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

> M>>> 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 > snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

Herb Stein snipped-for-privacy@herbstein.com

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Herb Stein
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