Gawker
Last week Chairman Denton wrote about Television Without Pity, the "unfettered" TV review site that just lost its three founding members, a lonely one year after Bravo acquired it. Fittingly, our commenters (many revealing themselves to be multiple-site commenting addicts) had many well formed opinions about the heavily commenter-focused TWoP, opining at length about why the three favorites left and what happened, in a general sense, to the once mighty site. Essentially the same conclusion was reached by all, that TWoP fell to that oldest of internet stories: small, cult-ish site ("beautifully self-contained", commenter Colonel Mustard mused) gets noticed and keeps getting bigger until it collapses under its own weight, especially when it goes corporate. There are too many recaps now! Who cares about Samantha Who?? (No one, I hope.) There are soo many damned commenting rules, you keened.
Many of your prognoses were grim, based on the chief talent leaving, but commenter Crunchbird thoughtfully, if a bit cynically, suggested that the site was purchased for a more forward-thinking, pinko commie reason:
As far as whether Bravo was buying the "content" (i.e., the recaps) or the "talent," I'd say they were buying neither. They were buying the community, and the reliable and frequent page views that community would provide. They needed the talent to create the community in the first place, and keep them reassured through the transition, but they probably think it can chug along just fine without the founders now that it's got sufficient mass of its own.Hmm. Interesting. The inmates running the asylum? Why would anyone ever let anyone do that?
Comments
Umm. Pot, meet kettle.
This is like the time KentuckLawMan4367 flagged me with his Enter.
Also, hi ColonelMustard!
Umm. Irony, meet flyoverstate.
@mathnet: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FLAG BUTTON??
Um, breaking?
[www.nytimes.com]
Eliot Spitzer set to announce involvement in prostitution ring at 2:15.
I believe those who've been flagged to excess no longer have the option themselves.
So the content/portal that generated the network becomes self-sustaining through the relationships created by participants. Okay, I'll bite. That seems valid.
Perhaps a bit limited, though. It's like buying a coin-op carwash and showing up once a week to collect the change and fill the vending machines. You aren't really driving business in or out, you're just turning the key. I'm sure this is not the way it was explained to management when the place was purchased -the long-term value is in building the community. If you're satisfied with current cash flows, why would you pay a premium to acquire them?
To blog or not to blog.
That is the question.
Whether tis nobler in the mind to comment
About the stuff that we are bound to comment on.
Or to take arms against a sea of gossip
And by opposing, not comment.
@mathnet: Poop.
@Phyllis Nefler:
SHIT.
Now he is going to be investigating WFC's BALLS off. He is running to the big red phone screaming "GET ME EVERY RAT BASTARD FINANCIER IN NEW YORK IN HERE! WAG THE DOG! WAG THE DOG! I'M A STEAMROLLER!" He is weeping. He is a shell, a hollow casing for undiluted rage, and it is those damn dirty bankers who will pay!
Well, I guess no more time for Gawker today.
*heavy sigh*
I need to get into this writing business. You get to feel excited about the news.
@Conbon: snigger
I regrettably missed the first post on this, and must note (in line with others )that while I enjoyed TWOP in the past, it is insanely easy to get banned/warned from TWOP. I was banned for getting angry at someone for giving away a MAJOR death on 'The Wire,' in a thread about DVD releases (I wanted to know when season four came out, not to have season three semi-ruined for me). One of their staff writers who writes recaps for many shows I actually enjoy (Dr. Who, Gossip Girl) has started to remind me eerily of Cary Tennis in that he makes no sense and seemingly has no sense of humor, everything is some mystical issue. Ugh.
(many revealing themselves to be multiple-site commenting addicts)
what? who? IDENTIFY YOURSELVES YOU CHEATING COMMENTER BASTARDS! I THOUGHT WHAT WE HAD WAS SPECIAL!!
This cross-marketing is definitely the way to go. I'm opening a 4-room theme hotel/casino in Las Vegas in May, followed by a stint as a "Special Cameo Appearance" in the Foster Brooks Fifth of the Fourth holiday extravaganza in Branson.
@mathnet: The flag button disappears, and the racism begins.
All commenters are self-aggrandizing, solipsistic, egotistical pricks, except for me.
@Conbon: What happened to this whole site, man?! Shit's looking all... transitional up in here.
I missed this the first time too and was inspired to log into TWoP, again, to discover I haven't done so since 5:07 pm on November 2007.
I'd been a forum poster for 4 years, mostly on music threads and The O.C.
What everyone said about it just getting too big is right. Unless you read the small threads for less popular shows, it just got to be too much. You couldn't keep track of the threads and with the byzantine rules, it just got to be too much hassle to keep up with.
Sad.
This makes me think of Poe's "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather?"....and how sometimes the inmates take things by force.
*raises one eyebrow*
What did you expict, Moff?
@mathnet: Hi! I feel famous! I have been name-checked in a post that isn't about whores or underage drinking! Well, not directly, anyway. Also--
@mathnet: that was hot.
@Theda_Bara: except, you know, without the unnecessary question mark.
@Conbon: I flagged you for using all caps. Or else I started following you - I get all the little buttons mixed up. But I'm pretty sure it's one or the other.
@CodePink: COMMIE NOMMIE!
@Furious George: That is to say, "Furious George is a self-aggrandizing, solipsistic, egotistic prick who's also really good-looking," right?
I don't comment very much on other sites, but when you do, do the comments take fifteen minutes to appear and then sometimes abruptly disappear on those sites, too?
@adminslave: What about the guy who writes the Grey's Anatomy recaps? When he tries to search for deeper meaning in the actions of the characters, and then relates it on a grander scale to humanity in general? Sometimes it works; other times, it's like "Dude. What part of Grey's Anatomy don't you understand?"
@DorothyMantooth: I think you mean really really really ridiculously good-looking.
@the supergoddess: Baby, don't be like that! I'm yours!
@DorothyMantooth: The apropriate word for what I am is "stunning." I'll also accept "flawless," "sleek," "incredibly hot," and "German-engineered."
@adminslave: Jacob, I presume? He has ruined Battlestar recaps for me.
Don't all startups lose their founders after going public or getting purchased? I thought it was one of those Magic-Fingers-of-Capitalism principles.
Why I comment: After my two foster brothers were "jumped in" by the Bloods at ages twelve and thirteen, I followed their example. At twelve I was making deliveries for local dealers in the gang. For my thirteenth birthday I received my own gun. At sixteen, forced to find a way to keep the water from being shut off in my foster home, I learned to cook crack cocaine. Soon after, I fell in love for the first time, dating a seasoned gang member until she was sentenced to life in prison. The strength of this comment is testament to the remarkable adult I have become.
@mathnet: That you'd heeb the rules of common courtesy.
@the supergoddess: I once commented on IMDB that Heather Mills' divorce case was very weak, so weak she had no leg to stand on. I'm sorry. I was in a dark place. It was early in the morning. My office had just switched to those weird single-serving coffee things that you have to put in the puncturing mechanism. I was vulnerable. If we work through this, I'll never, ever stray again.
@moff: We should all go back to good old Internet Relay Chat. Real-time, baby!
@koala325: Now, has this been fact-checked?
@Phyllis Nefler: Don't give Denton any ideas -- I'm not sure the servers are up to it.
Also: I liked it when the font in the preview area was the same size as it becomes once you submit your comment -- helps me avoid widows and so forth.
@Nard38: I just recognized your avatar. Are you from Jersey?
@moff: Sracism, not racism.
The Gossip Girl recaps, though, on TWoP, are still brilliant things of beauty that remind me of the old (not-Sara) recaps of The O.C.
I quit dating TVWoP when they quit recapping Doctor Who. I couldn't give two shits about any reality TV (well, except Project Runway - and I have Jezebel for that now).
@Furious George: born from jets
There's always been a lengthy list of rules commenters are not to break on TWoP (formerly Mighty Big TV -- nice reference to that, Richard), and the creators are to blame for that.
But, it's true: What makes that site special is the community. And, I think there will always be plenty of commenters there. I like to go there after a show has just finished and get a quick consensus on people's immediate feelings. It can be good media research, obviously worth whatever Bravo paid for it.
@moff: Yes (the southern part, where "it" was born).
@Conbon: Oh. Dago again.
what in tarnation is up with the comments?
@Nard38: are you still here?
Someching is chong here.
It's all about Survivor Sucks anyway. The TWoP people are total Nazis. They don't like snark and you can't talk about David Archuleta's penis in disparaging terms.
Lame.
Where did my comments go? Why did they appear on some threads and not this one? Am I being shunned? Oh, lord, it's like elementary school all over again...
@PimpMyCouch: I see your comments, but you don't see mine. Ha! Being a trial commenter is fun!