Pro Tips

"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
10/03/2016 at 11:33 • Filed to: just the tips

If you want to see Oppo articles being shared to the FP again write here:

patrick@jalopnik.com

Seriously, and make a point to tell him that you won’t write stories that may or may not be made up (and presented as true).

Also

If you want to go directly to your notifications page, go here:

https://kinja.com/dashboard/noti…

(saves on data because there are no pictures and adds to load, plus you get to see the details of the comments like you used to be able to.)

DISCUSSION (33)

The Lurktastic Opponaught > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 11:42

And only for a minute.

...

I’ll see myself out.

Dusty Ventures > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 11:43

Should probably clarify that by “stories that may or may not be made up” you mean ones that are made up but presented as true. Creative writing presented as such, good satire, and Max Hardigrew fanfics are okay.

HammerheadFistpunch > Dusty Ventures
10/03/2016 at 11:44

Quite right.

Urambo Tauro > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 11:48

Another tip that I find really useful is using the “follow” feature with your Kinja dashboard . By “following” Jalopnik and Gizmodo, I don’t have to visit either front page. The latest posts from either blog get fed directly to my dashboard.

(Oh, and there are no ads on your dashboard, BTW.)

HammerheadFistpunch > Urambo Tauro
10/03/2016 at 11:49

thats good advice, just be sure to visit the hand that feeds.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 11:50

Thanks for the tip. I’ll have to wait until I can apply it with grandchildren, as my youngest is now 15.

Watch anything on the tele this weekend? I did. It was great. Maybe be there live next time. Be a first for me.

HammerheadFistpunch > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
10/03/2016 at 11:51

It was pretty good. As a haver of young kids,I didn’t get as much out of it as I could, I will have to go back and re-read/rewatch

McMike > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 11:53

I’ve started going straight for the “show all notifications” for details, too.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Dusty Ventures
10/03/2016 at 11:53

The front page needs more waymoe.

HammerheadFistpunch > McMike
10/03/2016 at 11:54

I’ve just got that address as a pinned tab, if I see I have a notification, I just tab over to that one and see.

Xyl0c41n3 > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 11:55

I doubt the latter will happen again outside of a by-invitation-only request for columns or essays from known contributors who use their real name, like Steve Lehto, especially after what happened with io9 last year (2014? I forget exactly when).

io9 shared a bunch of stuff from Observation Deck (io9's version of Oppo) that was heavily plagiarized.

ODeck stuff was regularly shared to the FP because ODeck writers were always pretty articulate and well-informed. But, Gawker Media Group’s well-known penchant for farming the sub-blogs for content meant that lots of people tried to break into the business by flooding the sub-blogs with SEO-friendly content.

Not all of those people had: A. The skill necessary to be good writers and/or 2. Properly adhered to journalistic ethics (spare me the sarcasm about GMG’s “ethics” in scare quotes, please).

As a result, io9's image and integrity were hugely smeared (about on par with the New York Times staffer who was found to have plagiarized his work for years), and GMG was forced to act.

The end result?

No more farming the sub-blogs for content because the anonymous nature of kinja makes it difficult to vet sources.

And secondly, to divorce the sub-blogs from their “.(DomainName).com” url suffixes (i.e.: oppositelock.jalopnik.com or groupthink.jezebel.com being changed to oppositelock.kinja.com and groupthink.kinja.com, respectively).

Both changes were enacted to minimize Gawker Media Group’s liability in regards to the content we users produce.

Now, we’re still as free as ever to produce posts about “why your car sucks,” or the differences between AWD and 4WD, but if we steal a bunch of grafs and photos to make our posts, the various front page verticals will have vanishingly small legal responsibility for it.

Hope that helps to explain things.

LongbowMkII > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 11:58

Why would they share our stories when they can just “massage” them and post them 24-48 hours later?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 11:59

That was always a HUGE challenge for me. Huge, huge, huge. And frustrating. At least, now, we can watch at home, which we do, religiously. (Unless my van has a catalyst-damaging misfire and I’m over at the shop on a Saturday sorting it...)

My big takeaway was making an effort to prepare the day before, rather than the moment of.

Best to you and yours, Bro.

HammerheadFistpunch > Xyl0c41n3
10/03/2016 at 12:01

Understood, but I still encourage people to write. I don’t think they’ve wholly made their mind up on the matter and I for one would like to see it come back in some capacity.

HammerheadFistpunch > LongbowMkII
10/03/2016 at 12:02

This is exactly why I am asking you all to write, I think we’re pretty valuable to the front page outside of our view count and comments.

LongbowMkII > Xyl0c41n3
10/03/2016 at 12:03

They still main paged a lot of things after o-deck. Now they just rewrite oppo posts just enough to not be plagiarism. I mean they’re just content aggregators.

Xyl0c41n3 > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 12:08

I think the best way for someone to try to get a toe in the door nowadays would be for them to produce the content on Oppo they want to see formally published on Jalopnik, written in the proper format and well cited, and then to start up a dialogue with Patrick George via email or Twitter using their real name.

He may not listen (God knows, as an editor myself, I don’t always take a second glance at “I’ve got an idea for you!” cold communications), but I know he has been receptive to that kind of approach in the past.

HammerheadFistpunch > Xyl0c41n3
10/03/2016 at 12:10

good advice. This would be less “I want to be a journalist” and more “it would be great to see more of the creative work on oppo showcased again”.

Xyl0c41n3 > LongbowMkII
10/03/2016 at 12:11

Hey man, don’t lay the sins of Justin Westbrook on the feet of all the Jalopnik authors. That’s just not nice (or fair).

(Also, Westbrook is a shining example of exactly why Jalopnik should take better care to vet the writers they pull from Oppo. He’s such a thin-skinned.... Never mind).

Dusty Ventures > LongbowMkII
10/03/2016 at 12:15

The only things they’ve “massaged” as you put it are things that one of us got of the internet in the first place (usually a youtube video or something). Which, fair game really. Even back when they did share Oppo content to the front page stuff like that would be given a staff author rewrite and a hat tip. So no change there. And I’m totally okay with that.

LongbowMkII > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 12:16

But, short of writing a modern automotive Iliad I don’t think we’d be front paged. PGeorge seemed pretty resentful of oppo a couple months ago with the whole (paraphrased) “oppo only exists on my whim, so don’t you dare criticize jalopnik”

Xyl0c41n3 > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 12:17

I know io9 wasn’t all of the story (though it was the catalyst), but that was pretty much the point of its shares from ODeck.

I mean, ODeck and io9 deal with fantasy, sci-fi and the associated culture, so it was less factual stuff (as opposed to talking about the performance you can squeeze out of your latest LS swapped project car), and more opinion pieces (like the numerous “analyses” of the latest Marvel movie). But even then, with something so subjective, they ran straight into an ethical quagmire.

The risk for a place like Oppo/Jalopnik is a bit higher, IMO, since the subject matter, even on a personal essay, is a lot more tangible (SR20, anyone?).

HammerheadFistpunch > LongbowMkII
10/03/2016 at 12:18

He has a point. We need to respect the fact that Oppo exists because Jalopnik pays for it. I think, and I’m confident Patrick Agrees, that feedback is great, but bitching and moaning is just annoying. That being said, writing to Patrick to let him know we want to be a bigger part of their mission might go a long way towards bridging any gap

LongbowMkII > Xyl0c41n3
10/03/2016 at 12:20

Orlove has done it for months as well. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

Westbrook was on Oppo?

HammerheadFistpunch > Xyl0c41n3
10/03/2016 at 12:23

Its ...not just Westbrook. the Subaru on hells revenge story comes to mind.

Xyl0c41n3 > LongbowMkII
10/03/2016 at 12:25

I must’ve missed that post.

But the post I didn’t miss was when Patrick George wrote a post on Oppo shortly after the announcement of the GMG auction, but before the sale had been completed, to try to allay fears about what would happen to the sub-blogs.

He was the only front page vertical editor, of all of GMG’s verticals, to do that (at the time. I think io9/Gizmodo followed suit shortly thereafter).

When your own job security is ostensibly up in the air and you take time out of your day to discuss the issue with your readership and calm them , that wins about 1,000 brownie points in my book.

And in regards to the post I did miss? I agree with HammerheadFistpunch; Patrick was right. We wouldn’t be here without Jalopnik, or Jezebel, or Gawker, etc., or Nick Denton’s whim to have a user-created, user-fueled platform in the first place.

LongbowMkII > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 12:27

Oppo originated thanks to jalopnik, but currently we have no other relationship with jalopnik than a large shared target audience. We’re as much as a part of jalopnik as formula freak, LaLD, even clashtalk. We’re kinja. I don’t know who at Univision is responsible for reader/individual kinja blogs but I doubt it is patrick. We clearly wouldn’t be organized here if not for jalopnik, and while I acknowledge and respect that I don’t feel beholden or indebted to them. It’s nothing personal, but if I have a criticism I shouldn’t be afraid to express that on a independent blog.

That’s the silver lining. Being “gizmodo in cars” isn’t particularly a direction I want to be a part of anyways.

Xyl0c41n3 > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 12:28

I missed that one. Frankly, the last six months have been a blur of a wake-work-sleep-work-work-work-don’t sleep” cycle.

HammerheadFistpunch > LongbowMkII
10/03/2016 at 12:29

I guess what I mean is that Jalopnik Money keeps the lights on for car kinja’s ...or it did ( univisions ...um...vision may differ) but in any case, if we want an advocate at that table we ought to cultivate it.

Xyl0c41n3 > LongbowMkII
10/03/2016 at 12:31

Yup. IIRC, he wrote an AMA here talking about it shortly after being hired. And then about a week after that (probably being too generous with that time frame), he started showing what a wanker he is: yelling at people on the FP, insulting people, greying longtime commenters and Oppos, ripping off content from Oppo, etc.

LongbowMkII > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 12:32

I think our place as a free content farmer for them is reason enough for jalopnik in particular to have an interest in our continued existence. Any original content they re-post from us is just a bonus.

LongbowMkII > Xyl0c41n3
10/03/2016 at 12:37

It’s been a few over time. Sometimes I’ve felt I’m taking crazy pills, but I don’t want to rock the boat too harshly posting every coiencidence. Some may be, Small Internet. Im not too rustled since they’re just resharing shared media (which was likely reshared, ad infinium) but there is a pattern.

Racin'Jason001 > HammerheadFistpunch
10/03/2016 at 13:29

Quality common sense performed here!