Friday, June 22, 2012

MKMOT (June 22, 2012)

The oncoming winds of change appear to be closer and louder than ever. Like you, I dread this, but not quite as much as that Scorpions song. 

Remember, MKMUB will still be here, with our user friendly format designed specifically for your commenting ease, provided that you don't particularly care for bells and whistles like apostrophes or directed replies. And we're not taking away ANY stars. That would be a slap in the faces of all you Guys Who have worked so hard for your status. And I am not a Guy Who Slaps Faces.

Let's have ourselves a big Friday. There's so much to talk about. Got a take on drone strikes? Can you name a truly good Blink 182 song besides "Down"? The two party system- overrated or wildly overrated? More obnoxious hipster trend- unneeded black-rimmed glasses, or jeans cuffed up to mid-shin? Anyone seen Rock of Ages? Can I ask why?

As always, your home for random debates and inane observations is below this music video that is relevant in its irrelevance. For it is your balog, and I'm up late early to flip the sign and turn on the rotating hot dog machine. It's open.


38 comments:

  1. You guys seen Kenny around? He is full of love and hope and passion, but like all brilliant artists, deeply effected these winds of change that Marv so eloquently noted above. I fear the onset of PowWow may drive Kenny to the darker recesses of his genius mind, when he's needed here dammit, now, more than ever.

    They were wrong, Kenny. The world is meant for one as beautiful as you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whenever I call you "friend"
      I begin to think I understand
      Anywhere we are
      you and I have always been
      ever and ever

      Delete
  2. It's a story that will form the narrative for Deadspin commenters for the next 48 hours and, presumably, for most of next season. If you're looking for the genesis of Timothy Burke's dismissal and/or demotion, well, here you are.

    ReplyDelete
  3. [Walks in room]
    [Looks at Dave Baloggins]
    [Looks at Kenny Baloggins]
    [Sees stream of urine running down Kenny's pant leg]
    [sighs]

    Don't worry, Ken. I'm not coming at you today.

    DJ, let's go.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------

    I don't wanna live no more
    I hold my damn breath for the change to PowWow
    I'm giving everything I can muster
    Another joke to juggle, another day another struggle

    I don't wanna live no more
    I hold my damn breath for the change to PowWow
    I'm giving everything I can muster
    Another joke to juggle, another day another struggle

    I know how it feels to wake up fucked up
    PowWow's broke as hell, comments will drop to nil
    It was designed to confuse the non-nerds
    Telling us to see it through is sad, we're the end user
    But they don't know about the stress-filled day
    Find some place else for the jokes we make
    And hear who drinks Tanqueray
    Where we will reminisce and wish
    They hadn't fucked up Deadspin aww shit
    I remember when I heard the news
    Thought that we'd be excused
    An exception to the rules
    M-K-M-U-B is still here and free, shout out to I-M-G
    Pageviews will rise greatly.
    Denton chose to kick us out, no doubt
    Then I figured out Nick's made money from our stuff
    Packing up my tools moved to TUAN, follow too
    Wine ACC's last day playlist is fodder too
    More drunks than you'd ever know
    I hope you know I'll still flow, do it here for free
    Don't try to stop me, I'm not being a dick
    Asked for entertainment I delivered very clearly
    Getting sad reports cause my time is short, it's not our fault
    Comments won't be the same as before
    Without you it's just spam, trolls invade the home land
    I'll never quit 'til we make one last stand
    'Cause man

    I don't wanna live no more
    I hold my damn breath for the change to PowWow
    I'm giving everything I can muster
    Another joke to juggle, another day another struggle

    I don't wanna live no more
    I hold my damn breath for the change to PowWow
    I'm giving everything I can muster
    Another joke to juggle, another day another struggle

    /drops mic

    ReplyDelete
  4. Drew's post was excellent.

    The replies ... not so much (though this one and this one broke the shit stream a bit).

    Is this really where we are headed? Well, it was nice knowing you all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would just like to point out that those comments are already here, you know, before the new system is in place and yet somehow we are able to cope with it and the Deadspin comment section is decidedly not, if yesterday was any indication, a flaming pile of shit. We had someone call David Ortiz a nigger and yet we were still able to knock the Amendola license plates out of the park.

      It seems stupid and common sensical to say it but, if the Deadspin comment section truly was as it has been romanticized each and every time a new design comes out, we wouldn't have needed a Manifesto, Iracane to be the combudsman or the comment ninjas.

      Maybe the new system changes that, I have literally no idea, but it's more in the good commenters' control than the trolls. You don't have to let them take over, just like you haven't to this point.

      Delete
    2. I know we tend to get overly fatalistic at the prospect of changes to our beloved system, and we have been proven mostly wrong on more than one occasion.

      However, after taking a few glances at the clumsy, poorly designed, and almost unreadable layout of the new system on Gawker, I fear that the concerns are legit this time around. Regardless of the content of the comments. This looks quite grim. Hope I'm wrong.

      Delete
    3. @Gamboa:

      Yeah, at this point the interface looks like a huge impediment. Admittedly, I don't really care about the Gawker comments, so I didn't spend a lot of time testing out the new system. I'd be much more apt to screw around with it on Deadspin. However, it seems to me that if your commenting system isn't capable of being grasped by the users almost instantaneously, it's a horrible interface. It's like having to think about how a door might open.

      Delete
    4. I like DS enough that I'm going to keep trying to make jokes and read the comments. For the most part a funny joke followed by a string of +1's will still be readable.

      But at most I'll be checking a post once or twice for jokes. No way am I going to click through 30 comments I've already read to get to a new comment.

      Also, I don't see how comedy pyramids or DUAN will work, unless everyone only replies to the very first commenter of the thread, so that there are no "sub-discussions."

      I hate to agree with Gamboa, but it does look grim.

      Delete
    5. I think if we were maintaining the same layout and merely switching away from a starred/approval system, there would still be tons of (justified, in my view) hand-wringing about the quality of the comments in general. But then, at least, we could scroll through the garbage and if the claims Denton makes about a personalized comment view are true (to say nothing of the hypocrisy there) we could potentially streamline the experience were we willing to do so.

      But the problem is the new layout requires you to read all of the comments if you want to read any of them. The previous iterations of PowWow were hopelessly broken, but even they had featured threads that were distinct from the rest of the dregs. Now we're going to have to literally click 50 times a post to even scan for all the jokes, which is going to totally suffocate the commenters, I think.

      Delete
    6. Since the whole Powwow conversion, I've not been to Gawker once, I'm only formulating a judgement based on what you guys have to say.

      Maybe if I wasn't banned by that prick Brian Moylan for implying that he should suck a homeless man's dick, I would have popped by to make a joke about Obama being muslim or something.

      Nonetheless, I think if enough of us give it an effort, it could work, but that's an effort from everybody, crossing the entire spectrum of the commentarial. If it's just myself and the other "you got your star because the site gets a tax break on starring retards" types, we're completely fucking fucked.

      Delete
    7. To Sad Guy's first point. Drew's post was "excellent"? Well, it was predictable, I'll give you that. It was witty, I suppose, if your idea of witty is recycling a homophobic trope that lost its humor and shock value in about 1995. It was inspired, the way a Rick Reilly column is inspired. But then again, I am a humorless asshole. Or as Drew would say, I'm "GAY".

      I'm not even a drew hater; his New York Times takedown yesterday was particularly inspired. But this article "wrote itself" a little too much in my opinion.

      Delete
    8. I've tried to go through the comments on Gawker and it's a complete cluster fuck. I doubt I'll be trying to navigate the comments on Deadspin that way. Too much of a hassle. But hey, if there's ads in the comment section, every time you all click through 30 of them, Denton is making money.

      Delete
  5. Anyone else planning big retirement comments now that Pow Wow is coming and it's a giant piece of shit that will make it impossible to follow the threads you want?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am. All clown question related material from here on out, as I pay homage to my final mention in the duds at MBA.

      Delete
  6. What is with the Blink 182 hate?
    Here's a story.
    I saw Blink 182 open for Less Than Jake in 1998.
    #1 I am old
    #2 My dog is named Jake

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm glad that due to my weak commenting as of late, my most prevalent contribution to Deadspin lately has been to unite several commenters together in Blink 182 hatred.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What's worse, is that you blamed someone else!
      "Were you aware Same Sad Echo declared war on Blink 182 fans?"

      Delete
    2. He did! SSE called ME out for promoting your Blink video.

      Hope this link works, since Deadspin is being weird about permalinking:

      Delete
    3. @RAC

      "Hope this link works..."

      Only if it was supposed to be a link to Raysism's Funny Joke Hall of Fame.

      Delete
    4. OK, that clearly didn't work.

      http://deadspin.com/5919763/deadspin-up-all-night-maybe-we-can-meet-after-the-jam?comment=50768981#comments

      And trying another link.

      Delete
    5. Yuni, RAC, please. I hate BOTH of you for liking that terrible terrible band.

      Delete
    6. This is so, so #inside baseball that I have nothing to respond with.
      Landy? Does Landy have a story about this?

      Delete
    7. Don't bother Raysism right now. He's busy working on my TV dance show.

      Delete
    8. About 10 years ago Blink was on tour with Green Day. My wife (then girlfriend) got tickets through work. The tix were in her employer's suite at US Airways Center. We went because she's a Green Day fan. A few notes on the show:
      - Green Day was fucking awesome! (Yay!!!)
      - Jimmy Eat World opened up and they were good too. (Yay!!!)
      - Blink followed Green Day and they were, without a doubt, the shittiest live act I've seen. And I've seen a drunk/high Adam Duritz fuck up a Counting Crows show. (Boo!!!)
      - The show was dry. I blame the decision to prohibit beer sales on the fact that the most Blink-182 fans in 2002 were between 14 and 19. (Boo!!!)
      When I started this thread I was ambivalent about Blink. Now that I've rehashed the past, fuck them in the ear!

      P.S.: In 2002, Fender's best selling model was the Mark Hoppus bass guitar. How fucked up was that?

      Delete
    9. You're not going to like tonight's comment.
      I saw Green Day once, at Warped Tour. Warped Tour is a frickin' rip off. It's expensive, hot, and the bands play for 20 minutes. Green Day played seven hits or so and then wandered off.
      Meanwhile, Colorado weather turned horrible. Rancid was up next. Their lead singer said "Are you ready to brave the elements with Rancid?" Punk rock idiots, we were. They ran off the stage a few moments later.

      Delete
  8. Serious question here- can anyone succinctly explain to me how the Powwow commenting works? I too have poked around Gawker and I don't think I fully grasp the stream of comments from vertical vs horizontal. Do you really have to just keep clicking away sideways to see all the comments?

    Are there any analytics describing how the commenting change has affected Gawker site traffic? If Gawker media is continuing to roll this out across all its sites, then it must be doing what they hoped it would.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have absolutely no understanding of it, so I can't help you with the first part of your question.

      However, based on a very quick glance of their monthly pageviews, it looks like there was a noticeable downturn in traffic in May, and it appears that June is also on pace to be slow.

      I just took this a step further, and decided to divide the total monthly pageviews by the number of days in each month, to get a better understanding of what they were seeing in terms of average daily pageviews on a monthly basis.

      Jan 2012: 520,975
      Feb: 535,322
      March: 523,089
      April: 507,729
      May: 450,060
      June (using data from the 1st-20th): 437,744

      I'm no statistical expert, but it seems like the trend is going in the wrong direction.

      Delete
    2. Interesting. Thanks for the numbers. I didn't realize they were available right on the Gawker site. I've never taken a statistics course, but I concur with your analysis of the trend. Of course, I'm sure they expected an initial downward trend and hope to recoup bigger and better numbers... or at least more ad revenue.

      Delete
    3. You would have to look at statistics compared to a year ago to get the proper prospective for those numbers, though. There are a myriad of external factors that could influence those numbers. Just by taking a quick look, I can probably tell you that the weather has an awful lot to do with the downturn from January to May.

      Delete
    4. "We have gone from the pipe dream of monetizing comments to monetizing office equipment and that microwave in the break room."

      Delete
    5. You're right.

      I don't know how to get those numbers though, and it's a Friday afternoon anyway, so I'm calling it a day here at Uninformed Metrics, Inc.

      Delete
  9. Universal Enveloping AlgebraJune 22, 2012 at 2:49 PM

    I think the following is accurate, but I might be totally wrong:

    Top-level comments are the first posts in a thread. So to change threads, you click the arrow on the top level.

    The second row of comments are those which are replies directly to the parent comment in the first row. The third row consists of replies to the second-row comment you're currently focused on, and so on.

    So, for example, a good joke will appear on the first row, and all of its +1s will be in the second row. Which means you'll have to scroll through all your +1s to verify that I've +1ed it, which is how you really know it was a good joke.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Universal Enveloping AlgebraJune 22, 2012 at 2:51 PM

      This was supposed to be a reply to Poignant Theater, who perhaps should not trust the guy who can't even figure out this much simpler commenting system.

      Delete
    2. So what you're saying is that I needn't worry about seeing a second row of comments once I start commenting on Powwow. Got it.

      Delete
    3. It just gets back to (that scumbag) RAC's point above: if your comment system needs this much explaining, you've failed.

      Delete