You've been Dooced

Dooce (Heather Armstrong) is an American blogger who was recently chosen as one of the world's 50 most powerful blogs by the British newspaper The Guardian. Dooce came in at #5 and the accomplishment boggled the mind of even Dooce - "Do the people who write The Guardian drop mushrooms on a regular basis?" - Dooce.

The 'phenomenon' of online journals/Blogging continues to evolve, but Dooce is a great example of the power of social media. Many Bloggers are now able to make a living off the advertising revenues from their blogs, which although is quite a feat in itself, seems to pale in comparison when you realize that "Dooce" is a personal journal.

Dooce's blog started in 2001 when she moved to L.A. to work at a webdesign company and began to blog about her job and her coworkers. Unfortunately, most of those blogs were made up of comments that weren't exactly positive. Somehow, a fellow coworker stumbled upon this and all hell broke loose. Dooce was fired from her job because of the blog .

Dooce is a social media pioneer in the sense that she was one of the first Bloggers to be fired from their jobs because of its contents. The term "Dooce" has even been coined, with an entry in Urban Dictionary

Dooce -

To be fired from you job because of the contents of your weblog.

Dude, did you hear what happened to Mary? she got dooced.

Fortunately, Dooce was able to make lemonade out of lemons, and after losing her job, the popularity of Dooce skyrocketed. She continued to write about the struggles with her depression, Mormon past, and motherhood, and less serious but still popular topics such as constipation, Britney Spears, and of course everyday life. My friend is an avid reader of Dooce and has been for a few years now, but is still amazed at the popularity of Dooce. Not surprisingly, my friend is also immersed in many other aspects of online social media and follows a variety of blogs ranging from politics, technology, to music, but Dooce is the only blog that she reads on a daily basis. She has no idea what makes people come back to Dooce's blog, but feels that her honesty, humour, and great writing (Dooce graduated as an English major) is what keeps people interested.

Regardless of the phenomenon that is Dooce's popularity, the fact remains that through the rise of social media as a routine part of everyday life, Dooce is now able to support her family through advertising revenues, and just recently finished the manuscript for her first major book deal.

As for advice to fellow Bloggers who are tempted to vent out their workplace frustration online? Dooce says "BE YE NOT SO STUPID".