Dvorak Admits To Trolling Mac Users

jalefkowit writes "Tech pundit John Dvorak has long been known for his inflammatory opinions. Many have suspected that these opinions are just a way to drive up traffic to his column. Now, we have it straight from the horse's mouth: Dave Winer has Dvorak on video describing his methodology for trolling the Mac community to pump up his stats." I have to admit I'm also guilty of posting the occasional inflammatory story, but I find it's usually best to suffix the title with a question mark, and let our ever-knowledgeable readers hash out the issue and decide for themselves.

Comments

Re:Trolling the Mac community?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Mac sites are up in arms, with commentors demanding that PC Magazine pull their columnist because he has no integrity. I don't know why anybody ever takes Dvorak seriously. If you don't, you'll see that he can actually be pretty entertaining.

Too bad Apple does not include a sense of humor with iLife. Even now when Dvorak's let us all in on the joke, they still don't get it.

Re:I've said it before

[telbij]

We used to be able to pretend it was the editors foisting him upon us... but lo' and behold, democratic Digg comes along, and he still makes the front page!

No, this is backwards. The unwashed masses will never be collectively smart enough to distinguish a troll, statistical certainty and all that. This is the purpose of editorial control, to go beyond the bell curve. Dvorak can be kept off /. All that we need is to convince the few editors that he is, in fact, a full-time troll, And that his rantings do not deserve a place on the front page because they are neither news, nor are they 'stuff that matters'. Unfortunately I think a successful troll is just as good for /. as it is for Dvorak's employers, so there's little incentive for them to change. We can always dream though.

Trolling Nothing New

[PhreakinPenguin]

Trolling is nothing new especially when you look right here on Slashdot every day. What gets Slashdot the most pageviews? Stories about Microsoft. The anti MS people comment like crazy while the pro MS people do the same. I swear there could be a story about finding a cure for cancer above a story about Microsoft and the Microsoft story would have more comments.

Re:Trolling Nothing New

[joe 155]

in all fairness there is very little to say about a cure for cancer if it turns out to be true other than "good. glad we figured this one out" - it hardly makes for interesting comments. Now a good ol' troll on MS can lead to thousands of opinions and is really the basis of pretty much all tech discussions... which is why we find it so easy to talk about

Re:Trolling?

[Handover Phist]

Thank god us Linux users dont have to put up with that sort of thing!

Re:I've said it before

[sphealey]

Dvorak writes a lot of different stuff, including some real journalism and technology analysis. But his best known work, and that which I am sure earns him his bread-and-butter, is technology gossip. Like every gossip column ever written since the first traveling minstrel appeared on the scene 30,000 years ago, Dvoark's gossip columns consist of a mixture of truth, exaggeration, spin (whether planted by the technology companies or generated by Dvorak himself), trolling, and some totally made-up stuff.

For example, Dvorak has been trying to force the monitor companies to bring new technologies to market for at least the last 20 years. That is why he hypes-Hypes-HYPES any rumour of a new display technoloy (seen that 300 dpi Texas Instruments display he reported "almost ready for production" in 1995 yet?). 40% truth, 40% exaggeration, 20% Dvorak-generated spin.

But as I said, that is how gossip columns of any kind work. Don't like it, don't read it.

sPh

Interesting ...

[khasim]

Others might call it trolling but if you call it "catering to your market" it's a great way to make moniey.

Interesting. You know another way to make "moniey"? Have sex with strangers who will pay you.

Now ... if only there was a word for the kind of person who does that.

What's the right course of action

[suv4x4]

Reporters are not supposed to troll, they are supposed to at least believe what they say is correct (even if it's not).

When John Dvorak writes his typical troll stories, potentially millions of people not familiar with the phenomenon John Dvorak take the article at face value and form opinion of people and products that affect their purchase choice and they also share the misinformation with other people.

Tell a lie enough times, and it stops being a lie in people's minds.

So are "Mac zealots" to be mocked about reacting strongly to lies spread in the media, or should the liears not exist in first place?

It's not so funny that media use misinformation just to drive ad impressions up. That's really low of them.

Mac Users Admit To Ignoring Dvorak

[DaddyBird]

editing: "Tech pundit John Dvorak has long been known for his lame and baseless opinions."
... and generating traffic from Mac and PC users as vacuous as he is.

If Slashdot didn't occasionally regurgitate his vapor I wouldn't know that he was still around.

And in other news, Dvorak discovers meta-trolling.

[porkchop_d_clown]

I wonder how many hits his site will get as people visit just to complain about the movie?

Re:Trolling the Mac community?

[fbg111]

If you don't, you'll see that he can actually be pretty entertaining.

Or you'll realize that time and life are precious, and reading Dvorak is a complete waste of both.

Re:Overtonnage Overkillers

[NeutronCowboy]

You're making my point for me. A) he's a comedian. Like George Carlin or Carlos Mencia, they overstate their case to make a point. They know it's preposterous, we know it's preposterous, and we laugh about it. B) If you compare his political diatribes with the speeches of some (elected) European politicians, he actually comes across of fairly center.

The fact that you bring him up as a possible counter troll to Ann Coulter shows just how far on the right the US sits.