AOL Buying Up Blogs 106
1%warren writes "The Register has posted a report on AOL's purchase of many of the more popular Blogs. It quotes an AOL executive as saying: 'You can't really put figures on this, but we think we have 78 per cent of the libertarian news blogs, and 91 per cent of the ClueTrain Manifesto fan sites.'"
As happens with these things, I am not allowed to comment.
April fools? (Score:3, Funny)
The cluetrain bit was a giveaway...
Re:April fools? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:April fools? (Score:1)
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=1, Redundant=1, Funny=3, Overrated=1, Total=6.
I can cope with the overrated, but offtopic? Given the level of "reporting" from /. today, I don't think we can consider anything offtopic...
However, "redundant" has taken on a new meaning, as the first post (yes, it was, BFD [acronymfinder.com]) gets moderated as redundant.
Note: This is not an invitation to partake in a flame war; just my thoughts on the moderation. Ho, hum, off to post a comment to give me that extra +1 to max out at 50 again...:) Wonder if this will be it or if I'll get whacked with a -2 for troll/flamebait...;)
In Other News... (Score:1)
Re:In Other News... Microsoft Buys up the Moon (Score:2)
Re:In Other News... (Score:3, Funny)
"That's not a moon...that's a space station."
It Figures... (Score:2)
Re:In Other News... (Score:1)
April fools at it's best... (Score:1)
ah well.
Re:April fools at it's best... (Score:2)
Re:April fools at it's best... (Score:1)
Re:April fools at it's best... (Score:2)
-AC
Re:April fools at it's best... (Score:2)
Re:April fools at it's best... (Score:1)
Need more coffee.
At Last! (Score:1, Funny)
In related news... (Score:4, Informative)
The story [kuro5hin.org].
No surprise (Score:1)
Makse Sense, they sold their Web Directory (Score:2)
What happened? (Score:1)
Why does it say "-47,169 categories" at the bottom?
I like that it prominently says "Micrsoft" at the top with the Mozilla dragon (or whatever it is) at the bottom.
Best of all is this page [dmoz.org] which has "Copyright © 1999-2001 Netscape" at the bottom and "Monopolies do it better" in bold
Re:Makse Sense, they sold their Web Directory (Score:1)
Please buy Snow Journal (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:April Fools, or Political Conspiracy? (Score:4, Funny)
Which makes April 1 the perfect cover for skullduggery. By the time you're wise the coup would be completed.
Taco's "As happens with these things, I am not allowed to comment" could actually be an indicator that Slashdot VA is/was in negotiations...
It's a thing that should make you go, "hmm"
Re:April Fools, or Political Conspiracy? (Score:2)
That can't be the reason, the article said they were Libertarian news blogs...
AOL/CNN has been trying to find ways of reaching the audience of Fox News. Apparently the executives of CNN look at the Fox News viewership and conclude that there is a market for political news with a right wing bias.
Of course they would never consider the fact that the decline in CNN viewers might be due to their policy of dumbing down the news and giving saturation 'OJ Simpson' style coverage for stories that don't produce that amount of news. CNN is trying to model its news coverage on the Network news model which does not work for an audience that wants news and not entertainment.
Ten years ago you could get a pretty good idea of world politics from CNN. Today the TV station is useless for news or analysis. They can have a half hour segment on the issue of steel tarifs without mention of the fact that imposing tarifs on EU steel means that the EU is unlikely to support Bush on Israel or Iraq. Go to the EU press and it is topic number one.
Buying up blogs for profit does not appear to be a very sensible move. Nobody has demonstrated that a Blog is a scalable business. There are a number of folk like Pub who runs F*****Company.com who make enough to cover their costs and eat. But almost all the attempts to do it at scale have folded.
Buying up blogs to influence opinion or drive people to another site is an even sillier move, all available evidence suggests that people don't behave that way on the Web. Internet communities are typically ephemeral, most mailing lists last only about three or four years before the signal to noise ratio plumets and it is time to go elsewhere. Without moderation Web forums last even less time, the first Web forum WIT lasted only a couple of weeks before the S/N went to zero.
It's not 1999 anymore.... (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:It's not 1999 anymore.... (Score:2, Informative)
AOL's secret marketing campaign (Score:1)
Does this mean that they are buying actual intellectual ideas? Or are they buying this just to send hidden suggestions deep into our minds.
3 Blind mice... Watch how they run, watch how they fall off the cliff into a deep ravine and are cured of all their ills. - Steve Marcus 1943 Oscars
April 1st is anathema to news sites. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:April 1st is anathema to news sites. (Score:1)
AOL BUYS up all thought -blogs were the first step (Score:5, Funny)
Re:AOL BUYS up all thought -blogs were the first s (Score:2)
Comment? (Score:4, Funny)
And can we get him not to be allowed to comment on more things?
Re:Comment? (Score:1)
I've always thought the editors here should get in the nitty gritty with the rest of us, and not be so aloof.
Re:Comment? (Score:3, Interesting)
That's too funny, gotta love the karma cap. Instead of a cap they should just expire the points away when the story is archived. Then the karma whore's would really have to work to keep their +2 bonus :-)
Food for thought... (Score:3, Funny)
The moral of the story (Score:2)
Re:The moral of the story (Score:1)
GENIUS!
My kingdom for a modpoint, if only so that I might mod thee up.
(HMMM, it seems the Anonymous posting option has been turned off at least for logged in users. Hopefully this is either another April Fool's joke or a temporary bug. Then again if I were Taco I could see making the ability to post as AC without logging off and on again as a subscriber only option.)
Re:The moral of the story (Score:2)
Sorry, anonymous posting has been turned off. Please register and log in.
So, it's definately not a bug... And logging off and on again doesn't work...
Disappointed (Score:1)
Ya know... (Score:2)
Re:Ya know... (Score:1)
Too Late (Score:2)
Phil
Re:April fools trickery (Score:1)
April Fool's Jokes not news (Score:1, Troll)
And no, I don't consider the stories here on Slashdot to be particularly truthful anyway, but the sites linked might be.
Re:April Fool's Jokes not news (Score:1)
Re:April Fool's Jokes not news (Score:2)
Yes, but this also makes it difficult to look for any *real* news from April 1. In fact, most stories (and mailing list postings) from the evening of 31 March until the morning of 2 April are all suspect.
I remember this was very bad last year, and I'm afraid that this year is going to be worse.
It should be relatively trivial to put all April Fools' Jokes into their own category, while allowing them to retain a "real" icon and such. That way, people who just want the news on days like today can filter these things out.
I, for one, would hate to be a PR guy at a company which released something on Friday, got picked up by the geek sites on Monday, and had all the press ignored because it was April 1.
Re:April Fool's Jokes not news (Score:2)
Evil Empire (Score:1)
April Fools Sucks (Score:3, Funny)
I will say this only once
DO
NOT
PUT SALT IN MY COFFEE!!!!!!!!!
Co-worker with no sense of humor did this last year. Oh, your tires got slashed? APRIL FOOLS!
OH MY GOD (Score:1)
>
>
>
>
>
MSN doing it too (Score:2)
Re:MSN doing it too (Score:2)
Phillip.
Oh MY GOD, to correct my 'oops' (Score:1)
::goes to get gun::
::loads gun::
::promptly shoots self in foot::
::gets angry and shoots the registar, since I was gullible enough to fall for it::
::shoots AOL, then MS just for the hell of it::
Thats how it should have appeared...
So... (Score:2)
And does anyone have any idea why?
Re:So... (Score:2)
Re:So... (Score:1)
Damn spammers.
Re:So... (Score:2, Insightful)
All I have to say is that editors better not bitchslap this thread down, it's unrealistic to make such a big change to the site, not create a story for it, and then mod anyone offtopic that posts about it in an unrelated story.
Re:So... (Score:2)
What will the karma whores do when they want to flame and not lose their karam points?
Re:So... (Score:1)
Dedicated trolling accounts, or just logging out. I assume not logged in users can still post?
--It's been 1 minute since you last successfully posted a comment-- that is driving me crazy. Couldn't they fix it so you could post like, 3 comments in 6 minutes, but not require you to space out the individual comments so much? The net effect would be the same. OK I guess I have wasted 60 seconds of my life now. Time to hit submit again.
Re:So... (Score:2)
Re:So... (Score:1)
LIke I said in another reply to this parent, I've actually been in favor of removing anon posting, if anything, it's an illusion of anonmity, however you spell it. They will always have IP address logs, and an account created with a hotmail email address created with fake info offers the same level of protection as AC does.
Re:So... (Score:1)
Re:So... (Score:1)
Re:So... (Score:1)
As far as I can tell no.
Re:So... (Score:2)
I've argued that before, so I can't say I'll miss it much. The only thing I much used it for was to avoid reparenting when replying to ACs.
I'm excited about the Virgo's. (Score:4, Funny)
Now that's an audience I'd like to be closer to.
Re:I'm excited about the Virgo's. (Score:1)
Re:I'm excited about the Virgo's. (Score:1)
Re:I'm excited about the Virgo's. (Score:1)
Why does Slahdot Lie to us? (Score:1)
http://www.pengaol.org [pengaol.org]
Moderation (Score:1)
What's a blog? (Score:1)
That's Not All (Score:3, Funny)
Re:That's Not All (Score:1)
Whoops.
AOL Just bought LibertyNews.org (Score:1)
Finally I can retire to that mountaintop cabin in Idaho. I want to thank Bob and Steve and Sharon for all their hard work in putting together this deal -- AOL stock is going to be worth something in the future, isn't it?
Brian
editor of the formerly privatly owned news site Libertynews.org
Re:AOL Just bought LibertyNews.org (Score:2)
Well if this was true... (Score:1)
It is however April Fool's Day, and I don't even think AOL is a big enough fool to start buying up personal websites
What April Fools Does To The Web... (Score:2)
I hate April Fools ... but probably not as much as others do. Example:
Media Bistro [mediabistro.com]
posted this "story" as the lead in its
daily News Feed:
But they must have wised up, as it no longer appears on their front page [mediabistro.com]. Oops.
Glad to see a sense of humor (Score:1)
BTW - I wish the "boba fett" helment on ThinkGeek was real. Would love to were it to my next staff meeting.
No comment from Taco? (Score:1)
Yeah.
This is NOT a joke! (Score:1)
Re:April 1 (Score:3, Funny)
Re:April 1 (Score:1)
Actually April Fools is named because... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Actually April Fools is named because... (Score:2)
Re:April 1 (Score:1)
Coming back? When did they leave? I'm staring into a great big vacuum tube right this second.
Re:April 1 (Score:1)
Sounds like all the April fools jokes were on you...
We feel your pain, really...
Re:April 1 (Score:2, Insightful)
The point is that in an information-saturated society, you need to sometimes step back and be a little more critical. 4/1 is an arbitrary day set aside to pause and reflect on trust. It celebrates and tests our ability to think critically, just as we use Christmas to reflect on charity or Valentine's Day to celebrate our relationships. I've been burned once or twice by 4/1, but I've emerged from the embarrassment a little wiser each time.
By the way
Re:April 1 (Score:1)
Re:AI Eureka! (Score:1)
Re:AI Eureka! (Score:2)