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Things I’m Thankful For

Nov 272009

Guys, seeing as it is the season for expressing gratitude for life’s wondrous bounty, I just wanted to take a moment to note the many things I appreciate about–no, just kidding. I wanted to talk about Twitter! Well, not just Twitter; more like short-form blogging etiquette. Specifically, the practice of linking to something without providing any context. For example, tweeting something like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpA2tMrQ4RU I SIMPLY CANNOT.

Guys, this has to stop. My time is not terribly valuable but in the course of any given day I am bombarded with hundreds of opportunities to click on links. If I clicked on every link I saw on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and email, I would get even less done. So do me a favor and give me a hint about whether I should spend my 20 seconds on your link or on playing Skifree (see how I did that?).

Now, there are two exceptions to this, and as far as I’m concerned you need to satisfy both of these exceptions simultaneously:

If I trust you implicitly to only use this linking method for sites that I am absolutely sure to value; and
If you only omit the context for links in situations where there is dramatic, rhetorical, and/or comedic benefit to my being surprised by the link’s identity.

Note that (1) is a condition you are unlikely to meet with respect to most readers/followers, who may like you but probably wouldn’t even stake their Starbucks money on your abilities as an internet curator. And even if you’re arrogant enough to believe that most people think you’re great^*, you still need to actually be great, or at least adequate, at linking with nuance and wit. This means you’ll have to know how to recognize and wield irony well. If you’re like most of the people in the world, this is not your strong suit. So just go ahead and tell me what you’re linking to, so I don’t have to write a stupid blog post about it while fighting the urge to pepper said blog post with examples of the behavior I am decrying.

^* Note: of course you are arrogant enough to believe that most people think you’re great–we all think that. But, to be honest, you’re probably just okay.

Tilting at Windbags?

Links, Media, Sports 4 Responses »

Aug 022008

My internet friend Tracy wrote a post about Deadspin that kind of blew up. Here’s the lede:

The thing about sports is that it, well, tends to be an old-boys’ club. The sports world is full of sexist shit that pisses me off if I think about it too much (and, honestly, I’m not often prone to do that, because I don’t always want to be addressing Big Issues in the context of something I enjoy just for the hell of it, which I suppose is lazy of me). Commercials aired during sporting events or programs often are sexist. There are sexist athletes and sexist columnists, and I hate it all, but I try not to hold it against sports as a whole. That would be like being a Cubs fan, but hating the Cubs because of Cubs fans.

That said, there’s one place where the sports assholes come out in droves and it drives me batshit insane every freaking time I see it. It’s a land where you’ll see Asshole Stupidus in its natural environment, taking a gigantic dump on women and human decency.

It’s the land of the Deadspin commenters.

I was going to leave a comment there but figured I might as well put it here instead, since it’s important that many people in the world know how I feel about this issue.

Nobody cares about my other posts, however.

Internet Hi-Jinx, Links, Tech 3 Responses »

Jul 152008

After I take the bar, maybe I’ll have time for posts based on something other than my site visitor logs (or cut-and-pasting from someone else’s blog). Until then…

I’ve been thinking about my most popular posts, in terms of hits (most coming from web search sites). The common thread is that Googlers really want to know how to do stuff: how to reset their ipods, how to block the stupid video on ESPN’s homepage, and how John Basedow died in the tsunami (or not).

The first two links (A and B) consistently get more hits than the rest of my blog, combined. The ESPN one, I get–it was linked by Deadspin, and actually fixes a problem that lots of people have. But the iPod one is even more popular, and the actual content of the post is basically just a series of links to other, useful sites. I don’t understand it.

And the John Basedow post is not actually that popular, but it is a personal favorite, especially since the lazyweb came up big and I now have the mp3 of the John Basedow theme song, of which I will never tire.

Now You Know.

Calling all Futurama nerds!

Links, Television No Responses »

Jun 182008

Billy West, voice of Fry, the Professor, Dr. Zoidberg, and probably the Hypnotoad, has a weird interview at the Onion’s A.V. Club (warning–some salty language there!). It includes audio clips. Whatever, Billy West rules.

and now I want to reread Adams’s entire oeuvre.

Internet Hi-Jinx, Links, Media, Tech, Writing No Responses »

Apr 182008

So, a guy on the internet got his hands on an old cache of files from the company (now defunct) that released a bunch of great text-based computer games, including the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a huge hit game (based on Douglas Adams’s masterpiece) that made a lot of money. They also worked on a sequel, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but the project and company self-destructed. The story is fascinating. Especially in the comments, where a guy who comes off looking bad in the history chimes in to make himself look even worse. He complains that the material Biao uses paints an unbalanced picture, and that Baio made no effort to contact him in advance of publishing it, and generally that it’s bad journalism.

The irony is that I think he’s probably right–this isn’t very good journalism. Baio should have tried to get in touch with the relevant persons (just about all of whom seem to be quite available) before publishing. No question, it’s a thorny issue–the material he’s citing was company property, so he doesn’t need permission from the employees to post it–and who knows what happened behind the scenes.

At any rate, there’s a lot to enjoy here, if you’re patient enough to wade through it all.

it’s funny because it’s hilarious.

Irony, Links No Responses »

Apr 082008

This site is so much better than Stuff White People Like. Not Hating Just Saying is a pretty simple concept–a bunch of things that suck, and a description of in what way they suck.

Highlight: Diet Dr Pepper.

Highlight #2: Hipsters. Now, this is really just another Stuff White People Like, but I found it funny and this is my blog so I don’t care if it’s hypocritical:

Here is a perfect example: thrift store clothes. The stuff you are buying (overpriced, I might add) from a thrift store(or vintage) was shit that was hot 20 years ago, but you rationalize it by saying “it’s ironic.” You just picked up the scraps of some guy who is now 30 but wore that stuff when he was 17…oh wait you are 30 also. High school hipsters I get, but old hipsters? There ain’t shit hip about a 45 year-old in skinny jeans. Why don’t you just go to the kids you hated in high school’s old houses and raid their childhood closets? That way you can wear the very clothes of those that were such “jerks” to you in high school. How is that shit for ironic?

That’s a certifiable hipster burn!

Anyway. I like that site. Thanks for linking it, Lauren (ps, might be time for you guys to get a new URL).

Everything old is new again.

Internet Hi-Jinx, Links No Responses »

Feb 272008

I don’t know why everybody is suddenly discovering Garfield Minus Garfield. I tried to tell you about it two years ago¹. It is pretty great though, so I guess I’ll just have to accept the fact that a link from me isn’t quite enough to propel something into worldwide popularity.

¹ Although that was subtly different, in that it subtracted Garfield’s words/thoughts, but not Garfield himself. I assert that it’s actually much better that way than without Garfield entirely. Not quite as weird, but a lot more funny/poignant.