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It's Not News, It's Fark
"In It's Not News, It's Fark, Drew Curtis takes a critical look at the mass media. He promises to examine why the news is often not news at all, to look at the fear mongering, the cyclical nature of the news and the fluff that is passed off as important. Drew breaks down these not-news stories into 8 separate categories and gives examples, along with user comments from Fark. Unfortunately, 230 of the books 278 pages (including the index) are used for these examples. What time is spent talking about the media and the advertisement model it is built on, is insightful a bit cynical and very brief." Read below for the rest of the review.
It's Not News, It's Fark How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News
author
Drew Curtis
pages
278
publisher
Gotham Books
rating
6
reviewer
Robert Rozeboom
ISBN
978-1-592-40291-5
summary
A look at why the mass media puts out so many stories that aren't really news.
The book starts off with a brief Fark history lesson. What Drew did before Fark. Its first incarnation and how it got to be what it is today. The author then gives us an outline of the different types of news stories that he considers not newsworthy. Drew points out that since most news is brought to you by an entity that makes its money selling ads, the more eyes watching those ads the better. History has shown that nothing attracts eyes like fluff, fear and stretching the truth. There is a reason why there are so many tabloids in the checkout lane.
The first type of news story Drew covers is what he calls, 'Media Fearmongering'. Everything from finding bacteria on your keyboard, terrorists in your home town to animal attacks. This is the most easily recognized type of non-story.
We then move on to, 'Unpaid Placement Masquerading as Actual Article'. This includes most surveys, new words in the dictionary and all things publicity stunt related. Everything you'd read in the 'Lifestyles' section of the newspaper.
Next is, 'Headline Contradicted by Actual Article'. Misleading headlines to outright lies are addressed. Drew makes the point here that the people who run these stories often realize that they are misleading at best but know that they will generate traffic.
'Equal Time for Nutjobs' covers Noah's ark being discovered, conspiracy theories and a guy who thinks the garden of Eden and Atlantis are in Florida. The crazier the claim the better.
Then we have 'The Out-of-context Celebrity Comment'. Why do we care what someone who pretends to be someone else for a living, has to say about Nuclear proliferation? Who knows but we sure do.
Drew next looks at 'Seasonal Articles' . The amount of money lost due to a fall in productivity because of the Super Bowl, inspecting your Halloween candy, and traffic spikes during holiday weekends. All of these stories should look familiar.
The next chapter is, 'Media Fatigue'. How do you know when a big story has just about run its course? Wait for the stories about whether or not the media has given it enough attention or if they've gone too far.
'Lesser Media Space Fillers' covers everything that couldn't fit into one of the other categories as well as some of Drew's personal observations of what type of stories tend to get the most coverage.
Each one of the chapters has a collection of Fark comments after every example story. The comments seem to be chosen at random and are frankly extraneous. The only reason I can think of to include them is that someone in marketing wanted to tie the book more closely to Fark.
The final chapter of the book is by far the most interesting to read and only 14 pages long. This is the wrap up of the problem as Drew sees it and what he thinks the mass media should be doing instead. His ideas are well reasoned and in my opinion spot on. As long as the media is driven by advertising they will walk the line of responsible, informative journalism and outrageousness as close to outrageousness as they can and still be taken seriously by a majority of consumers.
My criticism of this book is that almost the whole thing is just a list of Fark stories. If you've read Fark you've read 90% of this book. It would have been more interesting if the book was an actual discussion of the shortcomings of the mass media, why it is in the place it's in and what could be done to change it. Those topics are covered but in such a brief way that they almost seem like an afterthought.
If you like reading Fark and for some reason you want to read a collection of Fark stories and a few comments in a non-computer screen format you will love this book. If you want to read about how the mass media works and some thoughts on how it could be better you'll love 50 pages of this book.
You can purchase It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
The first type of news story Drew covers is what he calls, 'Media Fearmongering'. Everything from finding bacteria on your keyboard, terrorists in your home town to animal attacks. This is the most easily recognized type of non-story.
We then move on to, 'Unpaid Placement Masquerading as Actual Article'. This includes most surveys, new words in the dictionary and all things publicity stunt related. Everything you'd read in the 'Lifestyles' section of the newspaper.
Next is, 'Headline Contradicted by Actual Article'. Misleading headlines to outright lies are addressed. Drew makes the point here that the people who run these stories often realize that they are misleading at best but know that they will generate traffic.
'Equal Time for Nutjobs' covers Noah's ark being discovered, conspiracy theories and a guy who thinks the garden of Eden and Atlantis are in Florida. The crazier the claim the better.
Then we have 'The Out-of-context Celebrity Comment'. Why do we care what someone who pretends to be someone else for a living, has to say about Nuclear proliferation? Who knows but we sure do.
Drew next looks at 'Seasonal Articles' . The amount of money lost due to a fall in productivity because of the Super Bowl, inspecting your Halloween candy, and traffic spikes during holiday weekends. All of these stories should look familiar.
The next chapter is, 'Media Fatigue'. How do you know when a big story has just about run its course? Wait for the stories about whether or not the media has given it enough attention or if they've gone too far.
'Lesser Media Space Fillers' covers everything that couldn't fit into one of the other categories as well as some of Drew's personal observations of what type of stories tend to get the most coverage.
Each one of the chapters has a collection of Fark comments after every example story. The comments seem to be chosen at random and are frankly extraneous. The only reason I can think of to include them is that someone in marketing wanted to tie the book more closely to Fark.
The final chapter of the book is by far the most interesting to read and only 14 pages long. This is the wrap up of the problem as Drew sees it and what he thinks the mass media should be doing instead. His ideas are well reasoned and in my opinion spot on. As long as the media is driven by advertising they will walk the line of responsible, informative journalism and outrageousness as close to outrageousness as they can and still be taken seriously by a majority of consumers.
My criticism of this book is that almost the whole thing is just a list of Fark stories. If you've read Fark you've read 90% of this book. It would have been more interesting if the book was an actual discussion of the shortcomings of the mass media, why it is in the place it's in and what could be done to change it. Those topics are covered but in such a brief way that they almost seem like an afterthought.
If you like reading Fark and for some reason you want to read a collection of Fark stories and a few comments in a non-computer screen format you will love this book. If you want to read about how the mass media works and some thoughts on how it could be better you'll love 50 pages of this book.
You can purchase It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
It's a trap!
...it's a revenue stream.
I like Fark and all, but it's getting a little ridiculous lately, especially with the changing away from the old days of naughtiness that alas, are gone...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
>"it would have been more interesting if the book was an actual discussion of the shortcomings of the mass media, why it is in the place it's in and what could be done to change it. Those topics are covered but in such a brief way that they almost seem like an afterthought."
Then again, if you were really looking for an insightful analysis of centralized media, maybe your time would have been better spent reading Marshall McLuhan or Noam Chomsky than Drew Curtis.
Just a passing thought...
It's Slashdot!
is that almost the whole thing is just a list of Fark stories. "
You'll get over it.
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
So, the BBC are good journalists?
It's Slashdot.
This is a sig. It is like every other sig in the world, except that it is mine, and it is different.
Does anybody actually edit or proof these book "reviews", or do the "editors" just copy and paste it from their inbox? Seriously, the opening three lines are so stilted and crap that no proper editor would accept this review. Couple that with the traditional "it's" screwup and I didn't want to read any further.
But I did. And lo and behold it's a typical Slashdot "review", consisting of ten paragraphs summarizing each chapter individually followed with "I thought this book sucked/ruled because...". My criticism of this "review" is that almost the whole thing is just a list of the chapters.
If this was a book review for an elementary class you might slide by with a B, but otherwise you get a D.
Although it's rare for a first post to be on topic, this one is. "It's a trap!" refers to the statement made by Admiral Akbar in Star Wars and is a catchphrase often employed on Fark.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
Quick! We must continue the cycle. Someone Digg this article, then get that as a link on the main page of Fark. Or add reddit into the mix as well.
AccountKiller
Noam Chomsky's "Necessary Illusions" has a very good look at why US news media is practically useless.
Short version: the media companies have trained themselves to avoid conflict with the powers that be. The powers that be hardly need to come down on media anymore. These days if you see a news story regarding the powers that be coming down on the media - it's fluff.
Long version: it's Chomsky - you'll have to read it for yourself. Unless anyone else wants to elaborate...
All else is publicity.
It's a big issue, ignoring this commercial for "Fark" (which I hadn't heard mentioned in years). There are very few US newspapers left with much news. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are about it.
The San Jose Mercury News used to be one of the last remaining local papers with real reporting, but since Knight-Ridder sold it to some suburban throwaway publisher, it's had very little real content. Most of the reporters are gone.
The real test is this: did the story originate with a press release or a press conference? If it did, it's publicity. Take a printed newspaper and mark the non-wire-service ads for which this is not the case. There won't be many such stories. In some papers, there won't be any.
I stopped reading Fark after they started censoring *that* special number. Plus they took away boobies links and seemed to start removing any image that showed more than an inch of female cleavage.
/.
It used to be a fun low IQ flamewar filled insight into the minds of folks who would argue the relative hotness and sharp-kneed attributes of any female media celebrity. Some of the threads were freaking hilarious and definitely made my difficult work days a little easier.
In my opinion Fark has made some terrible decisions lately: Fark "TV", terrible redesign without any user feedback, increasing censorship and more paid links. I hated the decision, but it's gone from my bookmarks.
Makes me remember my love for
----- Documentation is worth it just to be able to answer all your mail with 'RTFM' - Alan Cox.
What with the new look that everyone hates, moderation up the wazoo, ever oppressive naughty word filters and sponsored links. Looks to be like ol Drunk Drew is getting ready to sell out, cash in, and drink up.
I work for Drew Curtis Presents Fark.com, so I am really getting a kick out of most of these replies.
Some of you guys are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about. But trust me.... You don't. I think you just want to make yourself sound smart, when in reality you don't know what you are talking about. This is how bad info gets passed around. If you don't know about the topic....Don't make yourself sound like you do. Cuz some slashdotters believe anything they hear.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Is this book a clever ruse for the internet predators to sneak in and rape your children? The answer may surprise you. Buy this book and find out.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
In the meantime, I'll be avoiding clicking on Rugbyjock's entries.
I can see the fnords!
. . . who has never even heard of Fark?
I'm off to look for it right now . . . .
"Who knows but we sure do. "
Thats from the article. I had to think about that one for a few minutes.
...and someone would spend good money on this because?
I'm thinking of just blocking out the SlashDot reviews; I've been on here for the better part of a decade and still haven't been moved to read, much less buy, any of the crappy, non-searchable dead tree products SlashDot shills for in this category.
It's BanniNation Formed by a number of posters from fark who had finally had it with the way Drew runs Fark. It's a user-moderated fark-ish site, and IMO, has a much better community feel than fark does. It's nice being able to discuss a topic without worrying about the banstick coming down on your head.
I was an avid Fark user since 2001. I will no longer even hit the front page, as they have neutered Fark and alienated many of their loyal readers by instituting a new ban system without informing people what it was. Pictures that were *always* considered "safe for work" (such as the attention whore girl, are now deemed NSFW, and posters are banned without explanation. As one poster here has already mentioned the whole "you'll get over it" redesign was a bit of an odd approach, but I could live with that, what I cannot live with is the extra crappy censorship they have rolled out. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, as I loved visiting the site because it was a small bastion of free speech. Now they have chosen to eliminate that, fuck 'em.......
I like the topic, too bad the book doesn't seem worth anything. I started out as a Journalism major and after 2 years of that I realized how I was rewarded (straight A's) for writing BS papers 30 minutes before class that I knew were completely wrong and morally disagreeable. (I switched to CS after I realized what a joke the journalism field was.) As long as you are citing someone else for reference you can selectively choose anything to make such a bias "news" piece that it will be publically acceptable. General media isn't geared to inform objectively anymore. Capping newspapers to 8th grade reading level, selectively chosing sources, and lazy investigations about one side of the story because it's more accessible is a serious downfall. Don't even get me started on television news, somehow 30 minutes of random sound clips and bad b-roll keeps me informed? I don't think so. /.ers, is a combination of zero accountability (mods), and crappy moderators when they are in place. I have a choice in which bias opinion I watch, I don't have a location to form my own opinion without a lot more work. Add to that the network ratings are counted in thousands and a single letter coming in to the news station from a field expert telling them they don't know jack... there doesn't seem to be any insentive to even make a correction these days.
Does anyone know of accountability actions for bad/misinformed/misleading journalism?
The problem that I see in the media, that hits home to most
But Al Gore's "Assault On Reason" explores this in the first chapter. The rest of his book is, of course, a political piece on the Bush administration. But, to be fair, he doesn't give them any criticism they don't deserve. Anyway, the first chapter explores why the current news media has gotten the country in the mess it is in and the last chapter provides some hope for the future.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Plus they took away boobies links and seemed to start removing any image that showed more than an inch of female cleavage.
There's a special site dedicated for fark porn. foobies.com. All the news that's fit to masturbate to.
Chomsky isn't a communist, he's an anarchist, as he's said numerous times.
And he's still smarter and better informed than any right winger.
"May your footsteps be deep in the sand of eternity"
Or something like that.
anyone with an above average IQ can spot the bias and non-news items pretending to be the news.
At Uncyclopedia, we bring you UnNews that parodies real news to show how fake the real news companies have become. UnNews is your up to the minute source of news misinformation.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Boobies links were often the best threads. Now only TFers can comment on the threads. Once a day there would be a good thread "She's too fat" "She needs a sammich" going back and forth with everyone posting photos (or links to photos) of someone who they thought was hotter.
I still read fark daily for news, but lately it has felt completely sold out.
1) Censoring of a NUMBER. I even posted a huge base-10 number created by me pounding the keypad... it was deleted.
2) Censoring of boobies in threads. There was a recent article ABOUT cleavage and some mod went all "OMG NO BOOBS IN THREADS" on the thread. If you're browsing Fark at work then you should know a thread about breasts is going to have pictures of breasts. I have "Images like Opera" installed and have it not display any images on sites originating at forums.fark.com.
3) The new layout SUCKS. Slashdot, when they went CSS, did it tactfully, I'll notice more features and slicker integration as time goes on. Fark threw all UI logic out the window. Thankfully there is greasemonkey.
You're right, fark sucks now. But what else are you going to do? It's still the best place to get "weird" news.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
"Chomsky describes himself as a "a libertarian socialist", whatever that means."
Libertarian Socialist
The libertarian solution to the failures of capitalism is to apply more capitalism til the failures are fixed.
The sad part is this ignorant nonsense gets modded "insightful". When it comes to mass media newspapers nothing significant has changed in well over a century.
Your complaints about the media show you to be no better than Joe Sixpack - the only significant difference is the source of the words you choose to parrot without understanding. Before complaining about how the modern media has failed - you'd do well to contemplate how you have failed yourself by merely repeating the complaint of others and in not knowing anything about the history of mass media.
Personal preference, I guess. Change is hard, but I'll bet you get used to the new layout over time. The old layout was pretty bad, too -- we forget how bad something is once we get used to it. And, as you say, there's always greasemonkey, so you should complain too much.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
We formed bannination.com where we can have lots of naughtiness and moderate ourselves instead of having someone making all the calls.
My and a couple of friends set up bannination.com - it's less than a month old but coming along nicely.
There's at least one alternative.
Here in Portland, Oregon, I suppose our "news" presenters are no less vacuum-headed than those in other cities, and the stories which are presented as news are probably no worse. However...
Some years back one of our local channels presented a story about health advantages of folic acid. After the film clip and cut back to the studio, one of the "newspeople" added that if people were concerned and wanted to increase their folic acid intake, macaroni has more folic acid than almost any other vegetable.
Does anyone ever actually read these "book review" "comments", or just copy and paste it from the last book review article? Seriously, the whole comment is so unoriginal that no proper moderator would give it +1 insightful. Couple that with the traditional sarcasm and I didn't want to read any further.
But I did. And lo and behold it's a typical "Slashdot 'review'" "comment", consisting of three paragraphs (if you can call them that!) criticizing the article generally, then specifically criticizing it, then summarizing with a snarky grade-school analogy.
If this was a comment on Fark, you might slide by with a "You suck," but otherwise you get a "goatse.cx link".
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
3) The new layout SUCKS. Slashdot, when they went CSS, did it tactfully, I'll notice more features and slicker integration as time goes on. Fark threw all UI logic out the window.
You'll get over it.
In an age where Brittany Spear's hair (regardless of which end of her it is or isn't on) is considered to be "newsworthy", we are all dooomed!
2 cents
QueenB.
HDGary secures my bank
You're forgetting about all the "human interest" stories that they churn out to help sell newspapers and airtime.
Those are stories without a press release or a press conference. They mostly originate from police reports. Every local paper has a crew ("reporters" is too complimentary) whose job it is to fashion police reports into stories (if it bleeds, it leads).
The other source that I'm seen is stories that get picked up by to local newspapers that first appeared in school newspapers or club newsletters. That's where all the "nice kids", "cute pet", "interesting hobby", etc. stories come from.
"Fark is a business, not a hobby."
Thus summing up the reason why Fark criticizing the media business is "the pot calling the kettle black". The media is not a hobby either.
For weird news, I usually go to News of the Weird
It's only a once-a-week newsletter, but it's still great.
I write web sites for a living, so I'm really getting a kick out of some of these replies.
You can't clog Wikipedia. See, it's not actually tubes...
(And no, I don't.)
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
You've fallen victim to an inside joke. See here. Scroll down to "I work for."
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
So when, exactly, did Fark jump the shark? Was it the first time the site was picked up by the mainstream media? Or the second time? Now that there is a "book" (and I use the term only because of its physical prescence, not its actual usefullness as a piece of reference) about Fark and what Drew did before and what he thinks about the rest of the mainstream media (because he is now part of it), the shark has been truly jumped and gone.... So what is the next site? Any predictions?
...we are from the government - we are here to help...
...communism with socialism is hardly an authority on definitions. England and France are socialist countries. China and North Korea are communist countries. You think maybe - just maybe - there's a difference that might be worthy of consideration?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
SO there are a bunch of threads that have little meaning. It has to make a better gift than a HOT COCOA SAMPLER BOX.
write about that
my first thought when I saw the redesign was that the programmers there don't really grok XHTML. They totally went about it the wrong way. You are supposed to think about data streams and then later use css to style it. But Fark's programmers clearly thought about presentaion only, and tried to make the data stream fit the layout they wanted. Along the way, they ended up with inline styles, extra useless divs, etc. The whole thing is just very awkward. They obviously aren't geeks.
And no, that isn't meant to flame them. IT's just my humble opinion. That site is so big now that they should be able to do better. All drew had to do was to ask his millions of users to help out. Hell, even slashdot had a css contest.
I got skooled!
ON DELETE CASCADE
no text
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
Perhaps Emma Goldman would do well?
THE history of human growth and development is at the same time the history of the terrible struggle of every new idea heralding the approach of a brighter dawn. In its tenacious hold on tradition, the Old has never hesitated to make use of the foulest and cruelest means to stay the advent of the New, in whatever form or period the latter may have asserted itself. Nor need we retrace our steps into the distant past to realize the enormity of opposition, difficulties, and hardships placed in the path of every progressive idea. The rack, the thumbscrew, and the knout are still with us; so are the convict's garb and the social wrath, all conspiring against the spirit that is serenely marching on.
Anarchism could not hope to escape the fate of all other ideas of innovation. Indeed, as the most revolutionary and uncompromising innovator, Anarchism must needs meet with the combined ignorance and venom of the world it aims to reconstruct.
To deal even remotely with all that is being said and done against Anarchism would necessitate the writing of a whole volume. I shall therefore meet only two of the principal objections. In so doing, I shall attempt to elucidate what Anarchism really stands for.
The strange phenomenon of the opposition to Anarchism is that it brings to light the relation between so-called intelligence and ignorance. And yet this is not so very strange when we consider the relativity of all things. The ignorant mass has in its favor that it makes no pretense of knowledge or tolerance. Acting, as it always does, by mere impulse, its reasons are like those of a child. "Why?" "Because." Yet the opposition of the uneducated to Anarchism deserves the same consideration as that of the intelligent man.
What, then, are the objections? First, Anarchism is impractical, though a beautiful ideal. Second, Anarchism stands for violence and destruction, hence it must be repudiated as vile and dangerous. Both the intelligent man and the ignorant mass judge not from a thorough knowledge of the subject, but either from hearsay or false interpretation.
A practical scheme, says Oscar Wilde, is either one already in existence, or a scheme that could be carried out under the existing conditions; but it is exactly the existing conditions that one objects to, and any scheme that could accept these conditions is wrong and foolish. The true criterion of the practical, therefore, is not whether the latter can keep intact the wrong or foolish; rather is it whether the scheme has vitality enough to leave the stagnant waters of the old, and build, as well as sustain, new life. In the light of this conception, Anarchism is indeed practical. More than any other idea, it is helping to do away with the wrong and foolish; more than any other idea, it is building and sustaining new life.
The emotions of the ignorant man are continuously kept at a pitch by the most blood-curdling stories about Anarchism. Not a thing too outrageous to be employed against this philosophy and its exponents. Therefore Anarchism represents to the unthinking what the proverbial bad man does to the child,--a black monster bent on swallowing everything; in short, destruction and violence.
Destruction and violence! How is the ordinary man to know that the most violent element in society is ignorance; that its power of destruction is the very thing Anarchism is combating? Nor is he aware that Anarchism, whose roots, as it were, are part of nature's forces, destroys, not healthful tissue, but parasitic growths that feed on the life's essence of society. It is merely clearing the soil from weeds and sagebrush, that it may eventually bear healthy fruit.
Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than to think. The widespread mental indolence, so prevalent in society, proves this to be only too true. Rather than to go to the bottom of any given idea, to examine into its origin and meaning, most people will either condemn it altogether, or rely on some
http://use.perl.org
You seem to have forgotten: this is the Internet. I see the several plugs for that other site, but it could be any one of a number of "wow, fark sucks now" people. And they will grow, until they hit the limits of (a) not worth the time, (b) any exclusivity contracts signed between Fark and a sponsor, (c) merge with another site, or (d) sell out, renewing the cycle.
/. is still King.
Besides, Fazed.net's usability leaves Fark (and this !Fark site) in the dust, and
i love the discussions on fark, but it's ruined by the fact the website is a piece of shit that 9 times out of 10 will give you a database down or busy message. It's unusable.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Just who is going to do the abolishing if not some authoritarian power? Even if it is "the people" acting with a common interest, how is that not an institution set to destroy my right to things that can only be produced through authoritarian measures? Lets try to build Golden Gate Bridge under this "philosophy". Under libertarian socialism is the architect supposed to buy or solicit all the labor and materials himself? What is someone has their rose garden on a necessary piece of land and refuses to give it up because of the lovely view of the bay? What if fifty different architects have fifty different plans for a bridge? What if the ferry operators decide to take the bridge apart? When a man with as much apparent intelligence as Chomsky espouses such poorly thought out ideas, he gets a reputation for being a dingbat and then his more carefully considered ideas aren't taken seriously. A shame really.
We are all just people.
This book has pointy knees. Fark lost its charm. They should take a hint from Digg and do what the readers want, whatever the consequences. Or cash in and become irrelevant. (inset of picture of relevant user news site.)
Some people are like slinkys. They're useless, but it puts a smile on your face to push them down the stairs.
It would have been useful for the reviewer to briefly outline what Fark is and what its context is. I have been net-enabled since 1994 and never heard of Fark, but in reading some of it briely, I did laugh a fair amount.
Some background would have been helpful.
Frankly, Fark has turned to shit and it started with the moving of the boobies links off the main page. Lately it's been with general moderator douchebaggery. I've posted plenty of comments in the past that were simply deleted for being inflammatory, no big deal. Lately, the littlest things set the mods off. Not long ago I posted a crudely drawn (yet light-hearted) mspaint picture of tubgirl in response to someone asking for an explanation of it. I got a three day ban for that, which I thought was strange because I've posted much worse before.
More recently in one of the Drew threads, one user was complaining about the use of 'shadow bans' and mod stalking. After leaving and returning after about an hour, all his posts and the post referring to him were gone. Nice work there guys.
Are you mad!?!
Your going to through the internet into an infinite loop!
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
XXX#######
230 of the books 278 pages
should be 230 of the book's 278 pages
Frankly, it struck me as some marketing idiot seeing the traffic numbers and saying "hey, we need to get access to these eyeballs!" without actually understanding how the site worked. Frankly, it was damned sad. Still, Bannination seems to be intent on carrying on the spirit and I wish them all the best. I'm already signed up.
P.P.S. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
doesn't even know how the real world works anyway. Even schools and colleges teach them biases and try to pass off ideology and opinions as facts and evidence.
A lot of the news is the same way, ideology and views and opinions are passed off as facts and evidence and the average person cannot tell the difference between them. Not only that now we got blogs being used as reliable sources of news and information and they are mostly propaganda and people on the news and talk shows are parroting what the blogs are saying as a source of their information. These days anyone can be an armchair expert and write a blog and pretend to have the certifications and credentials to be an expert.
So if you are going to try to stop it at the news level, you must also stop it at the blogs and school and college levels.
The danger here is that if you fool 50% of the population to support one issue using misinformation and propaganda, you basically can control what and who they vote for and elect to government. Then you only need 1% of the intellectuals to agree with you, and chances are good if they also try to mislead the public and run their own misinformation in schools, colleges, and on the blogs.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Wow, what incisive wit. No wonder you were modded +5.
I'm willing to bet that the issue is that Fark was starting to get filtered by corporate vendors like Scan Safe. Most people surf Fark from work, so if it starts getting filtered, the eyeball numbers drop dramatically and goodbye ad revenue.
I don't blame the sponsors. If you look at who's advertising, it's a good fit--they understand who's on Fark. Fark probably just can't risk being blocked at work, so Drew's trying to stay inside the lines as defined by the filtering groups.
That doesn't mean I have to like it though.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
And cue the mustard guy
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I for one welcome our new book writing overlord.
How is this news?
I was in the process of trying to install greasemonkey and find a script that would make the page and the comment threads not look and run so horribly... when I realized that I didn't want to continue giving them my business. Now I check digg.com first thing in the morning.
Now and again I'll still type fark into my address bar. The sight of the hideous redesign always makes me a little sad for what the site had once been, but I get over it quickly.
bend like the reed