Netscape - the worst message board on the internet
September 2, 2006 – 8:28 amIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I think Netscape just might be the worst mess of an “open forum” I’ve seen in my days on the internet. Netscape, a failed portal, has been transformed into a Digg-clone, which is now led by Jason Calacanis, a man who makes some bewilderingly clueless statements, considering his role in “the blogosphere”. Today he ponders “Why doesn’t the right participate in social news?.
In this post, he hits on a few reasons about why maybe no one from “the Right” is posting at Netscape:
We are having an internal debate at Netscape–which is staffed overwhelmingly by liberals–about why the right isn’t participating in the social news trend.
Maybe the fact that Netscape is staffed overwhelmingly by liberals has everything to do it. Perhaps it has to do with the liberal-leaning stories that make up the bulk of the front page news. The fact they’re using paid submitters, and Anchors who “pin” stories has a lot to do with it, especially since they have admittedly left-leaning views.
Why would a conservative bother coming to the “New Netscape”? I guess the answer is, they won’t bother. Jason, in his inimitable wisdom opines that it might be because “Republics aren’t as quick to adapat to technology”. Or maybe it has to do with skewed content on the fakest looking “social news” website this side of the Mississippi.
More importantly, it’s really interesting how “Politics” is the sole topic being discussed at Netscape, despite the fact they have unlimited tags and tons of spammy sub-domains set up to handle most other common subjects. Why is “Politics” the only popular subject?
So, to me, we have a number of distinct issues conspiring to make Netscape a bit one-sided:
1) The “Anchors” have a liberal-bias
2) The “Submitters” hired from the other social news websites have a liberal-bias
3) There is no “actual community” of people at the website to begin with to counter the influences
4) The site is self allows the “Anchors” to sticky threads as if they’re on a forum
All of this leads to a Front Page that looks unlike all others in the social news space. Reddit and Digg do not have anywhere the number of political stories that Netscape does. But let’s not act like the reasons are complicated about how this happened. The way they set the site up is what caused the content to be the way it is.
Finally Calacanis hits on something I agree with:
Of course, I hate politics, politicians, and the whole slimy process… I know very little about it and don’t like being involved in it.
I couldn’t agree more. But that’s why I don’t build a “social news portal” with a bigtime political bias. Giving too much editorial control to people who are “really into politics” when you aren’t doesn’t seem like the answer either.
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