Fucking Kotaku

[Thursday Next]

When Bash actually wrote about Japanese culture, I found that quite interesting. More and more his stuff stopped being about "real" Japan and became more and more "oh look at these crazy Japanese folk and their fetishes."

 

I did like his writing style and such, but like Strange says, his content got a bit crap.

[Battra92]

Bash could talk about ten thousand different things without ever getting into Japanese fetishes. Why not talk about Japan only consoles like the Wonderswan or discuss some of the differences found in Japanese game stores vs. American ones or well anything except pantsu.

[fuchikoma]

Because Luke beat him to it, and because he already has?

 

I don't get the hate for this guy... to me, he's what made Kotaku more than a game news site. Other than that, it's what, night notes? Stories about game-related crime? He just presents the natural (in Japan...) overlap between games and other visual media in general otaku culture.

[Strangelove]

I wouldnt say Luke is a hipster or anything, but he's a contrarian and total MS fanboy. I think thats the problem. He'll say a few bad things about MS every now and then, but overall he seems to love his 360.

I honestly dont mind him being a jerk, but he needs to direct it everywhere, not just on Sony, Nintendo and Apple.

[Mr. GOH!]

What? Bash can write? Well, he can write absurdist stream-of-consciousness "Hey, look at Japan! Isn't it weird, guys? I like exclamation points!" bullshit, I suppose. His "substantive" writing is facile and his style is grating. Maybe he's a nice guy, but I cannot stand him as a writer.

 

 

Edit: To be clear, I do not object to the subjects Bash covers. I think Kotaku can feature whatever content it wants to. I just really don't think Bash is a good writer at all. Though the sensationalist angle he takes on all things Japan is a bit tiresome.

Edited March 27, 2012 by Mr. GOH!

[deanb]

So word is that they're making it so log-in is via Twitter/Facebook or Google accounts. Good luck with that one (it's funny cos I remember Gizmodo having quite a few articles on why FB is so terrible for you to be using, I guess they've changed now)

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

What do you mean word is? It's in place already. Also, Gizmodo is part of Gawker, not the other way around. Gotta do what the big boss man says. Anyways, you keep your account name, you just login through one of the services. Essentially, the security falls onto one of the 3 services, instead of onto Gawker.

[deanb]

Well I don't know. I haven't logged in for yonks. Just a friend I have that still visits mentioned it on FB this morning. The way he worded it made it sound like io9 has it, kotaku soon.

 

Security falls to the other services sure, but all your other services details fall onto them. Waldorf can come back in here with is tale of woe with kotaku and the tying of FB to accounts if you want.

[fuchikoma]

The king of absurdist stream of consciousness writing was Tim Rogers... I think editing was a taboo to him or something. He'd just go on about how much smarter he is than everyone else and why other people are shitty, then meander through 2 dozen topics until he hit (or broke) the article size limit. For such a smart guy, I've never seen him write something that could let him pass a junior high writing class.

 

Bash is lazy though - it seems he declined at some point, but the typos got really grating, I agree. It seems he uses the comments as a spell checker. I hope his books have a stricter editor than that!

[TheRevanchist]

Yeah, I got the notification to change the way I log into Kotaku this morning must change. I don't care enough to want to do that. I stopped using my FB to login years ago for a reason: Shit sucks balls. I don't even log into my FB much anymore.

[Ozymandias]

This facebook-forced-log-in fiasco really has a lot of the community up in flames. I expect this to finally bankrupt Gawker. I remember going to Kotaku regularly before the redesign and seeing, regularly too, pages with hundred of thousands of views and hundreds of comments. After the redesign shit hit the fan, literally. And a lot of good people left. A lot of worthwhile people you'd want to have coffee and cigarettes with. >_> Now Kotaku is just shlock. Total shlock.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

You don't have to use Facebook. Inform yourself.

[fuchikoma]

Facebook, Twitter or Google. Not much better. I went to post on Jalopnik the other day and got that. Now... Gawker can finally die for all I care. They suggested that if people still want anonymity, they should make an alternate account in these services - like Gawker is THAT important? How about if they still want users, they should still allow local logins...

[TheRevanchist]

You don't have to use Facebook. Inform yourself.

 

But I don't have the Google account and I'm not a twit, either. Well, sort of.

[Ozymandias]

You don't have to use Facebook. Inform yourself.

 

Well snarky person, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, GOOGLE. All companies with less-than-perfect data mining histories. Same side of the shit coin. Not any better.

[deanb]

Well see anyone jumping ship, guide them to our shores?

(We have Twitter, but it's not required)

 

edit: (He joined 4 days ago and already has you down as "snarky person", you've taken it to a fine art)

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I'm sure Gawker wasn't data mining, either.

 

[TheRevanchist]

Already did so a couple of times today, Dean. Still working on it, though.

[Ozymandias]

I'm sure Gawker wasn't data mining, either.

 

 

Not to the extent that Google or Facebook can. In fact Gawker does not have access to your internet search history nor to pictures of your family, or all the comments that you've ever made with loved ones, etc. The magnitude is huge. To admit otherwise is silly.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Either way, do I care that FB, Twitter, or Google can see me troll idiots on Gawker websites? Not really.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I don't care about gawker knowing what my dogs look like, what I don't want is people I actually know on facebook knowing I've been fapping to bash's pervy japanese posts. Everytime I go on facebook the the first thing I do is check some website I've visited hasn't managed to post that fact onto my fb page.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

what I don't want is people I actually know on facebook knowing I've been fapping to bash's pervy japanese posts.

 

It doesn't connect to FB (or any of the other apps) this way. It's similar to how Engadget connects, just with less options for services.

 

Everytime I go on facebook the the first thing I do is check some website I've visited hasn't managed to post that fact onto my fb page.

 

You can revoke the permissions, change your privacy settings so no one sees it, etc. With 95% of apps on installation I make my privacy settings "only me."

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Oh, I've done that, I have the entire app and website connections feature turned off, but I don't trust it. Like the facebook commenting on other sites, I'm always pre-logged in. I absolutely hate that. and there is no way to turn it off.

[fuchikoma]

If you get the Ghostery extension for your browser, you can safely disable Facebook and Google's various tracking bugs without disabling the core sites. It will also show you the wide array of other affiliates that track you on Gawker and other sites.

 

And FDS, I'm not sure why you're so eager to leap to their defense... at this point it kind of sounds like you're making the old "you shouldn't mind being searched if you haven't done anything wrong" argument. Or maybe assuming that if you don't have a problem with it, no one should. Some people value their privacy and don't like having everything they do rolled into huge pervasive profiles even if they are just "to provide you with better service and make the ads displayed more relevant" - especially when they're not given a choice in the matter.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Yeah, use ghostery. I use that in combination with no script.

 

Why word as "jumping to their defense" in the first place? They are not the first site to require something like this. People just love to bitch about Gawker. If you value your privacy, then do things to protect it, instead of just bitching. You do have a choice here. Make a fake account if you really give that much of a shit.