Mashup bites back
March 5, 2006 4:09 AM Subscribe
Corysucks.com is an index of Cory Doctorow’s posts to Boing Boing ranked according to how much they suck. [not via boing boing]
Wouldn't this time have been better spent translating one of Cory Doctorow's screeds into Klingon or something?
posted by felix betachat at 4:46 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by felix betachat at 4:46 AM on March 5, 2006
This is the sort of things geeks do instead of dating girls. The Internets is even cooler than a +10 Mace.
posted by Jatayu das at 4:56 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by Jatayu das at 4:56 AM on March 5, 2006
Boing Boing has been steadily falling down my Google Personalized Home, and its been moved to the left...
posted by FeldBum at 5:15 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by FeldBum at 5:15 AM on March 5, 2006
Boing Boing has been steadily falling down my Google Personalized Home, and its been moved to the left...
Hell AND Damnation! Looks like your whole browser window will have to be moved to the left, because Google is on a decline, too.
posted by gsb at 5:22 AM on March 5, 2006
Hell AND Damnation! Looks like your whole browser window will have to be moved to the left, because Google is on a decline, too.
posted by gsb at 5:22 AM on March 5, 2006
Boingboing has been getting kinda dull and one-track, but at least Cory's tryin' to do something cool and actively progressive. For all his problems, we need people like him to hold back the flood of cynical assholes like this corysucks.com whiner.
posted by Drexen at 5:26 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by Drexen at 5:26 AM on March 5, 2006
Count me in as a boingboing apologist -- still check in on it a couple times a day. The site ebbs and flows as the individual contributors find new sparkly things to be enamored with, but that's part of its charm. For every one thing that I get annoyed with (i.e. the recent love affair with subway map anagrams) there a half dozen posts I really like (especially all of the copyleft material.)
I think a lot of people get turned off by the whole self promotional thing that Cory and Xeni tend to do, but hey, it's a freakin blog. I doubt that a lot of people even realize that the site is just an extension of Mark old magazine, simply because he doesn't say "Mark's on MSN Money talking about Dildos."
posted by bpm140 at 5:34 AM on March 5, 2006
I think a lot of people get turned off by the whole self promotional thing that Cory and Xeni tend to do, but hey, it's a freakin blog. I doubt that a lot of people even realize that the site is just an extension of Mark old magazine, simply because he doesn't say "Mark's on MSN Money talking about Dildos."
posted by bpm140 at 5:34 AM on March 5, 2006
Could it be possible that "sucks" is the most common suffix for URLs?
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 5:44 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 5:44 AM on March 5, 2006
The Web page reads as a cynical attempt to leach traffic off BoingBoing to Splideo.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:44 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:44 AM on March 5, 2006
Cory's rants on DRM, while certainly well intentioned, have been getting extremely annoying to me because of their stridency. As I scan through the new items, the first time I see that some elected representive or other "is committing political suicide" because of some DRM related legislation they're backing, I skip right to the bottom.
I think this must be how my wife feels when I rant about BushCo.
corysucks.com has my vote.
posted by hwestiii at 5:46 AM on March 5, 2006
I think this must be how my wife feels when I rant about BushCo.
corysucks.com has my vote.
posted by hwestiii at 5:46 AM on March 5, 2006
hwestiii, that's exactly what I'm talking about. At least being upset about BushCo is less short-sighted than this whole DRM thing. I mean, I disagree with many DRM practices, but staging "marches" and "protests" about DRM seems like extremely misplaced energy.
posted by trey at 5:58 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by trey at 5:58 AM on March 5, 2006
You know you've made it as an Internet God when people start making hate sites about you. It's like the attention virus writers give to Microsoft, who wouldn't bother if MS had the marketshare of, say, Apple OS.
posted by crunchland at 5:59 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by crunchland at 5:59 AM on March 5, 2006
Oh come now, crunchland! If your (frankly) crazy theory were true, then metafilter's own Matt Hawhee would have a site where people would complain endlessly about his decisions and report tiny, inconsequential little bugs and constantly whine, whine, whine about having or not having particular metablog features.
Don't get me wrong though - I'd love to see such a "siteblog", and in fact I propose the names "HA-HA-UR-STUPID-MATT.COM" or "FREAK-WANTS-AAR!.COM" or something.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:14 AM on March 5, 2006
Don't get me wrong though - I'd love to see such a "siteblog", and in fact I propose the names "HA-HA-UR-STUPID-MATT.COM" or "FREAK-WANTS-AAR!.COM" or something.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:14 AM on March 5, 2006
Heh, just yesterday I finally removed Boing Boing from my feedreader, after weeks of becoming increasingly annoyed with it. It was the 50 million subway anagram maps that finally did it in for me (could I care any less?), but I also realized that I hate how they so often post something and then are forced to clarify/correct it when it turns out that what they said was inaccurate, misleading, or incomplete.
posted by statolith at 6:14 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by statolith at 6:14 AM on March 5, 2006
Hm. I guess if I were inclined to create a hate blog about him, I'd call it "mattisanA.holelottanothing.com' In fact, I'm sort of shocked quonsar hasn't done it already.
posted by crunchland at 6:20 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by crunchland at 6:20 AM on March 5, 2006
Wow I hate it when people admit what they have written is innaccurate, a proper news source would never admit to inaccuracies and correct/clarify them in a timely fashion. And they certainly shouldn't do it on the front page.
Come on guys, I like the fact that they update their stories as the news and comments come in and then post corrections in the same article post. Mainstream news sources make mistakes all the time and then hide their corrections away, if they even admit to them.
It's a habit a lot of bloggers and other sites could do with emulating.
As for the rest, I still read Boing Boing, they still post enough interesting stuff to make it worth my while reading it.
posted by invisible_al at 6:25 AM on March 5, 2006
Come on guys, I like the fact that they update their stories as the news and comments come in and then post corrections in the same article post. Mainstream news sources make mistakes all the time and then hide their corrections away, if they even admit to them.
It's a habit a lot of bloggers and other sites could do with emulating.
As for the rest, I still read Boing Boing, they still post enough interesting stuff to make it worth my while reading it.
posted by invisible_al at 6:25 AM on March 5, 2006
Hey, comic-shop-owner-from-the-Simpsons type guys! If you don't like something, why spend so much time obsessing about it!? Try simply not going to the site!
The alternative is grim--a lifetime spent resenting those who receive marginally more attention than yourself.
posted by Mrs.Doyle at 6:38 AM on March 5, 2006
The alternative is grim--a lifetime spent resenting those who receive marginally more attention than yourself.
posted by Mrs.Doyle at 6:38 AM on March 5, 2006
Well, one does need to do something other than play World of Warcraft, after all.
posted by crunchland at 6:40 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by crunchland at 6:40 AM on March 5, 2006
I don't think he really hates Cory. He's just a statistics wonk who wrote a program show off his 1337 skilz.
Boing-boing just supplied the data. It could have been any site.
Besides, that's how the interent works: anything that is popular, by definition, sucks.
posted by Jatayu das at 6:41 AM on March 5, 2006
Boing-boing just supplied the data. It could have been any site.
Besides, that's how the interent works: anything that is popular, by definition, sucks.
posted by Jatayu das at 6:41 AM on March 5, 2006
I usually gloss over the DRM stuff myself, but I'm kinda glad sombody out there is working against it.
posted by deliquescent at 6:49 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by deliquescent at 6:49 AM on March 5, 2006
Wow I hate it when people admit what they have written is innaccurate, a proper news source would never admit to inaccuracies and correct/clarify them in a timely fashion.
A 'news source' which does this on the majority of its stories is one I don't want to read. Plus, I just don't have time to read and re-read everything they post. It's fine if you do; me, I decided to stop. Too many subscriptions in the ol' feedreader as it is.
posted by statolith at 6:55 AM on March 5, 2006
A 'news source' which does this on the majority of its stories is one I don't want to read. Plus, I just don't have time to read and re-read everything they post. It's fine if you do; me, I decided to stop. Too many subscriptions in the ol' feedreader as it is.
posted by statolith at 6:55 AM on March 5, 2006
"a stupendous new coinage from ebook circles"
Doctorow is an idiot.
posted by felix betachat at 6:56 AM on March 5, 2006
Doctorow is an idiot.
posted by felix betachat at 6:56 AM on March 5, 2006
Popular things aren't always singled out as sucking merely because they're popular -- sometimes they actually suck. I'm not saying boingboing deserves a "sucks" site -- I just find the DRM stuff a bit tiresome. Oh, and I agree about the anagram subway maps - WHO CARES?!
That said, I think that sometimes they have fun stuff and I enjoyed reading the old zine. They are always quick to jump on some news meme that requires 15 updates to finally achieve accuracy (something which has been pointed out a lot). When your readership hits a certain point, I would think some sense of responsibility would take over and one would spend more time striving to be accurate or at least not spread rumors.
posted by trey at 6:58 AM on March 5, 2006
That said, I think that sometimes they have fun stuff and I enjoyed reading the old zine. They are always quick to jump on some news meme that requires 15 updates to finally achieve accuracy (something which has been pointed out a lot). When your readership hits a certain point, I would think some sense of responsibility would take over and one would spend more time striving to be accurate or at least not spread rumors.
posted by trey at 6:58 AM on March 5, 2006
those anagram maps! mother of god please stop.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 7:02 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 7:02 AM on March 5, 2006
Some of his stories aren't bad and he's beginning to write about women as if he's actually spoken to one but his Boing! Boing! stuff is pretty much the same rant, over and over. At least he's always on message, I guess.
posted by tommasz at 7:14 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by tommasz at 7:14 AM on March 5, 2006
This isn't the first time someone has called into question boingboing and Cory's responsibility to get it right.
I started off as a Cory apologist also. The first hit was when they took down the comments. No longer could you call Cory out on his hyperbole.
The second (and more personal) hit was his posts on photographing The Bean. He was just wrong. He could have read the articles and reported the whole story, but that wouldn't have been as controversial. invisible_al, I emailed him to correct the post and there wasn't an update.
I posted about his mistake on my backwater blog. Evidently he saw his name on Technorati because he responded. We went back and forth until I became convinced Cory simply couldn't admit he only scanned the original story and hadn't really investigated it.
And that's when I wrote-off Cory as a trusted source. He is interested in many things I am, but I don't believe he does his homework in his effort to be the town crier.
Cory is an editorialist pretending to be a journalist on an entertainment site pretending to be a blog.
posted by ?! at 7:36 AM on March 5, 2006
I started off as a Cory apologist also. The first hit was when they took down the comments. No longer could you call Cory out on his hyperbole.
The second (and more personal) hit was his posts on photographing The Bean. He was just wrong. He could have read the articles and reported the whole story, but that wouldn't have been as controversial. invisible_al, I emailed him to correct the post and there wasn't an update.
I posted about his mistake on my backwater blog. Evidently he saw his name on Technorati because he responded. We went back and forth until I became convinced Cory simply couldn't admit he only scanned the original story and hadn't really investigated it.
And that's when I wrote-off Cory as a trusted source. He is interested in many things I am, but I don't believe he does his homework in his effort to be the town crier.
Cory is an editorialist pretending to be a journalist on an entertainment site pretending to be a blog.
posted by ?! at 7:36 AM on March 5, 2006
dabitch: there should be a ".sucks" TLD.
Slight refinement: .sux, to parallel .com, .org, .net, .etc
(I know there's no .etc - shouldn't there be?)
posted by hangashore at 7:54 AM on March 5, 2006
Slight refinement: .sux, to parallel .com, .org, .net, .etc
(I know there's no .etc - shouldn't there be?)
posted by hangashore at 7:54 AM on March 5, 2006
all this talk about boingboing and not one mention of macrame galaga themed ipod accessories! shame shame shame
posted by zog at 7:58 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by zog at 7:58 AM on March 5, 2006
When did boingboing cease being hardcopy?
I feel so old.
posted by unmake at 7:58 AM on March 5, 2006
I feel so old.
posted by unmake at 7:58 AM on March 5, 2006
Your first link was dead-on, ?!. Not hating, just quietly pointing out exactly what the problem is, with the "High school bans blogging" example perfectly played:
A professional publication should have called the school to verify the story before simply republishing it. Otherwise the publication would, perhaps, end up criticised on Boing Boing like the Indian news agencies that blindly repeated a hoax in February...
Without checking facts the site has encouraged thousands of people to needlessly hassle a man who is trying to do a difficult job. Judging from the principal’s form response to correspondents it sounds like he was also misquoted by the Rutland Herald and has even used blogging in the classroom himself. Fact checking could have revealed this before the Boing Boing entry was published. Cory appears unsatisfied with the principal’s response, although I only hope he can emulate the principal’s relative calm should he find himself at the wrong end of a rabble-rousing and inaccurate post on a popular weblog...
It may be acceptable to post a vague but interesting rumour as a last resort, in the hope readers can nail down the story over time, as long as the nature of the original post is made clear. But relying on reader feedback to correct an inaccurate story reported as fact would be lazy and irresponsible...Would we find it acceptable for a rolling TV news channel to begin the day broadcasting a bunch of rumours in the hope the facts can be corralled by primetime?
The point is not that corrections are bad; the point is that consistently exaggerating certain kinds of news stories is a sign of a deeper problem: a too-loose commitment to accuracy in general.
Oh, and for a while there in the late 80s/early 90s, BoingBoing the magazine was great, a really exciting bit of proto-net treeware.
posted by mediareport at 8:01 AM on March 5, 2006 [1 favorite]
A professional publication should have called the school to verify the story before simply republishing it. Otherwise the publication would, perhaps, end up criticised on Boing Boing like the Indian news agencies that blindly repeated a hoax in February...
Without checking facts the site has encouraged thousands of people to needlessly hassle a man who is trying to do a difficult job. Judging from the principal’s form response to correspondents it sounds like he was also misquoted by the Rutland Herald and has even used blogging in the classroom himself. Fact checking could have revealed this before the Boing Boing entry was published. Cory appears unsatisfied with the principal’s response, although I only hope he can emulate the principal’s relative calm should he find himself at the wrong end of a rabble-rousing and inaccurate post on a popular weblog...
It may be acceptable to post a vague but interesting rumour as a last resort, in the hope readers can nail down the story over time, as long as the nature of the original post is made clear. But relying on reader feedback to correct an inaccurate story reported as fact would be lazy and irresponsible...Would we find it acceptable for a rolling TV news channel to begin the day broadcasting a bunch of rumours in the hope the facts can be corralled by primetime?
The point is not that corrections are bad; the point is that consistently exaggerating certain kinds of news stories is a sign of a deeper problem: a too-loose commitment to accuracy in general.
Oh, and for a while there in the late 80s/early 90s, BoingBoing the magazine was great, a really exciting bit of proto-net treeware.
posted by mediareport at 8:01 AM on March 5, 2006 [1 favorite]
We already have a Metafiltersucks.com, we just don't call it that.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:02 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by blue_beetle at 8:02 AM on March 5, 2006
The Web page reads as a cynical attempt to leach traffic off BoingBoing to Splideo.
I just want to see the damn algorithm already. I mean, if you're gonna do something like this, give us the whole deal.
posted by mediareport at 8:05 AM on March 5, 2006
I just want to see the damn algorithm already. I mean, if you're gonna do something like this, give us the whole deal.
posted by mediareport at 8:05 AM on March 5, 2006
Besides, that's how the interent life works: anything that is popular, by definition, sucks.
posted by fixedgear at 8:17 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by fixedgear at 8:17 AM on March 5, 2006
I think this site is massive overkill and counterproductive : no doubt it floats CD's boat on a wave of negative publicity.
A simple web page, white space with a single Haiku would do the purported ( or assumed ) job:
C. Doctorow, an author
his book was flat, tepid
I read another.
Somewhere on Mefi I once wrote a long excoriation of Doctorow, but all I can find now is this critique of his Panglossian techno-utopianism :
""So it's not hard to think about a kind of nanotech future where virtually all objects are available on demand. In that kind of world, both the traditional Marxist and the traditional Keynesian analyses don't make a lot of sense. These are predicated first and foremost on the regulation of scarce and valuable objects." [ Doctorow ]
- This is the Cornucopian ideal, yes. It will take us quite a while to get there (if ever, but I'd give the project at least an even chance of success).
However, on the road towards this utopian ideal, Julian Simon's assessment of the dynamics of scarcity - facts on the ground, if you will - in market capitalism will be at play : as natural resources are depleted, their rising cost will entice inventive humans to develop substitutes for those resources. But neither Doctorow, Simon, nor any of the Cornucopians have noticed that this, in essence, means that humans will be consuming the natural world (which currently supports human life) and replacing it with human artifice. And - at some point in the process - it will be necessary for us to replace, wholesale, various functions of the deteriorating Global biosphere.
Or, to put it bluntly - along the way to Doctorow's hypothetical cornucopian future - we will be consuming the living things on the planet and squeezing them out of existence. What will remain at the glorious end of the rainbow, when we can simply program our handy universal assemblers to conjure up the latest Playstation 63's so we can jack in by the shunts in the back of our necks and be off into our collective dreams? No doubt this will be a pleasant, well engineered matrix, yes, but.......
posted by troutfishing at 11:13 AM PST on March 4"
posted by troutfishing at 8:22 AM on March 5, 2006
A simple web page, white space with a single Haiku would do the purported ( or assumed ) job:
C. Doctorow, an author
his book was flat, tepid
I read another.
Somewhere on Mefi I once wrote a long excoriation of Doctorow, but all I can find now is this critique of his Panglossian techno-utopianism :
""So it's not hard to think about a kind of nanotech future where virtually all objects are available on demand. In that kind of world, both the traditional Marxist and the traditional Keynesian analyses don't make a lot of sense. These are predicated first and foremost on the regulation of scarce and valuable objects." [ Doctorow ]
- This is the Cornucopian ideal, yes. It will take us quite a while to get there (if ever, but I'd give the project at least an even chance of success).
However, on the road towards this utopian ideal, Julian Simon's assessment of the dynamics of scarcity - facts on the ground, if you will - in market capitalism will be at play : as natural resources are depleted, their rising cost will entice inventive humans to develop substitutes for those resources. But neither Doctorow, Simon, nor any of the Cornucopians have noticed that this, in essence, means that humans will be consuming the natural world (which currently supports human life) and replacing it with human artifice. And - at some point in the process - it will be necessary for us to replace, wholesale, various functions of the deteriorating Global biosphere.
Or, to put it bluntly - along the way to Doctorow's hypothetical cornucopian future - we will be consuming the living things on the planet and squeezing them out of existence. What will remain at the glorious end of the rainbow, when we can simply program our handy universal assemblers to conjure up the latest Playstation 63's so we can jack in by the shunts in the back of our necks and be off into our collective dreams? No doubt this will be a pleasant, well engineered matrix, yes, but.......
posted by troutfishing at 11:13 AM PST on March 4"
posted by troutfishing at 8:22 AM on March 5, 2006
The fact that they instantly jump on something, like everyone else, but then correct themselves when proven to be wrong is a strike against them?
Geezus.
Bet Cory links this.
posted by eriko at 8:32 AM on March 5, 2006
Geezus.
Bet Cory links this.
posted by eriko at 8:32 AM on March 5, 2006
Xeni Jardin sucks.
posted by saladin at 11:46 AM EST on March 5 [!]
I think that's a sentiment we can all get behind.
posted by trey at 8:48 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by saladin at 11:46 AM EST on March 5 [!]
I think that's a sentiment we can all get behind.
posted by trey at 8:48 AM on March 5, 2006
Like any of us give a shit what a 23-year-old wanker geek thinks.
posted by seamallowance at 8:57 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by seamallowance at 8:57 AM on March 5, 2006
You know, I think Rush Limbaugh sucks, but I never built a site that republishes his blog posts and then links to me own blog. As I said earlier, I just don't think the intention of Corysucks.com is to provide any sort of critique of Cory Doctorow. It's point is to fling shit at a popular blogger while simulatenously absconding with his content to promote an unrelated project.
So who really is doing the sucking here?
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:06 AM on March 5, 2006
So who really is doing the sucking here?
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:06 AM on March 5, 2006
Not a boing boing reader, but I must add this to my list of signs that your 15 minutes of fame have arrived:
1: You are photographed nude or mostly nude on the cover of a magazine that can be bought at a Barnes and Noble.
2: Your music is covered by Weird Al.
3: You get invited to be a guest talking head on a "news" program.
4: You are misquoted in an article picked up by the AP.
5: Someone creates a website describing how much you suck.
(Any of the above occurring multiple times is a sign your 15 minutes is about to expire.)
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:07 AM on March 5, 2006
1: You are photographed nude or mostly nude on the cover of a magazine that can be bought at a Barnes and Noble.
2: Your music is covered by Weird Al.
3: You get invited to be a guest talking head on a "news" program.
4: You are misquoted in an article picked up by the AP.
5: Someone creates a website describing how much you suck.
(Any of the above occurring multiple times is a sign your 15 minutes is about to expire.)
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:07 AM on March 5, 2006
I agree that charles stross cory doctorow sucks. He would suck less if he didn't constantly do things like predict the doom of any politician or corporation that supports drm and instead just discuss the flaws in their position without pulling his geek nostradamus routine. But at least he doesn't create those god awful web zen posts. I honestly can't read boingboing regularly anymore because of those things.
I will say this, though. outside of boingboing, doctorow sucks a lot less. I enjoy his stories, even though he does bite off charles stross's style so unbelievably hard.
posted by shmegegge at 9:14 AM on March 5, 2006
I will say this, though. outside of boingboing, doctorow sucks a lot less. I enjoy his stories, even though he does bite off charles stross's style so unbelievably hard.
posted by shmegegge at 9:14 AM on March 5, 2006
I've enjoyed Boing Boing a lot more since I discovered Boing Boing Lite, which strips away all the advertising and lets you filter out topics and authors (and will even give you a bookmarkable URL or an RSS feed with your filters applied).
Here's without Xeni and Cory, or without anagram subway maps or DRM.
By default, "DRM talk", "Disney", "was nominated", "former guestblogger" and "NPR" are filtered out, but you can override that if you've got some weird reason that you'd want to.
posted by mendel at 9:15 AM on March 5, 2006
Here's without Xeni and Cory, or without anagram subway maps or DRM.
By default, "DRM talk", "Disney", "was nominated", "former guestblogger" and "NPR" are filtered out, but you can override that if you've got some weird reason that you'd want to.
posted by mendel at 9:15 AM on March 5, 2006
Boing Boing is still one of my favorite places to find wierd and interesting things. Even if you have to scroll through a lot of crap to get to it.
I do only check it once a day now instead of several times a day, though.
posted by empath at 9:16 AM on March 5, 2006
I do only check it once a day now instead of several times a day, though.
posted by empath at 9:16 AM on March 5, 2006
But mendel, if you go to Doctorow's blog and filter out his annoying self-promotion, isn't that, like, stealing content?
posted by felix betachat at 9:24 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by felix betachat at 9:24 AM on March 5, 2006
If you need a special filter to strip away the tripe, the trivia and even the authors and the ads for their inane products, then doesn't the site kind of suck, by definition?
posted by slatternus at 9:25 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by slatternus at 9:25 AM on March 5, 2006
The fact that they instantly jump on something, like everyone else, but then correct themselves when proven to be wrong is a strike against them?
Go read the first link in ?!'s post again, wouldja? You're completely mischaracterizing the argument; the point is that in many cases, they *don't* correct themselves. Let alone apologize for the trouble they cause by their sloppiness.
posted by mediareport at 9:30 AM on March 5, 2006
Go read the first link in ?!'s post again, wouldja? You're completely mischaracterizing the argument; the point is that in many cases, they *don't* correct themselves. Let alone apologize for the trouble they cause by their sloppiness.
posted by mediareport at 9:30 AM on March 5, 2006
Yeah, count me in as someone who's sick of all the DRM and subway anagram spam on BB, but continues to check back anyway.
Complaining about bad blog posts (on BB, MeFi, or elsewhere) has always seemed really pointless to me. Skip down the page for chrissakes! I still find the majority of the stuff on BB to be at least mildly interesting - even if I don't click on the link, I don't feel that 2.5 mins of my life have been wasted by reading the blurb.
Also, is it just me, or has the author of CorySucks.com chosen more-or-less random entries for his personal shitlist? He actually lists one of the IT Crowd links among his "40 most sucky." Introducing me to the IT Crowd was one of the nicest things that BB has ever done for me!
That said, the signal/noise ratio on BB as of recent has been distressing, and I'm hoping that he changes his ways.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:37 AM on March 5, 2006
Complaining about bad blog posts (on BB, MeFi, or elsewhere) has always seemed really pointless to me. Skip down the page for chrissakes! I still find the majority of the stuff on BB to be at least mildly interesting - even if I don't click on the link, I don't feel that 2.5 mins of my life have been wasted by reading the blurb.
Also, is it just me, or has the author of CorySucks.com chosen more-or-less random entries for his personal shitlist? He actually lists one of the IT Crowd links among his "40 most sucky." Introducing me to the IT Crowd was one of the nicest things that BB has ever done for me!
That said, the signal/noise ratio on BB as of recent has been distressing, and I'm hoping that he changes his ways.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:37 AM on March 5, 2006
At least Doctorow actually writes - and fairly interesting stuff at that. I find his scifi energetic and fun. I just wish he'd focus on the writing, and ditch those leeches that have glommed onto him. What do they DO, exactly?
posted by slatternus at 9:37 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by slatternus at 9:37 AM on March 5, 2006
You haters are just jealous.
Though his DRM hysteria is pretty funny/embarrassing.
posted by xmutex at 9:42 AM on March 5, 2006
Though his DRM hysteria is pretty funny/embarrassing.
posted by xmutex at 9:42 AM on March 5, 2006
felix, how could using the RSS feed the way it was intended be stealing content?
posted by dabitch at 9:42 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by dabitch at 9:42 AM on March 5, 2006
I really don't understand the Doctorow hate -- BoingBoing kicks this site's ass every day, several times a day, and we do recycle many of their posts, every day, often without giving credit.
so, to recap: Cory sucks, Xeni sucks, Frauenfelder sucks, (insert name of BoingBoing poster here) sucks -- why is their site so much more interesting than ours, then?
posted by matteo at 9:47 AM on March 5, 2006
so, to recap: Cory sucks, Xeni sucks, Frauenfelder sucks, (insert name of BoingBoing poster here) sucks -- why is their site so much more interesting than ours, then?
posted by matteo at 9:47 AM on March 5, 2006
They have pictures
posted by slatternus at 9:49 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by slatternus at 9:49 AM on March 5, 2006
Like any of us give a shit what a 23-year-old wanker geek thinks.
doctorow is in his 30's (i joke)
mendel, thanks for the link. this is going straight into my rss reader.
posted by tnai at 9:50 AM on March 5, 2006
doctorow is in his 30's (i joke)
mendel, thanks for the link. this is going straight into my rss reader.
posted by tnai at 9:50 AM on March 5, 2006
boing boing ate my balls
posted by phylum sinter at 9:50 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by phylum sinter at 9:50 AM on March 5, 2006
boing boing is a "community blog" comprised of 4 people. As others have already said, it ebbs and flows from being good and bad. I think right now it's sorta bad, what with all the anagram maps. Like ?!, I criticised cory on my backwater blog, and he commented almost immediately. It was clear that he technoratis himself frequently throughout the day.
I think they do try to keep it interesting, and they're free to promote whatever they want since it's their blog, but I'm tired of hearing about Cory's DRM speaking tour, anything Xeni's doing, and Mark's MAKE stuff. At first it was interesting, but now it's just stale. I think they recognize the hype, and their egos are bleeding into the content. That's the reason I finally joined Metafilter- it became my #1 source for interesting stuff.
posted by kendrak at 9:53 AM on March 5, 2006
I think they do try to keep it interesting, and they're free to promote whatever they want since it's their blog, but I'm tired of hearing about Cory's DRM speaking tour, anything Xeni's doing, and Mark's MAKE stuff. At first it was interesting, but now it's just stale. I think they recognize the hype, and their egos are bleeding into the content. That's the reason I finally joined Metafilter- it became my #1 source for interesting stuff.
posted by kendrak at 9:53 AM on March 5, 2006
matteo - how is the fact that BB posts are linked to from MeFi proof that BB is the more interesting site? I thought that the whole purpose of MeFi was to distill the content of other sites so as to provide the "best of the web."
posted by Afroblanco at 9:58 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by Afroblanco at 9:58 AM on March 5, 2006
Yeah metafilter reblogs boing boing on a daily basis. There is some great content. I browse it through Bloglines and have no adds and just 'J' my way through uninteresting posts with 1-key press.
posted by stbalbach at 10:01 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by stbalbach at 10:01 AM on March 5, 2006
That someone feels compelled to Technorati themselves throughout the day kind of says to me that they have an overinflated sense of their own self importance. And that's a big part of what makes Boing Boing so irritating to so many people.
posted by slatternus at 10:01 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by slatternus at 10:01 AM on March 5, 2006
statolith - I did that on Wednesday! Enough with the mashups, remixes, and howtos. (Excuse me: HOWTOs.) Enough with rootkits and Sony DRM. Enough with the goddamn anagram subway maps! Enough with "Cory's going to be late to his talk in London." It's amazing how with every additional post of his, I hate him more, and realize the extent to which I am wasting my life visiting Boing Boing. Mark made a big mistake going on vacation and recruiting "Boing Boing fan Cory" all those years ago. (via)
I have vowed not to go back. I'm glad I'm not alone.
posted by thejoshu at 10:06 AM on March 5, 2006
I have vowed not to go back. I'm glad I'm not alone.
posted by thejoshu at 10:06 AM on March 5, 2006
Funny, I recently made a snark about Mr. Doctrow on my lj.
It is good that we have this place to hold a good gripe session about boingboing. I say this should turn into a quarterly event.
posted by frecklefaerie at 10:09 AM on March 5, 2006
It is good that we have this place to hold a good gripe session about boingboing. I say this should turn into a quarterly event.
posted by frecklefaerie at 10:09 AM on March 5, 2006
I think most of the people complaining about Boingboing have spent some part of their lives trying to get their own site mentioned on Boingboing.
(yea, me too)
posted by Bighappyfunhouse at 10:14 AM on March 5, 2006
(yea, me too)
posted by Bighappyfunhouse at 10:14 AM on March 5, 2006
Hi everyone,
I'm the "23-year-old wanker geek cynical asshole" who made corysucks.com.
Just to clear things up:
-I have talked to girls.
-This was not a "cynical attempt to leech traffic off BoingBoing" and direct it to another blog. I didn't really expect anyone to visit Cory Sucks, much less click on a link to some other blog. When you make a website are you not allowed to put links to other websites you've worked on? Someone should tell Boing Boing!
-Cory does kind of suck, but I'm not really losing sleep over it. Cory Sucks is just a weird little project for me to work on and a good opportunity to learn stuff about scripting, databases, html scraping, etc.
As for the algorithm: I'll be detailing this soon, but it still needs some work. It's actually really simple.
P.S. I actually have translated Cory's DRM Talk into Klingon if anyone's interested.
posted by subclub at 10:18 AM on March 5, 2006
I'm the "23-year-old wanker geek cynical asshole" who made corysucks.com.
Just to clear things up:
-I have talked to girls.
-This was not a "cynical attempt to leech traffic off BoingBoing" and direct it to another blog. I didn't really expect anyone to visit Cory Sucks, much less click on a link to some other blog. When you make a website are you not allowed to put links to other websites you've worked on? Someone should tell Boing Boing!
-Cory does kind of suck, but I'm not really losing sleep over it. Cory Sucks is just a weird little project for me to work on and a good opportunity to learn stuff about scripting, databases, html scraping, etc.
As for the algorithm: I'll be detailing this soon, but it still needs some work. It's actually really simple.
P.S. I actually have translated Cory's DRM Talk into Klingon if anyone's interested.
posted by subclub at 10:18 AM on March 5, 2006
Just to clear things up:
-I have talked to girls.
Okay, guys, I love Metafilter again.
posted by 235w103 at 10:31 AM on March 5, 2006
-I have talked to girls.
Okay, guys, I love Metafilter again.
posted by 235w103 at 10:31 AM on March 5, 2006
This isn't the first time someone has called into question boingboing and Cory's responsibility to get it right.
Bingo. A while back I emailed him after a long DRM screed about the wonderul Indian gov't standing up to Evil Culture Multinationals over some patent issue... Why, then, I asked Cory, has the Indian gov't just passed legislation outlawing the production of generic antiretrovirals against HIV/AIDS?
Silence.
posted by docgonzo at 10:32 AM on March 5, 2006
Bingo. A while back I emailed him after a long DRM screed about the wonderul Indian gov't standing up to Evil Culture Multinationals over some patent issue... Why, then, I asked Cory, has the Indian gov't just passed legislation outlawing the production of generic antiretrovirals against HIV/AIDS?
Silence.
posted by docgonzo at 10:32 AM on March 5, 2006
I stopped going to BB as soon as they stopped letting people comment on links. I don't miss it.
posted by stinkycheese at 10:36 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by stinkycheese at 10:36 AM on March 5, 2006
The boingboinglite is brilliant. There's always a few good posts on BB, but I hate hate hate Disney, subway, guestblogger and a few other things. Today, they had a link to the LA times slamming Thomas Kinkade, which is always a good thing. I'll be using BB lite from now on.
posted by clockworkjoe at 10:45 AM on March 5, 2006
posted by clockworkjoe at 10:45 AM on March 5, 2006
subclub, I at least thought it was brilliant and hilarious. I'd always suspected that it could be boiled down to an algorithm.
I can't read boingboing anymore, and I haven't been able to for a very long time now. It's. Really. Bad.
posted by blacklite at 11:09 AM on March 5, 2006
I can't read boingboing anymore, and I haven't been able to for a very long time now. It's. Really. Bad.
posted by blacklite at 11:09 AM on March 5, 2006
It's actually really simple.
I kinda figured. But make it open source; I'm sure it can be fine-tuned. :)
posted by mediareport at 11:42 AM on March 5, 2006
I kinda figured. But make it open source; I'm sure it can be fine-tuned. :)
posted by mediareport at 11:42 AM on March 5, 2006
subclub is cool in my book. Some dudes on the internet said that he didn't (couldn't) talk to girls. So he ponied up his $5 to shoot down that rumor right here and now.
Welcome aboard subber.
posted by zpousman at 11:48 AM on March 5, 2006
Welcome aboard subber.
posted by zpousman at 11:48 AM on March 5, 2006
Thanks, but I've actually been here for almost a year.
Seriously though, I did sign up on the off chance that someone would eventually find a site that I made and accuse me of being a dork.
posted by subclub at 11:56 AM on March 5, 2006
Seriously though, I did sign up on the off chance that someone would eventually find a site that I made and accuse me of being a dork.
posted by subclub at 11:56 AM on March 5, 2006
Mendel, your timing could not be better. Just last night I was thinking I needed to get "that thing that lets you filter out all the Xeni".
posted by stefanie at 12:23 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by stefanie at 12:23 PM on March 5, 2006
Hey, I actually like the subway anagram maps, the macramé iPod covers, and even the DRM stuff. Cory Doctorow is a technophile, of course he's going to write about DRM. I think he has a perfect right to be strident about it too, as I expect you will five years after Congress passes some of those laws. Remember, Cory was anti-DMCA too, that DID get passed, and so Google still has a little blind spot when viewed in the US. If you saw things like that coming, and gave a damn about the world, would you not strive mightily to avert them from happening? Or would you roll over and go back to sleep?
As a frequent napper, I'm frankly glad Cory Doctorow goes off on his DRM tyrades, even if "political suicide" is starting to become like an inadvertent catchphrase.
posted by JHarris at 12:26 PM on March 5, 2006
As a frequent napper, I'm frankly glad Cory Doctorow goes off on his DRM tyrades, even if "political suicide" is starting to become like an inadvertent catchphrase.
posted by JHarris at 12:26 PM on March 5, 2006
JHarris, it's just that there's a big difference between striving mightily and shrieking incessantly. Plus, if the DRM stuff is Corey's passion, maybe he should actually focus on that, and stop trying so hard to be a hipster culture maven. Frankly, the macrame iPod covers and the subway anagrams make it difficult to see him as anything but a dillettante. Unfair, I know, but that's life.
posted by slatternus at 12:44 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by slatternus at 12:44 PM on March 5, 2006
That Anagram map thing just got dull, very quickly. It almost redefined Meme as when the joke stops being funny. It's an anagram! of places! on a map! WTF?
I still visit Boing Boing and Cory does do some interesting posts, but talking about yourself in the third person? Navek Rednam does not like it.
posted by Navek Rednam at 12:49 PM on March 5, 2006
I still visit Boing Boing and Cory does do some interesting posts, but talking about yourself in the third person? Navek Rednam does not like it.
posted by Navek Rednam at 12:49 PM on March 5, 2006
My feelings on this matter have already been noted. My vote is for sucks, but boingboing lite cures most of what ails bb.
posted by drpynchon at 12:49 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by drpynchon at 12:49 PM on March 5, 2006
By my count, subclub sucks a whole lot worse than Cory. They both seem to share the fatal internet flaw of being unironically enthusiastic about things, though, which hypercritical little shits like the ones that swarm at Metafilter are always keen to pick at. Those are the people that really suck it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:54 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:54 PM on March 5, 2006
I used to run a games company. A few months back, checking some old backup discs, I discovered I still had all the files for a game by Greg Costikyan that we'd published, Violence. Since our contract with Greg had not bought the copyright off him, I contacted Greg, and sent him a PDF I'd distilled from the files, which he put up on his website. He also told Cory.
Cory's boingboing post on the subject: "The founder of Hogshead, ***** ******, has let Greg re-release the long-gone game under a Creative Commons license". Note the tone of "bastard publisher grudgingly lets bold creator bring you cool free stuff", not "former publisher suggested the idea in the first place".
This misapprehension of tone might be acceptable, except that I'd actually met Cory at a London gathering some months previously, discovered we both knew Greg, mentioned that I'd published a game of Greg's, and mooted the idea of seeing if it could be re-released as a free download.
So, um, yeah.
posted by Hogshead at 1:02 PM on March 5, 2006
Cory's boingboing post on the subject: "The founder of Hogshead, ***** ******, has let Greg re-release the long-gone game under a Creative Commons license". Note the tone of "bastard publisher grudgingly lets bold creator bring you cool free stuff", not "former publisher suggested the idea in the first place".
This misapprehension of tone might be acceptable, except that I'd actually met Cory at a London gathering some months previously, discovered we both knew Greg, mentioned that I'd published a game of Greg's, and mooted the idea of seeing if it could be re-released as a free download.
So, um, yeah.
posted by Hogshead at 1:02 PM on March 5, 2006
Hogshead, surely you know that the world is divided into the "little guy" and "The Evil Corporations". Please refrain from muddying the waters with inconvenient facts.
posted by slatternus at 1:32 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by slatternus at 1:32 PM on March 5, 2006
Yeah metafilter reblogs boing boing on a daily basis.
As someone who doesn't read Boing Boing, I'm kind of curious why everyone just assumes the links are coming from there.Often times, with the way memes spread, people find about about the same things from several different sources at roughly the same time. Unless people are copying the link text wholesale, I think it's entirely possible that sometimes a meme undergoes zeitgeist phasing (the process of appearing in the collective conscious) and so it gets posted to Metafilter and Boing Boing.
posted by drezdn at 1:34 PM on March 5, 2006
As someone who doesn't read Boing Boing, I'm kind of curious why everyone just assumes the links are coming from there.Often times, with the way memes spread, people find about about the same things from several different sources at roughly the same time. Unless people are copying the link text wholesale, I think it's entirely possible that sometimes a meme undergoes zeitgeist phasing (the process of appearing in the collective conscious) and so it gets posted to Metafilter and Boing Boing.
posted by drezdn at 1:34 PM on March 5, 2006
And FARK and Sensible Erection, and DIGG, and countless others. No community blog has a monopoly on cool links. That said, I find Metafilter ahead of the curve - sometimes by several days. So I don't know if it's really fair to accuse Mefi of posting second-hand material.
posted by slatternus at 1:38 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by slatternus at 1:38 PM on March 5, 2006
That someone feels compelled to Technorati themselves throughout the day kind of says to me that they have an overinflated sense of their own self importance.
To be fair, he is a subject of discussion often enough that it probably is a good idea for him to do this. If people were talking about me I would be interested to see what they have to say and possibly even participate in the conversations. I don't think it is egotististical to have a desire to see what others say about you. Actually it would probably take some kind of uniquely selfless person to not be curious what others are saying about you.
posted by aburd at 1:43 PM on March 5, 2006
To be fair, he is a subject of discussion often enough that it probably is a good idea for him to do this. If people were talking about me I would be interested to see what they have to say and possibly even participate in the conversations. I don't think it is egotististical to have a desire to see what others say about you. Actually it would probably take some kind of uniquely selfless person to not be curious what others are saying about you.
posted by aburd at 1:43 PM on March 5, 2006
Well, but multiple times a day? How often do you google yourself?
I mean, the fact that we've got a 100 comment thread about him, I can understand. It's not like we do it every day. We wait about a month between them.
posted by crunchland at 1:54 PM on March 5, 2006
I mean, the fact that we've got a 100 comment thread about him, I can understand. It's not like we do it every day. We wait about a month between them.
posted by crunchland at 1:54 PM on March 5, 2006
Well, but multiple times a day? How often do you google yourself?
I would probably google myself more often if it was brought up interesting results. Usually I just end up thinking "Yep, that was where I went to high school" or "Hey look! My parents come up on google before I do!".
posted by aburd at 1:57 PM on March 5, 2006
I would probably google myself more often if it was brought up interesting results. Usually I just end up thinking "Yep, that was where I went to high school" or "Hey look! My parents come up on google before I do!".
posted by aburd at 1:57 PM on March 5, 2006
I look at boing boing when a boing boing post shows up on blogdex.
posted by pracowity at 2:03 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by pracowity at 2:03 PM on March 5, 2006
I've been hoping I wouldn't have to ask this question, but I have come to the end of the thread and so I must. What is DRM?
I only skim BoingBoing once every couple of weeks, truth be told. I never have particularly liked Cory's posts, but I read a story of his in an anthology not too long ago, and I quite liked it.
posted by anjamu at 2:03 PM on March 5, 2006
I only skim BoingBoing once every couple of weeks, truth be told. I never have particularly liked Cory's posts, but I read a story of his in an anthology not too long ago, and I quite liked it.
posted by anjamu at 2:03 PM on March 5, 2006
-I have talked to girls.
P.S. I actually have translated Cory's DRM Talk into Klingon if anyone's interested.
These two statements should not exist together in any sane universe.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:26 PM on March 5, 2006
P.S. I actually have translated Cory's DRM Talk into Klingon if anyone's interested.
These two statements should not exist together in any sane universe.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:26 PM on March 5, 2006
I don't really understand the vehemence. Doctorow can be annoying, and if he annoys you, don't read his posts. I have rawdog slurping a whole metric buttload of feeds into one page, and when I see DRM or subway maps, I scroll a little faster.
The way I look at it, even if you loathe boingboing, there are squintillions of people who read it constantly. Its popularity alone would make it important even if it sucked completely (viz. fark, digg, etc). Like every popular news source, it has its stupid bits and its mymoments of brilliance, but until my computer can filter out all the stuff that will eventually be determined to be stupid, I'll take my chances with reading the posts and checking the facts myself. Whatta concept, huh? Blogs are great but if you rely on them to do all of your investigations for you, how exactly are they any better than newspapers?
Blogs are just datapoints. If you expect them to be paragons of Right, Truth and Justice, you're not only an idiot, you're helping to screw up the signal-to-noise for the rest of us.
posted by Skorgu at 2:43 PM on March 5, 2006
The way I look at it, even if you loathe boingboing, there are squintillions of people who read it constantly. Its popularity alone would make it important even if it sucked completely (viz. fark, digg, etc). Like every popular news source, it has its stupid bits and its mymoments of brilliance, but until my computer can filter out all the stuff that will eventually be determined to be stupid, I'll take my chances with reading the posts and checking the facts myself. Whatta concept, huh? Blogs are great but if you rely on them to do all of your investigations for you, how exactly are they any better than newspapers?
Blogs are just datapoints. If you expect them to be paragons of Right, Truth and Justice, you're not only an idiot, you're helping to screw up the signal-to-noise for the rest of us.
posted by Skorgu at 2:43 PM on March 5, 2006
Skorgu: I don't believe that it is realistic to check all the facts as a casual reader. Most people are just skimming and sucking up information. BB gets more readership than my small town newspaper. Why don't they have an editor? BB is beyond a personal project. They have many ads and are earning something out of this relationship.
posted by andendau at 2:58 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by andendau at 2:58 PM on March 5, 2006
My father is fond of saying that he doesn't consider "rap" to be "music." Well, he's entitled to his opinion, but the fact is that 77-year-old Caucasians are not rap's target audience. It's not for him.
After seeing Cory Doctorow and Boing-Boing hammered on Monkeyfilter yesterday and Metafilter today, I'm starting to see the same pattern.
If you don't like Boing-Boing, that doesn't mean it "sucks," that just means that you aren't the target audience. It's not for you. Cory is using his own site to promote his own work and things that interest him; if you don't like it, find a site that's more your style.
Or start your own. But make sure it doesn't suck. Ever. We have standards to maintain.
posted by Jatayu das at 3:21 PM on March 5, 2006
After seeing Cory Doctorow and Boing-Boing hammered on Monkeyfilter yesterday and Metafilter today, I'm starting to see the same pattern.
If you don't like Boing-Boing, that doesn't mean it "sucks," that just means that you aren't the target audience. It's not for you. Cory is using his own site to promote his own work and things that interest him; if you don't like it, find a site that's more your style.
Or start your own. But make sure it doesn't suck. Ever. We have standards to maintain.
posted by Jatayu das at 3:21 PM on March 5, 2006
Jatayu das, I find that it's not what Cory likes that's the problem. It's how he expresses his interest. Many of us like the same things he likes: that's why we visit Boing Boing regularly. The problem is when he blogs 4x more often than any of his counterparts, and when half of those entries provide minimal updates on a particular subject. It's incessant. The DRM issue is significant: but if you must blog about every insignificant update, do it somewhere else - not on a general purpose group blog for "wonderful things."
posted by thejoshu at 3:54 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by thejoshu at 3:54 PM on March 5, 2006
I was really bummed about the comments being taken away, but there were some really hateful people leaving comments too--it's not like he's Sheryl Crow or something.
Other than Metafilter, where's the new boingboing? Digg.com?
posted by mecran01 at 3:58 PM on March 5, 2006
Other than Metafilter, where's the new boingboing? Digg.com?
posted by mecran01 at 3:58 PM on March 5, 2006
Jeez, dude, she has cancer. Give her a fucking break.
posted by fixedgear at 4:47 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by fixedgear at 4:47 PM on March 5, 2006
andendau: This is not the fault of boingboing or any other blog, newspaper or TV show. Expecting your sources of information to conform to some ill-defined standard of 'accuracy' is folly.
Frankly I find the belief that sources have some inherent responsibility to deliver the Truth, the Whole Truth and nothing but the Truth archaic. If we could determine Truth, we wouldn't need News. Blogs, papers and whatever deliver information and whatever you do with it is your problem. If boingboing or mefi or digg or whatever gets it wrong, doesn't issue a correction and then proceeds to laugh about the public's gullibility, well them's the breaks.
We've moved away from the centralized Truth model of information distribution. The intarwebtron doesn't have editors deciding in the best interests of the readers, it spews what news it can find and its up to the consumer to pick the bits that seem to agree with reality. Boingboing (or anyone else) can publish whatever they want to and you can read it or not. People can read it and decide that some, most, or all of it is crap, and they can decide based on that if they want to read more. Or they can complain about it on mefi. If enough people find boingboing interesting/entertaining/anagramalicous that they can get ad revenue from it, good for them.
on Spellcheck: why doesn't mefi's spellcheck have an entry for 'mefi?' or 'Blog?'
posted by Skorgu at 6:24 PM on March 5, 2006
Frankly I find the belief that sources have some inherent responsibility to deliver the Truth, the Whole Truth and nothing but the Truth archaic. If we could determine Truth, we wouldn't need News. Blogs, papers and whatever deliver information and whatever you do with it is your problem. If boingboing or mefi or digg or whatever gets it wrong, doesn't issue a correction and then proceeds to laugh about the public's gullibility, well them's the breaks.
We've moved away from the centralized Truth model of information distribution. The intarwebtron doesn't have editors deciding in the best interests of the readers, it spews what news it can find and its up to the consumer to pick the bits that seem to agree with reality. Boingboing (or anyone else) can publish whatever they want to and you can read it or not. People can read it and decide that some, most, or all of it is crap, and they can decide based on that if they want to read more. Or they can complain about it on mefi. If enough people find boingboing interesting/entertaining/anagramalicous that they can get ad revenue from it, good for them.
on Spellcheck: why doesn't mefi's spellcheck have an entry for 'mefi?' or 'Blog?'
posted by Skorgu at 6:24 PM on March 5, 2006
slatternus, but I LIKE the macramé iPod covers and anagram subway maps. I like them because they connect wildly disparate concepts, which I consider to be the root of cool. Indeed, most days have at least one post to which I follow the link from boingboing, which is about 30% more often than with Metafilter, I have to say.
I don't mean to seem uncritical, but there is awfully little on BoingBoing I don't like, and what there is that I don't usually has a unicorn chaser to help me avoid it (until recently).
posted by JHarris at 6:47 PM on March 5, 2006
I don't mean to seem uncritical, but there is awfully little on BoingBoing I don't like, and what there is that I don't usually has a unicorn chaser to help me avoid it (until recently).
posted by JHarris at 6:47 PM on March 5, 2006
This thread is why I signed up for MeFi. It was good to have my discomfort with anagram maps, ipod cozies & suicidal politicians validated. It was better to get informed about issues others have had with the site. I've been uneasy about BoingBoing for some time, but was unaware that it used to have comments but they were discontinued, or that Cory has a pattern of sloppy reporting. But best of all I get to walk away with a tool for making BoingBoing tolerable according to my personal tastes. Thanks, guys & gals.
posted by scalefree at 7:27 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by scalefree at 7:27 PM on March 5, 2006
Cory and crew post a lot of fascinating stuff. The self-promotion, the DRM extremism, the Katamari Damacy stuff... that I could do without.
Subway anagram maps: Mea culpa.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 7:43 PM on March 5, 2006
Subway anagram maps: Mea culpa.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 7:43 PM on March 5, 2006
Its all about numbers. The majority of stuff that gets posted on BoingBoing is utterly banal, but when a blog posts 50 items a day the chances are some of them are worth investigating.
I rarely read Corey's posts, his self promotion and personally addictions tend to make me mourn the lack of weblogging originality in general.
And this for me is the issue with BoingBoing. It has become the image of the blog everyone tends to emulate, a matter of its early success in the genre. And yet, out of the 99% of blogs out there that recycle links, chat banal nonsense and regurgiate BoingBoing posts BoingBoing itself is still the best of the bunch.
BoingBoing should use its fame to promote that alternative, 1% fringe of bloggers who quietly pump out genius, cowering in the shadow of link viruses like BoingBoing.
posted by 0bvious at 7:51 PM on March 5, 2006
I rarely read Corey's posts, his self promotion and personally addictions tend to make me mourn the lack of weblogging originality in general.
And this for me is the issue with BoingBoing. It has become the image of the blog everyone tends to emulate, a matter of its early success in the genre. And yet, out of the 99% of blogs out there that recycle links, chat banal nonsense and regurgiate BoingBoing posts BoingBoing itself is still the best of the bunch.
BoingBoing should use its fame to promote that alternative, 1% fringe of bloggers who quietly pump out genius, cowering in the shadow of link viruses like BoingBoing.
posted by 0bvious at 7:51 PM on March 5, 2006
Well, one does need to do something other than play World of Warcraft, after all.Naturally. That's why there is Outbreak.
posted by nlindstrom at 7:53 PM on March 5, 2006
Hey! I'm the guy responsible for the third most sucky link! High five!
posted by AccordionGuy at 8:06 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by AccordionGuy at 8:06 PM on March 5, 2006
To succeed in the fast-paced high-stakes world of playa hating, remember only this: It is not that you think someone sucks, it's how loudly and often you point it out.
This link is perfect for the new extra bitter metafilter of early 2006.
(Cory could self-reflect and edit a little better, but couldn't we all?)
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:23 PM on March 5, 2006
This link is perfect for the new extra bitter metafilter of early 2006.
(Cory could self-reflect and edit a little better, but couldn't we all?)
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:23 PM on March 5, 2006
This thread is why I signed up for MeFi.
This kind of thread is why I keep thinking about trying to quit Metafilter. Like I could, though. Crack's a hell of a drug.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:58 PM on March 5, 2006
This kind of thread is why I keep thinking about trying to quit Metafilter. Like I could, though. Crack's a hell of a drug.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:58 PM on March 5, 2006
MetaFilter: I wish I could quit you!
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 9:31 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 9:31 PM on March 5, 2006
Brokebackfilter.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:50 PM on March 5, 2006
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:50 PM on March 5, 2006
I met Cory once in Camden market. I said to him "Hey, your Cory Doctrow, the guy from BoingBoing!". "Yes, I am" he replied. I could'nt think of anything else to say, so just gave him a thumbs up and went about my business.
posted by Damienmce at 1:16 AM on March 6, 2006
posted by Damienmce at 1:16 AM on March 6, 2006
I miss the old bOINGbOING magazine. I still have, and enjoy, The Happy Mutants Handbook.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:52 AM on March 6, 2006
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:52 AM on March 6, 2006
Mrs.Doyle writes "The alternative is grim--a lifetime spent resenting those who receive marginally more attention than yourself."
Shit. Nailed again.
posted by OmieWise at 7:05 AM on March 6, 2006
Shit. Nailed again.
posted by OmieWise at 7:05 AM on March 6, 2006
Fucking subway maps! Who the fuck cares?? Who CARES?? WHY?????
posted by Baby_Balrog at 8:32 AM on March 6, 2006
posted by Baby_Balrog at 8:32 AM on March 6, 2006
The first anagram map post was tolerable, if not actually funny or interesting. The second was questionable. When they started having to post lists of two dozen previous anagram map posts, that should have clued them in.
The DRM rants are fine, as far as I'm concerned. It's the anagrams that are killing BoingBoing.
posted by Foosnark at 9:18 AM on March 6, 2006
The DRM rants are fine, as far as I'm concerned. It's the anagrams that are killing BoingBoing.
posted by Foosnark at 9:18 AM on March 6, 2006
What's the big deal? I don't particlarly like the anagram maps either, but they'll swiftly be replaced by some other meme. And others do like them: there was even one printed in the Boston Globe yesteday: and where do you think the Globe editors read about it?
posted by rottytooth at 1:17 PM on March 6, 2006
posted by rottytooth at 1:17 PM on March 6, 2006
All these posts and not a single mention of the interminable goatse posts from Xeni?
posted by empath at 2:15 PM on March 6, 2006
posted by empath at 2:15 PM on March 6, 2006
My growing displeasure with BoingBoing was the reason i GYOBFW. i guess that would be GMOBFW.
posted by sourbrew at 7:44 PM on March 7, 2006
posted by sourbrew at 7:44 PM on March 7, 2006
Well, I guess someone decided xenisucks.com needed to be made after all. davidsucks and marksucks have already been taken.
Evidently, if you want traffic from boingboing all you have to do is make a parody domain.
posted by ?! at 12:35 PM on March 27, 2006
Evidently, if you want traffic from boingboing all you have to do is make a parody domain.
posted by ?! at 12:35 PM on March 27, 2006
For those who don't lite up:
bliss. (dialed in with x+c filter engaged)
And the funny part is, I would more quickly give the dialedin folks money to help with their bandwidth cost than I would with no comment 18 banners BB. There's got to be some balance between cost and content.. either lower the cost, or raise the content quality..
posted by cavalier at 5:20 AM on March 28, 2006
bliss. (dialed in with x+c filter engaged)
And the funny part is, I would more quickly give the dialedin folks money to help with their bandwidth cost than I would with no comment 18 banners BB. There's got to be some balance between cost and content.. either lower the cost, or raise the content quality..
posted by cavalier at 5:20 AM on March 28, 2006
Who is "Cory"? What is "BoingBoing"? Why is this stuff "the best of the Web"?
posted by davy at 7:17 AM on March 28, 2006
posted by davy at 7:17 AM on March 28, 2006
« Older I Hope All Your Troubles Get Zapped | No Jaws of Life here. Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
...so I made a site about it.
posted by Gator at 4:16 AM on March 5, 2006