Please, correct the statement that Audible hired me to reprepsent them in the blogosphere. I am not a "blogger-for-hire," I worked on the product and because I care about it, blogged about it.

Why is it that passionate blogging, when it is in opposition to the A-List, is labelled inauthentic? It seems the ultimate hypocrisy to me.

I couldn't care less about my Technorati profile, either.

You've also misspelled my name.

Cale—Thanks for the corrections, though you've chosen to be clever rather than completely accurate. It would be good, however, to discuss the meaning of what happened, because you're correct that it deserves a name other than "viral marketing," if for no other reason than I am clearly not a marketer.

You still seem set on the idea I am a "blogger-for-hire," which I am not. I engaged Dave as one person working on a technology to another, he bit and I bit back. You say this the result of my "inflammatory" postings, but if you go look at the record (clearly visible on my blog home page, not just the link you provided, which is, admittedly, a pretty nasty flame of Dave, though one aiming at his claim to be able to judge a business opportunity and not a personal attack)—you will find I was pointing to posters, even critical ones, and just answering questions. Dave started with the first of his postings, calling Audible "shitty" and suggesting things as fact which were not correct. When I responded to him, he flamed me, then I posted the response you point to. So, is this a case of my being inflammatory or standing up to someone who could have used their position in the blogosphere to dismiss something I worked to create by burying it under false information and abusive language?

By contrast to Dave Winer, Jeff Jarvis, another critic, and I engaged in a very constructive dialogue across both our blogs.

This has nothing to do with PR, and if you'd look at my background you will find that what I do is write honestly, granted not always politely, because I don't tolerate rudeness, especially from folks in a position to be generous. In the meantime, you attribute to "blogebrity" a status that is out of proportion to their role in the market, as they may have traffic, but they are not invariably correct.

The outcome of the discussion—the flame war, too—is that many folks commenting on blogs are saying "Hey, wait, Dave's wrong." And they go on to actually start thinking and talking about the potential of MP3, Audible's service and other approaches to allowing those who choose to dedicate themselves to audio production to make some or all of a living from it.

I would genuinely appreciate your thoughts on this....