I agree. The local newspaper here recently redesigned its website[1] with "social" rubbish baked right in, to the point where the paper's own news feed is now i

I agree. The local newspaper here recently redesigned its website[1] with "social" rubbish baked right in, to the point where the paper's own news feed is now interspersed with the random ramblings of website users, Tweets, rants and ads disguised as articles. I particularly love the way reporters now have their Twitter names instead of actual bylines under their articles (hello, "moontunes1", "lexis1234" and "elksie"!) It's a pointlessly "social" horror--they seem to have been reading too much trendy babble on TechCrunch or Mashable and too little UX literature. Who told them any of this was a good idea? We visit the local newspaper website to read the stories published by the professional journalists at that paper. If I want to read a stream of tweets and rants, I'll visit Twitter or a forum. What a mess. [1]: http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/home http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/home