Verbing weirds language

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To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
Elbert Hubbard

Have you heard about the new verb “kirked?” Basically the story is this:

Kat and her husband went to meet with JL Kirk Associates, an operation purporting to be a headhunter agency, who had contacted the husband and wanted to help him find a job (his resume had been posted online). She & her husband smelled scam and left before being bilked of $4k. And she blogged it, accurately.

Then the woman they’d met with, acting as a representative of the company, commented on the entry. It’s lengthy and entertaining. Kat wrote up a whole entry, quoting the entirety of the comment and refuting the inaccuracies via footnotes.

Then Kat was served. The papers warned that her Internet access would be terminated. For blogging.

Then her local blog network (Nashville) picked it up (meaning the local circle of bloggers). Someone in the network had connections to local media. The local media picked up the story while bloggers across the country began mentioning it. I saw it on Zero Boss and by that time it was greenlighted at Fark.

I bring it up (1) to spread the word and (2) because it happens sometimes that someone doesn’t like what I blog. I’ve been threatened with the equivalent of “how would you like word getting out that you said X?” or “are X?” Thing is: word is out because I put it out there. I have every right to share my experiences and my thoughts via my weblog, which is exactly what Kat did. She mentioned the name of the company so that others would avoid being scammed the same way she nearly was (and it worked; read her comments). Everything she said in her original post was relevant and appropriate.

Kimberly is dealing with something similar. She pulled her daughter out of daycare, blogged about why (using fictitious names, when she used a name at all) and was subsequently threatened by the daycare provider (a lurker, apparently), who sent her friends to Kimberly’s blog to make poorly-spelled nasty comments. She apologized but the harassment continued. You can never win with some people.

I don’t know about Kat or Kimberly but after a lifetime of being told to sit down and shut up, I’m done doing it. If I have something to say, dammit, I’m going to say it. The idea of having to censor myself in my own webspace is vile. Once someone clicks the link leading them here (or reads via a feed, I’m not particular), it’s the equivalent of coming to sit at my kitchen table and share some gnosh, a cuppa and some chatter. It’s my house and I can say what I please. Moreover, I’m thrilled to have you here to share it.

How this company thinks that threatening a blogger will help their reputation is beyond me. This Intraweb thing is tricky! Who knew that bloggers talk to each other? Share links and stories? That news outlets — local, national and worldwide — read blogs to get news stories? That caches of webpages are easily available for years and years after, even if the blogger (for reasons beyond my comprehension) complies and removes or alters the entry?

Bloggers knew. We have a tendency to band together and defend one another against those who would attempt to censor or silence us. In fact, we’ll make a verb out of the names of those individuals or organizations. As of today “Kirked” means “to have your reputation ruined for trying to stifle a blogger’s free speech.” Brilliant.

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, That’s fucked up