hey gawker dudes. what the fuck is wrong with you?

http://gawker.com/parks-rec-exec-found-dead-from-apparent-overdose-1686895611

Which wouldn't be so bad but you couldn't help but link to

http://defamer.gawker.com/its-because-youre-a-cunt-harris-1168629718/+johncook

Really?

link maybe automatic, related story, tag or whatever.

The "obit" doesn't seem so bad.

A lot of gawker is gossip, never going to be the classiest website.

Oh yeah the link is in the text /illiterate

if you include the link you're shameless. if you don't you're whitewashing your record. kind of a no win situation

Ehh idk, pretty sure you could choose not to hyperlink that shit in an obit, and I know that gawker is the new cool kid ILX crew, but fuck that noise.

i think it's sad that ppl think gawker is cool -- like the ppl who write for it seem like a mix of college student newspaper dorks that felt they were "edgier" than their peers but not extroverted enough to be sketch comedy dweebs

gawker media, jjjusten wants a word with you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64sy-053698

reading this thread i thought it was going to be like, one of those embedded links with an image. that would have been pretty hilarious/fucked up. but a hyperlink in the text? meh

if you include the link you're shameless. if you don't you're whitewashing your record. kind of a no win situation

It isn’t white washing if it’s a minor story. And it was an extremely minor story.

the new cool kid ILX crew lol

new cool kid ILX crew needs to be doing more to prevent plushie-fucking garbage like this imo

http://io9.com/10-superheroes-who-can-never-have-sex-5015295

The first two grafs of the Hulk item are a good an argument as any that comic books and comic book movies should never be consumed by anyone over the age of 14

it would have been really disingenuous to write about his death but pretend like we have no history with him

new cool kid ILX crew needs to be doing more to prevent plushie-fucking garbage like this imo

sure we'll do this right after you storm into will dana's office and put your foot down over the new U2 album getting 5 stars

agree that it was such a minor story that it'd of been fine and a scosh classier to not include it

lol @ plushie-fucking garbage

In the future all celeb obits will include a disclosure about the writer being blocked on Twitter by the deceased

i still dont REALLY get this complaint but im glad you posted about it here and on facebook

frankly it would be really weird and shady to pretend we (or really a couple ex employees) had never gotten in a stupid fight with this guy? its not that the story is or is not newsworthy its that we were directly involved as an institution. better to err on the side of transparency

and even then i guess i dont quite get it. are obits supposed to be safe spaces?

are obits supposed to be safe spaces?

yes

it's called 'decorum' usually

It's bad form to call out or air the dirty laundry of someone who is no longer around to defend him/herself. And I'm sure it's pretty much the last thing anyone who cares about that person wants to read about when they're grieving.

I mean, write an article or a book or whatever after some time has passed and tell the world how much of a d-bag the person was if you need to, but slipping funeral atendees pictures of the deceased with his mistress just makes you look like a ghoul.

When Norm McDonald dies does Rolling Stone have to print that he tweeted a critique of their Best SNL cast list?

i don't think mentioning gawker's history with the guy is nec. a bad thing but the way it's inserted into the article is really weird to me, like it's vague enough to invite you to click on it, had it been prefaced with something like "we should note in the interest of transparency that we engaged in an angry blah blah blah...." i would understand more

i still dont REALLY get this complaint but im glad you posted about it here and on facebook

Maybe Gawker can run an article about it and link back to it when we die

take it to kinja

xp: lololol

"Media is just a word that has come to mean bad journalism." - Graham Greene

^^ GG firing shots at gawker over ethics in journalism

lolololx2

clearly the gawker keepin' it negative dickhole cool kid crew should run ILX

clearly they should

― carne asada, Saturday, January 17, 2009 2:38 PM (6 years ago)

i think it's sad that ppl think gawker is cool -- like the ppl who write for it seem like a mix of college student newspaper dorks that felt they were "edgier" than their peers but not extroverted enough to be sketch comedy dweebs

― Mistah FAAB (sarahell), Friday, February 20, 2015 4:01 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think gawker is cool. i guess i buy into their self-image of bravely flaunting politesse standards of establishment journalism, and the writers not caring who they piss off definitely makes for interesting reading. disrespecting the death of some random tv producer i've never heard of doesn't necessarily quality as "brave," but idk it's hard to care either way. i like how the nothing gets the gloves off on ilx like obits

We are clearly in need of higher standards for reading.

comic books and comic book movies should never be consumed by anyone over the age of 14

― pro stroke Johnny Gill songs would rub you the right way (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, February 20, 2015 7:50 AM (5 hours ago)

i hope you are consistently making this argument on all the relevant ilx threads, sugar

i see people get all excited about these movies and then I see this woman is describing a scene in which the Hulk gets a boner

not to be trenchant or anything but everyone lies in obits it's the american way. *thanks obama for gawker*

i mean gawker dudes, thanks dudes

i see people get all excited about these movies and then I see this woman is describing a scene in which the Hulk gets a boner

― pro stroke Johnny Gill songs would rub you the right way (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, February 20, 2015 1:08 PM (6 minutes ago)

you don't get boners?

Whiney gets a boner every time he gets the opportunity to neg on pop culture he doesn't approve of.

how exciting

i can't help but be a little curious why a small business owner in the midwest is outraged about an obit published by a young hip but increasingly conservative new media outlet about a sad comedy ca druggy with a tumblr book deal in which there is what seems like a minor concession to past beef. small world i guess?

Mumble! Sigh! Sob! Comics aren't just for adults anymore!

Sorry, couldn't think of better sound effects for stereotypical alt commix.

don't care about this controversy but can't wait to make good use of this thread in the future

just what we need -- another cis-het white man talking about the hulk's boner

*tumbls furiously*

comic books and comic book movies should never be consumed by anyone over the age of 14

― pro stroke Johnny Gill songs would rub you the right way (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, February 20, 2015 7:50 AM (5 hours ago)

what about Kevin Smith movies

Hey hip-hop nerds. What kind-of hip-hop is this?

will do

don't you live in greenpoint where's it's like 90% polish people and upwardly mobile white twentysomethings pretending to be broke? who are you scared of there?

― imo phillips (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, February 21, 2009 11:34 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are you scared of getting a seitan taco from the taco truck?

― imo phillips (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, February 21, 2009 11:35 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

best thread ever

"grim reapah!" burbbhrbhbbhbburbbb never fails to brighten my day

pretty cool to have a site mod willing to go that extra mile and call users out not just on their ilx behavior but also on how well they're doing their actual jobs

jjjusten is cooler than anyone who works for gawker

it's a real violation of privacy for mods to be digging around our personal websites

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/gawker-tells-judge-fairpay-twitter-774737

ew gawker's pervasive grossness makes their regular bursts of sanctimony feel particularly disingenuous

Not all hashtags are cool with Gawker. The media company wants a single general tweet about the lawsuit and if a hashtag is to be used, Gawker wants it to be #gawkerinternlawsuit. As for the no-go's, Gawker's lawyer Mark Batten writes, "The hashtags #fairpay and #livingwage are inflammatory, and the Court’s approval of those would suggest that the Court has a view about the merits of this lawsuit. And the use of #nickdenton is also inappropriate; Mr. Denton is not identified with this case, and his personal conduct is not at issue in the matter."

woooowwwwwwwwww

#gawkerinternlawsuit #fairpay #livingwage #nickdenton

Gawker wants the plaintiffs to be careful on Reddit, not connecting this lawsuit with "unrelated controversies and political causes." Denton's company gives some examples. The plaintiffs shouldn't attempt to leverage the GamerGate controversy by posting in the subreddit "KotakuInAction," which Gawker says has expanded into general criticism of its gaming site. "Plaintiffs apparently would like notice of the lawsuit to be added to this 'munitions pile,' but there is no justification for doing so," states Gawker's letter. "The same is true of Plaintiffs’ request to post information about this lawsuit in the 'OccupyWallStreet,' 'LostGeneration,' and 'Progressive' subreddits."

tbf I understand them asking plaintiffs not to further sic the dogs of gamergate on them

or the dogs of the 'progressive' subreddit?

xps to mordy's sanctimony comment: exactly, they produce good work sometimes, but the idea that they are arbiters of ethics/morality/etc. is hysterical. (the same is true of denton's sworn enemy vice, this isn't just a gawker problem)

tbh if they were honest they'd just bring back shit like gawker stalker and own the sleaze but that'll prob never happen

tbf to vice they are pretty nihilistic (i feel defensive for them bc a lot of their foreign coverage has been really engaging over the last couple years)

we get the media outlets we deserve, unfortunately

xp the vice HBO series is great - the chiraq and north korea episodes from season 1 stand out in particular

gawker manages to be awfully sleazy without gawker stalker

i don't really get the complaint of being "sanctimonious." should journalists not call out people on sleazy shit if their employers do the same shit? i weakly prefer the sanctimoniousness of gawker to the seedy relativism of vice

idk i don't feel like journalism should be about call-outs, that's more like arnold diaz "shame shame shame" journalism.

theres also the question of the extent to which journalists or commentators shd be held accountable for the corporate sins of their employers........

obv if someone is doing exemplary work, even for an otherwise odious media org, i'll read + appreciate them

generous of you

i love to give back

wow i can really feel the love rn

xpost

http://albertburneko.kinja.com
http://caity.kinja.com
http://pareene.kinja.com

more 4u mordy

http://sambiddle.kinja.com

Looks like my classic grim reapah thread will never die. I was young, stupid, and drugged out of my mind when I wrote that thing - whaddayawantfromme.

so youre saying burt stanton was your drugged out alter ego

It was me on drugs making an ass out of myself. I just wanted to make people laugh, even if it was at my own expense.

a thing of beauty is a joy forever

welcome back burt

we get the media outlets we deserve, unfortunately

― mh, Friday, 20 February 2015 22:27 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i dunno, think i deserve better i'm a pretty cool guy

xp Thanks, crunch. This feels really weird because I'm nothing like burt_stanton these days, so I really don't know what I'm doing here now. hipsters. trust funds. druggy surrealism. my gigantic dick that breaks tables when i slap it down on them (I was actually hired for a couple of months in a recycling facility). Guess you can't outrun consequences. Whelp, looks like I'll be taking my leave then.

rip

the grim reaper got him in the end

sorry, I meant "grim reapah"

tbf i'll take burt over gabbneb when it comes to reunion tours

cool radio, bro

there are things i quite like on gawker like that Hamilton Nolan fella

also ev'thing relating to celebrities and TV shows i do not know

Are you new to the Gawker thing? The worst of humanity, monetized.

thatd be a good masthead

I think either the Wall St Journal or the Congressional Quarterly uses that

no wait, the Clinton Foundation

wait burt_stanton changed his name again? wtf

don't you live in greenpoint where's it's like 90% polish people and upwardly mobile white twentysomethings pretending to be broke? who are you scared of there?
― imo phillips (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, February 21, 2009 11:34 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are you scared of getting a seitan taco from the taco truck?

― imo phillips (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, February 21, 2009 11:35 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

best thread ever

― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Friday, February 20, 2015 4:37 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

Whiney ain't wrong about Greenpoint tho

http://d1i6vahw24eb07.cloudfront.net/s115864q.png

thatd be a good masthead

― johnny crunch, Friday, February 20, 2015 8:39 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Teren Delvon Jones might have a claim

Wait, did the Hulk die having sex or something?

big, green, dead

Looks like my classic grim reapah thread will never die. I was young, stupid, and drugged out of my mind when I wrote that thing - whaddayawantfromme.

― CoolRadio, Friday, February 20, 2015 4:31 PM (2 hours ago)

between that thread and the disgusting ass partner one, burt was one of all my all time faves ... you should feel good about yourself

granted Best Buy is also on that list, but still, you should feel good about your contributions to this message boarf

i can't help but be a little curious why a small business owner in the midwest is outraged about an obit published by a young hip but increasingly conservative new media outlet about a sad comedy ca druggy with a tumblr book deal in which there is what seems like a minor concession to past beef. small world i guess?

― hammer smashed nagls (mattresslessness), Friday, February 20, 2015 4:22 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

judging from twitter ppl seem to love this dude ive just never seen this sort of reaction to the death of a producer i guess like this before, obvs not saying they shdnt but kind of curious like why he is so well known/loved when his biggest things seem to be producing a a tv show and having a twitter account that was 100% RTs

Harris Wittels would surely be proud that from his death sprung a thread dedicated to incomprehensible Brooklyn bullshit

obvs the idea that u shdnt mention negative infos in a obit is silly and not reflected in the actual practice of obit writing

he was a super popular podcast guest on some super popular comedy podcasts and he had a way of presenting himself as an underdog that prob caused a lot of people to identify w/ and root for him. xxp

btw my suspicion that the whole concept of fandom of a producer is av club related

the year is 2015 and we are all media critics

comedy podcasts even worse than av club! it is truly a fallen world

actually no av club is worse than comedy podcasts

xxxxpost HW was not just a producer, he was ubiquitious on comedy podcasts, particularly Comedy Bang Bang (often appearing with Chelsea Perretti and Adam Scott) so people felt like they knew the guy. He was pretty fucking funny in a weird low-key way.

it is def a v close call xp

i still dont REALLY get this complaint but im glad you posted about it here and on facebook

― max, Friday, February 20, 2015 2:36 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol jj getting deep into the pod zone

incomprehensible Brooklyn bullshit

nah

my introduction to this guy was a pic of him holding his dick post ejaculation, thanks Chelsea P wtf

xxp yeah, I guess every time Whiney shows up in a thread my mind turns off

comedy podcasts even worse than av club! it is truly a fallen world

― lag∞n, Friday, February 20, 2015 10:33 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

actually no av club is worse than comedy podcasts

― lag∞n, Friday, February 20, 2015 10:34 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...or is it?

fuuc...

I know that gawker is the new cool kid ILX crew, but fuck that noise.

― a strawman stuffed with their collection of 12 cds (jjjusten), Friday, February 20, 2015 3:32 AM (19 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hah i love how far this beef reaches back gawker new cool kid crew has all been posting here for like 10 years, ilx is truly a family

u darn cool kids with your having graduated high school in this millenium

someone shd tell one of those brain dead right wing news sites that ilx is a secret liberal blogger message bord for coordinating unethical journalism

oh god I've been on ilx for like 10 years

just dont think abt it my advice

ok I've got a 12" pie with sausage and pepperoni, garlic knots, we were outta diet pepsi, hope diet coke is ok. comes to about $12.50

wtf? it's lent

sorry, Lent discount no longer honored by new management. $12.50

STANTON BACK

loool

i think it's sad that ppl think gawker is cool -- like the ppl who write for it seem like a mix of college student newspaper dorks that felt they were "edgier" than their peers but not extroverted enough to be sketch comedy dweebs

― Mistah FAAB (sarahell), Friday, February 20, 2015 4:01 AM (19 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sarah this is a terrible post! i hate this reductive type of crap that presents itself as super knowing but is never that insightful and like 90% of the time its trying to find meaning in supposedly what kind of person someone was in high school? ew so gross its like a pick up artist routine except for edgy cynicism

lemme guess daddy issues, elite boarding school, mommy too wacked out on pills to even answer the phone, now youre scraping by /waves hand dismissively/ trying to save the world working for some ngo that doesnt pay u shit so u can go home to your craistlist roommate and watch netflix while u drink yourself to sleep /pops ice cube into mouth/ i know the type

difference is ppl only do the second version on bad tv shows

"Right, I'm a bigot, I know, but for the left."

its ironic (irony is still good btw) because gawker often falls into that reflexive cynicism that thinks it knows more about the world than it does

comedy podcasts even worse than av club! it is truly a fallen world

realness

lagoon otmania itt

12" pie with sausage and pepperoni, garlic knots also otm

i feel like all these headlines characterizing harris as a producer is just the media reaching for the most traditionally "impressive" hollywood credential he had, dude was primarily known as a comedian and writer and part of the UCB crowd.

he was also both an "unfettered speech or die" kind of guy, and (as sarah silverman mentioned yesterday) someone who felt very deeply, which makes the "don't be negative in his obit" issue kind of tangled imo.

obvs the idea that u shdnt mention negative infos in a obit is silly and not reflected in the actual practice of obit writing

― lag∞n, Saturday, February 21, 2015 3:31 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol it's not "negative infos" it's "hey don't forget that we beefed with him"

Harris Wittels dissing beejoli shah on twitter isn't really something that should be in his obit, because no one fucking gives a shit other than people who work for gawker.

Maybe just let sploid handle obits from here on out.

Holy Crap! Harris Wittels is Dead! How the Hell Did This Happen? This Is Messing With My Brain.

I'm finding out now that harris wittels is actually his name and not something we call him for fun

i guess i kind of assumed by putting it in a parenthetical with neutral wording it would be clear we weren't like bragging about it???

oh god why am i participating in this thread, sorry,

the_only_winning_move_is_not_to_play.gif

Harris Wittels dissing beejoli shah on twitter isn't really something that should be in his obit, because no one fucking gives a shit other than people who work for gawker.

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, February 21, 2015 4:01 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hmm someone gives a shit

the only solution is prob for everyone to write their own blog post

i mean its not like were dealing with a head of state with a long list of accomplishments and scandals that need to be weighed for relevancy and importance maybe gawker just shdnt have written about him at all

maybe just splitsider shovde taken care of it

or the av club

i mean i can understand ppl being upset with the flippancy of that link but it also just represents the only coverage gawker ever gave the guy and doesnt ultimately warrant the strong negative reactions itt, which are really the only interesting thing about this conversation

I'm glad I saw aziz ansari's very funny and affectionate remembrance of the guy before I saw this thread, yeesh

im glad i saw chelsea perettis tweet of him w his dick out first jk

wait are you serious sd

http://azizisbored.tumblr.com/post/111613105129

http://media.tumblr.com/a92d94acd138611473ef2729e039a0d1/tumblr_inline_nk3l5bj0el1qz7eiu.jpg

what a genius

i love comedy

Somehow the rest of his tumblr post manages to put it into context

His jokes were so weird, unexpected, often brilliantly dumb that they were in that ultra-exclusive club of ones that made comedy people laugh — and laugh hard.

comedians talking about their craft makes me want to die

"first I look around the room for inspiration. then, when I don't find any, I talk about phallic breakfast foods and people generally like that."

xp try heroin

“One time I said to a guy that, ‘I loved learning new things. I’m a bit of an infomaniac.’ And he thought I said NYMPHOMANIAC….so he fucked me. And I said ‘No, no no…I said INFO. I’m an INFOmaniac’ And he said ‘Well, here’s some info…you just got fucked. Clean yourself up.’”

Hmm, maybe he wasn't the comedy genius nobody in this thread claimed he was and it's not sad at all that he died at 30 years old, good point

the only time i feel like i really am on the same page as lex is when he talks about comedy

i like comedy its funny i just dont want to go behind the scenes, i feel that way abt art/entertainment in general tho, but especially comedy

when did ppl start getting really into the elevation of comedic craft? was it the aristocrats?

imo its part of a wider prosumer entertainment media trend that has made all ilx tv threads unbearable

ppl latch onto craft because its comprehendable not knowing its merely a vehicle in which i transport my genius

showrunner, callback, writersroom

RT and Fav.

1 RT = 1 LOL, fav for hearty chuckle

btw i submitted a humblebrag once and he RTed it

humblebrag was a p brilliant observation imo

People who work in comedy are kind of unique in that they enjoy discussing the thing they've chosen as a career, often with people who also do comedy, which I know is difficult to understand since that's not a thing people in other fields ever do.

um no mr sarcasm the thing thats hard to understand is why you like hearing them discuss it

correction its not hard to understand i just dont like it

I'm sure there are podcasts of geologists discussing geology with other geologists and geology is cool and all but I'm not really interested in that discussion and I'm able to avoid engaging with it and making a big deal about how I don't like it. Except I guess I just did, mea culpa geology fans.

so yr saying i shd just avoid them and not say they are bad, sorry buddy dont u know to always say yes in improv

what a boring thread and topic for all you good posters to be on for so long

actually this is a very good thread topic

actually its about ethics in journalism games

i read the original beef. why was gawker reporting on which nbc writers' scripts tested poorly with audiences? i would be annoyed too if someone, based on stray bits of information from random sources, decided to publicly investigate my job performance

um its called blogging hello

test audience results (as opposed to reviews or ratings) are just kind of a pointless metric, a fair amount of good movies have tested poorly w/ focus groups and shit and plenty of bad movies have tested fairly well

so if the original intent of the piece was to zing him & others it's just a weak barometer of quality I guess

there is nothing nerdier than comedy

there are many things much nerdier than comedy

/checks nerd chart/ no

record reviewing

baseball stats

the settlers of catan

Math

prog rock

/checks nerd chart/ no

― lag∞n, Saturday, February 21, 2015 12:58 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

having a nerd chart
using a nerd chart

Pogs

'the custos of the country' - some twitter comedian

ventriloquism
doing a whole magic act in a special magician costume you sewed yourself

amateur clowning

miming

true confessions: one of my circa 2010 tweets when I was all on my own dick and generally being an arrogant prick and embarrassing myself w/r/t my unearned "success" ended up in the humblebrag book and, five years later, the existence of said book serves as a constant reminder of how not to act as an adult.

dang that is kinda some real shit

i mean there's partially a) I was caught in a moment where dude is better at social media "face" (word to cankles) than me and got busted, but b) it caught me at a moment where I was kind of buying my own social media persona and feeling invincible and it was just one of three monumental public faceplants that occurred in one 24 hour period

What were the other two? :=}

nah

cn u link us to the humblebrag at least

linking to a humblebrag is kind of a humblebrag, no?

its ok no one cn report u now he died

To be fair to you wgw, "Da Capo" sounds a lot snootier than it is.

*barfs*

(i didn't really barf)

*barfs /figuratively/*

someone shd tell one of those brain dead right wing news sites that ilx is a secret liberal blogger message bord for coordinating unethical journalism
― lag∞n, Friday, February 20, 2015 10:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no word of a lie when this finally happens i'll do everything in my power to nuke this fucker.

im gonna tell them "goole is denton"

this is a good thread mainly because it is dead cert for periodic resurrection and i look forward to those times

i like threads like that like the ones thatre titled [artist name] has a new album

man if I could only get on my own dick what a life

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31GIT-EOJrL.jpg

whoa

Harris Wittels dissing beejoli shah on twitter isn't really something that should be in his obit, because no one fucking gives a shit other than people who work for gawker.

the story wasn't "harris disses beejoli shah," it was "harris reacts to an insulting article by repeatedly calling its female writer a cunt." harris was all about unfettered speech, which meant sometimes he said disappointing misogynistic shit, and it was indeed something i gave a shit about because i liked the dude and his work on parks and the earwolf podcasts. i can totally understand the argument "it's not cool to bring that up in an obit because it was an outlier not indicative of his character, and it's also greatly overshadowed by his talent and the tragedy of his death." but let's not elide the fact that gawker specifically wrote the piece because harris was doubling-down on being misogynistic.

hey gawker dudes

dear gawker dudes, hey

good point reddening btw

gawker media, the shining beacon of social justice that greenlit the groundbreaking and sensitive pieces "lebron james is a cocksucker" and its follow-up "lebron james is still a cocksucker"

dont really know anything abt this dude but if he was one of those comedy free speech extremists (grow up my god ppl!) then the link was def relevant to not just him personally but to the culture in which he operated

needles to say "gawker did a bad thing once" is not much of an argument

slothrop ye will be recruited to the gawker cool kids crew yet

wasn't really an argument, more an example of the prominent attitude of a media outlet that chooses to have intermittent/jarring flirtations with a sanctimonious attitude.

idk. it's not like this dude was some sort of good guy, he clearly wasn't. it's more like how so much shit throughout that network of sites always seems to come down one way or another to longstanding/previous beefs (the wittels takedown of him insulting shah, which was at least justified) or unacknowledged yet obvious pissing contests between denton and other new media robber barons over pageviews (denton vs. smith of vice, denton/biddle vs. whoever the fuck runs pando, etc.)

should read "the takedown of wittels insulting shah" - that was justified, what wittels did was not

i read a fair amount of gawker stuff - deadspin, jezebel, the main site - i definitely don't hate it outright

isn't beejoli shah the one who tried to humiliate quentin tarantino for no reason?

i don't care at all about wittels, and i despise sexist language, especially when used the way wittels used it, but i think he was provoked into reacting that way by a site/writer that likes to provoke people so they can write about it. so it's hard for them to take the moral high ground in that case

basically slothroprhymes otm. gawker is fine/whatever, it's a gossip site, but their flirtations with sanctimonious posturing always comes across as nauseating when viewed in the larger context of what they are and what they do

the gossip stuff gawker does is m/l TMZ with markedly better writing, overseen by a head honcho who's a bit less blatantly odious than harvey levin.

other stuff they do can be quite good, especially longform articles - like tom scocca's "on smarm" piece is one of the best articles i've ever read in the past 5 or so years, online or print. and of course the folks on here who i know work for them seem cool and intelligent (i'm sure there's a bunch i don't know)

feel like gawkers (the blog not the publishing empire i dont read the other blogs enough to say) sanctimony is pretty consistent for a decent size organization with lots of diff writers who are given a fair amount of freedom as far as its own internal logic, it just doesnt match up to what a lot of people think their moral code shd look like, which is totally fine and reasonable except that ppl tend to talk about this as if gawker has made an agreement to abide by some non existent universally accepted rues of sanctimony then violated them, then some nearly picked at random example of gawker doing a bad thing is held up next to a usually totally unalike example of sanctimony as proof they they are full of shit, and the amateur media critic scores a point in his imaginary arena

of course the same cld be said for all sorts of online attacks against the media, understanding organizations and their standards is hard, being all um excuse me this is fd up is like super easy lol

basically slothroprhymes otm. gawker is fine/whatever, it's a gossip site, but their flirtations with sanctimonious posturing always comes across as nauseating when viewed in the larger context of what they are and what they do

― Treeship, Saturday, February 21, 2015 4:53 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean like

i really don't get your position treesh other than on some feeb "why can't everyone be nice all the time" tip. should pareene, richjuz, etc's "sanctimonious" writing not coexist with sleazy gossip stuff? like, if that offends your delicate sensibilities fine but intellectually idgi

most of gawkers sleazy stuff is not even sleazy if anything theyre kinda annoyingly proud of and play up this aspect in which they actually rarely even partake, like 99% of their gossip is comic meta internet irony abt taylor swifts dog or something, you know whats sleazy tho is reporting on the devastating fallout of wealth inequality on one page then having an entire section dedicated to selling homes to the super rich

the one time i was like ok that's it fuck gawker was when max wrote something like nic pizzicato sucks and is the annoying guy in your philosophy class and true detective s2 will suck--a position I vehemently disagree with--and saw a friend who i had been sharing my enthusiasm over the show with dissing pizz on twitter

lol classic autocorrect

the thing i h8 most that they do is report on children dying bizare pointless deaths

not sure what points i have scored w my media critique, idk can i redeem them on foodler this snowstorm really sucks

here's prob a better example of my overall issue. jezebel attacking bustle dot com (by paraphrasing chunks of a previous slate article which is fairly petty) as soon as bustle starts racking up enough pageviews to be seen as a threat is not about jezebel having some moral stance against the clickbaity articles on bustle, or even against the dude who facilitated bustle's launch (who granted is a typical silicon valley bro w/ a sketchy history). it's about seeing a competitor and pissing on it. the same thing is true with the endless valleywag vs. pando dick-measuring contest - neither is morally aggrieved by the other, they're annoyed that the other exists.

but w/e at the same time it's not like i want to go back to the sort of pastoral, supposedly-golden-age media environment fetishized by like, the fucking newsroom, just maybe more of a happy medium if that's achievable. maybe it isn't.

the attacks on bustle and valleywag were totally reasonable and warranted imo, the business motives i suspect are your own projections, especially since like buzzfeed and vox are much more serious competitors

i agree with your nytimes beef btw lagoon, that is just as disingenuous

like literally no one reads pando valleywag really did pick on them because they are horrible, techcrunch and mashable im sure have 1000x the traffic

i really don't think it's a stretch to think that pageviews and other metrics that drive competition might just be motivating some of these editorial decisions on occasion, that's true of every media site - not trying to say that gawker is the only one that does it.

it is true that no one read pando or talked that much about it - until they published the valleywag hatchet-job

they are def motivated by pageviews amongst other mercantile concerns im sure, but the examples you chose of attacking the competition (which is a diif issue than page views) dont make that much sense

i hope one day the snow melts and you all have the opportunity to leave your apartments again

no this is good they will bring the pizza right to u

it's true you can't really fuck with that logic, re: pizza

like tom scocca's "on smarm" piece is one of the best articles i've ever read in the past 5 or so years, online or print.

― slothroprhymes, Saturday, February 21, 2015 4:59 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark

Oh so you're one of those people I see

u used to have to call and talk to them but now u cn just open a new tab its not too bad

denton vs. smith of vice, denton/biddle vs. whoever the fuck runs pando, etc...

― slothroprhymes, Saturday, February 21, 2015

tbf pando is an abomination and among humans who have not, like, tortured anyone or ordered killings [who shall not be named] is the horrible-est

dayo idk what you're ragging on about me complimenting a tom scocca article

pando does also suck, they're pretty blatantly in the pocket of various silicon valley folk, VCs and shit. again, the gawker network is in no way the only group of sites you could call out for this shit. be easier to make a list of media sites/publication you /couldnt/ say this shit about

so do u think it wldve been better just to publish... a list

maybe with gifs, could've been the move

Tom Scocca is the David Brooks of webmedia ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

om gosh cmon on smarm was great

On Smarm was great... for me to poop on!!

jesus christ this is unacceptable

is scocca a stodgy asshole republican, or just stodgy in general? i didnt know anything about him personally, just liked the on smarm piece a lot

Pando has one of the weirdest "About" pages:

http://pando.com/2012/01/16/why-i-started-pandodaily/

As a founder, I have a personal goal that’s just as important and just as core to our culture: I do not want to sell this company. I have opened nearly every meeting by telling potential investors and potential employees this, so I guess readers should know it from the beginning as well.

Of course, there’s the caveat that if someone calls me tomorrow and offers $1 billion, I might cave. I do have investors after all, and everyone has a price. And I’ve been around enough entrepreneurs to know the journey changes you in ways you can’t expect. I’m as aware as anyone this resolve might soften over time.

Nah he's probably a solidly liberal white dude from an upper middle class background

His writing is just fucking awful, that's all xp

dayo must've missed the internal cool kids club memo that it's ok to like on smarm

Or maybe dissing ON Smarm is how I got into the cool kids club in the first place *runs hand through hair*

Pando has one of the weirdest "About" pages:

http://pando.com/2012/01/16/why-i-started-pandodaily/

― polyphonic, Saturday, February 21, 2015 5:53 PM (29 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that is legitimately odd

Gawker's community is occasionally fantastic. I mostly read Deadspin and Jalopnik for the comments. However, both websites have fostered their respective communities for years. I really like Magary's posts too.

I don't care too much about the other websites. I find the content on io9, Kotaku, and Jezebel horrifying so I actively avoid them. I used to read Gawker more but have stopped for unknown reasons. However, I know News Feed didn't help. I'll still read posts from people I know and such. lagoon's Google Glass post ruled, for example.

I just skimmed the Gawker front page and it reminded me of the Reddit front page. The top post is a photo of a red panda. I don't think Gawker is for me anymore. And that's fine (except for this mystifying post http://gawker.com/the-real-thing-1687200510). It isn't like the Internet is absent of content.

You're welcome for this hot take.

“One time I said to a guy that, ‘I loved learning new things. I’m a bit of an infomaniac.’ And he thought I said NYMPHOMANIAC….so he fucked me. And I said ‘No, no no…I said INFO. I’m an INFOmaniac’ And he said ‘Well, here’s some info…you just got fucked. Clean yourself up.’”

― iatee, Saturday, February 21, 2015 11:15 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is really funny btw it's just less funny written down

thx allen!

what gawker is missing is new heads of product and data

agree 100%

pando totaly sounds like some site for plushies

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-ddl3FCEAA0CAO.png

taylor swifts dog

Cats! Cats.

Does she even have a dog??

lol idk prob

Taylor had 2 Siamese-Tabby mix cats called Indy and Eliehsen who didn't like anyone else in her family apart from Taylor. She has also had two dobermans called Bug and Baby. Currently, she only has two cats named Meredith and Olivia Benson.
On Twitter she has posted pictures of her cats with funny things written on the pictures.

"has also had"- so she no longer has two dobermans called Bug and Baby? what happened to them?

She ate them

http://i.imgur.com/SRaHprP.jpg

They ate her and now operate what's left of her body, panto horse style

wow lag00n was a cowboy itt.

at least we can all agree the ny times is sleazy, except maybe for benbbag lol.

i dont think the times is sleazy idk like if there are things that all orgs that do that are bad it might say something more abt the environment in which they are operating and what they need to do to flourish rather than like that the people are bad

wow lag00n was a cowboy tedious internet addict itt.

sorry bam i have to cyberbully u now

you have to go outside

um hello i have already been outside once today

I was outside once to go get coffee and read my blogs but I forgot to buy food and now I'm eating dinner and reading ilx and have to drive home in the cold

i was outside once, never made that mistake again

I once had to chase the pizza delivery guy and few steps outside my door because he left without giving me my 2 liter Mountain Dew. My legs hurt for weeks.

i once went outside and became lost, never again found my way home. i am currently gnawing voles and communicating via pilfered iphone from beneath a freeway overpass outside burlington, vermont. i do not recommend it.

pray for contenderizer

Curious what dayo's issue is with on smarm. Don't know that it's a flawless essay as much as it is a useful one from the perspective of making an intellectual case for ppl not dodging the issues

"On Smarm" is incoherent trash. The author cherry picks examples of people who have written about or mentioned "snark" and and based on these snippets pretends that there's a consensus of negative sentiment that people have for "snark," or that there is an authoritative tone floating in the ether that gives the appearance of consensus, when it's clear to anyone who's heard the word or seen it in print that it's often an approving way to describe one's own or another's sense of humor and overall sensibility.

His definition of "smarm" is unwieldy and cannot be summed up in a sentence that an average English-speaking adult could understand; it doesn't match the dictionary definition of the word, and I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an English corpus with entries predating "On Smarm" that upheld the author's definition in any way. His attempts to shoehorn smarm's more tradition definition of, basically, smug unctuousness, doesn't really fit the horoscope meaninglessness of his paragraph long definition of smarm that he is trying to use to unsuccessfully to describe the tone of Julavitz and Leland and others in the new sincerity school of journalism or whatever you wanna call it. As a demonstration of how flexible and all-purpose his definition is, I will quote it here to characterize "On Smarm":

("On Smarm") is a kind of performance—an assumption of the forms of seriousness, of virtue, of constructiveness, without the substance. ("On Smarm") is concerned with appropriateness and with tone. ("On Smarm") disapproves.

A so-called "snarky" tone is definitely not a reaction to the above definition, as the author claims. A snarky tone is for being humorous or irreverent or ironic. A snarky tone might be used to disguise the weaknesses in an argument or to punch up a piece (or post) lacking substance. A snarky tone might even be a mere habit, but it's never a retaliation against an attitude or an intellectual pose.

If somebody objects to something, we absolutely live in a culture where openly objecting is just as socially acceptable as it always was, if not moreso. Dave Eggers is not the first asshole to say, eg, try writing a poem before you criticize one, and we don't need this overlong, creaky, poorly-constructed new media jack off sesh to remind us that everything is open to criticism by everyone. On the other hand, the Julavitzes are right to at least ask themselves and their readers what is the purpose of criticism, to say, for instance, that a descriptive criticism is more useful and edifying and sometimes even more entertaining than a judgmental criticism; and although there's room to disagree, "On Smarm"'s author is too foggy a thinker to mount that disagreement convincingly. He's also too priggish and goddamned smarmy and too full of shit to publish that article without looking like a hypocrite.

Dodging what issues? Are buzzfeed commenters and authors politicians caught in a scandal? Do they owe the public more than any other content farm? Do they owe the public anything at all? Are people really incapable of sniffing out bullshit, of seeing that their new media pastime is basically 21st century toilet reading? If one content farm has an editorial code of conduct that the "snarky" disapprove of, does that prevent another content farm from cannibalizing the same story from reddit or the chans or their tip inbox or wherever they're copying it from and putting it in the house style?

testify

i think the scocca article is good at identifying a certain mood, or cluster of ideas and rhetorical tendencies, which hadn't been named before. "smarm" seems as good a name as any other.

however, bamcquem otm that "snark," or kneejerk sarcastic dismissiveness, is a dumb reaction to eggers-style sanctimonious anti-intellectualism.

sometimes in the morning a bit slow just clicking on bookmarks without looking at what they are bump into that 1000 word bamcquern screed and am pretty sure i couldn't have bookmarked a thread where that would happened but here i am i guess, gotta be more careful with this shit mondays are hard enough already right?

Landmines could be anywhere. Cambodian cleaning lady missing her jaw and has a prosthetic leg. No one is safe.

that one was prob in cambodia tho

sometimes in the morning a bit slow just clicking on bookmarks without looking at what they are bump into that 1000 word bamcquern screed and am pretty sure i couldn't have bookmarked a thread where that would happened but here i am i guess, gotta be more careful with this shit mondays are hard enough already right?

http://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/books/system/beijing_welcomes_you_tom_scocca.jpg?itok=DSaGPvxb

Curious what dayo's issue is with on smarm. Don't know that it's a flawless essay as much as it is a useful one from the perspective of making an intellectual case for ppl not dodging the issues

― deej loaf (D-40), Sunday, February 22, 2015 10:28 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

I don't really have strong feelings about the topic matter I haven't been beaten by the smarm police

I just think he's a bad writer, awful is maybe overstating it

He mistakes labored over concision for profundity

You can see the bite marks on his sentences, where they've been gnawed

His words don't work. There's no rhythm

That's just how I feel.

Agreed

i know i shouldnt contribute to this thread but i think dayo should take a long look at the ppl agreeing with him and consider if those are the people he wants to agree with

gawker has a whole subblog for pokemon?

http://pocketmonster.kotaku.com/

no, it's a whole subblog about my penis

smarmander

http://kotaku.com/the-best-pokemon-cosplay-1683899139/+patriciahernandez

Dylstew
I think I fell in love the first time I saw this one.

Forsaken18er
She's definitely captured my heart. Didn't even need to use a pokeball.

Zom-B
The only one that I'd say is in here based solely on attractiveness. I mean, outside of the hat, she could be any chick in a Vice Dos and Don'ts.

mistressjellyfish
I agree, I don't know why everyone is saying hers is the "best". This is one of the most effortless of them all, honestly she's mostly just a pretty face and a good body compared to the effort of some of the other costumes.

Zom-B
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/dnd/1210...

Essentially, she's a cute girl in a cute outfit. I guess a hat = cosplay now?

the worst thing about kotaku are the dudes that review pedo anime statuettes and japanese candy and shit http://kotaku.com/dead-or-alive-is-more-than-breasts-1686627572#_ga=1.187729133.416047259.1422305690

i know i shouldnt contribute to this thread but i think dayo should take a long look at the ppl agreeing with him and consider if those are the people he wants to agree with

― max, Tuesday, February 24, 2015 10:25 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

I'm fine with it tbh, I know that flopson likes me in plenty of other contexts (i l u flopson ;) )

I mean look if you're all into rewritten DFW with some sort of weird ten-word-per-sentence limit that guts what makes DFW good, go ahead?

Maybe another way to look at it is that I'm fine with what he's saying he's just saying it very poorly

feel like theres something maybe ind of uptight abt his writing but im not sure why u wld single him out as being bad he seems p good all things considered

Don't question me man I read a LOT of thinkpieces I know a good one when I see one :|

lol @ that max post (and much of this thread tbh) whereby he summons the power of exclusion from the circle j in an attempt to passively compel opinions into line

hah xp

somebody post a link so i can read and judge

whiney for somebody whos whole life is copsplay i dont get what bothers you so much about it

sometimes you can dismiss the bad writing aspect of bad writing but when writing tries to actually be good it's more glaring when it's not

Whiney's continued gawker/gawker media conflation so that he can throw in every minor site under that umbrella and kinja blog is kind of endearing

http://gawker.com/on-smarm-1476594977

sometimes you can dismiss the bad writing aspect of bad writing but when writing tries to actually be good it's more glaring when it's not

― mh, Tuesday, February 24, 2015 10:48 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is true

Whiney's continued gawker/gawker media conflation so that he can throw in every minor site under that umbrella and kinja blog is kind of endearing

― mh, Tuesday, February 24, 2015 10:50 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, it's coming from someone who loves Gawker, loves the work of max/J0rd/sam/def juz/caity and reads the newsfeed pretty much every day!

I'm just saying it sucks that the Gawker tone can be so dead on and then in the related links it's always like "Fucking Your Body Pillow Waifu Isn't As Sad as Your Family Thinks."

feel like theres something maybe ind of uptight abt his writing but im not sure why u wld single him out as being bad he seems p good all things considered

― lag∞n, Tuesday, February 24, 2015 10:45 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

It's probably more an indication of how generally good the other writers are that when there's a bad one he really sticks out

hes def better than... some of the gawker writers

I thought it was sad, but some people don't even have body pillow waifus and have to deal. Thank you based gawker for letting me know about these subcultures.

love the stylization of the myriad guess who taylor swift is dating now posts

the swift related content is generally immaculate

for sure, it's like a distilled version of gossip rag style, almost to the point of being clickhole but not quite xp

its funny i dont really follow taylor swifts music or life so most of what i know about her is through the prism of the weirdo gawker coverage which i read every time

j0rd on Taylor is always top 10% of everything gawker's ever published

gawker getting passive-agg w/ beloved ilx poster here:
http://gawker.com/ping-pong-is-dead-long-live-ping-pong-1687648683

this looks pretty fascinating too:
Giuliana Rancic Says Zendaya's Hair Must Smell Like Oils and "Weed"

omg hamilton nolan is the worst look at this:
http://gawker.com/feed-your-babies-peanuts-1687691241

there's gotta be a better way of acknowledging who you're getting something from than "hat tip"

"a tip of the hat, m'lady, thanking u for the link"

xactly

ugh I always forget wtf people mean when they write "HT" on twitter or w/e and am so angry when reminded

nolan is hilar but his "I was a 96 lb weakling and now i'm a hulking behemoth" gym-shaming posts always have that "I have DISCIPLIIIIIIIINE" Bill-Hicks-talking-to-a-waffle-waitress vibe to em

don't know much about Nolan but all his fitness posts are downright awful (and actively harmful), unless they're just 100% trolling

yeah they are not kind

http://gawker.com/on-smarm-1476594977

update: i tried reading this and i couldnt

I'm probably missing a taste for a particular type of writing but HamNo's shit just never really does anything other than irritate me

disputations is my fave gawker-network bloggity blog

kinda feel like gawkers highpoint was covering the kaavya viswanathan scandal and it has never recovered. i can't imagine anything more embarrassing than a bunch of grown adults feuding w/ the kotakuinaction subreddit.

semi-related - anyone remember this twitter account? http://www.dailydot.com/lol/anonymous-twitter-exmediaman-gawker-buzzfeed-secrets/

whoever it was disappeared but idk if the identity was unmasked

seems p obvs fake?

@Gawker writers, @hamiltonnolan in particular, really disliked @neetzan because he took the model to its logical conclusion: farming @reddit

— Media Man (@ExMediaMan) March 14, 2014

the best place to farm is ilx amirite

@sullydish was one of the most irritating blowhards I ever worked with. Advocated the Iraq War then said AIDS was over. Now has own site.

crazy insider info here

hah, I never saw that
@Gawker writers, @hamiltonnolan in particular, really disliked @neetzan because he took the model to its logical conclusion: farming @reddit

tbf I couldn't stand neetzan zimmerman's crap either

oh dang, xp past Mordy, we both caught that one

did not know the thing abt the site xp

the obviousness of some of the statements - i.e. ""Viral Media" is all White People. Sometimes sites let black journalists write for them, but they never really feel included" is not exactly a truthbomb, albeit obviously a depressing statement - is mildly suspect but other than that idk why the account's fakeness is blatantly obvious

not to say it absolutely couldn't have been fake, of course. the daily dot piece links to the story about the goldman elevator guy who was not a goldman sachs employee, after all

either way, was a somewhat entertaining follow while it lasted

it just has no actual insider facts / is making vague accusations based on the popular perception of the sites / claims to have worked with every new media property in the wolrd

like real insider info looks like m@x r3ad only continues to employ hami1ton n0lan under threat of "squatting u right out the fuckin window"

I need useful gossip, like what does ca1ty w3aver smell like

http://i.imgur.com/l3ug0tp.jpg

i remember at one point the account (whoever it was) tweeted something about "among folks at gawker i worked with, have to say sam biddle was a pretty good guy" or something to that effect, in the midst of a gawker hatespew, and biddle immediately responded with "FUCK OFF," i loled

hah

this is so petty of me but i don't think i could ever take a guy named 'biddle' seriously

Biddle is an old-money Philly name

I've always wondered if Sam was from that line

the main line haha

Nice!

sam biddle always puts me in a mind for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63nMcrwporQ

(from about 0:10-0:25)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biddle_family

Owen Biddle, Sr. (1737–1799), American Revolutionary War soldier, mathematician, astronomer, observed 1769 transit of Venus at Cape Henlopen, member of the American Philosophical Society, married Sarah Parke
John Biddle (1763–1815)
William Biddle (1806–1887), married Elizabeth Garrett (1806–1881)
Samuel Biddle (1844–1919), Bailey Banks & Biddle jewelry store

Just did some hard-hitting journalistic investigation - here are my results

oh i know that place it's in king of prussia iirc

granted this is from the pando hit piece about valleywag, so, duh bias also pando is gross as discussed upthread, but here be some background:

...if you’re going to wage a fake class war, then, Sam Faulkner Biddle is the perfect fake class warrior for the job. Long before he got his gig wailing about “spoiled brat” tech founders who owe their success to their fathers, Biddle gained entry to the prestigious Johns Hopkins university with no help whatsoever from his own father, the Pulitzer prize winning journalist — and Johns Hopkins lecturer — Wayne Biddle.

pando publishes the war nerd so i give them a pass for that

said wayne biddle is from baltimore, apparently - cornell graduate, extremely successful, worked at the NYT, harper's, et. al.

not to get off track but the war nerd is like the worst person in the world, with the worst name

I guess it's easy to clown on 'Biddle' when you have a hilarious Johnny Depp film named after you

"exmediaman" definitely never worked at gawker

imho mortdecai < def not the same etymology as mordechai

literally has almost the same letters cmon

i think i knew who the war nerd was at one pt; it's just one of the exile/pando dudes (obv)

The name "Mordechai" is of uncertain origin but is considered identical to the name Marduka or Marduku attested as the name of officials in the Persian court in thirty texts (the Persepolis Texts) from the period of Xerxes I and his father Darius, and may refer to up to four individuals, one of which might have served as the prototype for the biblical Mordecai.

The name is commonly interpreted as a theophoric name referring to the god Marduk with the understanding that it means "[servant/follower/devotee] of Marduk" in Aramaic. (The Book of Daniel contains similar accounts of Jews living in exile in Babylonia being assigned names relating to Babylonian gods.) Some suggest that as Marduk was a war-god, the expression "[servant] of Marduk" may simply denote a warrior - the popular translation of "warrior" is commonly found in naming dictionaries. Others note that Marduk was the creator in Babylonian mythology whence the term might have been understood by Jews to mean simply "[servant] of God".

mort seems more latin mortis related

ty for your knowledge, I will make sure to pronounce it with a hard 't' so you don't get confused

update: i tried reading this and i couldnt

― no (Lamp), Tuesday, February 24, 2015

this was my experience at the time iirc i.e. ~what are you even saying man~ but people seemed to like it \o_0/

i think it's a political thing like a defense against conservative opinion that snarkiness is somehow bad i don't think ppl were digging it for stylistic reasons (but i could be wrong)

labored over concision

hmm isn't this 'writing'?

http://www.bigfatpandamusic.com/wp-content/gallery/general-gallery/dancing-panda-fastest.gif

hmm isn't this 'writing'?

― deej loaf (D-40), Tuesday, February 24, 2015 1:51 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark

If you conceive of writing as rule-based and running through a checklist sure *shrug*

Don't question me man I read a LOT of thinkpieces I know a good one when I see one :|

― 龜, Tuesday, February 24, 2015 10:47 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

new borad description ?

its about ethics in tabloids

i like on smarm, i just thing it lacks a data angle

that is very... scientific of you

― iyo iyo un day (how's life), Tuesday, February 24, 2015 8:48 AM (4 hours ago)

fp'd you for this

I'm not the one with a goddamn cartoon dingdong in my dn. fp'd in return.

fair

fp'd you both

=P

i think i am going to email my mom the smarm article to see what she thinks of it. she uses that word in the way scocca describes more or less and i think she arrived at this habit independently

I think I am going to email your mom too

can you ask yr mom to stop emailing me pls

i am sorta torn about the article. i think you can have a keep it positive attitude without the sanctimony/evasiveness/dishonesty or the constant appeals to authority. like bam said, i generally prefer more descriptive literary criticism to "takedowns," for instance. snarkiness seems more reflexive than critical. cynicism can be its own kind of complacency.

i loved on smarm i think it is a useful tool for thinking about public discourse these days

I knew someone in high school with the last name Biddle. Facebook tells me she's a Gavin DeGraw fangirl now. (There's probably a name for them, like DeGraw-dogs or something.)

i like the article, the only problem is that "smarm" is already a word and it doesn't mean what scocca was trying to make it mean though in principle i am all for single-handedly attempting to change the definitions of words through sheer bloody-mindedness

brb calling the mothership

re: gawker dickholes, i think it just goes with the territory of tabloids/readers of tabloids, the whole business is about treating other people like prey. my great uncle was the editor of a British tabloid back in the day and he'd make the gawker dickholes of ilx weep in shame for failing their potential. i mean, there are threads on this board designed to lure people in just to smack them around and laugh at their expense. i'd say it all fits together pretty nicely, no reason not to be real about it.

😎

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I didn't always hate Pikachu. Actually, I used to like him. But one day, both the anime and the games decided to make Pikachu worse by progressively making his design thinner and thinner. Gone are the days of the best Pikachu, chubby Pikachu. Since then, Pikachu has only gotten more and more awful for me. For starters, Pikachu probably works wonders for making The Pokémon Company and Game Freak money, which is great for them, but it also means they're prone to plaster Pikachu on everything. It's hard not to be barraged by Pikachu's constant presence if you're a Pokémon fan, and it sucks.

i dont really know anything about pokemon but i love it/support its culture

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh/5a734ca9-f1ea-43c4-8ff8-a1b1b46e2fd0/98d3306f5720f6cd1f2416a220aa7a83/res/b901a510-d093-4a5b-8cb9-96b7103c8d6f/skitch.png

i dont really know anything about pokemon but i love it/support its culture

Let me introduce you to Pocket Monster. A Nick Denton production.

Anyway, Gawker has become a less edgy BuzzFeed.

I don't know why I scrolled all the way to the comments on the St. Vincent kisses model Defamer post, but they were pretty much on par with the comments I'd expect on the NYTimes site or ESPN - guess Gawker is big media now.

http://gawker.com/white-kid-caught-ecstatically-singing-nigga-by-coache-1697520011

lol

that's my cousin. he spells it "Jase" but whatever.

he was singing "figga"

tbh I do that sometimes while alone at home and my cat gives me the side-eye, although he'd probably shit on my kitchen table if he caught me singing or rapping anything by Drake

lol j0rdan

a discriminating cat

hopefully this white teen will make it out ok................

which kid? the coachella dude or the gawker author?

i'm sure they'll both be fine ;)

J0rd can't believe you fell for a Mordy bait post in 2015 : \

llol u can't pin this embarrassment on me

i made it out ok!

ninja, he made it

are you not allowed to say nigga when singing along w/songs????? i thought u were

I'm not even mad at the kid in this story. He was at a festival, having fun, just singing along with a song he liked.

seemed like he wasn't quite nailing the lyrics as is

I laughed at
In closing: You are all trash. Your parents are ashamed of your careers and the cocaine-huffing gossip monsters you've become. You pick petty fights for a living.

lolll I mean...that's gotta be true in at least some cases, how can you miss with a generalizing machine-gun-spray comment like that

but, y'know, maybe save it for when the gawkerati are going after someone who /actually/ doesn't deserve it, guy.

oh kinja commenters, what a glorious font of absurdity thou art

save it for when the gawkerati are going after someone who /actually/ doesn't deserve it, guy.

Like a kid singing along at a concert?

idk I don't really think this qualifies as "going after," and there are varying degrees of deserve, this is prob on the low end of that spectrum - and as far as gawker-driven public embarrassments go, this is a p soft toss

Dedicated piece basically throwing a random kid up as a racist with no further commentary or insight feels pretty fucked up to me.

yeah, by that standard we were all Klansmen in the '70s

Wait'll they hear about Patti Smith

no ones deserves to have their shameful mistakes featured on gawker but he hit the publish button himself so I don't have a ton of sympathy

Genuine LOL

(The structure of your joke reminds me of that Onion joke about Jim McGreevey (featured at great length, funnily enough, in Jon Ronson's "So You've Been Publicly Shamed," which ought to have a thread of its own, probably)...
"Homosexual tearfully admits to being Governor of New Jersey")

i don't really see the value in blurring the line between "the spirit of a Southern frat party" -- implicitly the pro-lynching statements of University of Oklahoma's SAE chapter -- and a drake fan committing a faux pas at a concert because he got lost in the music and forgot the #checkhisprivilege

and by "don't really see the value" i mean i think it's really damaging and stupid

is the new ronson good? i liked the psychopath test.

New Ronson is great - you can read the whole thing in a day or two, probably. It's been pushing buttons for some people (there have already been a couple of external mini-scandals with one of the subjects objecting to how she was portrayed, and a pre-publication, very on-the-edge deleted line about rape that has stirred up some anger on Twitter). But like all his best stuff it's a great balance of humanism and neurotic gags. He really landed on a topic that nobody had really gone deep with, I think.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CCgFLkmWAAAT6z_.jpg

feel like ronson applying his goofy willfully naive schtick to issues of actual importance was prob a mistake

http://tktk.gawker.com/i-actually-want-to-live-in-a-world-where-jonah-lehrer-1693842356

that's a bad sentence but i am still interested in the book. i know public shaming is everyone's favorite hobby now, but it's disturbing how much more prevalent it seems these days

that rape line is.... jesus christ, I just kind of stared at the screen and I still can't figure out to respond to how incredibly bad it is

imo he should be publicly shamed for writing something that bad

this is a good idea

that's a bad sentence but i am still interested in the book. i know public shaming is everyone's favorite hobby now, but it's disturbing how much more prevalent it seems these days

― Treeship, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 10:16 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its an interesting topic but judging from what ive read about the book ronson does not really approach it from a very enlightening pov, speaking as someone who has enjoyed his work in the past

Really? To me, that line is so clearly meant as a self-critical comment. I haven't read the whole thing in context, but it sure seems to me like he's talking about "privilege" (excuse the buzzword) and pointing out that men and women live in very different and unfair realities when getting fired is the worst we can imagine happening. He's saying men, like myself, can't really grasp what it means like to deal with what women go through. I don't know, maybe I just trust him not to be so stupid as to mean anything else than that.

I think you're reading a viewpoint into it that is not implicit in what he actually wrote

it also kind of implies he doesn't understand that he could be raped, it'd just be unlikely. or if he doesn't acknowledge it, it's nbd compared to getting fired

yeah the preceding paragraph fragment certainly points that way but the "i certainly cant think of anything worse" is such ronson schtick and really not serious xp

xp
I haven't read it in context, so I think we're all guessing at his explicit viewppoint. but yes, but I think "i don't live with the fear of rape, I don't even comprehend it" is his point, and it's meant critically.

otm

he seems to be responding to a proposition someone else put forward.

i believe he deleted it from the book before publication anyway.

just his whole oh no this scares me jon ronson who is flamboyantly scared of everything is not a good approach for this complex topic

http://tktk.gawker.com/i-actually-want-to-live-in-a-world-where-jonah-lehrer-1693842356

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 10:06 AM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean jonah lehrer did not make mistakes he was a compulsive self promoter borderline conman, and ronson really thought this guy was not gonna get a second chance, this might not be the social commentator we need

not to mention the information that he was getting a second chance was already available!

it just didnt fit his narrative of all powerful mobs taking mostly innocent ppl down

capt save-a-lehrer rushing in when the house is not even on fire

if public shaming continues to take down amoral careerist dbags im all for it

in the end tho public shaming only works on ppl who can be shamed

well its prob a misnomer in that case

I think the main point is to be reasonable and separate the people who are just looking for recognition of fault or an apology with the rest who just want blood? I mean, if someone has no real history of problematic shit, says something stupid on twitter, and acknowledges it was a bad idea, let em go imo.

the people who really deserve it are the ones who repeatedly offer non-apologies (if I ever have to read "I am sorry you were offended" again, blargh) and people with long-term patterns of shitty behavior

yeah how common is the one bad tweet phenomenon, like theres the girl on the flight to south africa and, feel like his approach in this case is mostly a clever attempt to get the reader to identify as an innocent victim, like weve all said things that were bad and got negative feedback but those were just mistakes certainly not indications of unacknowledged personally convenient malignant beliefs that we shd like consider addressing

that whole thing was a clusterfuck, I feel like those cases are pretty much outliers, though

if anything it's more a testament to the power of people with tons of twitter followers and their ability to abuse than shining a light on malicious behavior

the getting fired piece is such a hook for the whole argument otherwise its just like oh no a million ppl are yelling at me on twitter! turn off notifications bro

btw i heard a radio ad for online reputation management in the barber shop the other day lol

That's been around for a long time, though.

idk i dont listen to the radio

it was all you cant do this yourself

wld be a good protection racket

imo the right thing to do is create a public persona that is completely ridiculous, then people have trouble trying to pin malicious thoughts on you

operate celebrity parody accounts exclusively

you're defending gawker because they're taking down "amoral careerist dbags". that gets about an 8 in the mental gymnastics competition.

is 8 a good score in mental gymnastics im unfamiliar with the competition rules tbh

who is attacking gawker itself? I thought we were talking about a point made on the site right now

Definitely think you guys should read the book first - covers lots of these points; many of these things are way more complicated (like the Adria Richards thing) than 'turning off notifications'

afaict the conversation went something like 'gawker going after this coachella kid is ridiculous' and then 'but jon ronson sorta defended jonah lehrer' which idk i think i'm maybe missing a step in the middle

many of these things are way more complicated (like the Adria Richards thing) than 'turning off notifications'

― Your Ribs are My Ladder, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 11:20 AM (6 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the getting fired piece is such a hook for the whole argument otherwise its just like oh no a million ppl are yelling at me on twitter! turn off notifications bro

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 11:05 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fwiw i have read a least a couple ronson articles on the topic and i follow him on twitter i dont think i shd be forced to read his book after already being pretty thoroughly exposed to his pov re this

also feel free to offer up these supposed complications yrself lol

Ah right (x-post)

Haha 'forced' - it's a pretty great read, even when you're disagreeing with it, is all

ya i like his work quite a bit but i in this case i dont think his approach is really appropriate, this doc of his is a stone classic imho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAMIvDmWbQs

i mean jonah lehrer did not make mistakes he was a compulsive self promoter borderline conman, and ronson really thought this guy was not gonna get a second chance, this might not be the social commentator we need

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 3:39 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not to mention the information that he was getting a second chance was already available!

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 3:40 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it just didnt fit his narrative of all powerful mobs taking mostly innocent ppl down

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 3:40 PM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

But all this is wrong; Ronson talks in some detail about Lehrer's existing book deal in his book, and that it's due to be published right after his own

Not picking a fight, truly - just don't know what you mean that his approach isn't "appropriate"

ha then why was he so worried abt him getting a second chance! and like obvs guys like that always get a second chance, the mob is actually much less powerful than the jonah lehrers of the world

cutesy schticky reductive seeks to personalize systemic issues xp

I could tell Sam Biddle was finding it startling too - like when you shoot a gun and the power of it sends you recoiling violently backwards. He said he was ‘surprised’ to see how quickly Justine was destroyed: ‘I never wake up and hope I get to fire someone that day - and certainly never hope to ruin anyone’s life.’ Still, his email ended, he had a feeling she’d be ‘fine eventually, if not already. Everyone’s attention span is so short. They’ll be mad about something new today.’

is "they'll be fine" gawker editorial policy?

or is it just the 'unwritten' culture of gawker to make the writers feel better about being such creeps?

"I actually want to live in a world where Jonah (Lehrer) should get another chance" is the quote?

cutesy schticky reductive seeks to personalize systemic issues

Bbbbbut that's like 92% of Ronson's work!

yeah but when youre laughing at conspiracy nuts its more appropriate imho

This is the complete quote:

When you talk about folks like Jonah Lehrer, Mike Daisey — people who committed actual transgressions, and for whom it might be hard to ever trust them to do nonfiction again maybe — how do they fit into your whole theory of public shaming in 2015?

I totally get what you’re saying and I think maybe if I hadn’t gone down the road that I’ve gone down the last few years, and met Jonah and met Michael Moynihan and met other recipients of other shamings where the transgressions were less serious, like Lindsey, I would probably feel the same way. But honestly I think it’s okay to humanize Jonah without exonerating him, and I actually want to live in a world where Jonah should get another chance, even though I really understand that he made some really stupid mistakes, both in the transgressions and also in trying to cover them up. To say he was his own worst enemy would be putting it mildly. But I still want to live in a world where people are allowed reentry into society, whatever they did. That’s just the world I want to live in.

you gonna get fired

here are the second chance quotes i can find from the book

Jonah was offering the same dismal prediction about his future as Michael and Andrew Wylie had. He was foreseeing a lifetime of ruin. Imagine being thirty-one in a country that venerates redemption and second chances, and being convinced your tragedy has no happy ending. But I thought he was being too pessimistic. Surely after paying some penance, after spending some time in the wilderness, he could convince his readers and peers that he could change his ways. He could find a way back in. I mean: we weren’t monsters.

Jonah was saying that spending time with him would ruin me in some unexpected way. ‘Well, that’s not going to happen to me!’ I laughed.

‘Then you’ll be the first,’ he said.

As he said this, a bolt of panic shot into me. It was a frightening thing for someone to say. Still, I kept trying to convince him, on and on, but each line of reasoning seemed to make him more anguished, as if I were a siren trying to lure him to the rocks with my song of possible redemption. He said his worst days were when he allowed himself to hope for a second chance. The best were when he knew it was over forever and his destruction was necessary as a deterrent to others.

Jonah was at the Knight Foundation lectern, standing very still. I was watching at home on my computer. In his old lucrative public-speaking days his voice would rise and fall to emphasize this word or that, but now he sounded flat, like a scared child in front of the class. This was the most important speech of his life. He was begging for a second chance. As if things weren’t stressful enough for him, the Knight Foundation had decided to erect a giant-screen live Twitter feed behind his head. Anyone watching from home could tweet their ongoing opinion of Jonah’s request for forgiveness using the hashtag #infoneeds and their comment would automatically appear, in real time and in gigantic letters, right next to Jonah’s face.

at least in the emily gould era, say what you will about how unethical they were, they pretty much went after celebrities and not private citizens (as far as i remember). i assume everyone has seen this classic video from the gould days?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-avakrRUaU

feel like mistakes is a way too kind reading of what lehrer did, his entire approach was to bend the whole concept of non fiction and journalism in order to advance his career, like there was nothing besides that

ironically being a terrible science reporter who reaches ridiculous conclusions to make his writing more interesting is not a fireable offense just ask malcolm gladwell or the freaknomics guys

ya i like his work quite a bit but i in this case i dont think his approach is really appropriate, this doc of his is a stone classic imho

this and secret rules of the world are way way more interesting than anything he's done of late. he was more interesting before he got big in america.

secret rulers*

o fine blame america

i apologise for my post - thank you for calling me out on it.

please can a mod delete.

too late my boss has seen it

my parents just received death threats

on the plus side i am writing an article for the new yorker about my experiences

more justice goodly done

ironically being a terrible science reporter who reaches ridiculous conclusions to make his writing more interesting is not a fireable offense just ask malcolm gladwell or the freaknomics guys

Gladwell and Broken Windows covered extensively in the book!

hey max. what the fuck is wrong with you?

thats good but he still gets 200k (made this number up) per speaking engagement xp

i caught an interview w/ gladwell on, idk fareed zakaria's show maybe? where he was saying that americans should probably cheat more on taxes bc we'd get away with it, but we're just too darn honest.

America should torrent more Malcolm Gladwell ebooks

Stop and frisk continued through the 2000s and into the 2010s and one by-product of it was that some repeatedly frisked young people sought revenge in online activism - by joining 4chan. It wasn’t only Mercedes who told me this. Soon after we met I had a cloak-and-dagger meeting outside a subway station in Queens with a 4chan friend of hers. A battered car pulled up. The driver was young, white, of Spanish heritage and wore a big crucifix. I still don’t know his real name. He said I should call him by his Internet name: Troy.

He took me to a cafe where he grumbled about how things weren’t like they used to be, about the good old days when you couldn’t leave your mobile phone on a cafe table around here without it being stolen. I told Troy that the good old days sounded terrible to me, but he explained that with gentrification comes collateral damage - constant stop and frisks of any young people who don’t look like preppy hipsters: ‘Going to the store, coming home from school, ruining your whole day. It’s disgusting. It’s dangerous to walk the borders around here.’ It was these police inequities that compelled Troy to join 4chan, he told me.

I keep expecting an epic Gladwell takedown story to come up, but it never comes.

its been tried but he always responds its just a bit of fun and besides criticism is bad and who can disagree that fun is good and criticism is bad

https://ourbadmedia.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/tipping-points-malcolm-gladwell-could-use-a-few/
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115164/malcolm-gladwells-pseudo-profundity
http://blog.chabris.com/2013/10/why-malcolm-gladwell-matters-and-why.html
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/16/hack_list_no_10_malcolm_gladwell/
http://shameproject.com/report/malcolm-gladwell-unmasked-life-work-of-americas-most-successful-propagandist/

gladwell takedown stories is its own cottage industry

lol at shame project

yeah, totally, but they never stick. I thought the debunking of the "koreans can't fly planes because of their culture" story would get more traction.

I don't know about epic takedown, but he calls him out on some stuff here too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LktwDI6JqO0

I think the getting fired angle is usually bad, except for that Business Insider CTO (?) dude who was a complete and total misogynist dick. Dude had views that he made no bones about, was in a position where he could hire people for a company that is presumably doing journalism.

The entire "oh, I have free speech, I can say whatever I want and it's separate from my job" doesn't fly to me when part of your job is being a leader at a company that could very much be seen as biased by employing people espousing views that could create a misogynist work environment.

so last time i checked in we were watching them humiliate some kid for singing along with Drake... not sure what happened.

you can't just skip to the most recent post you have to read them all

Did that kid get fired from his pr job or

he was SB'd from his pr job. so he may return to his pr job at anytime.

if you are singing along to Drake, you are already shamed

so the only defense of posting that video we've gotten so far is an assurance that "he'll be ok"

that the article author apparently posts on ILX means it deserves far more clowning

what did J0rdan's mom think of this post, is what I am wondering

whole lotta white people defending their rights

well who else is going to

white kid caught ecstatically repeating n-word in gawker headline by ilx watchdogs

what did J0rdan's mom think of this post, is what I am wondering

― mh, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 2:52 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

my mom likes everything i write except if the post is about someone's penis

why don't you write about all the kids singing along to steely dan

*search's j0rdan's kinja* that's...quite a few of your gawker pieces, at least

it just didnt fit his narrative of all powerful mobs taking mostly innocent ppl down

Misread "all powerful morbs", was confused

so the only defense of posting that video we've gotten so far is an assurance that "he'll be ok"

― Treeship, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 2:48 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

in any event i don't really think the post needs to be defended but: it's a funny clip that was noticed by tons of people at the time, that perhaps says something very small about society, and which was presented in a rather non judgmental way (and the judgement -- that he got a little too into it -- was jokey, not preachy).

should append that disclaimer to all of your jokes tbh

kid lookin kinda racist #no preacho

Re: j0rd's non-story, it's mostly meaningless aside from the cultural context we currently live in where the execution of a black man by a police officer was just plastered all over the airwaves as entertaining teasers for the evening news, which puts a pretty vicious point on the types of things Americans find funny. Add into that max's The Hero Who Rescued Three Kidnapped Women in Cleveland Is Hilarious story my impression is that sometime millennials should look into a mirror and tell themselves to smarten the fuck up.

oh I get it yr just posting viral content that already made the rounds, thanks neetzan

we're the only ones that posted it

It is true that you guys aren't the only ones putting unthinking racism into your pieces; I hope you don't think that means you should get a pass

sorry, didn't mean to imply you guys weren't trying to be viral content originators

what is the internet if not originating viral content

hot take

if you are singing along to Drake, you are already shamed

srsly, what is that word doing in a formulaic, lameass fuck-me ballad?

DJP, for now all-powerful Morbs is only working on taking down guilty parties like H Walmart Clinton and the Boston Red Sox, so do not be confused.

I was just like "okay I know someone isn't writing a book about Morbs zinging people, let me reread that"

one fine day...

every page just a picture of a politician or director, captioned with delightful morbsian wordplay

When Justine left me that evening to clear out her desk she only got as far as the lobby of her office building before she collapsed on the floor in tears. Later we talked again. I told her what Sam Biddle had said - about how she was probably fine now. I was sure he wasn’t being deliberately glib. He was just like everyone who participates in mass online destruction. Who would want to know? Whatever that pleasurable rush that overwhelms us is - group madness or whatever - nobody wants to ruin it by facing the fact that it comes with a cost.

‘Well, I’m not fine,’ Justine said. ‘I’m really suffering. I had a great career and I loved my job and it was taken away from me and there was a lot of glory in that. Everybody else was very happy about that. I cried out my bodyweight in the first twenty-four hours. It was incredibly traumatic. You don’t sleep. You wake up in the middle of the night forgetting where you are. All of a sudden you don’t know what you’re supposed to do. You’ve got no schedule. You’ve got no …’ she paused, ‘… purpose. I’m thirty years old. I had a great career. If I don’t have a plan, if I don’t start making steps to reclaim my identity and remind myself of who I am on a daily basis, then I might lose myself. I’m single. So it’s not like I can date, because we google everyone we might date. So that’s been taken away from me too. How am I going to meet new people? What are they going to think of me?’

xp just make it a tumblr and they'll shell out a 6 figure book deal in like a month or less if it gets viral attention

then denton will notice the pageviews, have a minor apoplectic fit and gawker will write a post critical of it

we google everyone we might date

is this really true?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jacquishine/its-a-shame re ronson

http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/images/list_item/morrissey-20101202/morrissey.jpg

"We Google Everyone We Date"

googling dates pretty common here in the U.S., especially among the ladies

amazing what sort of trouble you can dodge when you find out someone is single because they assaulted their ex

as something to pivot a discussion off i dont exactly see a prob w/ jordan's post: that it was something ppl were talking about kinda makes it newsworthy afaict

why were people talking about it can provoke a question that goes in virtually any direction, reflexive or otherwise. It's no surprise that this stuff happens of course so why is it notable to ppl? i think that's an interesting question & putting gawker in the crosshairs seems to ignore that there are ppl who thought it was notable in the first place

it also didnt inspire a virtual mob trying to ID and feather the kid so i dont get the overprotective concerns either

we're the only ones that posted it

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, April 14, 2015 4:00 PM (2 hours ago)

yeah its obv not the kind of news story a traditional org would post ... that's not really meaningful tho

putting gawker in the crosshairs seems to ignore that there are ppl who thought it was notable in the first place

these two statements seem to be contradictions. if no one else wrote about it presumably gawker was the only org to think it was notable.

he's talking about the ppl who found it interesting on i.e. social media

or clicked on the article once it manifested

oh, well i sorta agree that gawker is mostly symptomatic + not the source of the illness. they're a click-driven enterprise so they give the ppl what they want. some of this is a self-feeding loop tho, and i'm not sure moral nihilism should be an excuse.

I was a white teen and I'm not sure if I'll be ok

oh, well i sorta agree that gawker is mostly symptomatic + not the source of the illness. they're a click-driven enterprise so they give the ppl what they want. some of this is a self-feeding loop tho, and i'm not sure moral nihilism should be an excuse.

― Mordy, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 5:46 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what is the problem you're diagnosing? (This an argument in defense of the article no?—that as a symptom it offers the first step towards a diagnosis)

I haven't watched the video, is it J0rd in it?

its a 5 hour video of jord karaoking drakes entire catalog and yelling out FRIEND in place of every nword

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jacquishine/its-a-shame re ronson

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, April 14, 2015 6:09 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good read on why ronsons personal anxiety is maybe not the best compass to guide him through the shame wars

btw i heard a radio ad for online reputation management in the barber shop the other day lol

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 11:05 AM (7 hours ago)

interesting NYer article recently mentioned these reputation companies

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/29/solace-oblivion

Fucks sake things being notable on social media is not interesting

Virality is the most basic online life form. It's not interesting!

wouldn't you say by definition it is interesting to those ppl who are interested in it

like it is quite literally the definition of something interesting: ppl find it interesting

whether its good or bad or boring that they find it interesting can be the point of the discussion provoked by the article

Ok you've expanded the definition of interesting to LITERALLY EVERYTHING fine

Also "finding viral things interesting" is pretty much written on the lintel of ILX.

tbh I think lex is unshameable due to his public persona and I salute him for it

eh ppl in publications just use social media as a test case for what subjects are liable to be scalable to their wider audiences, its more scientific than, idk, intuiting the intrinsic nature of a story, then you end up like the cigar chomping hollywood fatso like "I dunno what she's got, but she's got IT!" about some movie starlet

this is assuming of course that the publications understand that just bc people are interested on social media doesn't mean u automatically understand why or how—might not be the intended purpose...etc

lol the kid is singing but drake... is not https://vine.co/v/eupn0FMLiJ7

White Kid Caught Ecstatically Typing "hollywood fatso"

Also "finding viral things interesting" is pretty much written on the lintel of ILX.

― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, April 14, 2015

new board desc plz "finding viral things interstng"

Fucks sake things being notable on social media is not interesting

Virality is the most basic online life form. It's not interesting!

this isn't true. certainly a lot of things that happen on social media aren't noteworthy -- "teens don't know who [x person] is!" is boring and useless, for instance. but you can't run, or contribute to, a meaningful news-based website without paying attention to what people might be talking about on social media. it's the job of the modern journalist (in certain positions and roles) to figure out how to sift thru and package those things so that you produce work that reaches an audience and does so in a way that is, well, good.

but idk that seems self-evident to me

idk we have had enough random shit in threads that showed up on gawker later that I think gawker could do "ilx things intersting"

your inner neetzan got u hired for sure

lol "moral nihilism" from a cheerleader for an apartheid state

hey now we're talking about true evil in the world here, not the israel/palestine conflict, Morbs

morbs : D

i was much more offended by j0rd's post calling Joan Rivers a gay icon

neetzan is the wrong analogy. i don't have an inner neetzan.

it's more like: gawker -- and any good publication -- exists as a place for its writers to write about things they find interesting. my twitter feed is tailored to show me things i think i might find interesting. there is not a direct connection between the two but sometimes my twitter feed shows me something i find interesting enough to put on gawker dot com. if several people on my twitter feed are talking about one thing i might consider if other people will find it interesting, too, and sometimes i put something on gawker dot com, though in the large majority of cases i do not.

or in other words: deej otm

tbh it feels more like spectacle and shaming whereas maybe your real vibe on this kind of post is "we are this dude"

don't become an editor

i think about three years ago i got into this argument with jordan and his suggestion to me was, go read a newspaper
that's worked out pretty well for both of us so I am recommending it as an answer to anyone who takes issue with gawker

bonus: i'm consistently knocking out the friday nyt xword

^BRAGGIN '15^

c'mon. if you deal in the blood of a person's reputation, at least expect repercussions. in fact, own that shit. internet's picking up heat on a call for jordan's head on this post, and can you blame them? it comes with the territory. all the successful tabloid people i've known have had ice in their veins, real motherfuckers. if you can't own that shit, get out of the game.

lol if you think i didn't expect the exact response that the post got

did anyone reach out to get comment from the kid in question?

xps to forks that's a pretty good way of looking at it, I mean you engage with the sites that are properties of new media robber barons and you should m/l know what you're getting into- some of it will be entertaining and funny, some will be legitimately valuable, some will be petty trash or worse; you read papers and other straight up news properties and you prob get boring news w/ another set of potential issues

(insert devil's advocate "newspapers are compromised/dying/trash sometimes too" caveat here)

I think j0rdan has been pretty forthcoming about what he was doing w/ the post, like what he was trying to convey, obv there's a pure clickbait aspect to it on some level but this is Internet writing so what does anyone expect and on that level dude is just doing his job

the blood of a person's reputation ... who afaik no one has identified or seems interested in identifying

if he ends up ID'd it's more likely it'll be from someone interested in making a "point" about media shaming ppl than it would be someone actually trying to shame the kid

i suspect, anyway. i think you guys think there are a lot of people interested in exposing a kid who sang along with the n-word at a concert and while i'm sure there are a lot of people put off by it or annoyed by it or seeing it as a reminder of an entire society of injustice, i doubt many of them thing it's worth the time to track down this kid to make an example of ... that's like some anti-Political-Correctness paranoia IMO.

Also I think ppl trying to ascertain Jordan's specific underlying motives are doing a disservice to this argument, or are only picking up on it bc he is here to respond (more than he needs to IMO). As it relates to the great argument, um, death of the author & all that

to the *greater* argument

oh come on

the kid's friends and acquaintances will see it eventually. he'll most likely be mortified. the post compared what he did to racist southern frat parties which this week carries implications of the vile University of Oklahoma SAE chapter

maybe it doesn't matter if he gets really upset because of this. or if some people end up seeing him a little differently. nothing more will probably come of it for him than that, but those things aren't nothing.

it's not inconceivable that his name eventually gets linked to this and it affects his ability to get a job either. probably won't happen, but if so that's a real consequence that matters

dude, you're talking to people who do this kind-of thing for fun and profit and then contort themselves into evading responsibility. you might as well be making these points to a brick wall.

r u the kid who sang along the nword with drake at cochella sry u r fired that was very rude

i wonder what must it feel like to fire someone for a social media faux pas

oh no a white kid might not get a job

...

what an amazing contortion to suggest that public behavior might have consequences

it's just kind of a funny moment of our zany constantly "plugged-in" "no privacy" 21st century society

no jordan is responsible for ruining this young man's life by pointing out something that he did in public w/ hundreds of other people

is the "Jace" thing a MtG dig?

most famous Jace
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=195297&type=card

no jordan is responsible for ruining this young man's life by pointing out something that he did in public w/ hundreds of other people

― deej loaf (D-40), Wednesday, April 15, 2015 12:00 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its true i have already fired him in fact

xp lollllllll SG for the win

"pointing out"

what else are you suggesting he did? did he call for the kid to be fired from all future employment opps?

those are all some fine contortions, thank you for proving my point. we've gone through victim blaming, minimization, and dehumanization (LOLLL!!!) one right after the other. pretty classic stuff on display here, and on a group-wide scale, at that. chilling.

hey ilx wtf is wrong with u.

more people should be publicly shamed for minor transgressions, harden up.

waht is this kid a victim of? a website made fun of him?

pretty classic stuff on display here, and on a group-wide scale, at that. chilling. pretty classic stuff on display here, and on a group-wide scale, at that. chilling. pretty classic stuff on display here, and on a group-wide scale, at that. chilling. pretty classic stuff on display here, and on a group-wide scale, at that. chilling. pretty classic stuff on display here, and on a group-wide scale, at that. chilling. pretty classic stuff on display here, and on a group-wide scale, at that. chilling. pretty classic stuff on display here, and on a group-wide scale, at that. chilling. pretty classic stuff on display here, and on a group-wide scale, at that. chilling. pretty classic stuff on display here, and on a group-wide scale, at that. chilling. pretty classic stuff on display here, and on a group-wide scale, at that. chilling.

first they came for the kids singing drake lyrics and i said nothing, because i was not a fan.

all the tell tale signs of chilling itt

more people should be publicly shamed for minor transgressions

why?

pretty sure that "kid" is famous actor Ryan Hansen

maybe i am missing something. i don't see the political value in that video. the entertainment value is mocking a stranger. the whole thing sucks and is gross. i feel the same way about it that i do about misogynistic tabloids that body shame celebrities.

why is it not ok to just be decent and try not to cause undue harm?

he needs to be shamed but only a tiny bit

Treeship, i don't think you really appreciate where you are right now.

except if he is really a famous actor he shd be shamed more in accord with his level of fame

I think medium shaming is appropriate if you kinda look like a famous actor

and there is a spectrum of shame around medium that is a function of how famous the actor you kinda look like is

My object all in blame
I shall achieve through shame —
To let the punishment fit the fame —
The punishment fit the fame;
And make each prisoner pent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment!
Of innocent merriment!

the appropriate amount of shame in this case is is a deniable amount like be shaming him def but then be like "what"

lol

xxxxxps to sloth: there's all kinds of reasonable and angry complaints to be made about what modern SERIOUS PRINT MEDIA feeds us of course... the quid/agg nyt thread covers class warfare concerns, all major outlets do backflips to maintain status quo at the expense of what seems to me to be necessary revolutionary change in domestic judiciary / policing / political policy (to say nothing of foreign policy; the economist in particular often feels like it's being written from the mid-seventies), terrible hacks survive on the teat of house style for decades and terrorize whole swaths of artistic or progressive endeavor. i dunno if any individual newspaper/magazine is utterly killing the game right now but the good ones employ good writers and researchers and media makers with clever minds and are informative and often fun to read and introduce new ideas and impact the culture positively enough that the good definitively outweighs the bad. my issue with much short-form internet tabloid journalism (and, to a lesser degree, criticism) is that it doesn't necessarily meet that standard.
But hey, that's obviously not the governing core mission when your business model requires x-to-the-nth-power unique hits to keep the lights on and anyway who am i to shit on what puts food on another man's table? so, as i'm no longer the target demographic anyway, i am more currently of the opinion that it's foolish to ask a cow to oink and that mutual apathy to one another's concerns until they overlap for work or ilx seems fairest game all around. as my grandfather used to say, nobody wanna hear your goddamn point when they got their own point to make.

i had a roommate named Jace who was just as awful as a Jace inevitably must be, so i laughed at that part

Drake has a hit single where he describes one of his white friends saying the N-word, and then shrugs "I hope noone heard that." he has another hit single where he refers to his white producer by the N-word.

this is all just stealth marketing for ronson