"To ensure the continuity of the blog and guarantee its integrity ..."

January 11, 2008 1:31 PM

In what might be every blogger's dream come true, a brand has acquired an established blog devoted to that brand: in this case, cult notebook/journal manufacturer Moleskine has purchased the four-year-old fan blog Moleskinerie. But what will it mean for content - will critical posts become a thing of the past?
posted by jbickers (33 comments total)

It always read as thinly-disguised advertising / pr to me. I don't see how this is likely to change much, if anything.
posted by dersins at 1:45 PM on January 11, 2008

"The comments to this entry are closed."
posted by washburn at 1:52 PM on January 11, 2008

BYOFB?
posted by loquacious at 1:55 PM on January 11, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

It always read as thinly-disguised advertising / pr to me.

It is... well, was a fansite for a product that some people are very much in love with. See also: Apple, that astronaut pen company, hipster PDAs, GTD, etc.

"The comments to this entry are closed."

Pretty much sums up the future of that site.
posted by middleclasstool at 1:58 PM on January 11, 2008

Pfffft, that be like if Pepsi bought this place.
posted by chillmost at 2:08 PM on January 11, 2008

I think I'll cut through all of the rigamarole by writing a fansite about myself and then buying it from myself. Hopefully I can name my own price. I tend to be a tough negotiator, especially when it comes to selling myself out to myself.
posted by miss lynnster at 2:29 PM on January 11, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

miss lynnster, I would suggest some careful self-linking on MeFi before you sell out. That would inflate the value you would receive. Be sure to include the costs of all sockpuppets.
posted by never used baby shoes at 2:36 PM on January 11, 2008

I feel like taking a short pause from MelittaFilter^® to make myself a rich, fragrant, flavorful, filtered coffee. Mmmmmm, coffee.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:39 PM on January 11, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?
posted by Dave Faris at 2:46 PM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Based on those two closed-comment posts, I'm guessing they see bad PR on the horizon.
posted by middleclasstool at 3:00 PM on January 11, 2008

See also: Apple, that astronaut pen company, hipster PDAs, GTD, etc.

JACK: This is an astronaut pen. It writes upside down. They use this in space.

JERRY: Wow! That's the astronaut pen. I heard about that. Where did you get it?

JACK: Oh it was a gift.

JERRY: Cause sometimes I write in bed and I have to turn and lean on my elbow to make the pen works.

JACK: Take the pen.

JERRY: Oh no.

JACK: Go ahead.

JERRY: I couldn't

JACK: Come on, take the pen!

JERRY: I can't take it.

JACK: Do me a personal favor!

JERRY: No, I'm not...

JACK: Take the pen!

JERRY: I cannot take it!

JACK: Take the pen!

JERRY: Are you sure?

JACK: Positive! Take the pen!

JERRY: O.K. Thank you very much. Thank you. Gee, boy!

HELEN: Jack, what are you doing?

JACK: Stop it!

DORIS: Jack, we should go. (they go to the door) It was nice meeting you.

ELAINE: Mmm, nice to meet you.

JERRY: Thanks again.

JACK: Come on!

DORIS: (to Morty) She's adorable. (they leave)

HELEN: (as soon as the door is closed) What did you take his pen for?

JERRY: What he gave it to me.

HELEN: You didn't have to take it.

MORTY: Oh my God! She's gotta make a big deal out of everything.

JERRY: He offered it to me.

HELEN: Because you made such a big fuss about it.

JERRY: I liked it. Should I have said I didn't like it?

HELEN: You shouldn't have said anything. What did you expect him to do? (the camera shows Elaine shaking her head at their dispute)

JERRY: He could have said: "Thank you, I like it too" and put it back in his pocket.

HELEN: He loves that pen.

MORTY: Oh come on!

HELEN: He talks about it all the time. Every time he takes it out he goes on and on about how it writes upside down, how the astronauts use it.

JERRY: If he likes it so much, he never should have offered it.

HELEN: He didn't think you'd accept.

JERRY: Well, he was wrong.

HELEN: I know his wife. She has some mouth on her. She'll tell everyone in the condo now that you made him give you the pen. They're talking about it right now. (again we see Elaine smiling at their argument)

JERRY: So you want me to return it?

HELEN: Yes.

MORTY: He's not gonna return the pen. That's ridiculous.

JERRY: Hey I don't even want the pen now!

MORTY: Jack can afford to give away a pen with all his money. Believe me. He gives me a check for $19.45. He didn't have a Coke. Ho, ho, ho!

ELAINE: Here, let me see it. (she takes a pad to try the pen) Hey, it writes upside down. ^*

posted by ericb at 3:04 PM on January 11, 2008

That's like the Treaty of Westphalia of Seinfeld episodes.
posted by dersins at 3:13 PM on January 11, 2008 [5 favorites has favorites]

You people are too cynical. I suspect the only changes to the blog will be that now it will become a print publication with a very nice cover.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:22 PM on January 11, 2008

I've been trying to get Stickley to buy Hewn & Hammered for years. They ignore all my emails. They could even pay me in furniture if they wanted.
posted by luriete at 3:25 PM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I just think it's disgusting that they won't address the cruelty to moles that their product represents.
posted by cortex at 3:27 PM on January 11, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

cortex writes "I just think it's disgusting that they won't address the cruelty to moles that their product represents."

It's not "moleskin", it's "moleskine". That is, "Mole" "Skin" "E".

I think it's disgusting that they promote eating disorders in moles.
posted by Bugbread at 3:30 PM on January 11, 2008

How can you tell when a mole is anorexic? It only makes molehills out of molehills.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:34 PM on January 11, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

How can you tell when a mole is anorexic? It only makes molehills out of molehills.

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG!

I am sick and fucking tired of you people and your trivialization of SED¹.

In point of fact, you can tell a mole is anorexic if exhibits:

A. Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height (e.g., weight loss leading to maintenance of body weight less than 85% of that expected; or failure to make expected weight gain during period of growth, leading to body weight less than 85% of that expected).

B. Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight.

C. Disturbance in the way in which its body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight.

D. In postmenarcheal sows, amenorrhea, i.e., the absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles. (A sow, or female mole, is considered to have amenorrhea if its periods occur only following hormone administration.)
------------------------
NOTES
1. Soricomorph Eating Disorders
posted by dersins at 3:52 PM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Soricomorph Eating Disorders

Richard Gere walks into his physician's office with a carrotstick up his nostril, a breakfast sausage in his right ear, and a soricomorph in his ass. Says, "Doc, you gotta help me!"

"Well, first of all, you're not eating right..."
posted by cortex at 3:59 PM on January 11, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]

Richard Gere walks into his physician's office with a carrotstick up his nostril, a breakfast sausage in his right ear, and a soricomorph in his ass.

I think he's a buddhist, not shrewish.
posted by dersins at 4:01 PM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Based on those two closed-comment posts, I'm guessing they see bad PR on the horizon.

Those threads are 1 and 2 years old. The threads that old on MeFi aren't open either.
posted by dobbs at 4:14 PM on January 11, 2008

dobbs writes "Those threads are 1 and 2 years old. The threads that old on MeFi aren't open either."

Yeah, but Moleskine bought MeFi out 3 years ago, so that makes sense.
posted by Bugbread at 4:19 PM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Memo to the Moleskin dipsticks: It's a notebook. Worth about a nickel. Get over yourself.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 5:05 PM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I jot all my notes on mole skeletons, 'cause scrimshaw is where it's at.
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:46 PM on January 11, 2008

Let's call it a reverse-Kiam: "They liked it so much, the company bought them."
posted by holgate at 5:47 PM on January 11, 2008

My favorite comment about Moleskines, from an AskMe question on what sort of pen to use:

i find that the only pen that really complements a moleskine is a muji rollerball. the nude white cylinder - alabaster almost - is a shocking contast against the more homely simplicity of the moleskine cover, while the delightful irony of an explicitly (self referentially false, and so paradoxically impossible, implying levels of meta text in something that itself generates text) brand-less design icon complements the uber-brand, class-identifying, and yet honestly (imagine the simple contadino, moleskine in one hand, pizza in the other) authentic italian moleskine, perfectly.

 posted by andrew cooke at 8:24 PM on December 2

posted by grouse at 5:54 PM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

In what might be every blogger's dream come true...

...and every community member's nightmare.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:27 PM on January 11, 2008

Bloggers nowdays dream of selling out?

Bloggers nowdays think notebooks are something worth blogging about?

Blogs about notebooks attract community members?

*Goes back to Usenet*
posted by Jimbob at 7:07 PM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Someone gave me a moleskein once, but the little fella choked on all the yarn. Never had a journal, though.
posted by flatluigi at 8:20 PM on January 11, 2008

Yay for Moleskinerie; they were always pretty much a "hey look at all this and oh yeah buy your notebooks from this place we recommend.." shop anyway. More power to them.

It really wouldnt be much different from DavidCo buying 43 Folders.
posted by mrbill at 10:33 PM on January 11, 2008

I love the way how the company insinuates that it's been around for decades, because every notebook it produces comes with a little piece of paper telling you about the company's history and how its products were used by famous writers like Hemingway.

Then you look on Wikipedia and find out that the Moleskine company was only founded in 1996. It's all such a big fraud.
posted by tapeguy at 3:26 AM on January 12, 2008

I think I'll cut through all of the rigamarole by writing a fansite about myself and then buying it from myself. Hopefully I can name my own price. I tend to be a tough negotiator, especially when it comes to selling myself out to myself.

Good for you. I'd sell myself out for a sandwich. I'll do just about anything for food, especially free food.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:41 AM on January 12, 2008

I love the way how the company insinuates that it's been around for decades, because every notebook it produces comes with a little piece of paper telling you about the company's history and how its products were used by famous writers like Hemingway.

Does a Moleskine notebook tell the truth?

"Though more figurative than literal, [the] marketing campaign, Piccolo dubbed 'the commercialization of the Moleskine myth,' has nevertheless proved effective. Modo & Modo produced nearly three million Moleskine notebooks last year [2003], up from 30,000 made in the first edition in 1998.

...Still, some critics wonder if that success has in part been fueled by a fib, and they ask if it is fair to imply that famous writers and artists scribbled and sketched in Moleskine pages long before the brand was ever registered."

Previous MeFi Moleskine threads: 1, 2.
posted by ericb at 9:08 AM on January 12, 2008