Jimbo critiques The Times Options

[Milton Roe]

Paywalls rarely work on the Internet, particularly for information of general interest rather than some obscure specialty where the paywalled content may actually be of unique interest, such as investment tips or odd-fetish porn.

Arguably, the New York Times is of unique interest; there is only one Times, whatever its faults...

Not to sound too much like a certain sockmaster, but if you ask for 'The Times' in London, they won't hand you the 'New York' upstart.

A newspaper once so highly regarded that Britain once euthanized the king so that his death wouldn't be reported first in a lesser tabloid.
Probably it's best that a newspaper never again will have that stature.

Somewhere up in the future, I foresee some hospice person giving Jimbo his final shot of morphine just before being the first to update Wikinews.

[CharlotteWebb]

Wondering if the license fee for a fine word like freetard™ is more than I'm willing to pay. Crap, I'm in debt already.

Don't be a sucker, someone's bound to repost it on WP soon enough.

ps. was "fine word" a deliberate double entendre? Be honest!

Unless I'm missing something it's not that good a pun. Or I'd claim it.

Perhaps you'd levy it.

[Subtle Bee]

Wondering if the license fee for a fine word like freetard™ is more than I'm willing to pay. Crap, I'm in debt already.

Don't be a sucker, someone's bound to repost it on WP soon enough.

ps. was "fine word" a deliberate double entendre? Be honest!

Unless I'm missing something it's not that good a pun. Or I'd claim it.

Perhaps you'd levy it.

Show-off.

[Zoloft]

Wondering if the license fee for a fine word like freetard™ is more than I'm willing to pay. Crap, I'm in debt already.

Don't be a sucker, someone's bound to repost it on WP soon enough.

ps. was "fine word" a deliberate double entendre? Be honest!

Unless I'm missing something it's not that good a pun. Or I'd claim it.

Perhaps you'd levy it.

Show-off.

A fine distinction.

[EricBarbour]

Paywalls rarely work on the Internet, particularly for information of general interest rather than some obscure specialty where the paywalled content may actually be of unique interest, such as investment tips or odd-fetish porn.

Much as I dislike NI and Murdoch I hope this works and more follow him. There are far too many sites that provide no content of their own and simply scrap the work of others - Yes Google I'm looking at you.

If the Times gave us some actual good reporting, and in-depth analysis, I'd pay.
If they specialized in that, they might survive. But if they keep on puking up the Same News As
Everyone Else, plus crap "lifestyle" featurettes, they're done for.

And as for that other guy.


This post has been edited by EricBarbour: Thu 12th August 2010, 6:20am

[Subtle Bee]

Wondering if the license fee for a fine word like freetard™ is more than I'm willing to pay. Crap, I'm in debt already.

Don't be a sucker, someone's bound to repost it on WP soon enough.

ps. was "fine word" a deliberate double entendre? Be honest!

Unless I'm missing something it's not that good a pun. Or I'd claim it.

Perhaps you'd levy it.

Show-off.

A fine distinction.

Now you're just tolling.

[Avirosa]

If the Times gave us some actual good reporting, and in-depth analysis, I'd pay.
If they specialized in that, they might survive. But if they keep on puking up the Same News As
Everyone Else, plus crap "lifestyle" featurettes, they're done for.

You are missing the point of The Times, it doesn't operate on the basis of selling 'good reporting', it operates on the basis of being the in house magazine of what would once have been described as the 'British Establishment'. Having a paywall fits in with an established sense of exclusivity. The fact that it's absolute shite (a Murdoch speciality) does not matter, it's well polished shite that's approved of by people whose approval matters to the type of people who buy The Times. Whether there's enough of them to support the paywall business model remains to be seen, in any event very few would care what some yank chancer sometime soft core pornographer has to say the matter.

A.virosa

[Moulton]

Wales said he had would have no qualms about paying for the New York Times on an Apple iPad"...

Then again, if he had not stuttered like Max Headroom, and if you had not paused to notice his stutter, I would have overlooked an opportunity to congratulate the staccatic emphasis on using the word "qualms".

Qualms may not be nice (they are mildly nasty), but it's nice to be able to utter the word when it's appropriate to do so.

Oh, and how did you feel about stumbling over that ill-crafted phrase, "staccatic emphasis"?

[Moulton]

There are far too many sites that provide no content of their own and simply scrap the work of others - Yes Google I'm looking at you.

I know you meant "scrape" (not "scrap") but my experience is that Wikimedia projects have been scrapping my contributions for three years now.

And I daresay I am not alone in feeling scrapped.

At some point the freetards are going to be wondering where all the music, news, and movies went.

Well I dunno where all the good music went, but I know of a dumping ground where you can find all the atrocious poetry and nasty song parodies that have been unceremoniously dumped from this estimable site over the years.

This post has been edited by Moulton: Thu 12th August 2010, 10:50am