, why bring them over to your own site(s)?

As for me, I’m not going to state any opinion on anyone else’s in that comment thread (except for the one I made about Liberal Avenger being the worst troll).

Like I said, I don’t do “blog-fights” and I don’t want to either engage in them or encourage them because they’re pointless. This and the cross-post are definitely NOT what I expected–and honestly, I would think the “category” about blog-fights would discourage such a thing. Oh well.

I can only say that public bickering on either side would detract from “respectability,” if any is to be gained or lost at all. I certainly don’t expect to be thought of as “mainstream media” equivalent, nor do I want to–which is why you won’t find “Bad Blog Awards” on Instapundit or Powerline or whatever, but you may on sites like mine and others that are decidedly not so serious.

Kit, I do appreciate that you understood the intent behind the original post. So thanks for acknowledging it.