Blogtaggate
Fascinating that a little game of blog-tag would evolve into the latest Oracle Blogosphere teapot tempest (nicely summarized here by Eddie Awad & commenters). Interestingly, the game has since spilled over into the wider Blogoverse.
Whether a blog-tag = spam is not a topic I would have foreseen in this venue. Just goes to show you that a community has organic attributes - it comprises many mutually balancing interests, such as ego/atruism, privacy/desire to share, and so on. Which is another way of saying: one person's nourishment is another person's poison, and often you don't know which is which until after the fact.
Update: Let me add that I am in the "nourishment" category. The reception the game received is proof enough that most (but not all) would agree; the beauty of a blog is that it can be a vehicle for creative self-expression, in which the reader learns something about the writer - not just dry facts.
Update: EI Dennis Howlett takes notice of this debate in his ZDnet blog.
