Slashdot Mirror

You decide which is more appropriate:

The Gluetrain Manifesto.

See here.

Gluetrain had it figured out before Cluetrain did.

Signal 11 wrote: "When was the last time slashdot posted a BAD book review? I mean, comeon.. most sites that do this kind of thing have both good and bad reviews... like movie critics. When are we going to see a "zero star" on slashdot - something so god-awfully bad you want to go read it just to see how bad gets (the same affliction that made me see Army of Darkness three times *g*)."

a) send in your acerbic, laughter-inducing, wince-worthy book reviews, and they may run =) The problem is that sometimes folks who do negative reviews get a kick more out of playing the dozens then actually addressing the points in the books they pan, even if they really are genuinely bad. Take Cluetrain -- it's a well-intentioned book that probably does as good a job or better than any other at speaking to buzzword-addicted business types who want to understand what the Web actually means to them, or ought to. But it'd be pretty easy to make fun of -- it's got some lines which lend themselves to parody. A lot of the comments on the review of that book do just that. My brother once wrote on the back of a zine (I don't know whether he made it up) "Unfounded cynicism is the deepest form of naivete."

b) As a lot of other posters have pointed out, reviews on Slashdot are not generally there just to fill a "Oh, we gotta have a review" time slot -- more that a reviewer wants to let others in on a book he or she enjoyed. There are some out of print or otherwise overlooked books which surely deserve review, that their memes not dissappear.

timothy

Nobody but boys in junior high school and yourself would go by the name "Rageboy". From a middle-aged man, that's just pathetic. You and the Cluetrain are the perfect example of smug platitudes covering up a lack of substance. No wonder you're so popular with PHB's.

This seems a perfect place to plead guilty to all the charges that have been leveled here. speaking strictly for myself and not my co-authors, I take this opportunity (and what a relief it is to finally come clean!) to admit to being everything everyone has said. It's all true. I'm boring. I'm a communist. I'm a drug-addled hippy. I pander to suits. I'm naive. I desperately want to control your thinking. More than that, I'm a secret agent for the NSA. I have a side deal going with Microsoft to destroy the Internet. I once kicked Little Elian Gonzalez's adorable furry puppy.

As a card-carrying anarchist, I love the mayhem and disinfotainment going on here with respect to the book. Gluetrain is excellent, yes. Pouring hot grits down your pants: highly recommended. But my favorite has been "I'm fed up with being told what to think (Score:4, Insightful)" -- which begins: "Whilst I'm sure this is an interesting book..." I translate this as meaning: "Although I haven't actually read the book, that's not going to stop me from telling you what to think about it." (btw, "whilst" -- nice touch!) That this spew about "communist ideals" and (far worse) "paradigm shifts" would be considered insightful begs the question of what passes for insight these latter days. but everyone's entitled to an opinion, right? here's mine: learn to read, bunky.

forgive me for saying this, but the detractors here have been so pedestrian! surely this group is bright enough to do better. for a real slash-and-burn job on the manifesto, see my own review: Clues You Can Lose.

anyway, great fun to read this stuff. allow me to leave you with one quote from the book, which /. itself proves so well: "Armed only with imagination, we're gonna rip the fucking lid off. There's your market."

thank you,

Dale Carnegie
EGR
Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices

The Glue Train Manifesto

A movement so unabashedly full of itself deserves a good parody....and here it is:

The Gluetrain Manifesto