Online etymology: is “DERP” ableist?
Oh, DERP. You ridiculous meme. You have replaced words like DUH, DOY, D’OH, and DER in the vernacular of millions, a quick three-letter word to say “That was hilariously stupid of me!” Unfortunately for DERP, there are some people who’ve used it derisively, using it to mock those with developmental delays or disabilities. Based on these contexts, some people now see the word as offensive.
So, why do you occasionally see the word on Offbeat Empire posts?
When is it cultural appropriation and when is it just kids playing dress-up?
Last week we ran a sponsored post for a family photographer that featured this image of two children playing dress-up, one of them in a Native American head-dress.
The photo struck several readers as objectionable. Let’s talk about why, and what it might mean.
5 ways we optimize old blog posts into super sticky landing pages
Web overlords often refer to “landing page optimization” when they talk about making users into “conversions.” The user is converted when they sign up for the email newsletter, buys the product, drinks the Kool-Aid, etc.
While blogging has its crossovers, what the Offbeat Empire wants our landing pages to do is get readers deeeeeper into the sites. We want to show them what we’ve got, what differentiates us from similar blogs, and secondarily, to get them engaged with our various communication and social media touch points. Web publishing loves something sticky.
The strategy we’re working on these days is to find older blog posts that are organically getting major traffic and, assuming that many of these readers are new to us, introduce them to the site and get them clicking on links. One example of this kind of “landing page” blog post is “Wedding invitation wording that won’t make you barf,” something Ariel originally wrote back in 2007 that still gets 47,000 unique hits a month.
Here’s how we try to get readers to stick around…
The Empire’s policies: syndicating and attributing content
This post features what used to be an internal document I created for interns, outlining the general guidelines for posting non-original content on the Offbeat Empire. At this point, I don’t see any reason why this shouldn’t be public — especially since there’s a lot of differing opinions about etiquette around these issues.
There’s a lot of grey area with this stuff (I’ve broken my own rules many times — FOR SHAME!), and obviously we can’t anticipate every scenario … but hopefully this post provides clarity on our general policies for sharing, linking, citing, etc.