Heroic Life and Deadbeats On Blogger Help Group

Blogger Help Group (BHG) is a forum that isn't difficult to join, though if you don't join and log in, you can't ask or answer questions. There are approximately XXXX members, though I would not be surprised if the ACTIVE number at any one time exceeds a hundred or so. Some visitors there ask a single question or maybe a spate of questions while they're still pretty new, then never return. Another category are those who come back months or years later to ask something new. Then of course there are the advisors who answer the questions. Most are unofficial volunteers like me who've never had a penny out of Blogger (or even a kiss, thank God!). The answerers range from some intelligent Newbies who just got here, but who learn fast and have already begun to volunteer help to other Newbies who are even less experienced. "If you know it, why not share it?" is a pretty good motto. The other ulterior motives are as diverse as the human personality, I suppose, but that would be getting off-topic! Others, like myself (and more so!) hang around so long answering questions correctly (mostly) that they become fairly expert. In some cases, these catch the attention of the Blogger team (the real employees) and are invited to be (or are crowned as?) Blog*Stars in acknowledgement of their good work. I thought it was in 2005, but now I see it was by November of 2006 that I became a Blog*Star. A year or more later I resigned from the official group. I never stopped for long at working in Blogger Help Group, though, so I guess I am only (at best) a renegade Blog*Star. It pays the same (nuthin'), either way. The last group consists of "bad actors". They are pimps, trolls, and spammers who are all there for reasons worse than selfish, apparently finding satisfaction in making trouble for the world. Some are just putting their links on the Internet, the way you might "fish" by using extra poles stuck in the mud. Some are extreme egotists who may be as unsubtle as asking the same question(s) repeatedly and acting as if they don't understand what you mean. Somewhere on planet Earth, there's some jackass laughing and braying because another few people of good intent have been caught by his hook. If they become too famous, they appear later on with other names since the Internet and Blogger makes it pretty easy to "become" someone else. Disgusting.