First, was Nadine‘s comment a few weeks ago:
‘oh, and blog away especially outside of the green media, seep slowly into the reticent consumer driven world.‘
followed by my discovery of Ryan Watkins-Hughes, and his ‘shopdropping‘ practice:
‘SHOPDROP: To covertly place merchandise on display in a store. A form of “culture jamming” s. reverse shoplift, droplift.
and then Kyle‘s powerful image:
‘The cup of change is being filled drop by drop in the dark. We hear each drop, and we are impatient because we hear the drops but don’t see how full the cup is. At some point it will overflow.’
Three seeds that did not go to waste. Some recent discussions on La Marguerite, have convinced me of the value of a blogging initiative aimed at strategically chosen populations outside of the green blogosphere. The three seeds have germinated and given rise to ‘The Green Drop Project‘.
‘To ‘greendrop’: to ‘drop’ relevant ‘green’ comments in mainstream, non green blogs, from a predetermined list of targeted blogs. The blogs will be highly trafficked blogs in areas determined to be most amenable to climate fight conversion. The initial focus will be on parenting, religious, and business blogs.’
Tomorrow, I will start greendropping in parenting blogs, and reporting daily on my blogging expeditions. The following is a list of all the parenting blogs with a Technorati authority of 500 or higher, that I will be visiting:
http://www.5minutesformom.com/
http://scribbit.blogspot.com/
http://bitchphd.blogspot.com/
http://www.parenthacks.com/
http://fussy.org/
http://www.designmom.com/
http://www.emomsathome.com/blog/
http://eddiejohn66.blogspot.com/
I invite you to join me and report on your expeditions. When you do, may I suggest that you mention the Green Drop Project, in addition to your name and blog URL? This way, we will be able to track the project as it spreads.
La Marguerite 
I looked at all those sites and I was overwhelmed by the oestregen, I don’t know if I can say much to their posts… Plus I am not really the missionary type, I just post in places that interest me, of course I link to things I think are relevant. In this way I gradually knock that wedge in.
Some places seem to be related but really are stony ground to cast our seeds in, like I gave up on TalkClimateChange because of stupidity like, “greenies say that if a scientist even has a gas card he can’t be trusted on climate change.” You expect that kind of nonsense in comments to a site, but not in the articles themselves.
I just go for sites with related areas of interest, make my comments and gradually knock that wedge in. Eventually the wood will split.
Glad you liked my little metaphor, though 🙂 Perhaps I could express it as, the drops have to actually hit inside the cup. I think some of the sites you listed aren’t even in the same room, let alone the same cup as us.
Hmmm, that sounded a bit negative.
What I meant was that it’s the right idea, but we have to aim at the right places. “Targetted marketing” the PR types call it. So for example that DotEarth bloke’s blog we can post to and discuss things, he’s already keen on the ideas so it’s teaching grandma to suck eggs, but he’ll have a large audience reading the comments and they won’t all know how. Or if there were some blog all about thriftiness, most genuinely greenish lifestyle choices are also money-saving, so we could post there. And so on.
I beg to differ with you here! These moms may not talk green overtly, but their discourse shows glimpses of concern here and there, and that, to me represents hooks of opportunity that cannot be ignored.
Hmmm, still feels a bit pushy to me. Like I said, I just look for stuff in obviously-related areas. Like when you paint, start in one spot and work out from there.
I figure that if what I’m saying makes sense, it’ll gradually get readers, people will comment, link and speak about it, and so on.
I do like Bitch PhD’s blog, though. Not that I am a fan of open relationships, but you don’t have to agree with everything a blogger says to enjoy their writing 🙂
For example, an online friend who I’ll meet in June said he and friends on seeing pictures of me were relieved to find I was not a “lard-bag, like most guys who talk tough online turn out to be.” I said, “I never said I was a tough guy.” He replied, “I mean a tough guy in that Harlan Ellison, tell it like it is way.” Yet he likes my writing anyway.
GREAT IDEA!
Marguerite, great idea! I’ll be joining you – I know some of these sites and I think you’ll enjoy them. May I suggest developing an icon for the GreenDrop project which the bloggers could put on their sites? This type of “blog bling” is very popular with the Mommy bloggers. It would show everyone united around the same cause.
I like this idea. How about tagging posts+comments with greendrop, too?
Thanks, all, for sharing my enthusiasm for this project. I think of it as green guerilla blogging. Today I will have a thumbnail image that you can export on your site if you wish.
I think it’s a great idea as long as the comments are (of course) genuine, from the heart, reasonably informed, and respectful of those readers and bloggers of the other blogs, as I’m sure would be the case from people here. If this type of thing were done by a paid “denialist”, who doesn’t care much about the Earth or the issue, but is doing it just for pay, that wouldn’t be good. Also, I suppose, this involves reading some of the headline posts and comments in these other blogs and actually interacting with the community on-line, right? In other words, one can’t really drop in, post an out-of-context comment, and then disappear.
I think it would be good for me to try to participate in one or two of the main business blogs. So, perhaps, I’ll wait to see the list of suggested blogs in the “business” segment that you mention. Of course, the WSJ energy/environment blog could be one of them.
Also, one thing I might do (if I can find the time) is to pull together some sort of list of reference facts and materials that can serve as a sort of “library” or “tool chest” for some of the posts. For example, a link to the Oreskes talk. Or, a link to other good stuff and some fun facts.
When making posts here or elsewhere, it sometimes helps to post a link to a relevant video or talk or site or something to help bring the matter “to life” and also to provide extra credibility. So, if time allows, I’ll try to pull some of those things together.
That’s it for now. Cheers.
Jeff
Tina, what did you mean exactly by tagging posts and comments? I will be tagging all greendrop related posts on La Marguerite with ‘greendrop’, as well as signing all comments on the other sites with ‘Green Drop Project’. Other than that, what else do you have in mind?
Jeff, yes to all of the above. I will be writing some more today about the how, where and what specifics of greendropping, as well as putting together list of most trafficked business sites, and religious sites. This way, people can pick according to their own preferences.
I was thinking along the lines of saving posts that contain the greendrop to del.icio.us and tagging them there. I’m not sure what value it would add other than providing one place to see all of them accumulate.
That in itself might be a handy and useful learning tool for the greendrop participants, though. You could search for the greendrop tag on delicious and see what others have been writing and where.
Great idea again Marguerite.
@Kaishu, sorry to hear that you gave up on TalkClimateChange. We deliberately try to provoke on occasion – that’s what a debate is all about. However, we do try to keep it relatively light hearted with liberal doses of sarcasm.
There’s debate and then there’s “trolling”. There’s provoking discussion with unusual ideas, and then there’s just jumping in with deliberately ridiculous and stupid stuff just to stir up shit. Some at TCC wanted debate, others wanted to troll. The signal to noise ratio became too unfavourable.
Which is why I’m wary of the Green Drop Project. It could easily become trolling. You have to go for somewhat related sites, rather than just popping up any old place. The drops have to hit the cup, not just splash all over the place.
Choose your sites carefully, I say.
At this stage I’m more interested in bringing together the people who have similar ideas. The greenish movement is in general very diffuse, with a thousand groups with ten thousand agendas. Diversity is a strength, diffuseness a weakness. So I try to post on different blogs like this one to bring people together and share ideas. For example, I just discovered this “towards zero carbon” bloke.
Tina, I will follow your del.icio.us suggestion.
Mark, Jeff, all the other guys, I will be putting together a list of business blogs very shortly for you to greendrop in if interested . . . I realize the mommy sites may be a bit much!
Kyle, I hear you, and appreciate your point of view, as usual. 🙂
Well, our approaches can complement rather than clash.
I’ll work on bringing together the likeminded while you go out and drop the propaganda. I’ll bring the choir together, you get the soapbox and preach to the passers-by 😉
Yes, there is definitely room for both approaches. I am not giving up on the like-minded folks either. Rather, I am interested in pursuing both efforts at the same time.
A bit like jazz.
[…] 13, 2008 by lamarguerite First day of greendropping in all the mommy sites. ok, there was also one dad site. I was surprised how easy it was to relate […]