6 ms·
A good start would be to stop using this stupid terminology. Quoting RMS [0]: I think it is ok for authors (please let's not call them creators, they are not
by enriquto 6y ago
A good start would be to stop using this stupid terminology. Quoting RMS [0]:
I think it is ok for authors (please let's not call them creators, they are not gods) to ask for money for copies of their works (please let's not devalue these works by calling them content) in order to gain income (the term compensation falsely implies it is a matter of making up for some kind of damages).
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20171108235001/http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/wsis-pct/2006-April/001115.html https://web.archive.org/web/20171108235001/http://mail.fsfeu...
- Veen 6y ago"Consuming" always irritates me. We don't read written works or watch videos, we consume content.
- blfr 6y agoThe new way of interacting with videos and other media online does warrant a different term. Many people really don't watch videos, they consume content, ie. scroll or swipe through an endless stream of tweets/videos/reddit posts stopping and then moving on. It's just like watching a movie vs watching TV, reading versus paging through the newspaper, etc.
- Veen 6y agoIf people called that specific phenomenon "consumption", it wouldn't bother me. But they use it much more broadly.
- enriquto 6y ago> It's just like watching a movie vs watching TV yet here you use the same word without problem, don't you? I guess an appropriate word for "casually reading" would be "browsing" ?
- username90 6y ago> Many people really don't watch videos, they consume content, ie. scroll or swipe through an endless stream of tweets/videos/reddit posts stopping and then moving on. How is that different from plopping down the sofa, turn on the TV and watch the endless stream of content being broadcast to you? This isn't really a new thing, most people consumed TV that way before digital consumption became a thing.
- powvans 6y agoGenerally consuming something means that it no longer exists after it has been consumed. A fire consumes a home and it can no longer be lived in. I consume a hamburger and therefore you cannot eat it. Content on the internet isn't consumed in this sense. If anything it's your own time and attention that is consumed when watching videos.
- KineticLensman 6y ago> If anything it's your own time and attention that is consumed when watching videos. Yes. 'Content' certainly isn't consumed from the perspective of the content providers, who can keep streaming the same data until they choose not to. [Edit] Hmmm. Consumption, in the sense of irreversibly using a one-time resource, is sort of relevant. Once I have consumed food, I cannot re-consume it (in it's original form). Using this meaning, however, I 'use' rather than 'consume' a physical book or other format where I have a physical copy of the data (e.g. in the form of a non-rented DVD or similar).
- inglor_cz 6y agoBut consummation of a marriage does not mean a cannibal feast.
- srivatsamudumby 6y agolol, "please let's not call them creators, they are not gods"
- amelius 6y agoWhat is wrong with "content"? It's the opposite of "without content".
- enriquto 6y agoIt's the epitome of wooden language. Your example is very good for proving my point; the expression "without content" talks about what? about the content? So you would say "content without content" to speak about a text that does not have substantial content?
- KineticLensman 6y ago> It's the epitome of wooden language Exactly. See the comment elsewhere about Orwell's 1984. In which Newspeak [0] is "a controlled language of simplified grammar and restricted vocabulary designed to limit the individual's ability to think and articulate "subversive" concepts such as personal identity, self-expression and free will" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak
- bonoboTP 6y agoStallman expanded on this somewhere else. The argument was that it uniformizes, degrades the work and focuses on just the mere aspect that it can fill up some container. Like the contents of standard cargo ship containers. Video, podcast, article, whatever it is, the important part is that we can serve ads alongside it and we can market it and we have all these "interfaces" that have nothing to do with the ideas conveyed or the artistic effects or intents etc.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- bonoboTP 6y agohttps://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.en.html#Content https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.en.html#Conten...
- bonoboTP 6y agoI'm really ambivalent about Stallman's language crusades. Similarly to how I dislike the focus on the newest politically correct terminology. Why is "creative" OK, when "creator" isn't? I think it's more about the fact that adopting the enemy's language is seen as a kind of submission, a recognition and acceptance of their power over you, even if their words themselves aren't "bad" intrinsically. Not sure if it's the right hill to die on. Eventually words and meanings readjust to describe reality. Map and territory, you know.
- SuoDuanDao 6y agoWell, there's also the theory - articulated best in Orwell's 1984 of the places I've seen it argued for - that language also shapes what thoughts can be held or shared. Given how much impact choosing the programming language has on a technical project I'm inclined to think there's something to that idea, and Stallman may be more sensitive to that than the average bear.
- Bakary 6y agoIn this case the language crusade prompts us to think about our assumptions more deeply. The comment did bring my attention to concepts I had not noticed before. There is an adversarial aspect to it, but it's no different from debating ideas. You're just questioning certain premises, it doesn't mean you have to discard them afterwards.
- bonoboTP 6y agoGood point. We should notice such shifts in language and what they imply.
- cblconfederate 6y agoMost of these terms came from marketing
- borepop 6y agoI don't love the terminology either, but it's like a lot of evolving linguistic culture: it tends to stick in the craw of those of use who grew up using different words, not because it is "wrong" per se but because it is different. I think the linguistic shift actually does map on to a notably different attitude toward the way cultural products are produced and consumed, as other commenters have noted, as well as the democratization of the resources for creating things like video due to the ubiquity of smartphones.
- im3w1l 6y agoMy pet peeve is User Generated Content. Generate is often used when an inanimate object gives rise to something, so UGC is dehumanizing in addition to being devaluing.
- leetcrew 6y agothat's a surprising complaint. "generate" has a strong etymological connection to birth and creation more generally, particularly by/of humans.