Beta FriendFeed to the Rescue?

I've been fighting an ongoing battle with myself. I love talking politics, and I like stirring the pot with controversy.

You might have noticed this week that I've been a bit more grumpy and irritable than usual. It's because of junk like this:

It takes no brains to bring this sort of stuff up. Allen's comment is akin to "you forgot to put the apostrophe after the s, rather than before, in the second sentence of the third paragraph." It's arguing for the sake of arguing. If there's a good factual debate, or even a decent informed difference of opinion, I'm all about it.

When it's this sort of thing, it's annoying, particularly when it's the first comment. It ends up leading to stuff like that last comment, because it sets a negative and destructive tone.

The irony is that this was a fluff piece about VP candidate Palin's Chuck Norris jokes, a brand new meme on FriendFeed and Twitter. It's a particularly stupid question from Allen, because I had him on a panel with me in Washington DC earlier this year where I introduced myself to the room as the political editorialist for Mashable. It isn't like he doesn't know what's going on.

I've been a huge advocate of FriendFeed since it launched. Very quickly after starting to use it, it became my home page. Most of the Rat Pack hung out on there, and it was a great way to keep track of what we were all up to and have a sort of communcal chat room. One by one, though, most of them have either become significantly less active, or withdrawn completely.

Of course, now that FriendFeed is no longer private beta, alpha, or whatever it was at the time, there's a lot more people on there. As Veronica Belmont noted this evening, a lot of the conversations have been devolving into slug fests lately. Not fact based or informed opinion debates. Out and out in your face, this is who I am and I don't care if it offends you slugfests.

It's annoying as crap.

At any rate, I've tried one last ditch thing to save the FriendFeed experience for me. Within the new Beta, there's an option to set up lists of folks that you can theoretically categorize those you're following.

Here's my brand new arrangement:

Except for a few known troublemakers, I'm extending the benefit of the doubt to everyone and starting them out in the "Non-Irksome" list. I'll give it a week, and start rapidly paring down folks and throwing them over to the "Irksome" list as needed.

It isn't really personal, but I just need to cut down on the level of irritation being injected to my info-stream. I'm not particularly a fan of anyone in this presidential race, but that doesn't mean I don't have an ideology, beliefs and sensitivities. In the course of the general level of Obama zealotry going on in the tech community right now, abandonment of reason, tact and fact is at all time highs.

At any rate, I don't want to get into the nuance of that, or I'd just bellyache and complain for a few screenfuls. Bottom line, I don't want to end up hating everyone from my industry, so I'm going to try to segregate myself from their joyous worship of Obama for the duration.

Hopefully this works. I'd hate to block FriendFeed for three months, but given the amount of armchair punditry going on surrounding this election cycle, there might not be another option.

I'll try to let you know next week how it goes.

The New Kind of Journalism 1: Primer

This post is the culmination of the themes I've started in the following posts:

• Closer to Epiphany
• I'm at the Edge of a Eureka Moment
• What's Next?

You might want to read them for the full backstory. This post is long, and is going to involve a time commitment, but it's thorough, and I'm going somewhere with this story. Read it on your lunch break.

Perhaps I'm starting with too grandiose of an assumption, but I think it's pretty clear at this point that the old forms of media distribution are limping along to their graves. I could spend a few paragraphs belabouring this point, but there are plenty of other places on the Internet and in the blogosphere you could find those statistics.

What I think is clear is that the blogosphere has given rise to a new form of journalism that sits somewhere between editorial and "just the facts, ma'am." One of the most popular accusations I see from folks whenever a piece of press they don't like that "it isn't real journalism." In the tech blogosphere, a sub-variant of this accusation is that they've made the lowest order of blog posting: a ValleyWag-ish posting.

In both cases, these accusations are akin to the ever-popular YouTube and Digg debate tact: "Your a fag." It shows a lack of awareness of what modern blogging is about and a void in the accuser's arsenal of actual salient points to make.

There Currently Exists a Glut of Information.
The problem with news today is that straight news content is a commodity. Even opinion is a commodity, but in particular, documentation of the events of the world and the individual niches where news happens is commonplace. If I asked you for a resource to find the latest information on what's going on in the very specifically targeted world of online video podcasting, I could probably get a resource list of at least thirty blogs, ten or online magazines, a TV show or two, four or five video shows, and countless audio podcasts that regularly cover that information.

For a real world example of the glut of information that exists, take the last few posts I've done imploring the community for information regarding the tech scene in Austin. The comments and my inbox were literally flooded with new sources to add to Mashable's OPML file of blog resources.

The creme rises to the top, though, and what has proven to be the creme in the meritocracy of the Internet is qualified and accurate opinion and analysis coupled with solid facts. As a corollary to this, what pushes a source over the top in terms of popularity and prominence is a thriving community with a health ongoing discussion taking place.

The New Journalism is the Old Conversation.
You can't talk about this topic without bringing in a bit of the history involved. The flash point where the public at large realized that the blogosphere was a place where news could be broken was the Rathergate scandal. For the purposes of this illustration, the process showed that the spontaneous conversations that take place in the blogosphere can be a much more powerful mechanism for fact checking, research and resource gathering than the double, triple, or quadruple sourcing and quoting procedures in place with traditional media institutions.

In the case of LittleGreenFootballs, and a few other blogs that tracked the fallout from the Rathergate scandal, it took less than a few hours for the memos Dan Rather and Marla Mapes used to "prove" President Bush faked his service records to be suspect in nature. It was a day or two for the memos to be conclusively proven as fakes. All of this took place in the chaotic conversations "below the fold," so to speak.

Of course, both Marla Mapes and Dan Rather were nationally humiliated and relieved from duty subsequent to the incident, but the process story is what I want to focus on here - despite the fact that this all took placed on what can be charitably described as a blog with a conservative political slant, facts and truth (devoid of politics) were distilled more quickly than any Old Media institution could make happen (even opposing Old Media networks with presumed financial incentive to make their competitor CBS look bad).

The Conversation Works for a News Discovery Process, But What Works for Business?
If you take a look at what sorts of purely New Media institutions are succeeding online right now, you need to focus mostly on the tech sector. There are certainly a number of blogs and online magazines that are doing pretty well for themselves, but many of them are either evolutions of an Old Media institution or recent acquisition of an Old Media company. I'm not such a purist that I deem them unreliable sources of information, but for the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to put them in a category not labeled New Media.

Inside the tech sector pure New Media category, you have companies like TechCrunch, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, ValleyWag and VentureBeat sitting at the top of the heap. These are news organizations that came from nothing a few years ago, focus on news as a conversation, and all have very similar blogging styles with very diverse audiences.

Your average post in any of these publications falls into one of a number of categories:

Event Annoucement: Large publications regularly host parties business networking events. These posts serve to announce for, sell tickets to, or show pictures/video from these events.
List Posts: The 12 Reasons Most Bloggers are Bald. The top 25 Electronic Devices for that Scruffy Beard of Yours from Pete Cashmore. The 30 Best Social Networks for Underwater Basketweaving. They're good ways to get your readers to bookmark your sites, and are (in a way) a karma building exercises for bloggers. They show you're creating more than transitory, news-cycle-based value for your readers.
Editorial/Pure Opinion Posts: Every person on the planet has an opinion. Bloggers at major publications who have been judged as capable of providing accurate analysis are more than willing to dispense it on their very tall soapbox. The bloggers who can peer into their crystal balls and discern trends and futures are the ones who are theoretically judged adding the most value.
Miscellaneous Features: These include podcasts, videos, interviews, guest posts, how to's, etc.

... and finally News Posts: This is where New Media differentiates itself from the Old. News isn't any longer about a 500 word posting with witness and color quotes and triple checked sources. In the blogosphere a financial premium is placed on speed and analysis. That second bit is often the part that is left out by detractors of New Media.

Inherent to the format is an implied expertise on the subject matter focused on by the blog. This leads to less of a need for expert opinion to be constantly consulted for validation of the story.

A constant accusation levied against New Media is that the rush to get the story first comes too often at the expense of correctness. There is a lot of nuance to best practices in the blogosphere that could remedy that, but the gist of the solution lies in the fact that the blogosphere is more like a conversation than it is a means of broadcast.

As is said many times in defense of blogging, corrections and further color commentary almost always come in the comments field, and in the ensuing discussion around the web in tools like Google Reader, FriendFeed, Facebook and Twitter. There's an art form to eliciting comments, and a straight news piece simply won't do it. Even on the most highly trafficked of newspaper websites, straight news pieces get little to no comments, while the blogs (written in the authors' voice) on the same site will get mountains of interaction.

The Void is Growing Faster than it Can Be Filled
We've yet to see the first major media news organizations to completely drop off the map, though there are a great many that are teetering at the brink as we speak. It's hard to say, then, what it's going to be like in a world without AP, Reuters, The New York Times and other sources of global embedded reporting.

We'll find out soon enough, though, since their revenues and budgets are shrinking to the point where they can't support global news operations the way they currently do. Blogging and New Media news organizations are only part of the replacement. Successful blogs are only going to report on narrow niches of information where there's likely to be a business market to profit from.

Add to this fact that when it comes down to it, the blog content management system is generally a piss poor way to consume straight news. The RSS feed that it generates is great for it, but tell me, honestly and truly, when Mashable was producing upwards of 40-50 news posts a day, didn't you feel a bit overwhelmed and annoyed at all the clicking and scrolling on the website?

As most blogs who have grown to the size of Mashable (or larger) have realized, we're not really looked to for a place on breaking news on every thing that may be going on in tech. We're looked to as a place to make sense of the news.

What Comes Next?
The reason that I promised this post about three weeks ago and am only delivering it just now is that the more I wrote here, the more this became like a book than a blog post. What's even worse is that this has started to become more of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, and the topics are forking out in front of me. I've literally spent the last three weekends in a row writing four or five entries that are all about as long as this one.

Here are the focii of the next set of articles in this vein of thought, and a short description of where I'm going with it:

• Even News with Analysis is a Commodity: I've talked about the financial and engagement reasons why there must be spin and analysis in news based blog postings. Still, opinion and informed analysis is almost dirt cheap these days. The next evolution (at least how I see it) in how the "A-List" blogs treat news will trickle down to every last blogger who is doing anything tied to a news cycle. The best part is there's a business model here! (I know, they can revoke my Web 2.0 card for that. You won't tell, will you?).
• Just as the Content Evolves, So Must the Delivery Method: This is a topic so important, it's almost urgent that I get it out as soon as possible. I'm talking about video and audio. The landscape is changing so rapidly now that it's becoming a character flaw to be in the business of professional New Media content production and not be doing something with audio or video.
• The Role of Micro-Blogging: I've recently broadened my focus back away from the two big ones (Twitter and FriendFeed) to examine older platforms like Tumblr, Jaiku and Utterz as well as some of the new federated solutions. We're heading toward a unique convergence point here, and everyone who blogs will at some point in the future be using these tools as a part of their content creation process. Without exception.

I've got a few other germs of ideas that may spin off from these, and there's likely going to be a mix of video and text on some of this. Still working on it, quite honestly, but this gives you a peek at where this is heading.

Any feedback you have would help me shape this series moving forward, and would be greatly appreciated.

A Quick Note Serving Little Purpose

I've just re-hooked my Utterz account to my personal blog. This post serves as a quick test to see if it works, as well as a note to say that my long awaited post on "The New Kind of Journalism" is coming out in the morning (a few hours from now).

Some thoughts, non sequitor:

1) The more I play with Utterz, the more I remember why I liked it when Greg Blonder told me about it early last year.

2) The NKoJ post is part one in what looks like at least a four or five part series. Yeah, it's like that.

3) I'm pretty tired, and the sun is coming up. I'm headed to bed.

Mobile post sent by rizzn using Utterz. Replies.

Seth Godin: "Automation is Bad! Don't Do It!"

Seth Godin posted one of his trademark short esoteric blog entries today, this one about the "depersonalization of mass media:"

Organizations will work tirelessly to de-personalize every communication medium they encounter.

Radio ads used to be live, personal and spoken by an individual.
TV ads used to feature actual people, demonstrating something, usually live.
Phone calls involved a live speaker, talking, with permission, to another person.
Email used to be honest interactions between consenting adults.
Facebook pages (and Wikipedia, too) were built by people, not staffs.
Twits came from real people, and so did instant messages.

One by one, the mass marketers have insisted on robocalling, spamming, jingling and lying their way into our lives. The pronoun morphs from "you" to "me" to "us" to "the corporation" ...

The public works tirelessly to flee to actual interactions between real people, and our organizations work even more diligently (and with more leverage) to corporatize and anonymize the interactions.

The irony, of course, is that an organization with guts can go in the opposite direction and win.

My name is Seth Godin and I approved this message.

Here's the thing - this is an easy post to make. It sounds very pro-consumer, and in the world of PR, marketing, advertising, and even customer service this is what's called outside the box thinking. That's fine, that's good, and admittedly needed in that business.

There's a very Luddite undertone to all this. Everything he's listed after TV ads could also be classified as anti-automation. This is a wrong message to send.

Automation isn't automatically bad, and without it, our lives would be a great deal more difficult.

Software and hardware technology is rapidly approaching the level where in limited interaction situations, it's difficult to tell the difference between a human and computer. Don't believe me? Hit "0" on your land-line phone and ask for the DSL support department. Most of the time, that system is completely automated by computers.

In other situations, computer guided interaction is far more efficient than dealing with a human for both the company involved as well as the consumer. Again, don't believe me? Dial 1-800-GOOG-411, and get the number for the gas station on the corner. Try to do that talking to nothing but humans, and you'll end up on hold for at least a half hour, and spend around 15 minutes while the operator for the gas station's parent company tries to figure out exactly what state you're calling from, let alone what neighborhood.

We have the technology to intelligently apply in ways that make our customers' and potential customers' lives simpler, more enjoyable, and yes - even more personalized.

Technology and automation isn't the bad guy. It's your friend.

All I'm sayin' is don't blame the robots - haven't you seen Terminator? Not a good idea.

I Have a Helmet That Goes With The Title

Sometimes, even I'm shocked at the leftarded, Orwellian newspeak that comes out of peoples' mouths.

Here's the backstory: Blogger and radio show host Alex Jones, someone I consider to be a leftist in the same way that David Duke is a rightist, led a mob that verbally attacked Michelle Malkin (and physically attacked those who'd stop him) for being, well, Michelle Malkin. This took place Tuesday afternoon outside the DNC in Denver. I wrote it up on Mashable because I think it reflects poorly on New Media and blogging in general when we can't go out in public without creating a news event displaying our immaturity.

Suprisingly, most of the comments have been supportive - even on Digg. The article is getting tons of votes there and at Yahoo Buzz. I love it when I hit on a good nerve like that.

Unfortunately, some folks don't like it. There's a few comments on the Mashable post talking about how horrible I am as a person and blah blah - the usual I get from the Mashable crowd. I'm pretty immune to that, at this point.

There's a fellow named Anthony Stevens, though, who was inspired to write a multi-paragraph hit-piece on me that went up within minutes of me posting the original article. It started out with the paragraph:

Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins of Mashable gives us another peek into his proto-fascist leanings with a breathless article about the LEFTIST MOB THAT ATTACKED POOR MICHELLE MALKIN in Denver.

Can someone explain this term, proto-fascist? It sounds a bit like something from Star Wars, but I can't be sure.

At any rate, the guy is obviously off his rocker, and doesn't deserve a response on anything other than creative imagery with his clearly Alex Jones-inspired terminology.

As a side note, however, I asked some folks, and it turns out that there are other definitions to the word "attack" aside from physical violence. Just puttin' that out there.

Update: An anonymous tipster has emailed me in response to this post, and they've assured me I was correct in my vague assumption a proto-fascist was from Star Wars. Turns out? It's the name of the monster in the trash compactor.

Digital Bill of Rights - Are You Kidding Me?

Just a bit ago, Erick Schonfeld over at Techcrunch posted a public call for a Digital Bill of Rights. Unlike Steven Hodson, I won't say that this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard, but only because I had a very similar idea myself when I first logged onto the net in the 90s and saw all it was capable of.

The difference was back then it was the 90s, I was a 14-year-old, and I had very little wisdom or life experience to give the ideas I had any sort of meaningful perspective.

I had intended to do a video on it this evening, but my computer's acting up - just as well, since Steven grabbed me for an episode of his discussion points podcast.

Download the MP3 here.

I'll break it down in text for those of you without 23 minutes to spare:

Most of what Erick said is pure puffery. Many of the things on his list are mutually exclusive from one another. Others don't need to be rights because they aren't things that could be legislated away. The list is far too US-centric - the Internet is international.

Most importantly, asking for these things to be guaranteed as rights is tantamount to trampling the rights of others. If I start a website, and there is codified law that says I must follow certain laws to say, guarantee privacy of folks who may leave a comment, doesn't that impede the free exchange of information (another thing he calls for)?

It delves down a rabbit hole of complete contradictory nonsense. None of it appeared to be very well thought out.

In other words, it's perfect for Digg. I imagine it should be showing up on the front page there in a couple of hours.

At the end of the podcast, Steven and I brainstorm a little bit on a solution that would go towards providing us some of the things on this list we do want while still respecting rights and privileges we enjoy on the web.

Too Much Engagement

Here's something I never thought I'd say: There's such a thing as too much engagement in a social community. A couple days ago, I wrote over at World Domination something that's a symptom of my growing irritation this election season: "How Do You Tell Your Friend He's a Moron?"

Really, it's a symptom of another issue, though, and that is the fact that tech reality has a well known liberal bias. I can't venture out into FriendFeed or Twitter these days without being mobbed by hordes of screaming Obama nuts. It isn't something I can block or hide, either. On O'Biden day, I tried. I went about the business of hiding as much of the "OMG, BIDEN IS SLICED BREAD" tweets and posts as I could, but conversations were cropping up everywhere around it.

Conversations about how great socialized medicine is from people who've never studied the effects of socialized medicine on the economy of a country. Conversations on the wonders of Obama's tax proposal from folks who've never studied tax codes. Conversations on how great communism and socialism is and why we need it in America.

Essentially, I've been thrown in with armchair politics gurus. The majority of these people don't seem to study politics and policy unless there's a national election (and even then, their study doesn't include anything but the campaign propaganda).

In short, it's as if I've been transplanted to your typical Daily Kos/Huffington Post message board.

When I signed up for FriendFeed and Twitter, this wasn't what I had in mind, and it points out a fatal flaw in the lifestreaming service as a message board concept. Folks that I really enjoy having discussions about tech with, I absolutely deplore having conversations about politics with.

I'm really have no desire to spend every waking Internet hour pointing out the falsehood, error, inanity and offensiveness of what most of these folks are saying. I'd much prefer to actually talk tech with these folks, or alternatively talk politics with folks who will say things they know to be true because of research they've done rather than because they heard a candidate or pundit say it once.

I'm going to give some of these conversation agents sime time to die down on the liberal buzz - probably a few days. If my sad guestimation is correct, though, this smug talking point regurgitation isn't going to end until after the election. There's a strong possibility I'll be disengaging from these networks in the meantime; I simply don't think I can stand three straight months of mindless zealotry from folks I otherwise respect.

Update: For those of you who continue to Obama-gush, O'Biden-ate, Bush-bash, or McCain-ify... may I suggest you follow the suggestions put forth in the following video? (Google Reader folks, you wanna click through to the blog for this one...):


Today Now!: How To Pretend You Give A Shit About The Election

Did You Know ReadBurner Did This?

Adam Ostrow doesn't tell me much about ReadBurner stuff anymore - I think he's afraid any coverage I do at Mashable looks like conflict of interest. It really is still one of my favorite little websites on the net.

I'm pretty sure I didn't know that this widget creator thing existed, but check this out - you can generate widgets that show how much your stuff gets shared on Google Reader:



Ironically, if you're in Google Reader, you'll hafta click to the blog to check it out.

On another note, assuming I get some quiet time with the kids, I've got all these posts I've been promising almost ready to go. I've been holding off on some of them because they need video, and some because they need polishing.

You'll hear about my family drama (briefly) this weekend, and you'll hear the long awaited kickoff to my journalism series of posts. I know you're all just waiting with baited breath on that.

You can exhale now.

The Blogosphere Turns it's Lonely Eyes Toward Rizzn

I'm up way too late tonight, so I'll just make this quick post to point to some other places I'm making blog posts, occasionally. Eventually I'll get the RSS feeds up on the front page, but in the mean time you'll hafta either subscribe to the RSS files or just keep an eye out on their sites for my posts.

A buddy of mine named Luke "Captain Charisma" Massey started a website called the World Domination Network. Long-time readers of mine may recognize that name from the PoddedMeat video show he did with me called "RunTime." The site is supposed to be an exclusive invite only club, and I've got a few of you in mind that I want to bring in on it, but I'm waiting for some of the technical issues to get ironed out first.

I wrote a piece there called "China's 'Culture of Fake' No Substitute for Freedom." It was mostly inspired by some FriendFeed discussions I saw during the opening ceremony for the Olympics, as well as the TWiT from two weekends ago. A sidenote to that, with relation to the China discussion, Jason Calacanis was the voice of reason on the show - how messed up is that?

Early this morning, I did a post on the brouhaha between Warner Brothers and Fox Studios over the exclusive rights to the movie adaptation of The Watchmen called: "Who Gets to Watch the Watchmen?" I love comic books, I love comic book movies, and I do enjoy talking about IP law on occasion, so it was a perfect fit for a guest post over at Duncan's Inquisitr while he's in transit for Gnomedex.

That is all. Talk to you punks tomorrow!

Update: For those of you that weren't around to catch the old show Luke and I did, you should check it out, it's embedded below. It was a lot of fun and was particularly well produced given it was a first attempt for all of us at producing video, after years of audio.

I Live 30 Minutes from an Incorporated Outhouse

Stephen Colbert, well known host of the Colbert Report, has apparently been making a running gag out of ridiculing towns named "Canton." I had no clue this was going on because I frankly grew tired of both the Daily Show and the Colbert Report a couple of years ago, but I subscribe to the local newspaper's RSS feed here, and caught a story talking about the subject:

Colbert, of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," has aimed jokes at towns named "Canton" ever since presidential candidate Sen. John McCain visited Canton, Ohio, for a campaign stop in late July. So far, the unfortunate towns included in the ongoing gag are Canton, Ga., Canton, Kan., Canton, S.D., and, most recently, Canton, Texas. On Tuesday, Colbert apologized to the residents of Canton, S.D., for calling the town "North Dakota's dirty ashtray" and shifted his target south.

"Come on guys, Canton, South Dakota, is great," Colbert said. "At least you're not an incorporated outhouse like Canton, Texas."

Here's the thing... like many metropolitan coast dwellers, Stephen and his writing staff are arrogant asses when it comes to their opinion of the flyover states. I'm guessing the running gag comes from a feeling of superiority that folks from both coasts seem to have about anyone who lives in a red state or somewhere more than a couple of hours from an American coastline.

I can live with that, though it always irks me when I stumble across that attitude (and I take a bit of pride in calling this sort of arrogance out when I see it).

Unfortunately, he's not wrong when it comes to this particular Canton.

"Before you make a statement, you really ought to know what you're talking about," the City Manager Andy McCuistion told the local paper. I know what I'm talking about when it comes to Canton, unfortunately.

I've only lived in a few states in the South, so I'm not sure if other states are similar to Texas in this respect: the attitudes pertaining to race and levels of sophistication can range from 0-10 on your dial from county to county.

I live in a town of , depending on who you ask, between 125,000 and 250,000 people. 100 miles away is the city of Dallas, with millions of folks. About four hours South-ish is Austin, which judging from the folks who leave comments around here you're either pretty familiar with their weird culture (or you're getting familiar from my posts here and at Mashable).

In between these kinds of cities of varying size are places like Canton, TX. These places, while they may have certain events or attractions that make them tourist traps or even give them something to be proud of, are home to some of the most low-down dirty rednecks and racists you could ever imagine.

When I was 19, I was arrested for some outstanding speeding tickets I had accrued in three counties and four cities. Once Johnny Law got a hold of me, they took great pleasure in extraditing me all over the state to sit out my tickets. It was an odd way to tour the state, but I got a pretty interesting cross-section of cultures. Despite all the odd assortment of (alleged) criminals I met along the way, the only time I was truly shocked was in Van Zandt County (that is, the county Canton resides in).

I spent the first 24 hours in Canton, as I did at every stop along the tour, in the holding cell. In there with me was a couple of white guys (one of them called himself "Cooter" - and he looked about what you're probably imagining he looked like, missing teeth and sporting a mullet), a hispanic and a black fellow.

To pass the time, the fellows in the cell started telling jokes, and as you might deduce at this point, it didn't take long for them to get pretty racist. I don't remember what the jokes were specifically, but I remember cringing pretty hard at the severity of them and hanging out in the corner trying my best to act asleep.

The shocking part of the tale was how racially derogatory terms (inside and outside the context of the jokes) were used for Mexicans and blacks in the presence of the Mexican and black fellow, and how they simply took it in stride and appeared to genuinely laugh at the jokes at their races' expense. The cavalier way they accepted the hateful terms and roles the white fellows leveled towards them was jaw-droppingly nuts, and to me indicated a state of institutional racism that still existed in the area.

The attitude towards minorities was endemic to everyone I met there. The state trooper from Canton who transported me from Denton to Van Zandt County repeatedly used the n-word to describe black inmates he'd arrested or transported in the past. My cell-mate once I got into general population was the son of the local KKK Grand Dragon (who's girlfriend, according to him, was one of the deputies there in the county lockup). He also bragged that the title was something his family passed down like an heirloom of sorts, since his 'paw-paw' held the same title. Literally every white person I met was a hardcore racist of some variety.

Not to veer too far off topic, but when I see the stupid brouhaha's that erupt around figures like Loren Feldman where allegations of racism are made towards not only him but anyone who remotely appears sympathetic to him - this incident in my life serves as a clear deliniation point in my mind. It shows the difference between truely racist remarks and politically incorrect remarks. To equate the two as equal truly diminishes and obfuscates sources of actual racism that are still present in our country.

As for Stephen Colbert's remarks about a town a few minutes' drive from my city, I can unequivocally say his description of Canton is way off the mark. 'Incorporated outhouse' is far too kind of a label for the town of Canton, TX.

Still Alive - Just Swamped

Just a quick note to say that I'm still alive, just swamped.

The response from the Austin crowd has been enormous. A new and improved OPML file will be coming momentarily. I'll get to all the emails individually this weekend! I crossed over an embarrassingly large threshold of unread emails this week, so it might be a minute before you hear from me.

Achtung Austinites!

Hey. Just wanted to quickly alert everyone that I'm putting out the next list post in the series on Austin tomorrow afternoon, which means I'm adding all the suggestions to the OPML file today. This post is going to focus on Austin area social media and Web 2.0 companies with RSS feeds!

If you have something you feel like should be on the list and they aren't already listed in the OPML file presently, leave them in the comments here and I'll make sure they're included.

In the mean time, for those who missed it, here are the two Mashable Conversations episodes regarding Austin. Make sure you subscribe to that podcast feed so you don't miss any other episodes!

Fav.or.it Really Bothers Me

I've actually never spent a whole lot of time on Fav.or.it. Whenever Louis Gray made a big deal of them a while back, I covered the back and forth and the finer points either side had to make, but I was in a place where I was all full up on early adopting and didn't have a chance to try out the site in great depth, only to look over the feature list and get an idea on how they worked.

In my coverage, though, I implored Robert Scoble and Adam Ostrow to explain the allure to me:

I'm really asking this question to people like Adam and Scoble, both of whom have used the system and seemed to like it (as well as any of the folks in our readership that have grabbed any of our freely available invite codes). If you are seeing something that Louis and I are missing, please explain it to me.

Robert and Louis had some follow-up comments via Twitter, but they didn't exactly explain why I should go ga-ga over things.

Fast-forward to today. I'm working on a project relating to my new take/eureka. As a part of that, I'm looking for legal, quality sources of technology news that I can pay to syndicate to a website as a way to provide context to editorial and other types of content on the site (without going out and hiring a news staff). It isn't a cheap proposition, but working at Mashable, I know what a hassle it can be to headhunt quality writing talent for news stories, when normally everyone you hire for that is really interested in doing paid editorial or on air work.

Concurrent to this, I get a pitch from Nick Halstead over at Fav.or.it to check out some "new ways to navigate the site":

We put up a major updated today - 4 new ways to navigate, by Tag (my new favorit!), By Feed, full-text search and popular pages.

The best way to experience all of this is go take a look, below are links to pages which we think best demonstrate the new functionality.

Tag Page Examples
http://fav.or.it/tag/obama
http://fav.or.it/tag/gadget
http://fav.or.it/tag/chocolate
http://fav.or.it/tag/apple

Feed Page Examples
http://fav.or.it/feed/523 - (Mashable)
http://fav.or.it/feed/672 - (TechCrunch)
http://fav.or.it/feed/528 - (Chris Brogan)
http://fav.or.it/feed/2214 - (/Film)
http://fav.or.it/feed/3746 - (Just Jared)

I took a good long look at the links he sent me, today. Here's the thing - they're reposting full feeds, pulling up all comments from the original sites, and advertising other Fav.or.it site content around their pulled content. If you leave a comment there at Fav.or.it, it doesn't head back to the original site, either.

They're splogging, in other words. Not only that, but they're splogging and trapping content and visitors at their site. Additionally, they're pulling out any advertisements that are normally in the feeds, as well (something that must be actively filtered for).

What's more, these guys are darlings in the Web 2.0 press. When Louis and I weren't so convinced on these guys, I remember Nick and Robert both defending it on FriendFeed or Twitter, as well as a number of other community advocates. I actually invited Nick to contact me to appear on an episode of Mashable Conversations to explain to me the value of the service. He agreed to come on the show, but never nailed down a date to do so.

So should I just start going around and re-using others content without permission, or should I fork up the cash on this new project and subscribe to some syndication networks and wire services for what I want to do?

Seems to me, if I frame my service with the right buzzwords, I can get away with using others content, no problem. Obviously, I'm probably going to go the legitimate route, but I'm wondering if I'm a fool for doing so.

I Appeared on ScatterCast

As many of you know, I'm some sort of podcasting fanatic. On a typical day, I've recorded at least two podcasting sessions, either for me, for Mashable, or as an appearance on someone else's podcast. If I'm not on a podcast, I'm blogging about podcasts. Sometimes I have phonecalls with other companies about their podcasts. I have podcasts coming out my nose.

Sean P. Aune, one of my buddies who works with me over at Mashable and does the Mashable Conversations video podcast with me had me on his podcast: ScatterCast:

This week I brought on Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins that I work with over at Mashable, and he has his own blog at Rizzn.com. Mark has been involved with podcasting for years, so we have a nice discussion about the history of the format, why it’s become popular and where he sees it going in the years to come. He’s probably forgotten more about the format than most people have ever even known, so it’s an interesting look into the thoughts of one of the biggest advocates of this style of chat show.

We had a good time - definitely worth a listen. Also a subscribe.

What's Next?

Alright. I've got several threads that I need to cap off here, and life has had me chasing rabbit trails instead of paying attention to what I said I was going to talk about here. Let's go down the list of things I said I was going to blog on here or elsewhere:

• Duncan Riley and Aaron Brazell's Blog Network Thing
• Austin Resources - I decided to do this over at Mashable, but I'd like to get some more input from you guys here as I develop the series. I know a lot of the Austin crew reads me here, so definitely give me your input. If you know any great bloggers in Austin who aren't on this list, leave them in the comments.
• Closed Topics vs. Open Topics - I had this thing I started talking about guided discussions vs things you don't mind if trolls get in on. Sitting in drafts still. Interesting topic, though.
• At the Edge of Eureka - Boy, you almost forgot about this, right? This is something where I've hit my eureka on. Right now I'm deciding what I want to say and what needs to be in the business plan.
• By the way, did anyone get this joke? I'm guessing not (which is OK by me. I amuse myself).
• There's also this thing that ValleyWag said, and the fact that I don't really agree with Ben Parr. I have a feeling that I'll be seriously pissing our readers off at Mashable if I get too honest about social media consultants as a group. There are some SMC I really like and who I think really have it together, but there are a lot of charlatans, and I think if I say that at Mashable, it'll cause some serious waves.
  
• ... and of course, my new take on blogging's style of journalism. Not to keep you in suspense, but I may save this for last, or at least the middle. Still want a couple more days between you know what and this.

In other news, we're off orange alert here at Mashable and back on yellow with purple polkadots alert (i.e., comment moderation is off).

Which stuff do you want first?

Some Amendments to Yesterday's Screed

A lot of what I said yesterday still stand. Actually, almost all of it still stands.

However, I feel I may have unfairly pointed some of my fervor at some folks that may not have warranted it. That's what this post is for.

Andrew Feinberg - he's not best known for being a contributor to TechnoSailor he says, and made it very clear that he wasn't attempting to be part of the lynch mob that came after me. Indeed, he implored me to shoot him if he ever became part of the blogosphere's various lynch mobs. I think that in my state of being overwhelmed, I mistook his general cynicism towards a lot of the "social media" culture to being directed at me personally. In other words, he's just cranky in general (not simply sour on me), and that's something I can respect.

Aaron Brazell - he admitted that his language was overly harsh, and while we still disagree on some semantics, he convincingly explained to me how it wasn't his intent to insult me. His witticism about my journalistic practices was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, but he restated his issues were more with that one piece than my entire body of work. We agreed to disagree.

So far, no one else has come forth to walk back any of their comments (nor did I really expect them to), though Svetlana Gladkova did try to tell me on the comments to a post on TechnoSailor that calling Mashable sensationalist was actually a compliment. I'm not sure how that's supposed to work.

Hopefully this will be the last I speak of this incident. I'm going to give this site another 24 hours to exist on "orange alert" with comment moderation turned on, although I'm happy to report that 94% of the comments I've received thus far on the topic have been overwhelmingly positive. As it turns out, I'm not out in left field.

I should probably take this opportunity to further go into the nature of what I think blogging's form of journalism is, but I think it's best left for another day, because while it's interesting, sparking a discussion on it so hot on the heels of this mess is likely going to end up tangling the topics together, and we'll end up back on the discussion of whether or not I'm a douche or all my detractors are douches, or what have you.

Let's agree to talk about that later then, shall we?

In the meantime, any serious thoughts are welcome on whether the blogosphere is screwed business-wise or if these recent events (Profy, Weblogs, Inc. and Gawker) are entirely coincidental and in no way form a pattern.

High School Drama in the Blogosphere

[Disclaimer: This article and video is only targeted towards a select few who know who they are. Chances are that if you aren't one of those few, you'll either be bored or insulted unnecessarily. Feel free to ignore this if you haven't publicly insulted me in the last four or five days.]

There are some weeks that I'm really ashamed of what I do for a living. These last few days have been reflective of that feeling. I posted what I thought was an evenhanded article on Friday afternoon about the 'early retirement' of the editorial staff from Profy.com. Somehow, for at least a few bloggers, this has turned into a "let's trash Mashable and Mark Hopkins" festival. These are folks that I've up until recently regarded as friends, allies and peers.

I say "up until recently" because some have really said some horrible things about me.

These things are so insulting and quotable that I'm really considering making them a permanent part of my web design here - enshrining them in the template. When you watch the video, you'll hear most of them, but let me put a few of the choice quotes here for your perusal:

"..if you are paid to be journalistic [Mark], then you my friend are a shitty journalist."
- Aaron Brazell, owner of TechnoSailor.com

"Mashable just chooses what they think is sensational enough to bring eyeballs (like in this case) ...there are much better places to reach people who actually care."
- Svetlana Gladkova, editor of Profy.com

"'Word comes to us?' 'Multiple sources?' I've been asked why I never tried to write for any 'A-List' blogs. Answer? I'd rather learn how to do it right ... in this case, I see little reason why anyone would want to be anonymous. I thought you were better than that, Mark."
- Andrew Feinberg, Washington DC commentator for TechnoSailor.com

"'[Mark] handled a hard story well' - I'm not even sure where to go from that. I'd be interested in hearing Editor Ostrow or Owner Cashmore's views on this post. Overall I'd say the post lacks consideration. I think I will have a response to the initial Mashable post this weekend - I'm really disappointed in Mashable on that post."
- Allen Stern, owner and editor of CenterNetworks.com

"I forget that the tech blogosphere is so much like high school and that there are many who believe it’s more important to be first than it is to get the story right."
- Cyndy Aleo-Carreira, contributor to The Industry Standard

Here's the bottom line - no one has been able to dispute any of the facts I've put out. Not a single one. I got the story right. I got the story first. What got people upset is that I didn't tell the story they wanted it told. Instead of admitting that fact, a few folks decided to pick the piece apart and focus on the process rather than what the heck is going on over at Profy (and perhaps the blogosphere as a whole) that would cause a whole editorial staff to walk out.

In this video, you'll hear me get all hot under the collar. I'm frankly sick of this high school drama, butt-hurt over nothing, childish behavior. We're supposed to be professionals.

Up until this point, it has generally been my policy to make nice with folks who come after me, even those that try to build a blogging career out of nitpicking my editorial policy. This has brought upon my life nothing but grief and a receding hairline. I simply don't have the patience or the health to expend upon this crap any longer. I can't believe I'm saying this, I'm starting to understand why Mike Arrington is such a prick to most of the blogosphere. He gets this crap all the time.

I don't expect apologies or personal emails or even comments from the folks I mention in this post or in the video. I'll say this - I hope it was gratifying, because it's your last chance to take potshots at me and call me a friend. This is the last time I wipe the slate clean. Disagree with me if you like (I love a good debate), but if you publicly denigrate my craft, my abilities or my person - we're done.

I'm not going to lose sleep over you. I'm not going to declare war on you. I'm not going to embargo your sources or not link to your blog. I'm simply going to never assume you have anything but your own best interests at heart, and will continue to stab me in the back if it means you might get ahead or a few more pageviews.

I'm simply too weary of doing nothing wrong and having to apologize for it.



Download the MP4

Professional or Prosumer?

This question is for the content producers out there. When you're creating a new venture, a new production, some sort of new content project... do you go for the most professional and feature-laden toolset out there? Imagine this is a new project for the general audiences you usually pitch to, but might have slightly different branding.

We have such a wide variety of tools to use when hosting and distributing our media these days - if I want to do video and have a sort of organically created feel, I can use YouTube to achieve that end. Flipside, I could use a completely decked out solution like CastFire or Episodic.

In the audio sense, there are a number of really good podcast platforms out there, and on the very organic and versatile side, there's stuff like Utterz, and on the uber-professional side there's outfits like Libsyn.

Does the distribution outfit matter when you're looking at content to subscribe and consume? Or is a feed is a feed is a feed?

SummerMash Austin Photos

I didn't have a personal photographer following me around for the night like Pete did, so pretty much all of my photos feature Pete and I in some way. Enjoy.

SummerMash Austin 2008

Also, thanks to TechZulu for getting these up.

If you have others, leave a link in the comments, and I'll include them.