Mandy DeWaal rated Bolton as a person with more influence than many real South African Bloggers. I think Mandy has a skewed perception of influence. Just because someone appears in the news often does not make them influential, It purely means they are oft written about.
Mugabe is influential in Zimbabwe but oft written about because he is a mad man. Mandela was influential and was written about often. He is now retired and suffers a sever lack of influence.
I think Mandy needs to first define influence or is she talking about popularity?
Here is my take. How big is the pond you wish to define influence for? What are you defining as influence?
In my own way I am influential in my Pond. I pretty much stay in my pond so my influence is limited to my pond. I don’t attend all the meetings in Cape Town, Johannesburg and such like, not being much of a socialite so thus do not get into the news much.
According to her ratings I don’t mean much, but to my clients that are getting the results I am a huge influence even if I don’t get talked about in the media much.
Bolton DeVenter was a much maligned invention of an anonymous blogger, He was written about often. In fact Bolton was a satirical spoof based on me the way I understood it. So Boltons press coverage was high but what actual influence did Bolton bring. What changes were made to the Web because of Boltons influence? Did Bolton make anyone famous?
The Clique that continuously mutually masturbate one anothers egos has not change one jot or one tittle. The fact is that the clique give each other the means to say, Look how influential I am? They preen, They make a little money but do they actually change anything.
Just look at Rafiqs fiasco just recently. Is that influence or just written about?