What Causes Social News Sites to Fail?
What Causes Social News Sites to Fail?
The lesson that Social News Sites learn is from Child Psychology, because the cause for the failure of those sites is from adults acting like undisciplined children, and not acting like mature, intelligent, adults.
Adults accomplish more by emphasizing the benefits of what they believe in - Lose more by criticizing others and what they believe in. It seems as if people who are capable of maintaining decorum in real life totally lose it when they post on the internet, because they know their identity is secret so they can let loose to their real personality without fear of reprisal.
When articles and comments are filled with destructive criticism, they fail to do what they intend to do, and do just the opposite. Surely child psychology teaches that better results are produced by positive reinforcement rather than punishment. Articles on Social News sites, and comments that they encourage are rife with hatred and derision - just what does anyone think they can accomplish with that? Perhaps accomplishing anything is far from the intention, maybe even the ability, of those who are steadfastly negative and derisive.
Why not, instead of posting articles designed to disparage, and ridiculing others and what they write, try to steer a better course by establishing instead a positive view of what one believes that is contrary to what is considered offensive, inaccurate or unjust in what others propose? It would make Social News Sites a better place, attract rather than repel new members to benefit a site, and by being reasonable, make one's point more credible and thereby more respected.
Just think of how much more pleasant, more enjoyable, more educational, and beneficial it could be for members of such a site, and more positive for the site itself.
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This is probably the most useless article I've ever posted.
It's a good piece, Buzz. But as you say, probably useless. With one rule, we could do away with the CoC: Be polite!
Be polite? I'm probably the only Canadian here.
LOL. Yet another thing that is a waste of time to post here.
"Never tolerate those who are disrespectful." I like this.
I prefer to respect those that are intolerant of intolerance
I will treat poster people like persons, unless they prefer to be a poster chile gone while, as I can go as low as any Limb Bo, and as high as some. while there are many far more educated than I round here, I a tempt, like so futile a , a way, to perhaps enlighten a few, with my pointless points of an obscured view of an obscured view.
I agree too much over the top can be an affecting effect, that might infect, while
dejecting a few
but, too polite and people won't wish to partake .
Echo chambers do not progress thoughts far.
Believe most would prefer a happy medium, now me,
I found the last unmoderated months of Newsvine to be the real world, that which I reside.
I do speak , in ANY life, with the same loud voice, I'd sugar coat, but I worry about all of the
diabetics.
I understand that, I think! For me, this year 2018, it occurs to me that I should demand more for my time than mudslinging. After all, in my real life, I do not speak to people who are disrespectful of me for long. Why do so in the virtual world?
People of integrity, who can debate an issue without insulting the other side, i.e. educated mature people are not the ones who create an echo chamber. An echo chamber is to me a mirror, wherein everyone is a clone of the others and have nothing intelligent to add to or dispute a concept. An echo chamber denotes emptiness, and that is what a Social News Site will become if all the members are only looking into mirrors and not even considering other possibilities. If there are not two sides to every story, then there are more than two, and anyone who is unable to see that not only will never be known as a Renaissance person, but will remain a two-dimensional caricature of a human being.
"There are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio." (Shakespeare's Hamlet)
It's like road rage. We're a bit insulated from the results of our actions, so we don't guard our actions like we should.
The number one reason is red ink. If the social media site loses more than it makes eventually the businesses will collapse. They can continue to exist with losses if they have growth but eventually they will hit a slowdown and not be able to pay the bills or secure financial backing. If Facebook, Snapchat or any other social media site is not profitable eventually it will fail.
I have no doubt NBC pulled the plug on Newsvine because it was losing money on a bad investment.
Although lack of membership would not have been the cause of Newsvine's red ink, there can be other causes such as unreasonably high expenses, and I think that insufficient membership size and growth causes little chance of gaining sponsors/advertisers and so a site wherein the content is demeaning and derogatory will most likely fail. Possibly Newsvine's content was becoming so disgusting that the moderators could no longer control it. The proliferation of purple font since NT inherited many NV refugees supports my theory.
So I do agree with you that the closing was due to red ink, but what must be addressed is the CAUSE of the red ink.
The number one reason is red ink.
Purple ink is causing this one to fail.
Bullshit. Childishness, if anything, is what would cause it. Buzz hit the nail on the head.
Careful, that comment could be full of violations - depending on Perrie’s mood.
Oh please, stop whining. The COC and TOS are clear. Violate them and get purple penned. It was the same at Newsvine before they threw in the moderation towel. If you think you are being moderated unfaairly, you might want to go re-read your comments with an open mind.
Yesterday someone was advocating for forced mass incarceration of all homeless people and all mentally ill people, as their solution for mass shooting gun violence. I wrote the word ‘fascist’, and received a violation. Apparently “speak your mind” does not include calling a spade a spade. Seriously, it is high time that NT changes that stupid mantra to be descriptive of what is actually going on here. Maybe “get censored here” is a better one.
I believe there is some truth to that as I’ve seen content censored here that was allowed to stand on Facebook and they are probably the most successful.
Badfish wants us to follow the rules. Lol. That’s like Nikolas Cruz saying “stop the violence”.
Did you specifically call someone a 'Fascist'? If you did, it's pretty obviously a CoC violation. You don't get to call other people names, regardless if you think you are right or not. I'm sure there are other sites where you can do that, but it's against the rules here. If you did not, then appeal the violation.
First of all I just wrote the single word ‘fascist’. Secondly, is fireman a name? How about lunch lady? You are a snowmobile enthusiast, but I can call you snowmobiler. When you advocate for fascist totalitarian rule, you are a fascist. It’s plain English, not name calling. Someone could, in all seriousness, write “I am a fascist” here and it would be considered speaking your mind, but if someone responds by calling them a fascist they would get the violation.
Rest assured that if you step over the line one bit the usual suspects will flag you and make complaints. Bet on it...
Perhaps we need some new words. As in, "That comment was fascisty", or, "You wandered into reichwing territory".
The worst instigators are those most likely to whine, complain, and report you for even implying any personal insult.
Oh, FaceBook knows just how to censor, and that is whatever is contrary to their personal politics - especially when Angela Merkel tells the twerp Zukerberg (or is it Zukerman - the farmer with the famous pig) what to do.
Then they remove the comments for skirting. The authoritarians outnumber the freedom lovers on this site.
IMO Mike L. was a big advocate for promoting freedom of speech on this site. It’s been a gradual erosion of freedom since we lost him as a moderator on this site.
You wrote just the one word "fascist"? It means extreme right wing. I would think it to be no different than calling a person a Progressive, or a Libertarian, or a Communist. They are all simply descriptive of a person's politics. A Fascist is not a Nazi, although some persons such as Hitler or Mussolini or Franco were considered to be Fascists, and calling someone a Fascist could then be considered comparing them to those notorious ones. But then does calling a person a Communist (or as some put it: "commie") mean they are no different than Mao or Stalin? This in itself could make an interesting discussion.
In your opinion implying personal insults is constructive?
Then make your argument to Perrie and appeal the 'violation'. Get a read on why she (if it was her) purple penned you-it might be a misunderstanding.
It's nice to see this, Buzz. People on social media lose their fear of saying stupid and insulting things, where in the real world, they would have to face the results of their words and actions, from shame all the way to having somoene kock them on their butt (in an extreme case). The world would stop functioning if we acted like we were on social media while away form our keyboards.
And I believe NV failed due to its failure to moderate-it left the inmates in charge of the asylum.
Failure to moderate could have been because the moderators were not being paid for the massive efforts that they had to make to keep control of the site, and you are right that the inmates started to run the asylum. My concern here is the recent huge increase in the NEED to moderate.
Can't disagree with you. I noticed one of the old heads around here insulting people here on this Monday morning.....hard to get the new people to understand when the old heads decide to act like children.
The NV Mods were paid, in most cases, full time employees. They either chose to not moderate fairly or it weas done by ownership policy and direction.
Not over the last few years. They were part-time, and eventually, it was one part-time employee. Then they outsourced moderation for a few months, and then there was none.
Fair enough, when I left there were 2 fulltimers and they had already ceeded control to the inmates. That's why I left.
I think the nations concept was a way to shift moderation onto the members, because they became part-time shortly after that rolled out.
It didn't work, obviously.
It was shortly after the nations thing came into being, that it just stopped being fun or being a place to get smarter at. I feel bad that Calvin and Company's grand idea got so bastardized as to be unrecognizable.
I’m not feeling bad for him. It was his choice to sell and I believe he got far more for it than it was actually worth. I had read somewhere that NBC could have bought it for some of the technology used in formatting the site so maybe they got something out of the deal.
Oh, I don't feel bad for him, I'm happy for him, he got paid a significant sum and is able to do things he wants to becuase of that. I feel bad that the original goal of the site was lost in the bastardization process. It was a place that I looked forward to interracting on daily.
I think Calvin would have been happy emulating Jacques Cousteau - his greatest love was scuba diving. He was the only person in control of NV whom I trusted.
True. The last 6 months or so that NV was online, there was NO moderation at all. It really went downhill once the announcement was made that it would be shutting down. I sent a few emails to Dave, whom I had talked to several times and no response or explanation was given. I would assume that NV fired all the moderators shortly after the announcement that the site was closing.
I can see that the comments are starting to edge into a direction that is heading to a bad place, so, since it is now 10:30 p.m. where I am, and I'm pretty tired, I'm heading for bed for some pleasant reading and sleep, so come back again 10 or so hours from now because I'm going to close this article until then, since I will be unable to monitor it. Good night all or good morning, as the case may be.
Now let's see if a revised CoC will reduce the purple font, because if it doesn't, IMO it will be because of the insufficient tightening of the disciplinary rules.
There is virtually no doubt as to what has caused most of the problems on social media and everywhere else people discuss current events. Right wing media. Conservative media such as Breitbart, Fox News, Gateway Pundit, Infowars, etc. fills gullible people's minds with nonsense 24/7 , and many of those gullible have no restraint on their confused and belligerent thoughts, so they spew crap into the "town square" constantly without a moment's remorse.
And of course Left-Wing news sources are factual, believable, and totally free of any prejudice and bias whatsoever.
Buzz, I dont play that both sides do it bullshit, and having read many of your comments I have questions as to whether or not you are familiar enough with these media sources to know the difference. Studies have shown over and over that the right wing media is much more dishonest.
Post links to them. And who does the media studies - liberals or conservatives?
Are you suggesting that right wing media outlets are NOT biased?
No, I'm suggesting that BOTH are biased, so bias is exhibited by those who say one side or the other is more biased than the other.
Americans have become so fucking polarized, if they weren't living next door to each other, I think there would be another civil war. With all the guns being owned by so many Americans, I'm surprised there hasn't already been a proliferation of neighbours shooting each other.
You know Buzz, honestly I think that sites like this magnify the problem. In real life, it isn't like this. And I have been around the US and have not found people at each other's throats.
But I can see how you could get that impression.
Actually, I was just going to post a comment that if NT were any indication, then it justifies my opinion, but of course in "real life" things are probably not that bad.
Are you suggesting that just because he is SO DEDICATED to disparaging Trump and the conservatives that he could be a paid shill?
You have been seeding fake news on this site for a couple years. The damage that has done to your credibility is immeasurable.
You act like it is illogical to criticize Trump, when it is the most logical thing imaginable. What is illogical is to say that he is no worse than other politicians.
Sadly, some independents and moderates have lost their way in that regard.
In "real life" people can relatively easily avoid discussions of politics. On a forum, that (discussing it) is often the reason people are there.
My brother and his sons and daughter and their spouses all voted for Trump. I havent discussed Trump with any of them since before the election in '16, even though I have seen them numerous times since then.
My sister and her kids are Democrats who cant stand Trump and I talk about politics with her all the time. You can say that in "real life" you dont see acrimony, but of course that is by conscious design in many cases.
That is utter and complete and total nonsense.
Nobody in the world is beyond being criticized - perhaps Mother Teresa would have been the closest to qualify. However, one thing that in my opinion Trump should be applauded for is for keeping his promises about Israel. I don't know enough about the American economy to have an opinion as to whether Trump has worsened or benefited it, but others have indicated figures that show it has benefited, that unemployment has dropped and that employees received bigger Christmas bonuses. For decades no POTUS, Democratic or Republican, had the guts to do what he has done, and only played both sides by indicating that moving the US Embassy to a spot in Israel that was ALWAYS within the Israeli partition zone would be a problem for American national security - what a load of bullshit that has ALWAYS been. It was always my opinion that the Palestinians were NEVER going to be honest about making peace with Israel, so it didn't make things worse, and by acknowledging the Palestinian intransigence let them know that their game is up, which IMO will make things better in the long run. (See the article I seeded today about the Palestinian desire to rid Jews from ALL of the lands "from the river to the sea".)
One out of three ain't bad. Batting 300 is still pretty good, you know.
Buzz, Donald Trump is a pathological liar , a crook, a bully, a constant cheat, a narcissistic braggart, a con man, and an ignoramus.
If you think it is unfair to criticize or attack him you are woefully uninformed or have your own biases.
Don't forget ..... a Fascist. And the Fascist he is can't be denied. He stabbed the Jews in the back...... Oh sorry that was the other guy.
Since I'm not an American, am looking at the situation from afar, and in my profession was trained to consider both sides of a story, I'm considerably more objective than you, and I think the record of our comments on NT bear that out.
Thank you for your "unbiased" opinion. LOL
That's becuase peole understand out in the real world, you act civilized or no one wants you around and in some cases, you could get knocked on your ass if you acted like some do on soical media. It's pretty much a given that peole can let their idiot side hang out on the Internet with virtually no one to stop them. Threats and insults mean little as there is really not much that will happen to them.
As to bias? Of course, both sides are biased, only those that are willfully ignorant deny that. I change the news sites I read almost daily, to try to find some that are less biased than others. I recall the Editor of the NY Times pledging to report the truth after the election debacle when they got it so wrong.....
and repeat the same debunked nonsense and lies and misinformation over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.'
speaking of confused and belligerent . . . . . .
Especially the photo of that Cruz person who just killed all those kids in the Florida school - it was the wrong person and he offered no retraction whatsoever.
Yeah I got tired of that too.
Trump can’t win because he’s alienated women and minorities.
Trump’s campaign is in shambles and the Republicans are focusing on downballot races and have given up on the Presidency.
The tea party has destroyed the Republican party and they are now only the party of the south.
They see it on Maddow and mindlessly parrot that crap for years afterwards.
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You're all a bunch of poopy heads!!
Considering the direction that this article took, I think that may apply to at least SOME of the members who have posted here.
I think the time has come to lock this article for the night again. Judging from some of the comments that are being posted I think what's happening here has made my point for me.
One upside though - no purple font.
I think I've made my point with this article, and now that it is being twisted into partisan politics it's time to lock it for good.
I don't intend to unlock this for further comments, but I thought it and the comments on it were relevant to the Meta discussion going on about making the site more attractive to newcomers and those already here.