Goodnight Valleywag
After roughly two and a half years, failed technology rumor blog Valleywag was folded back into Gawker last year. Since then, what's left of VW has been trying to attract someone's attention. Anyone really. Like writing obituaries for companies that are reporting record profits.
Be that as it may, there's another word for Valleywag (and some other Gawker media). It's the same word that we apply to anyone who targets a committed, passionate group of people and teases them just to grab your attention.
'Griefer'.
Goodnight, Valleywag. You can warm your hands by the extra pageviews. Don't worry so much about the turning the lights off -- probably nobody's paying the bills anyway.
I had a similar feeling when I read the article, I decided not to even give them pageviews.
ReplyDeleteYou however nailed it.
rubaiyat
I learned another word only a couple of years ago: "trolling." There's an article out today that reports on how "renowned games journalist" Mathew Kumar feels SL is "stagnant" and virtual worlds are all doomed. I felt I had to comment because it seems so easy for "professionals" to get away with writing whatever they want without actually having to do time-wasting things like checking facts.
ReplyDeleteIn fact "trolling" and "troll" (in the sense of trying to saying deliberately inflammatory things in order to provoke a response) have been around for quite some decades now. Originally they're derived from American fishing terms.
ReplyDeleteIt's like the pot calling the stainless steel refrigerator black while being tossed into the dustbin.
ReplyDelete;) Ah, yes, I'm sure there's a rich and diverse etymology for "trolling." My excuse for only recently learning of it is that I am originally from Europe where the suggested origin from fishing as "trolling" doesn't happen. Of course, the phonetically close "trawling" for fish does exist.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I suspect I've now wandered off topic - from "griefing" to etymology in less than three sentences! I also feel as if I'm in danger of reinforcing my reputation of pedantry - so I'll shut up ;)
Indeed, the words used to be trawl/trawling in the early usage, but the American spellings became dominant.
ReplyDeleteAlthough not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, SL is many things to many people. Sadly, the exceedingly arrogant attitude by the bloggers over at Vallywag seems to pervade their writing and expose their own perceived self importance. Imagine if they should actually investigate that which they report. Valleywag used to be irreverant, but now is merely irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteI have my own issues with life in-world, but I do believe that it cannot be considered a failure at this point in time. They have created an environment in which people from all over the globe can express that which they wish to express. Freedom of expression (within constraints imposed by the laws of the US and California, but I digress). And, they are surviving, from what we can tell, in a rather difficult economic period.
Valleywag is free to express their opinions, but I shant be seen reading their spiteful remarks.