Dear Readers,
It’s sometimes the case that, due to our own personal enthusiasms and inclinations, we cover some subjects more than others. After all, we’re just like anyone else. We tend to err toward the gear we love–and the company that made it–day in, day out. But it’s also the case that such coverage may become a little too much. Sometimes, we just won’t shut up about them.
At Boing Boing Gadgets, we strive to create a balance of wonder, insight, humor and enthusiasm, and we’re sorry if that can come across, on occasion, as excessively fannish or enthralled.
We’ve heard what you’ve had to say in comments and private communications, and we’ve listened. So from this point on, we’ll keep discussion of Amiga to a reasonable minimum.
Thank you,
BBG
P.S. It’s true! We really do love the ol’ Commodore Amiga. But, if you’ll forgive our little joke, this is obviously really about the PC alternative that’s still in business. This morning, one of you suggested that 8-9 posts a day, or almost 40 percent of the total, pointed to the House of Cupertino. Another thought that on rare days, it went closer to 80-90 percent!
Intrigued, we did the math. In a 500-post period that includes a Steve Jobs keynote 56 of them, or 11 percent, were about Apple. More than anyone else, but far short of the estimates. Even on the day of his keynote, it didn’t go above a quarter.
It reminds me of something from my newspaper days. Whenever we’d run a picture with a hispanic person in it, this guy would come storming in to complain about the lack of “anglos” in the news. So we ran the numbers, and it turned out that hispanics were not only not dominating, but were grossly underrepresented on the front page.
Now, I know you lot aren’t old racist gits, but still: what is it about Apple that makes it such a lightning rod?
Can you create a new poll about whether or not the term “Creatives” is totally annoying?
Count or not count, it still _feels_ like you’re enamored with Apple to the point where you’re failing to look for other topics. Maybe that’s just because I’ve never been a huge Apple fan and I don’t follow their every announcement with baited breath. At least not unless I’ve been eating sardines.
I try not to complain about too many things since it’s your blog, it’s free, and I can skip over stuff I’m not interested in, but my primary issue with the coverage of Apple isn’t necessarily about the quantity, it’s about the signal-to-noise ratio.
I don’t mind reading about Apple if they’re releasing something cool or announcing significant policy changes. I frankly don’t give a crap about rumors, fanboys photoshopping what they think the next laptop will look like or useless concept crap. It’s not news when a mac app crashes. I don’t care what the best-selling app store app is. Who cares what simile some analyst uses to describe the company? Not me. And I really could care less that some chick in a iPod commercial was on
I bet they cover Nintendo at least as much as Apple.
Like it’s BoingBoing’s fault that Apple makes cool stuff.
But, even if it was too much coverage, I wouldn’t be able to care less because I’d just filter out Apple-related posts in my feed-reader. Computers are neat!
you blog too much about clocks.
and too many posts about technology stuff that is over my head.
robots, cameras, phones, legos. jeez, can’t you get excited about anything else?
and that retro-vicky-techo rubbish. bah.
how about some enthusiastic and positive posts about drawer organizers and slide-rules and cat toys?
composing a strongly-worded letter to your parents now.
That’s the thing: no-one ever complains about the Nintendo coverage, even though it’s far more adulatory than our coverage of Apple, which is often quite critical or mocking.
There’s just something about Apple that presses buttons.
i dont really see the ratio of apple news on this site any different than engadget or gizmondo or any other gadget blog, and they all post the major rumors and photoshops. the reason they probably dont get as many complaints is because they update more frequently.
i think its a very nice gesture here, from the crew, to actually ask us, the readers, what they prefer, to check and make sure they understand their audience. and personally, i feel like i am their audience, they seem to give pretty balanced coverage of everything. yea, sometimes stuff doesnt really interest me, but i usually read the post anyway because its usually funny/clever. that is the ratio that i am concerned with.
Who cares?
Its a free site, they can post what they like. Its not like anyone’s holding a gun to your head saying, “You better read all BBG posts, and the Apple ones twice!”. Also, its not like your paying for the service whereby you would be entitled to something like a ‘shareholders voice’.
There are plenty of other gadget blogs out there, even some that avoid Apple posts at all cost; its not like your married to BBG, sleep around a little… (Or, if you dont find any you like, start your own! “Do it right”)
Honestly, that this is an issue on the web is absurd.
People are just really weird about “unwanted” content on the blogs they read. They get major confirmation bias and complain loudly for no apparent reason. They forget that it isn’t like old network TV; they don’t have to sit through each post and wait for the content they want to start.
The newest Macintosh I own is an SE/30 that I put together for my girlfriend (now wife) and can’t bear to part with. It’s sitting in it’s carry case in the garage. But I still enjoy the Apple posts because they do make neat hardware.
To the naysayers, get the fuck over it, and skip to the next post. I find the complaining way more irritating than content I don’t enjoy.
And Rob, you got me with that picture. My first thought was “why is he using an Amiga 1000 with an Apple logo on it to illustrate a post about Apple?” …I should have known better than to doubt you.
…and yes, I do still have an Amiga 1000.
Up front: I’m not one of the people that complained and only I only noticed the Apple love in retrospect.
But. A simple post count isn’t really a good indication of whether or not you guys have gone overboard. As soon as you brought up the 11% statistic, I started thinking, “Yeah, but how big are those posts in relation to others? What percentages do other companies garner? And are those 11% Apple posts fawning while the others are critical?” All I’m saying is that these are the things that may be contributing to the reader feedback you’re receiving.
But, eh, whatever. I’m still reading.
Apple is noticeable because it represents 11% of your posts but probably makes up a greater percentage than any other single company represented. So your stats are a little askew. You should be asking how often you post about any single product or company: Microsoft, Dell, Happy Mitten Dildo Co., Apple, Nintendo, Play Station, etc.
That said, I don’t really care, I enjoy your posts and the considerable wit and critique you bring to them.
I’m not a member of The Cult; I have noticed a seeming lot of press for Macs here, which I don’t particularly care about. But I simply keep scrolling down. Problem solved!
Bah, you need to tell these readers what to read and tell them to like it. Then you proceed to tell them how in your day there was no internet and how you got your gadget news was by walking 5 miles (uphill, both ways) to a Radio Shack to pore over the latest in ham radios and Tandy computers.
Seriously, I don’t read BBG so much for the latest tech news, as for the excellent way each story is delivered. Even stories that I already know I have no interest in the actual product, I know that the wit will be sharp and satisfying. Keep up the good work guys.
What? But what about those Amiga demos and pictures I took!?!
I’ll second the ‘bad math’ comments on your statistics – no other single company is getting 11% of your posts much less with favorable bias. If you are going to use statistics to defend your bias (and I don’t begrudge you it – your blog, your bias, your perogative) please do it better. Bad stats like that are arguably more offensive than fanboyism (no, I don’t think you’ve quite crossed that line…yet)
Seriously?
Did it not occur to these choleric rabble-rousers that this particular “gadget blog” deviates by large margins away from anything remotely related to consumer electronics?
How dare you slugabeds ululate over Apple instead of focusing on the truly important innovations in technology, like meat, substance abuse and erotic childhood heros?
For that matter, I’m appalled the recent subversion of many posts by the invasive species, of M. undulatus, hasn’t noticeably ruffled any feathers.
I failed at links. M. undulatus.
My point is an echo of Enoch Rewt. I come for the writing, not the reporting. And the free ice cream!
I don’t care what you post nor how much of it.
I load up the site a dozen times a day to have something to glance at while a server is rebooting or a long command is running, so the more posts that scroll through, the better.
Even if they’re mostly Apple related. If I’m not interested in a story, my computer has this awesome technology that lets me avoid it: it’s called a scroll wheel.
I’d like more posts about slide-rules. That would be neat.
But not 11% of gross posts.
Cripes. It’s your blog. You blog about what you want to blog about. That’s the whole point of blogs. If I didn’t like it, I’d go read something else.
Sheesh. Some people need to double up on their meds.
Personally, I welcome our new apple overlords.
@8, I think the commenters on Engadget bitch way more about Apple news than those here do…
@20, I agree, and wish this had been an option on the poll.
The lie that journalism is an impartial and unbiased art has been perpetuated for far too long. Please, have an opinion. Have two. Don’t lie to yourselves or us readers that you love all gadgets equally. What’s the point?
I second the *meh* sentiment. Post what you will and I’ll “j” it in Google Reader if I’m not interested.
On a more serious note, perhaps it’s because no one else in the business is doing as much genuinely exciting stuff as regularly as Apple is?
I ‘switched’ to Mac about 6 months ago, but have been using an iPhone for a year or so. I just recently had to review 3 different Nokia phones (I used to be a Nokia S60 fanboi), and only then realised just how much Apple has changed the ballgame in the last couple of years.
Is this a joke or you really got some complaining for too many posts about APPLE?!
I quote jvilhuber:
“Some people need to double up on their meds.”
Anyway I want more STEAM PUNK…
Computers comprise a small subset of “gadgets”, furthermore apples comprise a small subset of computers.
For them to make up over 10% of posts is actually a large number, not a small one like it’s played off as in the article.
Let me preface this with the fact that I work on macs, have four in my house, and work in video production and generally spend a lot of time around the damn things.
But the problem is that macs are only better than PCs, which aren’[t very good at all. So I think a lot of people like me switched, we aren’t switching back, but the honeymoon is over and we’re turned off of the hype. I can’t go to linux (there isn’t a real video option there) and I know that pcs are even worse, but if there was a third option, I’d jump ship immediately. Until then, I’m using macs, but I’m not interested in listening to my favorite blogs regurgitate the branding crap about the cult of mac. Because I’m not in a cult; it’s more like a bad marriage in a small town.
Let me preface this with the fact that I work on macs, have four in my house, and work in video production and generally spend a lot of time around the damn things.
But the problem is that macs are only better than PCs, which aren’t very good at all. So I think a lot of people like me switched, we aren’t switching back, but the honeymoon is over and we’re turned off of the hype. I can’t go to linux (there isn’t a real video option there) and I know that pcs are even worse, but if there was a third option, I’d jump ship immediately. Until then, I’m using macs, but I’m not interested in listening to my favorite blogs regurgitate the branding crap about the cult of mac. Because I’m not in a cult; it’s more like a bad marriage in a small town.
Dear boingboing,
I am writing to you because of the offence I take at your fanboyish overcoverage of electricity-based products on BBGadgets.
Though “electronics” may be popular, I feel that there are plenty of clockwork, steam-powered, and diesel engine products which also deserve a chance in the spotlight.
Besides this, everyone knows that “electronics” are only used by snooty, self-important, creative-types, who only live to laugh at us when they see us laboriously winding something or shovelling coal into a boiler. I say, if it’s worth doing, it takes a whole lot of effort, damnit!
In close, BLAH BLAH BLAH I hate Apple and so should you.
Sincerely,
Some Douchebag.
I have to LOL at this, and point out that despite the outcry over Steampunk on BB, it continues to prevail.
(STEAMPUNKSTEAMPUNKSTEAMPUNK)
(Also, APPLE!)
I hereby second Geekman’s endorsement of mechanical devices and gadgets, specifically those that may happen to be Diesel powered. For instance, I see that you have not had a single post mentioning a diesel-powered cell phone! Who needs fancy schmancy touch screens when your phone can generate over 500 horsepower and over 1000 ft-lbs of torque!
Ya, fuck that mac shit! I need more sarcastic stories about overpriced cables and insane gadget cleaners… STAT!
“why is he using an Amiga 1000 with an Apple logo on it to illustrate a post about Apple”
Boo!
The readers who write in to tell you to STFU about Apple are way overrepresented.
How about an Apple a day?
I think we’ve hit on an important point: we need to cover more slide rules.
To the wigs!
Also, we’re going to cover exactly as much as we already have: as much as we want to!
Needs LESS cowbell.
#3 simply stated what my teenie artist brain could not adequately articulate. Well said!
Yes, I overstated my guess at the percentage of Apple posts, so f*%$in’ sue me!
I repeat, it’s a tool, not a lifestyle. Treat it as such.
instead of complaining so much why don’t they just make an de-apple greasemonkey script for BBG like the script that de-xenied the main blog?
@33 (Rob): Ah! You scared me!
Well, I’d rather you trim back the Nintendo stuff too, but that’s just me.
Nintendo doesn’t cop quite the same attitude Apple does. Or maybe it’s just the users.
You really oughtn’t take the piss out of Commodore. Without Commodore’s contribution to computing history (inexpensive but well-specced home computers and price wars), it’s doubtful many people would have grown up with computers the way they did.
The Steves even tried selling Apple to Commodore in the early days, but Commodore didn’t bite – not that there was much reason to buy, given that Commodore were whipping them hard in the early days, but Commodore’s management’s always was a bit strange..
While i’m at it, big-ups to Chuck Peddle of MOS (later Commodore Semiconductor Group), the designer of the 6502 CPU. Without Mr Peddle and his $25 microprocessor, Apple wouldn’t have had a sufficiently inexpensive CPU to put in their first home computer and more than a few beloved games consoles also used it.
Same amount of Apple
Less clocks
Less steampunk
More stuff about Joel’s dead girlfriends
More Hubolt Humbird
More Hubolt Humbird
More Hubolt Humbird
i just like reading the awesome styles the editors have, i usually don’t care what it’s about.
Thank you. If I want to read an Apple zombie site I would read one. Keep up the great non-Apple posts, and the occasional relevant and interesting Apple one.
I was disappointed to see that this was not about Sarah Palin.
#3 has it. And I think that number might go up if you included every non-Apple article that still references or makes mention of Apple. Typically in the “while it’s still no ipod” or “I think I’ll stick with my Macbook for now” vein. It’s not just the Apple-specific posts, it’s permeated the entire way you guys approach technology.
At least you’re owning up to it.
darn , I thought there was some Amiga news I missed.
I still have a 2500 and a 3000 and a live board and a video toaster, and a whole bunch of Amiga jackets and key chains and development tools and …
I’d be fine with more slide rules , but what you are really missing out on are Curta and Marchant calculators.
It’s worth noting that the next two posts both mention Apple products. Discipline, boys, discipline.
We promise nothing!
I was meaning to shoot a line saying how amusing your Apple coverage has been. “Foundation for All That is Goodness in Computing Institue” — ho! ho!
The “Letter to Our Developers” was also quite cheering.
I’ll have to go see how many office doors in iPhoneLand it adorns.
#48 Typically in the “while it’s still no ipod” or “I think I’ll stick with my Macbook for now” vein. It’s not just the Apple-specific posts, it’s permeated the entire way you guys approach technology.
But these are not only gadget bloggers, they’re also people. People who own Macbooks because they have made the judgment that the are the best, given their particular needs. I guess what I’m trying to say is, DUHHHH Apple has permeated the way they approach technology. If I was seriously looking to buy an mp3 player, I’d want to know how it stacked up against an iPod. Refusing to acknowledge that would be foolish. Apple has its problems, to be sure, but to ignore the way it’s influenced consumer technology would be as foolish as to idolize them without criticism.
i agree. Please no more apple non-stories.
The apple press office is lauging at you
ok sorry I read this late.
Let me quote, Rob
“The problem with confirmation bias is that it tells us we *should* be posting about it more than we actually do.
”
Now, while I accept my error (since you guys have the data and therefore we can trust that you know what you’re talking about) and admit that my too-high estimate is probably a result of
1) subjective perception and
2) the fact that as a non-Appler I’m easy to become frustrated about the exposure to iThis and iThat from all the acolytes who obviously worship Apple in some way or another (be it due to “superior tech” or “more trendy and fashionable”) yet do not endeavor to question the alternatives,
I still beg you to not realise your half-veiled threat there
Now, obviously 2) does not apply to anyone here, this being a tech-blog and such, so please interpret that the way it was meant: it’s not personal, it’s my opinion.
And by the way Rob, normally I try to keep my opinion to myself, because I know the BBG-threesome is doing a great job here (reading BBG is my favorite post-shower-pre-work pastime) and the whole issue is all about personal bias anyhow. Just wanted to speak up in defense of Artbot
Oh and one last point, then I’ll stop I swear:
)
It’s your Blog you know, as Readers we should be accepting anything you deem worthy of a post. It’s not like I’m forced to read any of those posts (provided you mark the headline with some keyword that tells me BEWARE: May contain APPLE!
Ya don’t like it? Red another blog or start your own.
I read BoingBoing because I’m interested in what the contributors have to say. If they irked me I wouldn’t read it.
If it’s one crazy guy whining about Latinos, you can ignore it. When it’s a fair whack of your readership, then maybe you do need to listen. But you know that, hence that blogpost.
My problem with that 11%, is the hypocrisy of overhyping Apple, compared to your “core values”. User and citizen freedom, copyright freedom, openness, small business, these are all pretty core to BoingBoing.
But these are not core Apple traits: the iPhone is the antithesis of all of them, rolled into one. Apple would even be more evil than MS by now, if MS hadn’t come out with Vista.
They are a large enough multinational corporation that they can pay for their own advertising: it’s not news- or blogworthy, because everyone already knows. Smaller companies, companies which do stuff better than one of the main giants in the market, these are the ones I read BoingBoing for: the tips on the good-but-hidden stuff that I might otherwise not come across.
And if I understood right, and there are more Apple posts than posts about civil liberties, then there’s something really rotten here.
In the spirit of productive thought, though, I have a suggestion: tag your posts, and make a tag cloud. Doesn’t have to be on every page: have it out of the way if you want. And when “steampunk” and “rights” are showing in 6pt font, and the largest words are brand names, then you’ll at least know at a glance that you’re failing your readership, and you’ll be able to see what you need to fix.
Or at the very least, we could write a Greasemonkey script to hide any posts tagged “Apple”.
mmmmmmmmmm….cake. would you like some?
@55, GARR:
Haha, how about “This post was prepared in a facility that processes Apples.”
@52. “Foundation for all that is Goodness in Computing” is Joel’s absolutely brilliant line. One day, we’ll go out there at night and put a big (peelable!) sticker on the sign to amuse the inmates on their way in the next day.
If the Dell and Vista fanboys want to start a competing blog, they should go right ahead.
What? What do you mean there ARE no Dell or Vista fanboys? Sad state of affairs, that.
…Kids, keep posting all you want in the form of (cr)Apple propaganda. Those of us who use PCs know the truth, which is why we use PC-based products in the first place and not some buggered-up pile of minimalist-styled plastic hype designed to fund Steve Jobs’ latest drug habit-du-jour. In fact, we *love* seeing these fluff pieces, because they show us what we *DON’T* want our computers to look like or how to behave.
Apple gets more press coverage than Dell for the same reason that a supermodel gets more press coverage than me.
And that’s what seems to make geeks mad… feature by feature, Macs are mostly equal to PCs, (and iPods equal to other MP# players), and yet they create such desire that they are worthy of media attention for that reason alone.
Me, I love techno-porn… and I like my techno-porn hot. More Apple for me!
As for the geeks, learn that making something (even yourself) desirable is not wasted effort.
@Dewi: I really like your response a lot and thank you for it, but I have to say this: You don’t get to define our core values, no matter what you may have inferred they are.
Boing Boing is a community of equals; we tend to disagree on a lot of things.
But I get where you’re coming from!
Steampunk Apple computers are still underrepresented on Boing Boing. Someone has to have modded a MacBook Air to run from a Jensen M-76.
Wahh, too much coverage of Apple, it must be like 80%, er 40%. What? 11%? Well, Wahh, they’re all Apple-worshipping, and everyone knows Apple is only for fags, er I mean hipsters. What? There are posts that criticise or spoof Apple, too? Er… Wahh, there’s too much mentioning of the name Apple…
@Dewi – If every post about Apple was a puff-piece, I’d have a problem too. But I recall at least half of the recent Apple-related pieces I read to be fairly critical of Apple’s practices. Corey loves Disney, but writes a lot about what they’re doing wrong. I don’t see how this is really different.
Call it the Cool Kids Conundrum: if you post an article on something that someone wouldn’t get into at all for whatever reason, whether it’s Apple stuff here or Disney or steampunk over at the motherblog, insecure types feel excluded. It’s like they see it as this neat club that they can’t (really, won’t) join and everyone talks about how great the club is and it hurts their widdle feelings.
Apple is seen as a trendsetter in computers. It would surprise me if most people were willing to argue this point. You can say it’s because most people are sheep, ignorance among the general public of which companies actually introduce new and interesting things, you can blame it on anything you’d like. Basically, a lot of people well-informed and otherwise look to them for the new and interesting. Not covering a company like that is a pretty seriously bad idea.
Now, the focus on netbooks, that’s borderline obsessive! It’s an obsession I wholly support, sure, but there’s some coverage out of proportion to market share!
Certain readers at music blogs complain this way about Radiohead too. Why write about every single thing they do, they ask, when they are only doing what other, less popular bands, did a long time ago? All Radiohead did was synthesize it in a way that it somehow also appealed to the general public.
Hm, I know there’s a few flaws in my argument, but it popped into my mind.
@Joel: Fair comment, I *can’t* define BB’s core values, and probably came across arrogant in appearing to. I hunted a couple minutes to find them defined somewhere, didn’t find ‘em, so just listed the more blatant recurring themes of the blog. I should’ve said “which seem to be…”, to show that I was just talking out my… I mean, to show I was extrapolating.
My point still stands, though: if any BB contributor were asked to make a list of their top nine core values, would “Apple” really make any of the lists?
@CHRS: Really good point about trendsetters, and I feel that does completely answer it, and relieves a lot of my bafflement.
None of the other reasons they get so much free hype (everywhere, not just here!) make sense.
Their designs are “sexy”? They’re sexy-manipulative like a cigarette ad. “Buy it, go on. You won’t infect your kids with your DRM habit… they’ll be fine!” – BB authors aren’t dumb, they know they’re being manipulated, but maybe if they didn’t report on a trendsetter’s manipulation, they’d feel they weren’t serving their readers? Only, there’s a difference between reporting on the manipulation, and merely passing it on…
Personally, I’d assumed it was because Apple were still riding people’s anti-MS feelgood. But yeah, that doesn’t ring true: now they’re just another multinational with $20bn in the bank and 20% market share, pushing closed-source, closed-design, and DRM, that couldn’t possibly be true.
It’s got to be the Trendsetter thing. Except, even reporters eventually say “I’m not reporting on Paris Hilton any more” (There’s an Apple/Judgement of Paris joke in there somewhere, I’m sure).
@Historyman68: if 11% of posts were about Disney, I suspect you’d see people notice that, too. Reporting on a brand is fine. Too much focus on one brand tends to feel wrong.
@Omnifrog: I suspect it’s not that geeks don’t get beauty. It’s that we know when we’re being manipulated, or when people we respect are: and that makes us less than happy. Many things on BB are beautiful, Apple’s products included. Not all of them come with such distasteful subtexts as Chinese workers on 15 hours days earning $50/month, though.
Then again, that’s probably higher than many companies pay over there. I was interviewed for a job with them, about six months ago, and I admit I liked the feel of the company. It really had that small company, family feel to it. The guy who interviewed me said they were thinking of opening a new iPhone factory, since they’d “filled up all the airplanes from China, now”. I’m not even kidding. He might have been: it was hard to tell.
I didn’t laugh.
Dewi: Thanks for your response. If I had to pick nine core values, I suspect “Elegant Design” would be one of the things I appreciate most in the world. My affection for Apple falls mostly under that category, although they’d get a hash under “Cheeky Bastardism”, too.
I think you’re showing your biases a little bit, though, when you talk about Apple’s products being a vector for DRM. They are, of course, but no more than any other company’s computers. And it’s perfectly possible to use a Mac or iPod without using any DRM’d media at all. I’ve done it for years — although lately I’ve been buying Mad Men on iTunes, but that’s because I couldn’t find it without DRM legally anywhere else.
Anyway, Apple is certainly helmed by an ur-bastard, but for as many mistakes as the company makes while he’s at the wheel, they still seem to get more things right than most big corps. But whatever, really. This argument has been spun for a billion hojillion internets and it’s not going away soon. The only new thing I have to offer is this: when you write about tech day in and day out, a company like Apple is a godsend after the tedium of writing about other corporate gadget manufacturers. They’re the only interesting big company in the space, although Nintendo and occasionally Microsoft mix it up in fun ways, too.
P.S. Why didn’t anyone ever tell me that dried bananas were so good? These things are freaking delicious.
@Joel: They are! That’s why I don’t eat them! Can’t you tell the bananas are trying to manipulate you? It’s all God’s fault, he designed them not only to be the perfect fruit, but also to have time-travelling abilities in order to manipulate *people backwards in time* to develop them! How much more manipulative can you GET???11
… yah OK. Maybe my biases are showing. Maybe neither bananas nor apples are any more manipulative than eachother. I also like the news that Macs are gonna get nVidia chips: it gives me hope for some of my other biases (stereoscopy, yay!)