The casual reader of blawgs is likely unaffected, but regular readers know that the blawgosphere has reached the point where certain individuals have developed what might be called "blawg cred," a degree of internal recognition that imbues them with credibility.  For some, it's attained through their writing, insight and humanity.  But for many, it's self-ascribed. 

There is no test for membership in the blawgosphere.  Anyone can join the club.  All it takes is a dollar and a dream.  Literally.

Many of the most prominent blawgers have worked their way up the food chain, earning their bones through writing that is often good and occasionally brilliant.  Brilliance speaks for itself, and the blawgosphere is the perfect venue to have your thoughts vetted by your peers.  One can easily believe oneself brilliant (as most of us do), but if ideas can't pass muster by fellow lawyers in the blawgosphere, then you've been tested and failed.

Then there is a swathe of the blawgoshere that offers little by way of ideas, but much about themselves.  These are the Blawgosphere Heroes.  They write about the wonderful things they have done, both in the law and in life.  They attribute greatness, humanity and success in the hope that others will believe.  They create the online persona that they wish they had in real life.  They post about their legal successes, their huge cases and great victories.  If they do so enough, they hope that people will believe them.

You see, it can be quite difficult to verify claims in the blawgosphere.  One can become the great humanitarian one always wished one was by creating a surreal digital world around themselves.  The blawgosphere tends to accept things at face value, particularly when no one's ox is gored in the process, and it becomes part of the blawgospheric myth. 

The problem is that sometimes these are lies.  Sometimes, claimed victories never happened.  Sometimes, the blawger didn't save a kitty from a burning building. 

Many blawgers write with a voice of great authority, absolute in their understanding of the law and world, claiming expertise unto themselves.  Some blawgers have never seen the inside of a courtroom, yet pontificate about where each of the chairs should be placed.  Other blawgers, in the zeal to make friends and increase their own prominence, embrace these Blawgosphere Heroes in the hope that they will bask in their reflected glory.  They spread the myth and believe it with all their heart and soul.  The myth becomes a reality, though only in the blawgosphere.

One blawger will write of another that he is the best lawyer in all of Podunk, and in the blawgosphere the latter will be the best in Podunk.  Of course, the former doesn't actually know the latter, and can't verify a single thing that the latter has ever claimed.  It's all a matter of faith confused with reality.  It benefits both.  And if enough people swear to a purported blawgospheric reality, it becomes so.

Beware the Blawgosphere Hero.  You don't know him.  You can't possibly know if what he says is true or utter fabrication.  Those who claim to be important, successful, brilliant may be or may not be, but writing so does not make it so.  Of those whose blawging consists of ideas, the process of peer review will distinguish the real from the fiction.  But of those whose blawging serves only to support their claims of personal achievement, greatness, humanitarianism, blind acceptance of self-ascribed attributes is absurd and all claims should be viewed with the utmost suspicion.

This is the blawgosphere.  Anyone can claim to be a hero if they want to.  But they only become a Blawgosphere Hero is you let them.   Be very careful who becomes your hero.