3 ms·

Hell Is a World in Which Everybody Writes Like Axios

23 points by Terretta 4y ago

gsk22 4y ago
I can't relate. I quickly tire of the filler ("B matter", according to the article) in American news stories, and appreciate the simplified nature of Axios-like sites. I'm not saying I _exclusively_ want hyper-condensed news -- long-form reporting still has its place. But for the basic day-to-day news, yeah, I welcome the brevity.
kwertyoowiyop 4y ago
A strange article that doesn’t back up its headline.
Hello2882829292 4y ago
For a moment I thought it was the axios library (js)
cwilkes 4y ago
For an article complaining about the style of Axios writing it really lacked examples. And the one they gave about shrinking management teams I agreed with — and the author didn’t really come up with a better way to put it.
blep_ 4y ago
TIL what B matter is called. I, like most of the rest of this thread, prefer the brevity. That people skim the longer text isn't a feature, it's a symptom of the problem that the author included too much irrelevant bullshit.
ALittleLight 4y ago
If you want to know key details about a story Axios's format seems obviously superior. If you need more details, you're equipped with the fundamentals so you can go find them. If you read the news just for the pleasure of consuming the written word, slipping into it as your bath, as it were, then sure, you probably won't like Axios. I think this article is a good example. I read half of it or maybe two thirds, didn't understand where the author was going, and backed out. If the author had written in an Axios style I would have made it his point.
jmillikin 4y ago
Hell is whatever produced a website that looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/oHkCeWK.png https://i.imgur.com/oHkCeWK.png In between the purple top-banner with links to nonsense ("apocalypse soon"??), a huge bottom banner begging me to pay them, a line of social media buttons for the people who forget what a bookmark is, and margins that are probably 50% of horizontal width by themselves, this site manages to display 6 -- SIX!! -- lines of content. I don't read the news for the purpose of having some failed novelist inflict their idea of "discursive English" on me. I don't want to wade through paragraph after paragraph with the information content of a dial tone. I have never, not once, wanted to "slip into [reading the news] like a warm bath". That's what books are for. I don't regularly read Axios and don't even recognize the name, but I went to axios.com to see what the author's complaining about and honestly I like what I see. Two examples of front-page articles: https://www.axios.com/2022/09/27/ian-major-hurricane-cuba-florida https://www.axios.com/2022/09/27/ian-major-hurricane-cuba-fl... https://www.axios.com/2022/09/26/nasa-dart-dimorphos-asteroid-planet-defense-test https://www.axios.com/2022/09/26/nasa-dart-dimorphos-asteroi... We need more news sites like Axios, and fewer (preferably none) like the OP link. (edit: I scrolled down a bit further and received a full-page popup for my trouble: https://i.imgur.com/uKZTYZ0.png https://i.imgur.com/uKZTYZ0.png)
- stuaxo 4y ago
  If never heard of either, the brevity is pretty refreshing just facts. Perhaps if I spent less time reading long form articles about not very much I would have head space left to read books again.
egberts1 4y ago
Websites with mostly lone-headlines are not for me, if one had to click on each headline just to expand and glance at opening paragraph. Carefully written opening paragraph that is devoid of leading adverbs and adjectives … gets my reading attention. (Goes to show unbiased and dryness). With reading attention the. opened up, one can start further analytical digest mode. That moment when first paragraph fails objectively, the interest in reading the rest of the article goes way down. The moment that the second paragraph deviates from the opening, the mind reaches near zero interest. If it on the topic relevant to my interest, such failed articles often gets a speed read for capture words on remaining paragraphs. White papers, grok ‘em all the time. Yellow journalism, not so much. Sadly, Axios website layout and its writers fail consistently, given the input guidelines that I have set. Time is money (at least for me). But targeting the mass is still money for some.
peanut_worm 4y ago
Terrible News site A writes slam piece about terrible news site B.
stuaxo 4y ago
I dont know about axios and didn't know the first section was parody. I stopped reading at the end of it when it got the longer paragraphs. I do aot of reading at work and don't have time or attention to read the long form articles that are everywhere, bite size is good.

23 points by Terretta 4y ago

I can't relate. I quickly tire of the filler ("B matter", according to the article) in American news stories, and appreciate the simplified nature of Axios-like sites. I'm not saying I _exclusively_ want hyper-condensed news -- long-form reporting still has its place. But for the basic day-to-day news, yeah, I welcome the brevity.

kwertyoowiyop 4y ago

A strange article that doesn’t back up its headline.

Hello2882829292 4y ago

For a moment I thought it was the axios library (js)

cwilkes 4y ago

For an article complaining about the style of Axios writing it really lacked examples. And the one they gave about shrinking management teams I agreed with — and the author didn’t really come up with a better way to put it.

blep_ 4y ago

TIL what B matter is called. I, like most of the rest of this thread, prefer the brevity. That people skim the longer text isn't a feature, it's a symptom of the problem that the author included too much irrelevant bullshit.

ALittleLight 4y ago

If you want to know key details about a story Axios's format seems obviously superior. If you need more details, you're equipped with the fundamentals so you can go find them. If you read the news just for the pleasure of consuming the written word, slipping into it as your bath, as it were, then sure, you probably won't like Axios. I think this article is a good example. I read half of it or maybe two thirds, didn't understand where the author was going, and backed out. If the author had written in an Axios style I would have made it his point.

jmillikin 4y ago

Hell is whatever produced a website that looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/oHkCeWK.png https://i.imgur.com/oHkCeWK.png In between the purple top-banner with links to nonsense ("apocalypse soon"??), a huge bottom banner begging me to pay them, a line of social media buttons for the people who forget what a bookmark is, and margins that are probably 50% of horizontal width by themselves, this site manages to display 6 -- SIX!! -- lines of content. I don't read the news for the purpose of having some failed novelist inflict their idea of "discursive English" on me. I don't want to wade through paragraph after paragraph with the information content of a dial tone. I have never, not once, wanted to "slip into [reading the news] like a warm bath". That's what books are for. I don't regularly read Axios and don't even recognize the name, but I went to axios.com to see what the author's complaining about and honestly I like what I see. Two examples of front-page articles: https://www.axios.com/2022/09/27/ian-major-hurricane-cuba-florida https://www.axios.com/2022/09/27/ian-major-hurricane-cuba-fl... https://www.axios.com/2022/09/26/nasa-dart-dimorphos-asteroid-planet-defense-test https://www.axios.com/2022/09/26/nasa-dart-dimorphos-asteroi... We need more news sites like Axios, and fewer (preferably none) like the OP link. (edit: I scrolled down a bit further and received a full-page popup for my trouble: https://i.imgur.com/uKZTYZ0.png https://i.imgur.com/uKZTYZ0.png)

stuaxo 4y ago
If never heard of either, the brevity is pretty refreshing just facts. Perhaps if I spent less time reading long form articles about not very much I would have head space left to read books again.

egberts1 4y ago

Websites with mostly lone-headlines are not for me, if one had to click on each headline just to expand and glance at opening paragraph. Carefully written opening paragraph that is devoid of leading adverbs and adjectives … gets my reading attention. (Goes to show unbiased and dryness). With reading attention the. opened up, one can start further analytical digest mode. That moment when first paragraph fails objectively, the interest in reading the rest of the article goes way down. The moment that the second paragraph deviates from the opening, the mind reaches near zero interest. If it on the topic relevant to my interest, such failed articles often gets a speed read for capture words on remaining paragraphs. White papers, grok ‘em all the time. Yellow journalism, not so much. Sadly, Axios website layout and its writers fail consistently, given the input guidelines that I have set. Time is money (at least for me). But targeting the mass is still money for some.

peanut_worm 4y ago

Terrible News site A writes slam piece about terrible news site B.

stuaxo 4y ago

I dont know about axios and didn't know the first section was parody. I stopped reading at the end of it when it got the longer paragraphs. I do aot of reading at work and don't have time or attention to read the long form articles that are everywhere, bite size is good.