Too legit to submit?
I came across a post by Daniel Miessler today (via Reddit) about people submitting their own work to meritocratic websites such as Digg and Reddit. He makes some great points:
There are thousands upon thousands of good writers out there — people who could be improving the quality of what we see here everyday. But we won’t ever experience what they have to offer because there’s nobody to bring it to our attention. What are the odds that their stuff is going to be randomly “discovered”? Not good. The only only option is for them to drop the socially ingrained false-modesty and present it themselves.
Remember that writers submit their work to publishers; they don’t wait for it to be found. Artisans have shows and invite lots of people, and academics submit to their respective journals. In short, submitting original content for peer review is crucial in any community that values intellectual progress.
These communities hate on such people by automatically down-voting anything they submit. I’ve always found this to be the slightest bit disconcerting. But there is a difference between occasionally submitting your own work and thinking that everything you conjure is worthy of everyone’s attention.
All of these sites lack quality content, especially when it comes to words. Personally I’d rather read an insightful piece of writing than look at another image of a LOLCAT.