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Re: Everyone's Always Been a Critic - But Net Makes Their Voices Count

Herb Stein (herb@herbstein.com)
Fri, 05 May 2006 04:11:29 GMT

<Wesrock@aol.com> wrote in message
news:telecom25.167.12@telecom-digest.org:

> In a message dated 1 May 2006 14:43:06 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
> writes:

>> Monty Solomon wrote:

>>> By Scott Kirsner, Globe Columnist

>>> Roger Ebert may be endangered, Entertainment Weekly on its way to
>>> extinction. Have you noticed how many no-name critics are suddenly
>>> serving up pithy opinions about movies, books, music, and video games
>>> on the Net?

>>> "The cultural influencers are changing," says Brian Kalinowski,
>>> chief operating officer of Lycos, the Waltham Internet portal.
>>> "Expert opinion in the media used to drive culture. Now, it's peer
>>> recommendations."

>> I don't hold much credence to it. It has about as much influence as
>> traditional "word of mouth" has (although word of mount could be
>> pretty powerful).

> Specifically with respect to motion pictures, it is clear that
> critics do not and never did "drive culture." Many, many pictures
> lauded by the critics failed miserably at the box office, while some
> that the critics considered either trash or beneath serious notice
> brought in lots of the public.

>> Further, the social advocates quickly grabbed on this stuff early on,
>> and have turned it into very partisan soapboxes, which has tuned out
>> others who aren't as passionate. For example, there's a railroad
>> newsgroup that doesn't spend too much time talking about railroad
>> stuff. Rather, it is mostly flame wars between advocates of passenger
>> trains and those who hate trains altogether. The haters seem to be
>> very well organized and respond to almost every post. (see
>> misc.transport.rail.americas and go through some of the threads).

> I am interested in railroads and railroading and for several years I
> participated in that particular newsgroup. It became more and more
> merely flame posts between passionate advocates of these two
> positions. I finally dropped out because, as you say, little about
> railroads was included in the posts and there was nothing but an
> endless iteration of the same arguments by the same people on both
> sides.

> However, I would suggest that the "anti-" faction did not hate trains
> altogether -- just passenger trains.

> There are well over 100 lists -- some have counted more than 200 -- on
> various railroad topics, some of them very tightly focused. Some of
> them have hundreds of participants and engage in rational (and usually
> civil) discourse.

I suppose this not really on topic, but everybody posting to the Usenet
groups should first, write their message and/or response. Then re-read it.
Then ask themselves, "Would I send this to my mother?"

Come on folks! We're better than this.

Just my 2 cents worth.

> Wes Leatherock
> wesrock@aol.com

Herb Stein
herb@herbstein.com

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