5 ms·

Awl Ends

47 points by coloneltcb 9y ago

kyoob 9y ago
What a shame. The Awl has consistently been one of my first stops in my Feedly tab. Guess I should have been clicking through and viewing the ads. :(
AlexB138 9y ago
I had never heard of The Awl. Opening their home page, the main thing I see is an article titled "The Miscellaneous Bros of Bodybuilding.com" with the tag "A waste of virgins". Based on this extremely limited exposure, I can't say I'm sad to see it go.
- jxramos 9y ago
  Me too, but I had a good chuckle at reading this piece in... "For nearly a decade we followed a dream of building a better Internet, and though we did not manage to do that every day we tried very hard and..." the way the sentence broke for me was "... and though we did not manage to do that every day" "we tried very hard" rather than what I think was intended as "... and though we did not manage to do that" "every day we tried very hard". My first reading made me say "well if you didn't do that every day then of course".
- smacktoward 9y ago
  The Awl has been one of the most pioneering small publications for nearly a decade: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awl I mean, I guess you can judge all that work based on a cursory scan of one of their last stories if you want to. It just wouldn't be particularly fair.
- bearcobra 9y ago
  Like anything, The Awl wasn't for everyone, but I know they published some of the funniest, most touching pieces I've read. This article does a pretty good job of summarizing it's impact on the media industry. https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/9/8908279/the-awl-profile-choire-sicha-john-herrman-matt-buchanan https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/9/8908279/the-awl-profile-ch...
- tptacek 9y ago
  What part of this comment seemed like a useful contribution to HN? If you knew anything about The Awl and didn't like it, that criticism would be useful: you'd be telling us things about it that we potentially didn't know or hadn't thought about. If you didn't know about The Awl, went and looked at it, and had something interesting to say about what you learned: that too would be interesting. But to know nothing about it, look at a couple headlines, and report back your discontent? What was the point in that? To provide a nucleation side for more lowbrow dismissal?
- wehere1 9y ago
  i have ever heard of alexb138. opening their comment, the main thing i see is that they're an idiot/asshole. i can't say I'm sad to see them go
  - dang 9y ago
    We've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
ibdf 9y ago
"For nearly a decade we followed a dream of building a better Internet". Perhaps the low quality articles was the issue.. here's a recent article title "Nothing Makes Sense Any More, Nothing Will Make It Make Sense".
- smsm42 9y ago
  I went there and was delighted with "Jared Kushner Wears The Wrong Socks". If that is what the better internet looks like, I think I'm fine with that I have right now for a while, thankyouverymuch.
dmschulman 9y ago
Awl good things must come to an end, I suppose.
datainplace 9y ago
January must be the time for these things. Very sad to see Two communities* close in the same week. *the other community was Boatertalk. Dedicated to whitewater kayaking and ultimately lost to Facebook
- cirgue 9y ago
  This was a huge disappointment for me. Boatertalk was an awesome community, and was one of the main enablers for me to not be on facebook. Sad day.
- Grue3 9y ago
  RIP bato.to as well.
nikdaheratik 9y ago
I'm going to miss this site but I'm also surprised it lasted as long as it did. At least the writers they brought in are still working so there's something to look forward to.
sllbww 9y ago
I'll miss the site. Can anybody recommend other sites that are like The Awl? I don't really know any alternatives.
Overtonwindow 9y ago
I'm not surprised by this. Occasionally I would find something very interesting in the Awl, but I feel that over the past few years the drive, and editorial excellence really dropped off. The articles didn't have the same depth. By and by if you're looking for an alternative, you might consider Pacific Standard (Suggested article: https://psmag.com/social-justice/toast-story-latest-artisanal-food-craze-72676 https://psmag.com/social-justice/toast-story-latest-artisana...) or Aeon: https://aeon.co/ https://aeon.co/

47 points by coloneltcb 9y ago

What a shame. The Awl has consistently been one of my first stops in my Feedly tab. Guess I should have been clicking through and viewing the ads. :(

AlexB138 9y ago

I had never heard of The Awl. Opening their home page, the main thing I see is an article titled "The Miscellaneous Bros of Bodybuilding.com" with the tag "A waste of virgins". Based on this extremely limited exposure, I can't say I'm sad to see it go.

jxramos 9y ago
Me too, but I had a good chuckle at reading this piece in... "For nearly a decade we followed a dream of building a better Internet, and though we did not manage to do that every day we tried very hard and..." the way the sentence broke for me was "... and though we did not manage to do that every day" "we tried very hard" rather than what I think was intended as "... and though we did not manage to do that" "every day we tried very hard". My first reading made me say "well if you didn't do that every day then of course".
smacktoward 9y ago
The Awl has been one of the most pioneering small publications for nearly a decade: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awl I mean, I guess you can judge all that work based on a cursory scan of one of their last stories if you want to. It just wouldn't be particularly fair.
bearcobra 9y ago
Like anything, The Awl wasn't for everyone, but I know they published some of the funniest, most touching pieces I've read. This article does a pretty good job of summarizing it's impact on the media industry. https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/9/8908279/the-awl-profile-choire-sicha-john-herrman-matt-buchanan https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/9/8908279/the-awl-profile-ch...
tptacek 9y ago
What part of this comment seemed like a useful contribution to HN? If you knew anything about The Awl and didn't like it, that criticism would be useful: you'd be telling us things about it that we potentially didn't know or hadn't thought about. If you didn't know about The Awl, went and looked at it, and had something interesting to say about what you learned: that too would be interesting. But to know nothing about it, look at a couple headlines, and report back your discontent? What was the point in that? To provide a nucleation side for more lowbrow dismissal?
wehere1 9y ago
i have ever heard of alexb138. opening their comment, the main thing i see is that they're an idiot/asshole. i can't say I'm sad to see them go
- dang 9y ago
  We've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

ibdf 9y ago

"For nearly a decade we followed a dream of building a better Internet". Perhaps the low quality articles was the issue.. here's a recent article title "Nothing Makes Sense Any More, Nothing Will Make It Make Sense".

smsm42 9y ago
I went there and was delighted with "Jared Kushner Wears The Wrong Socks". If that is what the better internet looks like, I think I'm fine with that I have right now for a while, thankyouverymuch.

dmschulman 9y ago

Awl good things must come to an end, I suppose.

datainplace 9y ago

January must be the time for these things. Very sad to see Two communities* close in the same week. *the other community was Boatertalk. Dedicated to whitewater kayaking and ultimately lost to Facebook

cirgue 9y ago
This was a huge disappointment for me. Boatertalk was an awesome community, and was one of the main enablers for me to not be on facebook. Sad day.
Grue3 9y ago
RIP bato.to as well.

nikdaheratik 9y ago

I'm going to miss this site but I'm also surprised it lasted as long as it did. At least the writers they brought in are still working so there's something to look forward to.

sllbww 9y ago

I'll miss the site. Can anybody recommend other sites that are like The Awl? I don't really know any alternatives.

Overtonwindow 9y ago

I'm not surprised by this. Occasionally I would find something very interesting in the Awl, but I feel that over the past few years the drive, and editorial excellence really dropped off. The articles didn't have the same depth. By and by if you're looking for an alternative, you might consider Pacific Standard (Suggested article: https://psmag.com/social-justice/toast-story-latest-artisanal-food-craze-72676 https://psmag.com/social-justice/toast-story-latest-artisana...) or Aeon: https://aeon.co/ https://aeon.co/