Engadget Engaging In Censorship


Consequence_9

have you realized that rock stars always seem to l
Joined
Sep 29, 2008
Messages
793
Age
34
Location
100ft from the sea
SO Last night I posted a comment on this article, and woke up to find my comment had been removed. Word for word it said "this article is not just slanted, it's plain rude". Was I in the wrong here or does it seem like the OP was needlessly attacking opera's decision for no good reason (other than presumably being an apple fanboy)? I'm all for policing out the trolls, it makes for a better experience for everyone, but they're deleting comments simply because they don't agree with them. Sure it's their site & they reserve the right to do so, but is that really in good taste? What's ya take?
 
It's their website, your post becomes their content and they should be able to do whatever they feel like with it including reject it. I think engadgetsucks.com is available if you feel too strongly about it or there is probably a bunch of other sites that might not mind your posting unfavorable opinions about this on them like this one. There is always a possibility they crashed and your post was in between the back up cycle and did not get restored or the site was acting up like the unofficial blog had a few spasms recently, stuff has been known to happen that might not make it intentional, certainly cannot rule that out. I'd let it slide.
 
Well... What did you say?

Just don't take it personally, they're just protecting their site from potential flamewars.
If, though, they're trying to hide truth to save money, there's a problem. Like if they were paid to post the article about Opera and left out the fact that it isn't Flash enabled, you bring it out in a comment and that gets the boot, there's a problem.
 
They closed comments completely for a few days last week because the ranting jackasses had gotten totally out of hand. The comments have been deteriorating for a while now, and apparently the ipad coverage was enough to send the more virulent posters into full retard mode. It's good to see they're trying to keep it reasonable there now. Frankly, I don't care how stupid or biased some random commenter thinks a given post or product is. Meaningless comments should be removed, so that meaningful ones don't get lost in the noise.
 
Chip said:
They closed comments completely for a few days last week because the ranting jackasses had gotten totally out of hand. The comments have been deteriorating for a while now, and apparently the ipad coverage was enough to send the more virulent posters into full retard mode. It's good to see they're trying to keep it reasonable there now. Frankly, I don't care how stupid or biased some random commenter thinks a given post or product is. Meaningless comments should be removed, so that meaningful ones don't get lost in the noise.

Meaningless posts should be removed too. The iPad coverage was just ridiculous, about a dozen posts per day and only one or two with any real content. Gizmodo was even worse. Quite frankly, Engadget deserved all the shit they got for it, and their reaction to the people who wanted to read about something other than the iPad was what really set everything off. Their sarcastic and snarky post about filtering out Apple news was like taking a stick and whacking a hornet's nest. What they refused to acknowledge was that most of the people didn't want no Apple news, they just didn't want to be bombarded with content-free iPad posts to the detriment of all other coverage. Both sites have gotten better since then, mainly because they're actually covering other gadgets now, but the iPad coverage was absolutely ridiculous.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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?

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.

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?

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?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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."?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey, guess what? If you don't like the way a tech blog reports, then visit another tech blog. And if you have to be a whiny bitch who MUST read Engadget, but hates the apple coverage, they offer an Apple-free version of the site.
 
You guys are getting wayyyyy off topic, Consequence9 didn't post to start a flame war he just expressed an opinion he had on the article. It sounds like he didn't hate the company, he didn't hate how it was over posted on, or any of the things you guys are going on about.

Also, I don't think any form of censorship is all that great. People need to learn to ignore the lame comments on the web, maybe put some effort into it because if you're on the web and aren't able you are probably going to not have that great of an online experience. Usually in the first few words of a post if you feel the erg to role or eyes or if your blood starts boiling skip over it and probably every post in response to the one that made you feel that way. You shouldn't expect or even want someone to censor information for you, that should be done by you. We're all adults here, well, except for the people that freaking tick me off to no end ;)
 
Nova said:
Hey, guess what? If you don't like the way a tech blog reports, then visit another tech blog. And if you have to be a whiny bitch who MUST read Engadget, but hates the apple coverage, they offer an Apple-free version of the site.
That's the problem, I do like how engadget reports 95% of the time. In this case, however, the author of the post was needlessly attacking opera for nothing more than wanting to bring their product to the masses for no other reason (that I can see) other than the fact that it competes with apple's existing product. I was upset that upon politely pointing this out I was censored. It's specifically because I like engadget that I was upset.

I never said I hate the apple coverage; They are a major player in the industry & while I personally dislike their products & attitude I still like knowing what they're up to. However, as ravnos was saying there were a ridiculous amount of substance-less or speculative posts (both before and after the keynote) that really should have been condensed into many less, that's all. But that wasn't even my point, Second Exodus is spot on.

Also, I really don't appreciate being called a 'whiny bitch', especially when you're the one who's off-base here.

second exodous said:
You guys are getting wayyyyy off topic, Consequence9 didn't post to start a flame war he just expressed an opinion he had on the article. It sounds like he didn't hate the company, he didn't hate how it was over posted on, or any of the things you guys are going on about.

Also, I don't think any form of censorship is all that great. People need to learn to ignore the lame comments on the web, maybe put some effort into it because if you're on the web and aren't able you are probably going to not have that great of an online experience. Usually in the first few words of a post if you feel the erg to role or eyes or if your blood starts boiling skip over it and probably every post in response to the one that made you feel that way. You shouldn't expect or even want someone to censor information for you, that should be done by you. We're all adults here, well, except for the people that freaking tick me off to no end ;)
I agree completely; Engadget doesn't seem to know how to handle their trolls very well. They have settled for a blanket solution that has resulted in ALL the comments becoming worthless one-sided opinions. This is particularly bad for them in the long run because it shows that they just can't take criticism, despite being constructive or not. The hive-mind solution works relatively well in most cases, but it becomes worthless if you just sweep one whole side of an argument under the rug. If they only listen to the portion of their readers that agree with them they will inevitably end up alienating the rest. There posts are becoming more and more self-serving, and are slowly turning into gizmodo (the original reason I started reading engadget instead of them was because they were much too opinionated). I want news, not some fanboy bullshit every step of the way. Sure there are other tech blogs out there, but few with the scope of engadget.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Consequence9 said:
They have settled for a blanket solution that has resulted in ALL the comments becoming worthless one-sided opinions.
No, they've just removed the worthless comments. There are plenty of dissenting opinions, even in the post you linked. The difference between the comments that were left and yours is that the remaining comments actually made a point. They explained why they thought the post was incorrect, and provided examples. They didn't just say "This is bad!" for the sake of saying it. That's the difference between discussion and trolling.

If you're going to complain that a post is biased, at least take the time to back it up. Otherwise, all you're posting is useless noise.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Consequence9 said:
Also, I really don't appreciate being called a 'whiny bitch', especially when you're the one who's off-base here.

It's a good thing then that I wasn't referring to you, but the people (not naming names) who dislike Engadget's large Apple coverage.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Chip said:
No, they've just removed the worthless comments. There are plenty of dissenting opinions, even in the post you linked. The difference between the comments that were left and yours is that the remaining comments actually made a point. They explained why they thought the post was incorrect, and provided examples. They didn't just say "This is bad!" for the sake of saying it. That's the difference between discussion and trolling.

If you're going to complain that a post is biased, at least take the time to back it up. Otherwise, all you're posting is useless noise.
You're right, perhaps I should have been more descript, however, based on how vicious the original post was I didn't feel it really needed explaining.

Nova said:
It's a good thing then that I wasn't referring to you, but the people (not naming names) who dislike Engadget's large Apple coverage.
My bad, but can you see how I might've misinterpreted that? ;]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top