In the interest of joining my younger and indisputably more enthusiastic colleagues here deep into the second decade of the 21st Century, it seems only fitting that I should inaugurate my deeply suspect "on-line presence" (like Richard Ford's Bascombe, I dream of the need for a constantly updating glossary of terms, words and idioms that should be henceforth proscribed. "On-line presence" is the first.) with a few brief observations regarding several and sundry topics as they relate to the purpose and, more pointedly, the content of this ephemeral load of shit.
Firstly, I have to point out that I am suspicious of any club - as Groucho Marx noted - that would have me as a member. Forget momentarily that "on-line" is the largest club in mankind's history and that there exists absolutely no vetting for inclusion. It is as obvious as John Tracy's copy that someone should be in charge. If not to prevent the provision of space and specie to les engorgeé like me then at the very least to cull the maundering hypocrites and self-appointed moralistas bent seemingly on changing the world into an even more banal accretion of idiot "live your best life" syllogism and generic-to-the-point-of-unconciousness moral tropes by being ignored one click at a time. ("Trope," incidentally, is on the list. There will be many more) This of course doesn't discount the fact that as a member of Onlineia I teeter, poised precipitously, above the abyssal plain of noisomeness - meant in both its actual meaning and what you probably think it means - in real danger of plummeting into the undignified squalor of narcissism and general lying described as Content by the inhabitants below. Which is to say, by all of us. Indeed, content is King, regardless of either its purpose or provenance. "Content" used as a completely neutral denominator of the shite it points to. Let us commence a second page of terms, these to be used instead of the ones they replace, like "content," that say nothing and allow their users to get away with - literally sometimes - murder. Lets add "Media" to that list while we're at it.