Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Am I the only sane voice left on the Mac Web?
Let me see if I can put things in perspective here for you...
In the nearly two years that I've been publishing this site, I've thought that the vast majority of Apple's moves have been smart ones, so I've said so on this site, and I've thoroughly explained why I felt that way. But because I've agreed with so many of Apple's moves over the years, I've grown rather used to the continual Kindergarten-level hatemail accusing me of being a shill for the company, a cheerleader, a blind follower, even an Apple employee in disguise.
But now that Apple has gone and made a move that I see as a horrendous mistake that will cause major long-term damage to the continued success of the Switch campaign, I want ahead and said so on this site, and thoroughly explained why I felt that way. But because my stance conflicted with the single reason why a handful of myopic geeks get out of bed on the morning (their life-absorbing quest to force their headless iMac fantasy into a reality), I'm now being greeted with Kindergarten-level hatemail accusing me of hating Apple, trying to sabotage its efforts, and even of not wanting anyone to Switch to the Mac.
Since there's no way on earth that anyone could take seriously an email whose subject line reads "nanny nanny boo boo" and whose message reads "stick your head in doo doo," suffice it so say that such infantile nonsense merely serves as an opportunity for a good laugh. It's not that email suggesting what I can go do to myself, what I can go suck, etc., isn't childlishly inappropriate, it's just that it carries all the weight of an iPod shuffle, if you know what I mean.
But at some point along the way yesterday, something started to happen. Things began to shift. The childish nonsense arriving in my inbox gradually began to give way in favor of emails written by actual adults: people agreeing with some of the points I've made and doing their best to explain why they disagreed with other points I've made. People thanking me for being willing to go against the grain in spite of the onslaught of childish harassment that I knew would come my way. Even people pointing out that in all the commentary posted on the Mac Web since the Mac Mini's announcement, I've been just about the only one to even try to look at the potential downsides of the product, and to wonder, as I do, at why Apple didn't see these issues coming itself. And then there were others who just flat-out disagreed with everything I said. But that's fine, because they did their best to explain why they think what they think, just as I have done on this site.
When I began searching the Mac Web for thoughtful commentary on the subject, though, it turns out that I couldn't find any. In fact, nearly every piece of commentary I did find either fell into one of two categories:
1) an article along the lines of "yay, we finally got our way, let's have a party," without even a cursory attempt to look the issue objectively.
2) an article about me, so childishly written that it actually made the "stick your head in doo doo" email look thoughtful and professional.
So apparently, I'm now the most interesting topic on the Mac Web. And that's just pathetic. When did the Mac Web become such a waste of keystrokes? But then I think back to why I started this website in the first place, and it was because the Mac Web was so uniformly off-base when it came to the continually improving state of the Mac platform. And in many ways, it still is. But now, two years later, the Mac Web has gone stale in a different way: it's become a one-issue candidate. Over the past twelve months, you'd swear that the entire Mac Web existed only for the purpose of trying to force Apple into releasing a mythical headless iMac. When myriad reports of Switchers came in, the Mac Web pretended they didn't exist, because it conflicted with their campaign for a headless iMac. When the eMac increasingly became seen by the public as the low-end Switcher vehicle of choice, the Mac Web responded by pretending that it didn't exist, because the success of the eMac conflicted with their quest for a headless iMac. And when it was reported yesterday that Macintosh unit sales rose 26 percent over the previous holiday quarter, did you see anyone on the entire Mac Web (other than me) acknowledge the fact that the Mac's growth rate is now outpacing the rest of the industry, meaning that the Mac's marketshare is now in fact rising? Nope, no one on the Mac Web even wanted to touch that one, because it flies right in the face with their contention that the Mac would be dead without the headless iMac.
You see, it's not just that the Mac Web isn't interested in reporting on reality. The real problem now is that their one and only issue, the entire reason that many of these sites even exist, is now a moot point because Apple went ahead and gave them what they wanted. So what happens when they finish writing their celebratory articles about how they finally got their way? I don't see anything for them to write about anymore. Perhaps some of them will even see fit to just go away.
With the Mac Web having become so stale, one might ask why I even bother. But once the tide turned yesterday and the childish nonsense flowing into my inbox gave way to thoughtful stances and opinions, I realized what I've sort of known all along: the readers of the Mac Web are not being properly served by the Mac Web itself. So you think I'm going to walk away from that opportunity? Not a chance. In fact, I'm going to do something else entirely: I'm taking over.
Yeah, you heard me.
Are you tired of "Mac News" sites that waste your time by regurgitating press releases about minor updates to obscure products instead of focusing on news that you actually give a damn about? So am I. What can you do about it? Join MacMischief as a regular reader. We only report on the stuff that we think you might actually want to know about. It shouldn't be all that hard to figure out, and in fact it isn't. We give you the news, then we throw a bit of opinionation at it, and then it's your turn to do the same in the Comments section. Want to see things done differently? Got a better idea? That's what the feedback link is for. By the time we "officially" launch, we expect to have already positioned ourselves to become the leader in Mac News, but you're cordially invited to get in on the action ahead of schedule. Like, for instance, right now.
And that's just the beginning, my friends. You'll hear about other initiatives soon enough. The singular goal of all this? To make the Mac Web a better place, one step at a time. Are you with us? If so, then start getting your Mac news from the new leader on the block.
Let me see if I can put things in perspective here for you...
In the nearly two years that I've been publishing this site, I've thought that the vast majority of Apple's moves have been smart ones, so I've said so on this site, and I've thoroughly explained why I felt that way. But because I've agreed with so many of Apple's moves over the years, I've grown rather used to the continual Kindergarten-level hatemail accusing me of being a shill for the company, a cheerleader, a blind follower, even an Apple employee in disguise.
But now that Apple has gone and made a move that I see as a horrendous mistake that will cause major long-term damage to the continued success of the Switch campaign, I want ahead and said so on this site, and thoroughly explained why I felt that way. But because my stance conflicted with the single reason why a handful of myopic geeks get out of bed on the morning (their life-absorbing quest to force their headless iMac fantasy into a reality), I'm now being greeted with Kindergarten-level hatemail accusing me of hating Apple, trying to sabotage its efforts, and even of not wanting anyone to Switch to the Mac.
Since there's no way on earth that anyone could take seriously an email whose subject line reads "nanny nanny boo boo" and whose message reads "stick your head in doo doo," suffice it so say that such infantile nonsense merely serves as an opportunity for a good laugh. It's not that email suggesting what I can go do to myself, what I can go suck, etc., isn't childlishly inappropriate, it's just that it carries all the weight of an iPod shuffle, if you know what I mean.
But at some point along the way yesterday, something started to happen. Things began to shift. The childish nonsense arriving in my inbox gradually began to give way in favor of emails written by actual adults: people agreeing with some of the points I've made and doing their best to explain why they disagreed with other points I've made. People thanking me for being willing to go against the grain in spite of the onslaught of childish harassment that I knew would come my way. Even people pointing out that in all the commentary posted on the Mac Web since the Mac Mini's announcement, I've been just about the only one to even try to look at the potential downsides of the product, and to wonder, as I do, at why Apple didn't see these issues coming itself. And then there were others who just flat-out disagreed with everything I said. But that's fine, because they did their best to explain why they think what they think, just as I have done on this site.
When I began searching the Mac Web for thoughtful commentary on the subject, though, it turns out that I couldn't find any. In fact, nearly every piece of commentary I did find either fell into one of two categories:
1) an article along the lines of "yay, we finally got our way, let's have a party," without even a cursory attempt to look the issue objectively.
2) an article about me, so childishly written that it actually made the "stick your head in doo doo" email look thoughtful and professional.
So apparently, I'm now the most interesting topic on the Mac Web. And that's just pathetic. When did the Mac Web become such a waste of keystrokes? But then I think back to why I started this website in the first place, and it was because the Mac Web was so uniformly off-base when it came to the continually improving state of the Mac platform. And in many ways, it still is. But now, two years later, the Mac Web has gone stale in a different way: it's become a one-issue candidate. Over the past twelve months, you'd swear that the entire Mac Web existed only for the purpose of trying to force Apple into releasing a mythical headless iMac. When myriad reports of Switchers came in, the Mac Web pretended they didn't exist, because it conflicted with their campaign for a headless iMac. When the eMac increasingly became seen by the public as the low-end Switcher vehicle of choice, the Mac Web responded by pretending that it didn't exist, because the success of the eMac conflicted with their quest for a headless iMac. And when it was reported yesterday that Macintosh unit sales rose 26 percent over the previous holiday quarter, did you see anyone on the entire Mac Web (other than me) acknowledge the fact that the Mac's growth rate is now outpacing the rest of the industry, meaning that the Mac's marketshare is now in fact rising? Nope, no one on the Mac Web even wanted to touch that one, because it flies right in the face with their contention that the Mac would be dead without the headless iMac.
You see, it's not just that the Mac Web isn't interested in reporting on reality. The real problem now is that their one and only issue, the entire reason that many of these sites even exist, is now a moot point because Apple went ahead and gave them what they wanted. So what happens when they finish writing their celebratory articles about how they finally got their way? I don't see anything for them to write about anymore. Perhaps some of them will even see fit to just go away.
With the Mac Web having become so stale, one might ask why I even bother. But once the tide turned yesterday and the childish nonsense flowing into my inbox gave way to thoughtful stances and opinions, I realized what I've sort of known all along: the readers of the Mac Web are not being properly served by the Mac Web itself. So you think I'm going to walk away from that opportunity? Not a chance. In fact, I'm going to do something else entirely: I'm taking over.
Yeah, you heard me.
Are you tired of "Mac News" sites that waste your time by regurgitating press releases about minor updates to obscure products instead of focusing on news that you actually give a damn about? So am I. What can you do about it? Join MacMischief as a regular reader. We only report on the stuff that we think you might actually want to know about. It shouldn't be all that hard to figure out, and in fact it isn't. We give you the news, then we throw a bit of opinionation at it, and then it's your turn to do the same in the Comments section. Want to see things done differently? Got a better idea? That's what the feedback link is for. By the time we "officially" launch, we expect to have already positioned ourselves to become the leader in Mac News, but you're cordially invited to get in on the action ahead of schedule. Like, for instance, right now.
And that's just the beginning, my friends. You'll hear about other initiatives soon enough. The singular goal of all this? To make the Mac Web a better place, one step at a time. Are you with us? If so, then start getting your Mac news from the new leader on the block.
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