Hey, I’m going to compliment Gawker here, so pay attention!
I noticed several nice trends over there: first, they work harder to attribute bloggy sources (especially Tumblrers). This is much appreciated and is good social policy. Second, they seem very much more in-tune with the things that people are actually talking about out there. This is the first time in a long while where I feel like I’m not being bludgeoned by forced content by Nick Denton - if they cover something I don’t like, it’s because I’m the only fucker who doesn’t like it. (Mad Men, Gossip Girls, anything by Julia Allison that isn’t a Penthouse spread) They have gotten much better at tapping the Zeitgeist and extending it.
I admit, I’m reading everything on there either an hour or a day after I saw it for the first time somewhere else, but you know what? I’m at the front of this Internet shit. I get everything first. So they’re probably not going to be able to break news to me… more like vice-versa.
It is nice, though, to have established conversation threads and talking points spread to the larger world. I like that more people are kept-up on things and that well-picked ideas are spread widely and generously. I appreciate that they’re helping with that.
It also helps that all the assholes bolted from the editorial stable. Very convenient.
