I bet there's a website you go to every day to pick through life's flotsam and jetsam. It could be for music, last night's football, or if you think you've got more to offer, probably the Guardian Online. Wherever it is, there'll be personalities and characters enjoying nothing more than a good old pointless argument. It puts the day in.
You may not have heard of it, but a prime specimen of one such website exists here in Northern Ireland. It's called Slugger O'Toole, and though it would call itself otherwise, it's essentially a fight club for local politicos. As a resource for checking the country's social and political barometer it's useful. Better than that, as a resource for wasting time in work, it's unparalleled.
Set up a few years ago by blogger Mick Fealty, it has enjoyed a consistent rise in traffic as more and more people log on to air the same sectarian arguments they've been airing for 30 years.
The format will be familiar to many: the site posts nuggets from the day's relevant news, and the Plain People Of Ulster get to have their say on the matter in the following pages of depressing debate.
What I can't stand about it is its attitude. Slugger O'Toole thinks it's Watergate every day. It screams self-importance. Its articles are full of wry comments from 'the ed', are time-stamped and corrected as if they were Reuters, and reference themselves at any and every opportunity. It demands, nay cries to be heard and recognised. Blogs can have influence, it's true. But they don't quite so openly crave it.
So what is it – noble NI watchman, or a seedy mire for the sectarian underbelly? "That's an interesting question," admits site founder Fealty.
"It gives individuals who wouldn't join a club, or a political party, a voice. It's a Bolshie readership who won't just sit and be told."
Fair enough. But what everyone really knows is that it's Slugger's frequent plumbing of admittedly fascinating, macabre paramilitary innuendo that the punters come back for. In this regard, it comes into its own.
I won't name the particular murders – but the site's long-time readers will remember it going into overdrive with hourly updates on certain harrowing events here. The site's users gorged on it, while its writers could barely believe their luck that someone else's horrible misfortune allowed them to play newshound.
"The thing is, people don't like it when we report on stuff like that. We cover the kind of detail that most of the media don't bother with," says Fealty.
"My personal feeling is that I don't like having to go there, but if there are political connotations, I don't see how we can't go there. There's dirt, but we try to keep it as sanitised as possible."
In that regard, Slugger actually performs. It's just the sense of aloofness that leaves a bitter taste.
"Don't mistake the commentariat on Slugger for the people who read it," he offers. "I started Slugger as a research resource with the understanding that it would be of mutual benefit to others. I didn't set it up as a soapbox. But I know it has an influence on the local media, because they've told me that in private."
How this translates to the real world is up for debate. In its prime, Slugger is a useful, even vital resource. It's accountable to no one, and has no need to apologise. That's understood. And for all my own whinging, I'm on it all day like the rest of them. But I'd offer some advice.
Some content that's allowed to run is despairing. Though they guide as best they can, at the same time they know that confrontation means good traffic. More importantly though, the blogging team's own shop talk can easily be toned down. So a little change, and Slugger wouldn't just be a way to pass the day – it would be a read worthy of the clout it's dying for. For now though, the hauteur is getting a bit much.