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Fasten Your Seatbelts...It's Gonna Be A Bumpy Sight
New York, 10:45 AM
Tue Dec 22
61 posts in the last 24 hours
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Fasten Your Seatbelts...It's Gonna Be A Bumpy Sight |
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07/15/09
Hmm. Actually, let me re-punctuate that.
yay!
07/10/09
I may not comment often, but when I do, I generally take the time to give my contribution some thought. I have absolutely no interest in throwing that effort into a pool of greyed-out "mediocrity"; I'd prefer at least the illusion of open discourse. (Incidentally, I did have enough followers to get myself a star, before all this nonsense, had I so chosen; not being particularly invested, either virtually or veritably, in class or caste systems, I hadn't bothered asking for it.)
Anyway, to all the Jezebel commenters, starred and unstarred, whose reactions and responses to various posts I've had the pleasure of reading, thank you. To the Jezebel editors who have sourced and created the many posts I've read and learned from, thank you. To whoever conceived this ill-advised thinly-disguised way to make the Gawker Media sites a members-only, by-invitation, segregated club, without even the courtesy of openly doing so, fuck you.
07/14/09
07/10/09
I don't like the new system. I understand the desire for things to stay as civil as possible around on here, but one of the things I like most about Jezebel was that it was teaching me that it was okay to call people out on their misogynist BS. It's a strength I've only just begun developing in real life and this site was helping. I'm afraid I'll now see less of that.
Also, are the stars good across the Gawker network? That seems a little counter productive to me. It assumes that someone who regularly makes awesome posts on another Gawker blog will do so here as well...which is not the case at all. If the stars are good across the board, it's rather funny that io9 will be giving stars out but Jezebel will be taking them away. So if io9 gives me a star, can Jez take it away?
I really didn't expect my number 1 feminist blog to make me feel like a second class citizen (especially using the Tier 1 and 2 language!). I was concerned that I would have to stop reading Jezebel due to a personal philosophical crisis I am having, and I wanted to ask advice about that in an open thread, but I don't know if I'll be able to do that now. Or if I do, if anyone will see it or care.
I'm on time consuming business trip into next week, so maybe I'll just use that as an excuse to take a backseat and see how this goes.
07/14/09
07/10/09
Not trying to make light of the changes, I do think it's wrong that comments are invisible unless you go out of your way to view them all. There is something wrong about silencing our opinions.
None of us want the comments to become cluttered with Worsties, obviously! It didn't seem to me like this was an urgent problem, though. Hortense does a great job with regulating and banning commenters, and I think this system was working extremely well. If they needed more control over it, then promote some prolific commenters as moderators-lite, or allow all of us to flag or "dislike" bad comments. The tier system seems absolutely unnecessary in terms of culling those comments, it just makes our regular discourse more complicated and scattered.
In the meantime, I'm content with my pretty little white and grey star.
07/10/09
07/11/09
07/10/09
I'm also disappointed in the new format. The reverse chronology is absolutely headache inducing! The gray text is not helping matters. Please make these things optional. Actually, just toss out the gray text all together -- we get it, guys...
07/10/09
07/11/09
07/10/09
They tried to do this last update, making popular comments stand out and totally destroying the thread, and we hated it so they got rid of that right away. There's more crap to wade through now because no one's comment has any context and all the conversations are broken up. Also the threads are backwards, so the progression of of conversation is screwed up.
07/10/09
On top of that the new system is seriously confusing and overcomplicated. I read this entire post several times and I'm still not sure exactly what the editors are trying to foster here.
While I really dig many of the star commenters, it's always been obvious that they aren't THAT much different than the unstarred. Some comments are brilliant, some helpful, some funny, some chatty, some boring/lame. Everyone has good days and bad.
This is just going to hide a lot of the once-in-a-blue-moon transcendent comments and encourage EVEN MORE echochamber/emulation of "popular" commenters.
This is pretty ridiculous considering we already have to audition just to post. Guess I should have requested a star a while back, I'll never get one now ;)
07/10/09
That said, I think this is a poorly thought-out move on Gawker's part, though I don't blame the Jezebel crew at all. At this point, I think it'd be Jezebel's best interest to break away, because let's face it, you have enough followers to have your own site. Does a site that wants to encourage a feminist lens on the world really want to be associated with Gawker, which is problematic in many ways?
I think the effect of this change can be seen immediately. People are clustering and it's not nice to see. Glad to say, there are a good number of those with stars that aren't waving them around frantically and laughing off this horrible change to the community. Cause this is horrible, it'll kill the spirit of the place that had been around before.
I really feel like this place has lost something that made it special and unique amongst the gossip blogs. Not it's just the same. Cliquey, predictable, tired.
07/10/09
I agree with the rest of what you're saying, too, but that's the only part of what I can constructively add to.
07/09/09
I'm immediately noticing that the starred people are grouping together and patting each other on the back. They're also pretty much the only ones saying, "Oh, please stay! We do like you, we do!" Well, of course many of you want the Tier 2s to stay; there's no sense of supremacy if no one is around to lord over. I absolutely guarantee that peoples' tune will be changing as the stars go bye-bye.
Now that I've also ready Denton's absolutely party-like-it's-2002 VIP screed, I realize that Gawker network sites are places to simply lurk in. Nothing more.
What really turned my stomach was the starred commenter above saying that Tier 2s are like the unruly guests in the living room, and are "equal, but different". Disgusting. Hey, maybe "your kind" will condescend to throw the others a bone or a pat on the head.
This saddens me. I have to wonder how many other people have decided to abandon discourse, as well.
07/10/09
In the end, it's just a website, and I get that. But I've always enjoyed the diversity of thought/experience and really, if I personally have any "banter" with someone here, it's just because they've been around forever, it has nothing to do with the star.
07/09/09
I am also not fond of the grey font. It looks like the ghost of some poor unpopular Tier 2 commenter's comment (like me! hey!).
07/09/09
07/09/09
I'm meh about this except I think the reverse order of comments messes with the usability. I think this site invites much more detailed and meaningful discourse that Facebook or Twitter, and reverse commenting might be a step backwards in terms of community. Like I'm sure others have said, it's easier to read the commenters' responses as a narrative if they're presented in order. Jezebel's more a story then a social networking site.
07/09/09
07/09/09
07/09/09
07/09/09
07/09/09
I suppose the new format is best in terms of keeping trolls and meanies at bay, but it feels sort of like punishment for those of us who have been here since the very beginning and loyally read everything but can't always comment during business hours. I suppose somebody has to be part of Tier 2 in order for Tier 1 to exist...
07/09/09
07/09/09
07/09/09
07/09/09