It seems that virtually all sites have said something about Bush, Iraq, the war on terrorism, and all that other stuff that people are talking about. I go to check out the latest components and come across an article on why Bush is stupid and how he’s just what George Orwell warned us about. Or I go to a site to see what’s up in the Rich Internet Application world and I’m treated to an article about how America has every right to invade any country it wants.
While I’m all for people saying what they want to say about whatever they want to say things about, I don’t really appreciate finding political related topics on Flash related sites.
What is interesting is that none of us have felt the need post our views on this site. This was never something that was discussed among us, but it just happened that way. And in retrospective, I’m glad.
These are topics that have been around far longer than the war in Iraq and they are all topics that people are very passionate about. But we can’t keep spinning our wheels over whatever we find to be the most important thing at the moment. How would we get anything done? If I go to work and harp on the war for eight hours, I would be fired. Why? Because I should be working and not discussing world politics.
When I go to a Flash site to learn the latest ActionScripting tricks and I have to spend extra time sorting through the political topics, I’m wasting time. I’m either forced to agree, disagree, or feel like crap for ignoring the "very important" political stuff when all I really wanted was to learn about Flash.
This article is a plea to separate politics and the development world. They don’t mix. They shouldn’t mix. You may be for or against the war, but I don’t care. Keep the political views on personal and political sites. If you want to discuss Flash and the latest happenings, then join in the discussion on a Flash site.
Replies: 29 comments
1) I echo Scott's view and would like to join in saying that with all due respect to people's opinions, a professional Flash dev site should not mix it's content with politics. I guess people who post these topics feel they are doing the right thing by speaking out but the truth of the matter is they just alienate a group of developers who may not share their views and that's a sad day for the international Flash community.
If Flash bloggers feel they have something to say and know that people come in to their site I think they should have a personal section on the site where they can voice non related topics such as politics, the latest Britney music video and god-knows-what. Considering the fact that some of them are borderline icons it makes sense, but please, don't mix.
It's a shame to see that people who are well respected in the Flash community use they status and reputation to spread what appears to be quite often one-sided and unsubstantiated political and personal views.
posted by Amir Dotan (), 04/27/2003 08:22 AM CST
2) Me, I look for things that bring us together, rather than things which drive us apart.
(Note that Flash has been used effectively to get across various points of view to the public... as a communications tool the technology is neutral and can be used for different purposes. I see the development community almost as a think tank for the making of printing presses... we're learning how to talk better, rather than telling each other what to think or say.)
posted by John Dowdell (), 04/27/2003 08:39 AM CST
3) Well... I don't think it is really a big deal... all of the blogs that have a war related comment typically have a very clear title for that comment... and it can't be too painful just to scan the title and move on.
What is disappointing for most of us, I think, is that some have only updated comments on the war. If people are going to do this... and state their opinion... it would be much better if they would balance this with the same amount of Flash/development coverage. If this person is going to write a paragraph on the war... also write a paragraph on development or the flash scene itself... and of course, make sure the war related comment titles are very clear.
As far as one-sided and unsubstantiated opinions... that really doesn't make much sense. They are "opinions".. of course they are one-sided... especially as they are political to begin with. They are not a media entity... they are individuals who comment on flash and whatever else strikes their fancy. In terms of "unsubstantiated"... I am curious what you feel "substantiates" that opinion.
In the end... I just skip the political comments and not let it effect my experience with the flash information. However, I do like that some bloggers are letting their opinions show, because it truly shows the polarization of views for this war... rather than the image of near total support that major media outlets are putting out their. I have to thank these people whatever their opinion may be, as they make the polarization evident.
At the same time I also like the way actionscript.com is going about things in an "Opinion section of newspaper devoted to flash" style. It's a good texture, and moves more along the lines of editorial newspaper journalism, whereas the other blogs are much more like public diaries.
So, as it stands, it is all good... except for the need for balance between flash development content and personal opinions, and of course, clear titles for comments.
posted by Gibson (), 04/27/2003 08:56 AM CST
4) look,
i think funny movie is good about politics,but not mvies about diffrent country/
posted by ziv (), 04/27/2003 10:57 AM CST
5) While I have gotten sucked into the rants on other sites, I have avoided posting to our own blog such content, and for the most part agree with you. Yes, one can post whatever one wants on their own blog. However I do think that it detracts from the unity of the Flash Development environment to polarize the discussion in such a way.
Being an American Southerner, I was taught that the discussing ones political affiliations on the street or at a business function or in mixed company was rude, and I seem to have forgotten that it seems. There are reasons for this, and the one that comes to mind the most is that it gets in the way of the primary reason you ever stop to talk to someone and invites debate.
Thanks for the reminder, and letting me refocus on what it is that I am really doing, while leaving politicans and activists to do what they do best, and that is debate. Back to coding.
posted by Jason Key (), 04/27/2003 11:10 AM CST
6) I hate how looking at flog you get these sporadic bursts of America is good / America is evil back and forth between onRelease and Flashvoodoo. I guess maybe it wouldn't bother me so much if I thought I'd get anything other than blinkered hot air from either of them.
posted by Alex (), 04/27/2003 11:13 AM CST
7) But Scott, How would the political bloggers get any traffic at all if they didn't put some random tidbit about Flash on their sites. They would get dropped from all the Flash blog aggregators, Heaven forbid!
posted by Jan (), 04/27/2003 12:26 PM CST
8) thats right
I think that aggregators and flash related sites should stop link to blogs that there main issue is not flash anymore.
posted by Yellow (), 04/27/2003 02:55 PM CST
9) I know I personally take who I link to very seriously. When I provide my sites users with a link, it had better provide them with some value. It needs to augment my site.
When I subscribe to a site by linking to it, I am paying for the content of that site with the currency of the targeted traffic I send.
When I send my users to a Flash site, only for them to find highly opinionated and political issues talk, my targeting is assumed to be off. The implication is that I am not understanding my sites users. The core of most business is understanding your market. If it's thought that i don't, my customers will go elseware to find someone who does.
I think this is where the real issue lies.
posted by Mat (), 04/27/2003 03:16 PM CST
10) Who in their right mind is sending customers to a blog? That's madness... and on top of that... what magical thing are you finding on these blogs anyways? Anything that is changing your life profoundly? It is really just an exploratory playground... People have to expect something different from colin moock than they do from the majority of these other blogs.
In terms of the polarization affecting the flash community... only if you are offended by freedom. Why is it so hard to overlook something like this... especially in an aggregator?
This wasn't a small thing... it was the overthrow of a countries government by the world's superpower.
How many would be calling for the same sort of thing with 9/11? Should no one have blogged that?
These are massive world events that will ultimately effect everyone.
Also, why is anyone being so serious about a blog? They are fun... a playground. Take the good with the bad... if you see it that way.
posted by Gibson (), 04/27/2003 04:30 PM CST
11) this has been discussed before.
here is IMHO a pretty good answer
Writing your personnal aggregator is not a big deal ! especially if it's for personnal use, RSS feed are over documented, parsing them is way easy for any less-than-average flash developper, so please stop whinning.
Flog is great and his creator knows the hell why it is !, I enjoy reading onRelease, I enjoy so called "off topic" posts at Peter Hall's, or at Colin Moock's.
Blogs are great, with their author's personnal views, even if I strongly disagree with them (ie Todd Hopkinson) I think it's very valuable to read his comments and opinions.
(I wouldn't say the same for ericd who posts 90% stupid posts on his personnal blog, and 90% stupid questions on flashcoders - only god knows why he has such a visibility within the flash community ! )
posted by anonymouscoward (), 04/27/2003 04:53 PM CST
12) I provide services to design firms and have been known link to blogs and all sorts of sites from mine.
posted by mr.b (), 04/27/2003 04:55 PM CST
13) yawn
posted by vinnie (), 04/27/2003 09:46 PM CST
14) yup this is boring and stupid.
posted by stupidflashers (), 04/28/2003 12:30 AM CST
15) i posted a response over here.
it falls in line with hive-brain's answer.
posted by michael e. gunn (), 04/28/2003 01:11 AM CST
16) oh yea, and on-topic is whatever i want it to be - at hollowcube.com.
posted by michael e. gunn (), 04/28/2003 01:13 AM CST
17) Scott,
Blogs are personal - that's why I value them and I think that many other people would agree. I may dissagree with someone's opinion from time to time but I would never ask them not to share it. Nor would I tell someone what they can or can not do on their blog.
CHris
posted by CHris (), 04/28/2003 07:53 AM CST
18) Welcome to Cognitive Dissonance 101, where you'll unlock the secrets of making people talk incessantly against their will, on a subject of your choosing. It's evil *and* fun!
posted by emberton (), 04/28/2003 08:12 AM CST
19) Its also about professional reputation - is it worth loosing over somthing that realy diesn't mix. If you want to talk politics at work or amoungst friends (Many a dinner party has been ruiened when the topic gets round to politics) then become a politician. Personaly if i'm reading a flash related blog then thats all I want to read about. I dont give a blind ass what somebodys opinion is, on the state of funding for the national welly-wnaging team
posted by pete (), 04/28/2003 08:30 AM CST
20) It's about representing your sites content correctly. I might strong opinions on campaign finance reform. If that's the case maybe I should start a site about it rather than name my site "The Beauty of Flash MX" only to have 80% of the talk about said campaign finance reform. It's not helping your user.
Do what you want. I know I will continue to, but keep in mind that if your once valuable content gets too watered down, your target audience will surely shift and the audience you had originally targeted may be hard to bring back once the war is over.
posted by me again (), 04/28/2003 08:55 AM CST
21) Wish you posted this about 6 months ago...
posted by JesterXL (), 04/28/2003 09:30 AM CST
22) Its so damn true, and I agree with Jess, wish you posted this 6 months ago.
One such blog pisses me off is onRelease.org, mostly because its pure ignorance but because it was flooding alot of the Aggregators with its crap.
Its funny we as a "Western" society consider "IRAQ" the conflict of all conflicts, and all things said and done and taking into account other wars going on right now.. it's actually a minor conflict if you take away CNN/FOX etc..
Anyway.. Stay on topic thats my view.
p.s
another thing shits me, is when people echo the same news over and over? Like sometimes i think people are addicted to their own blogs and feel compelled to write something every day or every week? You don't have to!
posted by Scott Barnes (), 04/28/2003 03:44 PM CST
23) Too true Scott. Don't see much about Congo / Ivory Coast / Zimbabwe on onRelease. Didn't see much about Afghanistan either. Seems like Iraq's just the cause du jour.
posted by Alex (), 04/29/2003 12:37 AM CST
24) I agree... OnRelease() has basically trained me (pavlovian style) to skip over any/all posts from their site.
It's not that I'm upset by them expressing their opinion... It's just that I don't care. I'm here to keep in touch with the MM community. If I want to hear about Iraq, I'll go someplace else.
posted by Michael Conger (), 04/29/2003 08:03 AM CST
25) I totally agree... I've stopped visiting onRelease and some other blogs due to the sheer amount of ignorant political tirades.
It's hard to learn anything when your brain is switching between Flash, OUTRAGE, Flash, OUTRAGE. It's not good for the equilibrium.
posted by Jessica Speigel (), 04/29/2003 01:49 PM CST
26) The anger here towards onRelease is totally unwarranted.
If a flash focused aggregator is picking up non-flash related posts than the problem is with the way the aggregator works.
And before you start attacking any specific aggregator, realize that
if you guys spent as much time building your own aggregator as you did bitching about onRelease, your problem would be solved.
posted by Noel Billig (), 04/29/2003 03:18 PM CST
27) I don't think anyone's bitching. I think it's simply a discussion. Besides, the traffic onrelease will get out or the discussion should be really nice for aral to have more of an opportunity to sell new visitors on the value of his site and spread his message.
Discussion is good.
posted by me (), 04/29/2003 03:26 PM CST
28) Noel,
That argument is bogus. To build my own aggregator I'd need to learn perl or something like that, then I'd need a server to go out and grab all the material. That would take longer than the fifteen minutes it takes to bitch about the dull political posturing of onRelease and FlashVoodoo. I'm not saying that they shouldn't post what they want, I'm saying that it's annoying to have to sidestep this dross when you're looking for information about flash.
posted by . (), 04/30/2003 12:43 AM CST
29) Not true.
A simple google search will turn up a list of pre-made rss readers. No programming required.
http://www.google.com/search?q=rss+viewer
Try:
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/BottomFeeder/
Here's an attempt to do one purely in flash:
http://www.cyberfunk.co.uk/news/rss_aggregator/
My point is that bloggers should feel free to post what they want, and aggregators should be used to gather together posts in a meaningful way.
You will never find an aggregator compiled by someone else that is going to work exactly the way you want, so your best bet is to roll your own.
posted by Noel Billig (), 04/30/2003 10:27 AM CST
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.actionscript.com/archives/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}
