Chip said:
Ravnos said:
the iPad coverage was absolutely ridiculous.
Except that it wasn't. Yes, there were a
lot of ipad posts for about 48 hours after the keynote, but no more than there were iphone posts when that was announced. It was a Big New Thing, of course it's going to get a lot of coverage. I have no use for an ipad whatsoever, but I'm not so biased against it that I can't see that it is a very popular concept. It's already the
most anticipated gadget of 2010 by a wide margin. Should Engadget intentionally post
less about a product that it knows many of its readers want to know
more about?
You missed the point I made there entirely. Yes, there was a flood of posts about the iPad. And there are a flood of posts surrounding each iPhone release. No, they shouldn't post less, unless their posts are largely devoid of content. The iPad coverage, and generally most of the coverage surrounding a new Apple release, is almost all pap. The meaningful content in all of that coverage could have been condensed into a much smaller number of posts, but that wouldn't give them the page views.
The unpleasant "flood" of posts surrounding Apple products is more Apple's fault than anybody else's. Other companies announce things in advance. Pictures and details leak out as products develop. With Apple, they spend an enormous amount of energy keeping everything a secret until the last second. Then they dump their new product on us, fully formed and ready for sale, in one keynote. So unlike a new OS from MS or a new game console from Sony, there aren't the months worth of small details filtering out a little at a time, to be discussed as they emerge.
Again, the amount of content in these posts was staggeringly small. Did there need to be a new front page post for everything mentioned in the liveblog, for example? Every piece of software? Engadget was actually better in this regard than Gizmodo (who had four pages worth of pointless iPad posts between January 27th and 29th. FOUR PAGES IN TWO DAYS.) but there's a lot that could have been condensed, and a little bit more objectivity from the editors would have been nicer. After all, Blogsmith has an Apple fanboy blog (
TUAW, in case you were not aware), I would expect a little bit more restraint and objectivity from their all-gadgets blog.
PMA is next week. It's the biggest photography and imaging convention in the world. Camera manufacturers tend to hold back their best new gear from CES so they can debut it at PMA instead. If you're into cameras, it's a big deal. Next week on Engadget, there are going to be a lot of camera posts. Hundreds. Every third post is going to be camera-related, just like it is every year during PMA. Now since I'm not particularly interested in photography or imaging, what should I do? Should I comment in every single camera post about how cameras are lame, all photographers are gay, and Engadget is a paid shill for Cannon because of their totally biased coverage? Or should I just ignore the posts that don't interest me, secure in the knowledge that once PMA is over, everything will return to normal?
But you're not going to see a ton of posts about one camera, including why you don't need the features that a competing camera has, and separate articles about its optical zoom, ISO settings, and whatever. When there's a big trade show for a particular market segment, you expect a lot of coverage because a lot gets announced and shown off. In this case, it was one company, one device, and a ton of hyperbole. And when people said, "hey, can we get some other news here too?" they got a snarky reply from Topolsky.
Joshua Topolsky said:
Due to the overwhelming demand of 16 commenters, we present to you the
Apple-free Engadget! Yes -- read all the hot news happening in the tech world without the upsetting presence of Apple-related stories. Your dream is a reality... so now you'll have to find something else to complain about!
Yeah, there were some dicks commenting about this, but there are always flame wars on Engadget between pro and anti Apple trolls, even when the topic has nothing to do with Apple. (And it's notable that that sort of thing rarely gets dealt with unless someone is trolling pretty hard. They rely on the ranking system to deal with this for the most part.) But there were a lot of people who wanted to see other coverage. There was a general bitchiness growing in the commenting crowd, and instead of responding to legitimate complaints, or maybe a more polite version of the quoted post explaining how Engadgets tag filtering works, they stirred up a shitstorm. Instead of just banning the serious troublemakers and letting the whole thing blow over as the hype train moved on, they went and kicked that hornet's nest. "Oh man, these hornets are really stingy!" they said, and then they bawwwed all the way home.
If I choose the first option, is Engadget a big, evil, censoring bully for deleting my free "photographers are gay" speech? When coverage goes back to normal after PMA, can I claim victory, believing that it was my asshattish trolling is what made all the camera posts go away?
If your post is like that, then yeah, have fun in bantown. But when your post is like this:
seriously, though... its not apple in general that we hate. its just the sheer volume of articles that pop up every time apple's "next big thing" comes up. you argue that you keep the same coverage when other company's put out their latest and greatest... but lets face it: the amount pales in comparison when it comes to apple. ive said it before and ill say it again: where are the term paper sized rumor roundups for microsoft, nokia, hp, dell, sony, nintendo, htc etc etc? sure apple's popular and all, but that doesnt warrant the daily articles on the same gadget that clearly doesnt live up to all the hype its gathered for so long. it just... overdoes things in my opinion. apple is just another tech company like any of the ones i listed above... in my eye and the eyes of my fellow daily commenters it all seems like alot. alot alot. and from the loyal fans who you KNOW visit everyday and participate through commenting... dont you think our opinion matters too? why down play us and act like we're moaning and bitching for no good reason? we love you guys! why do you think we come here everyday?? i for one come here multiple times a day at work and at home cuz i have fun here. and i love gadgets! just saying... we arent ganging up you guys... we just kinda think you're overdoing things a lil, ya digg?
Or this:
Please Topolsky, you protest too much, and with too wide a brush. We're sick of the plethora articles about the iPad and paucity of real substance in them; apple itself is fine. To paint us as pathological apple haters is insulting and unprofessional.
then the complaints about "editors being flamed" lose a bit of their bite. There was dicketry on Engadget to be sure, but the editors responded with dicketry, and then were shocked that the dicketry from the commenters escalated.
To summarize, if I call you an asshole, and you call me a fucking douchebag, do you really expect me to respond with "Valid point, kind sir. Good day to you."?
