CSotD: Ask Clique and Claque
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Sheldon, one of the more intelligent comics around, with an observation about stupidity.
Or, really "cupidity," since a lot of the stupidity on the Internet is simply a case of click-farming. This whole thing of "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" has gotten a little out of hand and has morphed into "On the Internet, nobody cares if you're an imbecile."
As long as you click. Early and often and on anything.
So there are sites like Yahoo Answers where members of the community are encouraged to answer questions and it's like talk radio without a call-screener.
As long as people click, the quality of what you serve them is irrelevant. As long as they leave comments, the quality of their comments is irrelevant. And, so far, there don't seem to be many ways that stupid people can mess with this economic system.
Which is to say, I think (and someone will correct me if I'm wrong) that, even if you have something to suppress ads, your visit to a site will still register as an impression, whether or not you click on the ad itself (which you never actually saw).
So if some site shows 10,000 visits, the advertiser won't actually know how many of those people even saw the ad — he'll only know how many actually clicked on it.
However, of those 10,000 site visits, he can tell how long they stayed. And people who stick around to leave an idiotic, irrelevant comment help extend that "bounce rate."
Which means that, if there were 10,000 visits and only 200 people clicked on the ad, he needs a better ad. It's his fault.
And, while HuffPo went from cozy-crony journalism to blatant click-whoring when they sold out to AOL, there are companies that have never existed for any other reason: eHow and Demand and other purveyors of quick answers pay freelancers about five bucks a story to come up with answers to common search questions. They may have some quality standards, but, since they pay their "editors" at a rate not much better than their writers, you might as well run it past a fourth grader.
Sites like Yahoo Answers don't have to pay anybody, because they use "crowd sourcing" instead. Just throw the question out there and let the answers flow. It's like walking into a bar and asking for directions — sometimes you'll get very specific and accurate directions, sometimes you get vague directions that don't help a whole lot and sometimes you get your directions from a complete fool and blowhard.
On that last part, what I find particularly interesting is how a clique (or claque) of blowhards will stake out a spot at what should be a major crossroads, which is to say, a publication of some credible standing, and banter back and forth as if they were, indeed, at that corner bar, possibly one where nobody else goes because of the blowhards who will neither mind their own business or stop their endless yapping.
It is a tribute to the tailors of the Emperor's New Clothes that they can sell advertising based on the print reputation of these journals when anybody with a computer can go to the comments and see that all the "interaction" appears to be an ongoing debate between ignorant morons and delusional idiots, and that, after about the first five comments, none of it has much to do with the topic of the article they're supposed to be commenting on.
This, however, leaves open the possibility that you're not buying ads because of the reputation of these journals, but because you feel that the collection of ignorant morons and delusional idiots they have managed to aggregate will be intrigued by the idea that a housewife in [YOUR TOWN HERE] makes $58,000 a year working at home, that language teachers hate this guy and that bananas are one of several foods you should never eat.
In which case, you've made a wise purchase.
For a more elevated level of conversation:
Head on over to Tall Tales Radio, where Sheldon creator Dave Kellett is only one of a dozen and a half cartoonists interviewed at the Reubens by TTR host Tom Racine. The interviews are short, while the three-to-a-video format means that you'll likely also meet someone new.
Here's a sample:
Tom's regular podcasts are considerably more in depth, but here you have everyone on video so that you can see how they look in tuxedos and evening dresses.
Which cartoonists wear each and every day. Really.
If you don't believe me, Google it.
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