Monday, August 13, 2012

MKMOT (August 13, 2012)

Monday is often associated with the depression of returning to life's daily grind. But on the flip side, new start! You can take this week and do whatever you want with it! Lively, respectful debates! Civil discussions! Funny, non-malicious jokes! Recipe swaps! Toy/figurine inventory charts!!! Oh, the opportunities!

Consider this a chance to be born anew! Then, take a quick breath and start attacking each other like children. It's open.


44 comments:

  1. Drew's Why Your Team Sucks pieces are a great way to draw in new commentors (commenters?) who take things written on the internet way, way too seriously.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I've noticed that this year. It just makes me shake my head.

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    2. FIRST!1!!1!!!!

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    3. Those who take things written on the internet way too seriously are the people who buy Axe. +$1 Deadspin.

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    4. I think the worst thing is all the burners who like to tell the other burners how the deadspin comment section works.

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    5. Pre-Kinja, there was a lot of discussion about the likelihood that "drive by" commenters would actually contribute. Looking back on it, the types of emails that are normally seen only in Dead Letters are now what we have to deal with. The top post on the Saints feature is exactly the type of thing we used to see only in that feature. Now, it's just to be expected.

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  2. Commenter of the Year – Current Odds

    The following odds represent the likelihood that the commenter will be named one of the three commenters of the year for the calendar year 2012 by the comment faerie squadron, and does not represent a subjective determination of the quality and/or history of said commenter.

    Raysism: 2 to 3
    Steve U: 1 to 1
    Eddie Murray Sparkles: 3 to 2
    All Over But the Sharting: 5 to 2
    Gamboa Constrictor: 3 to 1
    Bring Back Anthony Mason: 5 to 1
    Same Sad Echo: 7 to 1
    RMJ=H: 8 to 1
    Sponsored by V8: 10 to 1
    TDK: 10 to 1
    IronMikeGallego: 25 to 1
    Mantis Toboggan, MD: 25 to 1
    Field (formerly starred): 30 to 1
    Field (not formerly starred): 100 to 1
    Field (burners): 10,000 to 1

    Comment of the Year – Current Odds

    The following odds represent the likelihood that the commenter will have a comment named one of the three comments of the year for the calendar year 2012 by the comment faerie squadron, and does not represent a subjective determination of the quality and/or history of said commenter.

    Gamboa Constrictor: 1 to 10
    TDK: 3 to 2
    David Hume: 3 to 1
    Raysism: 3 to 1
    Steve U: 3 to 1
    All Over But the Sharting: 3 to 1
    Bring Back Anthony Mason: 3 to 1
    Bevraj of Choice: 4 to 1
    BronzeHammer: 4 to 1
    Same Sad Echo: 4 to 1
    Eddie Murray Sparkles: 5 to 1
    SavetoFavorites: 4 to 1
    Clinton Portishead: 5 to 1
    Lionel Osbourne: 5 to 1
    Mantis Toboggan, MD: 8 to 1
    Madoff’s Mets: 30 to 1
    Field (formerly starred): 10 to 1
    Field (not formerly starred): 75 to 1
    Field (burners): 10,000 to 1


    Deadspin Actually Naming a Commnenter/Comment of the Year – Current Odds

    The following odds represent the likelihood that Deadspin will actually name one or more commenters and or comments as COTYs.

    1,000 to 1.

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    Replies
    1. I don't know about all this, but it should be pointed out that Jimmy the Greek has a predisposed bias in favor of Raysism.

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    2. The girl next to me also doubts that there will be any sort of a celebration of worthwhile "conversations." Bummer.

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  3. /Naps
    //Is awoken by phone call

    Oh, hey! No, no, I was awake. Okay. I'll get right on it.

    /Returns to nap

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  4. This post from Erg yesterday is spot on:

    Erg
    August 12, 2012 11:07 AM

    @Kinjatechs

    Your latest 'improvement' where the scrolling sidebar on the right positions itself at whatever story you select with a 'NEWER STORIES...' link at the top that you have to actually click on if you want to see the new stories must be a bug. Surely you did not intend to create something that requires viewers to make unnecessary c.........

    Nevermind


    Really, is Gawker Media just trying to troll their own commentariat? They can hide behind some crap about Kinja being an idealized format for "discussion", but there is no justification at all for this new format change other than increasing clicks. This defies all logic and only serves to make the website less navigable and user-friendly. Now, even the simple process of spending Monday morning looking back on DS and Gawker articles that I missed this weekend is unbearably frustrating. Nick Denton is the ultimate burner, trolling his own readers to see how much they can take before they detonate... or just walk away.

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    1. Hey,

      Just, to clarify: that weird scrolling thing is a glitch. I'm told it should be resolved at some point today. I'm not a tech guy, but I do recall throughout the various redesigns, weird glitchy stuff happened. This is that.

      And now, for probably the millionth time, Kinja has absolutely nothing to do with "clicks" and pageviews are largely irrelevant. Unique users--people who have come to the site for the first time--are what is valued most and so designing a system that keeps track of and exploits the exact opposite kind of metric you are concerned with doesn't make a whole lot of sense. ("But neither does Kinja!" - Well played.)

      I don't know Nick Denton from Adam, but really, Kinja is not some kind of moneygrab to cook the books, so to speak. It's a way of presenting content and comments in a different way, one designed to promote more interaction with the goal being a shift in the way people consume their news. That's the justification. Or at the very least, that is a justification that makes one million times more sense than "clicks."

      I promise, promise, promise you it has nothing to do with pageviews. I am fairly obsessed with keeping track of how I've done each week/month and I never, ever look at pageviews. Ever. It's meaningless.

      -Sean

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    2. Just because I find the revolutionary journalism aspect of Kinja too ridiculous to swallow (billionaires don't become billionaires pissing into the wind with silly ass ideas), let me ask people who know things about things this:

      Since the goal is unique users, does the transition to a Twitter/Facebook/Burner log-in inflate those statistics at all? For instance, if I log-in through Twitter, and my Twitter.com log-in cookie is used to verify that I am BronzeHammer, and every time I click Deadspin.com, the same thing happens, maybe that's more unique users? And I don't know how Burners work, but maybe the agreement is that no cookies are saved, preserving your anonymity and goosing Unique counts whenever you return?

      I respect you, Sean, for explaining what's happening and all, but this has to be motivated by money in some sense. It's a business. I'm not even being cynical about it. Obviously he thinks in the long term, he's going to lease out Kinja or his new system will attract tons of new readers or whatever, I just wonder what he's doing to pay the bills in the short term.

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    3. [takes off tin foil suit of armor]

      As always, thanks for the info from inside, Sean-mac.
      It is a relief to hear that this is a glitch. For the most part, I have tried to stay out of the Kinja bitch-fest, but after this latest "glitch", I found it difficult to believe that somehow clicks weren't valued metrics from the new system as this glitch again pushed towards more and more, well, clicking. Since this glitch will be fixed, I will momentarily hold off on my Denton conspiracy theories.
      For whatever it's worth, as a guy who pretty much reads every DS post, I enjoy your work on the weekends (and that's much more important than pageviews or unique visitors, right??). Wish I could comment, but weekends are generally impossible with the family responsibilities. Ergo, I catch up on the weekend stuff on Monday morning, which led to the frustrated post above.

      [puts tin foil cod piece back on]

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    4. My understanding is the switch to facebook/twitter was more to do with security tracing back to the gawker hacking a while back. Basically, Gawker is no longer in charge of and responsible for our security/passwords/etc.

      http://help.gawker.com/entries/21273032-what-is-a-burner-account
      http://help.gawker.com/entries/21273222-what-happens-to-my-burner-account-if-i-clear-browser-cookies

      Burners are given unique keys to sign in with and if they clear their cookies, they must remember that key or they have to set up a new burner. I don't know how this works since I've never set up a burner account, but I imagine it's much like entering a username and password which your browser can save for you, so while it remains anonymous, I do not think it would effect uniques any more than if you or I cleared our cookies.

      I don't doubt that there is a business reason for the change, but it's not because he wanted to make people click around a bunch to increase stats. I used the revolutionary example because 1.) that's what Denton has said and 2.) even if it is totally absurd, it's still more plausible than the clicks/pageviews conspiracy theory.

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    5. Hey PT,

      No worries, and thanks for the kind words (much better than pageviews and uniques). I didn't mean to come off like a dick to you in particular, I just know this is a popular theory among a lot of people and it's just not the case and you provided me the opportunity.

      As for the kinja bashing, I think everyone understands. There's no denying thatit's frustrating. But it's also frustrating I know for the main guys to have the long time commenters thinking some sort of nefarious monetizing conspiracy is going on.

      It's just a new commenting system. One that, while maybe clunky right now, and definitely more open than before, is continually changing and being tweaked.

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    6. @Sean:

      As I understand it, the switch to Kinja was designed for the sole purpose of murdering orphans. On a scale of true to very true, how true is this?

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    7. @Sean

      Didn't mean to impugn your use of the revolutionary line of reasoning - I've heard him say that as well. I just meant that we can probably infer that since that's clearly not working, there's got to be some other motive. At least as long as the orphans are alive.

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    8. http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/05/22/how-gawker-wants-to-monetize-comments/

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    9. No offense taken, just explaining why I initially used it. It really is less absurd than the prevailing theory floating around.

      Though if he really is the ego maniac he's painted as, why wouldn't he want to be known as the guy who changed the internet, basically? Seems like the kind of money pit a wealthy egomaniac might look into.

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    10. Guy,

      Yeah I got that memo, too. Weekend guy is pretty glamorous. Anyway, that is literally years away, and as your article notes, on sponsored posts. Do you comment on sponsored posts now?

      Also, that article, written in May, already discusses an iteration of the new commenting system that is drastically different than what we have today, less than three months later.

      Delete
    11. Well if two things are frustrating, they must be equally frustrating!

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    12. Guy Whose Feet Are Soaking In The Puddle Of Sarcasm And Contempt Dripping From The FollowingAugust 13, 2012 at 3:21 PM

      Fear not, Math is Hard: Sean may be many things, but one thing he's not is stupid enough to suggest that the frustrations of a bunch of anonymous internet weenies who've got their panties all bunched up because some guy changed the rules for posting anonymous comments on a blog are anything other than piddling and bottomlessly fucking irrelevant compared to the frustrations of professionals whose work is being overshadowed by the controversy generated by a change to the nigh-irrelevant sidebar comment section of their publication, and whose work and motives are being carelessly and recklessly trashed by a bunch of anonymous internet weenies who have their panties all bunched up because some guy changed the rules for posting anonymous comments on a blog.

      Sean would never say that. Because that would be stupid.

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    13. @Sean-mac,

      Quick question (if you're still around),

      You mentioned that you don't know Denton from Adam, but I was wondering if he has been reaching out to any of the writers for their opinions on Kinja. He seems pretty stuck on the idea that it will be/is a success because he forsees commenters in discourse directily with sources and authors (he said as much to Sweating Mullets.

      Is he sctively seeking out opinions from the authors and sources to see how this is working out, or is he simply assuming it's going okay? He seemed generally taken aback by Mr. Mullet's gerivances.

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    14. Yeah, always remember:

      Writers/Editors on a sports dicks blog: accomplished professionals

      Adults with non-writing/editing jobs making comments on said blog: anonymous weenies

      Got it. [condescending wanking motion]

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    15. I'm not really sure, to be honest. I mean, I'm sure he had no idea who I am and has definitely not asked me personally my thoughts on Kinja. As for the full-timers, I work off-site (read: from my couch) so I don't really know what goes down in Gawker HQ, I'm pretty far removed from all of that.

      He does send out tips, suggestions, encouragements, directives, etc on how to best utilize the system though.

      Delete
  5. Drew,

    Now I thought your previous articles were well written, well researched, and hysterical, but I never thought for one second your series of football columns, which already include over half the league, would ever include my favorite team. I have a bone to pick with you! Are you even from New Orleans?!? I bet not! Because only if you lived here would you be able to blindly love this team without being objective. Drew Brees is A SAINT!! You suck as a writer, that's probably why you write on a stupid blog (which I read everyday). No one takes you seriously and would never get upset enough to write a long rant about your column. I'm never reading these lame ass articles again (until you write another funny one about a team that's not the Saints).

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  6. Deadspin Pacer of PostsAugust 13, 2012 at 12:29 PM

    Hold! HOLD!! Wait for it! STEADY! On my signal!

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  7. There's no way for us to make the burners go away or comment better, or whatever. But I think pretty much everyone agrees that replying to them, even dismissively, implies that Deadspin is a place to argue and yell and muck everything up, moves their comments up the Kinja ladder, and makes everything way worse.

    That said, I have been replying to people who reply to me, and then sometimes dismissing the thread anyway. I don't like being shit on.

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  8. Roy Hibbert.

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  9. Fair enough.

    On another note, has anybody else noticed that the quality of the site has dropped exponentially? Gone are the days of a piece Luke O'Brien slaved-over for months or the occasional bit where Craggs and even Barry were allowed to run an scathing editiorial. Fuck, I'd kill for an article by Emma showcasing inner-city basketball camps or even all those fatty juggaloos. Now, it seems as if Denton's efforts towards change have altered more than the comments section, rather a whole change of direction towards sensationalist garbage and filler pieces.

    By no means am I saying I don't enjoy the work of Sean, Burke, T. Ley and others, it's just that my concern is that the site is being transformed into a medium for solely producing the most page views or whatever the IT lingo is (Erg,help a brother out here).

    Does Craggs even work there anymore? Surely there is not enough work to go around the requires the supervising of Craggs, Scocca and Dom? Is there something I'm failing to understand?

    Let's talk Deadspin.

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  10. Whewwwwwww....woah...oh god. Bad idea. I'm gonna be a while in here. Ugh.

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  11. Um did you miss the riveting piece on the girls gymnist who said something that almost sounded like tampon? Or how about the exposé on the rower who might have had a boner? I understand people have issues about the comment system, but the content is not in question.

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  12. Yes, look at today's powerhouse display of journalism. In fact, to bitch about this same thing is why I ventured over here in the first place.

    What exactly, are the editors editing? They've got more editors on staff than they have writers (and than they have posts up today.)

    I'm sensing an impending mass exodus by Tommy, Barry, etc.

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  13. Sorry Rover! Wanna go visit old man Rogers? Maybe swim in his pool? Yes you do, such a good boy!

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  14. BREAKING: SOMEBODY TWERTED SOMETHIN FUNNY

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  15. @Mav that's the third or fourth time I've seen speculation that Barry and/or Tommy are unhappy with the site's direction, and that just seems totally detached to me. While I'm sure neither is thrilled with the number of uninteresting mouth breathers who took up residence in the comments, why would you assume that is any sort of significant factor in their general happiness with the job. I know we all think we're really important but 90% of the readership doesn't know we exist. They're coming to Spin for a different take than ESPN and a less inane take than Bleacher Report.

    I haven't asked Tommy or Barry, but I assume if either of them is looking for a new gig, it has nothing to do with Kinja. I sure hope it doesn't, because there's still no better comment section out there, even of we're no longer light years ahead of the competition.

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  16. @IMG I wasn't referencing the comments. Which I'm sure has less than 0% to do with their career choices but more of the site's general direction and the content being produced.

    Site seems to be adrift and stuck in some sort of identity crisis. Like they can't quite figure out how to balance pageviews vs the quality picking their spots hard-hitting journalism (like we got with the baseball finances) In sort, everything, save for Barry's writing, seems to be sort of half-assed lately.

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  17. What? There's a commenting competition? I better start training!

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  18. The best part of allowing every moron who knows how to turn on a computer into Deadspin commenting is the constant, very constructive and helpful criticisms of the writers. Newell got it last night, and it's happening more and more. Thankfully these patrollers of the internet, who I'm guessing 99.7 percent of whom don't write for a living, are around to point out mistakes and fill the comments with helpful tips on how to write!

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