For full disclosure, I know the owner of weightlosswars.com well, though I have no financial or other interest in the company at all. In fact, while I am signed up for the service I haven’t used it for my own weight loss because I enjoy just doing things on my own. However, I feel the need to comment on something that happened over the last day with the company. After a few emails back and forth, Jason Calacanis blogged about sites like weightlosswars. Instead of being insightful, he comes off as being ultra defensive and some of his comments are just downright absurd. First he makes the assumpti,on that these sites only work through competition. If Jason actually looked at sites rather than blindly making judgements based on his love for his own ideas he would see that weightlosswars has a section called “Adventures in Health” where the users blog about their struggles and successes. Not only does it do this, but it aggragates all the users blogs into one nice feed so you don’t have to hunt through tons of feeds looking for the weightloss posts as with fatblogging(tm). I shoved that “tm” in there for you since you seem to want that there. Additionally, the site allows you to have friends, read their blogs, share successes, share recipes etc. This goes against Jason’s assertion that fatblogging necessarily gets you friends where these sites don’t. The entire site is built around friends, whether it be for competition or blogging or personal messages. It makes me question whether most bloggers ever visit sites more than a few seconds because of their built in biases.
I don’t even know where to begin with this silly statement, “While weight loss competitions might draw some folks for the short term, it will hurt in the long term because a) many folks don’t like competitions and b) when the competition ends so does the motivation for those who signed up for it.” This sounds like a comment from someone who hasn’t had much experience in any type of competition. The vast, vast majority of people thrive on competition. Some just only compete with themselves. It is still competition. Most people want to get to a weight they were earlier in life, or get to a weight that is at a range set by their BMI. That is competition. You are competing with your former self, or competing with the BMI. Competition can and does produce lifelong changes in people if the people around them have the right goal in mind. Sports, spelling bees, programming contests, all can help people be active for their entire life, read, and learn. Weightlosswars isn’t for everybody, either is fatblogging. To say otherwise is incredibly myopic and shows a lack of desire to consider new ideas other than your own. If you are already blogging and don’t want to add another place where you need to post, fatblogging is a great tool. If you aren’t blogging, and you want to find a great built in community talking about their struggles and you want to find friends to help, I suggest weightlosswars.
Well, the site is called “wars” which I think pretty much sets the tone for what it is!
Also, I never even mentioned that site… I was talking about the dozen or so sites that have contacted me.
Also, I never said that you wouldn’t make friends doing a competition–I said you will might make friends doing fatblogging–you’re totally twisting my words.
You’re actually wrong about competition and motivation. It is a short lived–but strong–motivator in most cases.
Also, I never said that fatblogging was the only thing in town. I’m sharing my feelings that competition is short term and that the better solution in my opinion is long term, internal motivation.
Motivation from within is always better than external motivation.
So, good luck with it… but you’re really spinning my words in this post.
Jason
March 23rd, 2007
While it is debatable whether the name could give a narrow view of what the site does, that does not give you the excuse not to visit it. Your comment is strange since you start out with a criticism of the site then continue with “Also, I never even mentioned that site… I was talking about the dozen or so sites that have contacted me.” Just had to get a jab in eh?
This comment was also hypocritical since when does the term “fatblogging” set the tone for what you want it to be? I had no idea what fatblogging was when I first heard it. In fact, to be educated about it, I spent 15-20 minutes looking around at the different people “fatblogging”. You will have a hard time in this 2.0 world if you judge sites immediately by their names. Or maybe you just do it when it is convenient in your situation.
You are completely shortchanging the effect competition has on people. All internal change needs to start with a catalyst, and people also need regular strong reinforcement. Have you ever tried potty training a kid? I promise, adults are no different. Many Biggest Loser contestants have kept off the weight and changed their lifestyle. The competition was the only strong enough catalyst to make this change for them. I would say that fatblogging will have little chance of surviving a year because their is no ongoing strong motivation or catalyst. There is a reason there are hundreds of millions of dead blogs out there. People are not just going to keep blogging about their weight loss without another motivation.
Also, you say “I never said that fatblogging was the only thing in town”. Well, I don’t know if we read the same blog entry, but that is how it reads. If you are going to publicly criticize all the sites that wrote you then you should expect that you can be called out on each one of them, whether or not you spoke about each individually. Next time actually visit the sites first and do some research. Otherwise, don’t bother writing an entry.
Trent
March 26th, 2007
Notes to self: 1) Visit a website before critiquing it’s value 2) Don’t jack with Trent Miskin
Jeff Jordan
March 28th, 2007
You make some good points, Trent. I was a bit surprised reading Jason’s reaction, though I can imagine he got several direct solicitations to pimp Weight Loss sites on his blog. And though I’m no expert, WeightLossWars.com is one of the nicest weight loss communities I’ve engaged online. (Disclosure: I produced the site.)
Blake Snow
March 28th, 2007
Great job with the linkbaiting guys…you got me to come comment. However, you will notice that you went to aggressive, which resulted in me not linking or mentioning the name of the site, as well as this linkbait (which pimps the site).
Rule number one in linkbaiting: combine praise and attacks for the greatest chance of getting a link. People can’t help but link to something that has positive comments about themselves.
you should have started out with a huge love letter to me, about how great my blog, podcast, and dog are, how inspired you are by me, and what it might be like if we were friends and went for beers together after working out at the gym…. THEN in the final paragraph said I was wrong and here is why.
i would have linked to that for sure! heck i would have invited you to the gym and for beers… more honey guys.
Jason
March 28th, 2007
I can promise you Jason that we weren’t linkbaiting. Jeff and I are way too dumb to coordinate that. As you might not have noticed by my late reply and my blog content, that this isn’t built to reel in the traffic. I review White Nacho Doritos for heaven’s sake! My traffic or importance in the blog ‘o sphere is of no consequence to me. Thanks for taking the time to comment, and I wish you all the best in your weight loss effors, and I really do mean that.
Trent
April 3rd, 2007
Yeah. you were linkbaiting and you know it when you look at yourself in your doritos shaving mirror.
Jeff Bason
April 4th, 2007
This whole discussion is cracking me up!
Trent…could you please teach me how to link bait?
Brock Blake
April 10th, 2007
Calacanis says way too many things in a tone that makes me think he thinks people do what he says and believe what he says. His tone often reflects that of someone who thinks they are somehow an authority figure
Russell Page
May 31st, 2007
. . . . let me add though that he is very, very good at what he does. I just think people jump on his opinions too quickly . . .
Russell Page
May 31st, 2007
I have been reading here for a while now and thought it would only be fair to register and contribute instead of being a silent reader. So – I am looking forward to be a full part of the community!
Take care!
ProGasCasMash
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ProGasCasMash
December 4th, 2008